About the Author
Patti cultivates homegrown changemakers prepared to step into their power and work with others to create the world they want to live in. Get in touch to find out how you can grow the social changemaker in yourself and those you serve with Blue Roads Changemaker YOU.
Almost exactly a year ago this week, I was privileged to meet Changemaker Jen Mott in the Heroic Public Speaking course we were taking. I heard her introduce herself as a school administrator and, as some of you know, that's my background, too. It's fun to meet people you have something in common with even in these, sometimes awkward, online environments we seem to be frequenting more and more.
What I didn't pick up on right away was Jen's unique talents outside the school setting. In her “spare time”, she's also a circus performer! These days, Jen is finding more and more ways to bring her academic life together with her special skills learned in the circus including things like juggling, stilt-walking, and fire-eating to enrich the lives of students, other educators, and leaders across contexts to teach valuable lessons we all need in these challenging times. Jen is the coolest cool school leader I've ever met (and that's saying a lot because I've been privileged to work among the very best)!
Watch the video of our conversation, listen to the podcast, and read the summary below. You won't want to miss Jen's passion for student growth and human development and her “homegrown solutions” for the “patchwork world” we share.
Homegrown Jen
Jen was born in Cincinnati, Ohio, the product of two school teachers. Her mom stayed in teaching her entire career while her dad moved into administration at the elementary level and later to the college level. To this day, Jen's father does consulting work all over the country. Jen knew early on she wanted to be a teacher, too.
I always saw the power that the teachers had on me and the impact that they had on me. I just wanted that same thing for others because of the mentors and the teachers who had built into me.
She attended the same schools within the same district from kindergarten through grade 12 and always felt supported and encouraged there as well as in her athletic endeavors. Jen played volleyball, basketball and lacrosse and even played lacrosse at the Division I collegiate level. She credits teachers and coaches with giving her the structure and support she needed to develop into a positive and affirming educator for others.
Three summers traveling to Europe cultivated a love for the Spanish language and moved her into that specialty as a high school teacher. Before heading to the classroom though, she completed a master's degree in curriculum and instruction.
I was a really happy high school Spanish teacher and volleyball/basketball/lacrosse coach giving back in the same way people had impacted me.
Jen had big goals and a clear vision from very early on. She's been in education for over a decade working in six different schools in five different districts honing her skills. She's now an assistant principal and athletic director in one of the largest middle schools in the state of Ohio.
I love it because it blends both my worlds – loving student athletes and…athletics…, but still getting to work with our teachers and our staff to talk about good teaching and learning and what effective teaching and instruction look like.
Since completing a doctorate at Xavier University, she now also teaches at the college level to “build into the next generation of school administrators.”
I get to work with graduate students who are teachers and who are trying to decide if administration is the right path for them.
Bonus Skills!
Jen's face seems to always be bright with enthusiasm for her work, but a special twinkle comes into her eye when she starts to talk about another side of her life.
When I graduated high school, I had the random opportunity to join the circus! It's as random as it sounds. I joined a company called Cincinnati Circus Company and now for 16 years, the longest job I've ever held, I have been an entertainer with the Cincinnati circus.
Jen describes her work as a juggler, stilt-walker, balloon artist and fire performer as “serving families, communities, organizations, professional athletes from all over the city and really all over the Midwest.”
A really fun college job turned into a very awesome side hustle that I've been able to keep over the course of my career…The consistent job has been the circus.
While she kept her work in the circus separate from her work as an educator for many years, over time, she began to find natural ways to “meld the two.”
The Cincinnati Circus Company has dubbed her “The Entertaining Educator” and she started using her circus skills to create powerful training opportunities for her fellow educators.
I have started speaking and performing. Whereas before I was just the juggler at a fun end of year celebration. Now I'm coming as an educator who happens to juggle and I'm coming with a message to students, to staff, to parents.
She uses her own experience and story to teach clear messages about stretching our capacities.
I can juggle to keep people's attention in different and unique ways. It's been a really fun way to kind of merge these two passions of mine. I'm so excited to see where it continues to take me.
Solution-Focused Jen
Jen has a wide range of interests, including world issues inspired by her globe-trotting brother, and current issues that trouble the United States as a whole. When it comes to solutions though, she says,
I am very passionate about the right people at the right time and the right place for those things. We all can't solve everything.
By working together and taking action on the matters we have the most passion around, she has confidence we can make progress. Jen's work ignites that kind of passion and encourages her audiences of all ages to believe in their own capacity as we learn how to “human” together.
I love that Jen uses the word “human” as a verb here! For her it is in the doing that we reach our potential to create change. For Jen, that work begins in schools – middle school, high school and now college.
If we have strong leaders growing new leaders, then it's only going to get better.
These days, Jen acknowledges that students “have the entire world at their fingertips.” This reality can pose challenges for teachers who didn't grow up with ready access to cell phones to connect them to anyone anywhere at any time. Expecting them not to use that technology is unrealistic. Instead, we must be asking questions like:
How do I engage them?
How do I talk to them differently?
Instead of thinking of these technologies as inherently problematic, we would be wise to consider how to use them as tools for good. To do so, Jen says we need a new language to guide students toward “using it and leveraging that power in the proper ways in the proper channels.”
It's also for the adults to flip the switch of how we used to think and what we used to decide was the right path for students… There are so many jobs that are created every day because of the technology that we can't even fathom. We don't know how people make money off of that!”
But, we can LEARN! That's what comes across strongly anytime you are in Jen's presence. Whether she's teaching, performing or simply engaged in conversation, Jen is focused on the human capacity to learn.
This theme continued into her doctoral research and her upcoming book focused on teacher perseverance. With so much focus on teacher burnout and teachers leaving the profession in droves, Jen wants to know what makes teachers STAY. Through her mixed-method study of the subject, she discovered, among other things, that teachers stay because the work is a “calling” for them. It gives them a sense of purpose and a sense of joy in life.
It's this joy for teaching and for learning that Jen makes contagious when you are in her presence. She's optimistic by nature, but her research supports her positive outlook. When we focus our energies on learning what we can from those who are making it work, leaders have models to guide them in their own approach to the work of recruiting and retaining teachers.
The teachers said it was all about community and “contextual joy.” It was all about it being the only option, not in an exasperated way …In a positive, “I can't imagine doing something else. I was called to this. I was made for this” way.
Jen's Patchwork
Whether she's working for the circus or with educators, Jen's work is all about the humans with whom she's engaged in any given moment. She loves that the large school division in which she works puts humans at the center by focusing on three priorities above all else – culture, personalized learning and “inclusive excellence”. She says inclusive excellence is about more than race and religion, but “what we look like, how we feel, our entire background.” From students who speak English as a second language to students with special needs to the LGBTQ community, her division works hard to provide a safe and inclusive environment that meets human needs. She loves that her proximity to Cincinnati Children's Hospital provides even more diversity than her already diverse community has to offer. She's proud that her district is well prepared to welcome all and provide positive learning opportunities with an emphasis on equity.
To that end, her school works hard to provide both “mirrors and windows” for students – mirrors so they see themselves reflected positively in the school environment and windows so they have exposure to the experiences of those different from themselves.
Jen credits her circus experience, too, as helping her to engage with and appreciate the beautiful patchwork of diversity.
There are a lot of reasons I've stayed in the circus for 16 years. I know very few college students who work in the circus and I still have not met any school administrators or doctoral students who are also in the circus!
She says one of the many things that keeps her in the circus is “the incredibly unique and diverse cast.”
The characters I've met in the circus are just truly incredible people who… I would not know otherwise.
She says it's natural for us to grow up and join clubs and create communities of people like ourselves. But the risk is creating “echo chambers” that are both dangerous and limiting.
What I've always loved about the circus is that it is not that at all. It's such a different group of people. It's how I've learned about transgender people up close and personal. It's how I've learned about people making different life choices, political choices… and I've been able to see that these people are amazing. These people are awesome!
Changemaker Jen
As Jen gets to know people different from herself and they get to know her, they learn from one another.
What I love about the circus is we don't hire talent. We hire really kind people who just want to meet people and make people's day. Then we teach the talent.
She finds many people are surprised by that. We presume the circus hires folks with these unique entertainment skills. In fact, the opposite is true. Jen says after she was hired for the circus, she asked a lot of questions, watched a lot of videos and was taught what she needed to engage with people in a unique way.
We come in with a posture of curiosity and a posture of learning and recognize we have room to grow and our own ability to learn and believe in ourselves…
That's when. Jen says, the possibilities are endless. She makes it her mission to take that posture of curiosity and love into every interaction.
I just hope that people leave interactions with me feeling loved, heard, and feeling cared for.
She credits her brother with the broader understanding of the world she brings to her life and her work.
How do we learn to coexist?
How do we learn to love one another?
Jen's answers to those questions are evident in the way she teaches, the way she performs and the way she interacts with people even informally. By merging her worlds, she's showing us how to empower, encourage and motivate ourselves and one another. Big potential is one of her favorite themes.
We can do everything if we put our minds to it!
You're capable of more than you know!
Put me in coach!
She's getting more and more opportunities to bring her big message to bigger stages. Last year, she did the opening keynote for her entire school division with more than a thousand employees.
It was so fun to have them all in the auditorium and just juggling and getting people up on stage. We had our superintendent eat fire and we had some principals walk on stilts on stage!
Jen's enthusiasm for using opportunities like this to get people thinking is contagious.
Look at what they can do! It's not just me! It's about you! It's about “What does this
unlock for you?”
It's fun, but it's not all “fun and games”. Jen has a serious mission wrapped up in an entertainer's package.
When our students who are hurting or confused or figuring out life are able to get a different vision for their future and (know) that they are capable…
That can be life-changing – even life saving.
It's not the end. There's way more coming towards them. They have way more agency the older they get and the longer they stay around to make their own decisions.
Jen and her powerful message can be reached by contacting her at jenmott@cincinnaticircus.com or on Facebook and LinkedIn as the Entertaining Educator. She's got something very special to share with your team whether you work in schools, the community or the private sector.
Put her in coach! We could surely use a lot more of Jen Mott changing the world by leading the way!
It's easy to see how directly Jen's work supports United Nations Sustainable Development Goal #4 – Quality Education as her primary focus is squarely on students and teachers. SDG #4- Good Health and Well Being is modeled in her life in athletics and circus performance, but is also quite evident in the keynote messages as she weaves together her magic to inspire and encourage. As we know Global Goals #3 and #4 are foundational for all the other goals because … to change the world, we must first learn how and we must sustain our own well being to do so, right?!
Please reach out to let us know what YOU and people you know are doing to realize these Global Goals by the year 2030. We can sure do it if we all work together and take our place as Changemakers!
CHECK OUT our CHANGEMAKER YOU course to help you get started today!
Patti cultivates homegrown changemakers prepared to step into their power and work with others to create the world they want to live in. Get in touch to find out how you can grow the social changemaker in yourself and those you serve with Blue Roads Changemaker YOU.
