We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Michael Floyd a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.

Hi Michael, thanks for joining us today. Going back to the beginning – how did you come up with the idea in the first place?

I have been a teacher for 55 years, and over 50 years ago I began a nonprofit organization with an all volunteer staff to create Windsong Pictures, Inc. Windsong Pictures is an educational organization to help make the dreams of children come true. Over this time we have produced over 350 motion pictures featuring children, teens and young adults with the support of mature experienced adult mentor actors and technical volunteers. We do not charge students to be involved. Over half of public school students live in some form of poverty. We don’t want money to be a barrier to their success. Many films we create are shorts, but there are also feature films with cast numbers that range from 400 to 18,000 people. Our films are a labor of love.

Michael, before we move on to more of these sorts of questions, can you take some time to bring our readers up to speed on you and what you do?

Michael Floyd, The author of “I’m Just A Teacher”, and the founder of Windsong Pictures, Inc. shares his love of teaching, his passion for learning and his art of building relationships with students and their families. As a highly imaginative, innovative and award winning educator with over fifty years of experience his remarkable lifelong goal has been “ To Reach Out, Touch Others, and Make a Difference. Over the years, he has developed a unique and highly motivational system of project-based learning and assessment with multiple pathways, fostering greater student engagement and success. Today, teachers face angry and hostile citizen groups; a merciless, raging pandemic; encounter a lack of respect and waning trust while the nobility of the profession has been run aground. For public school teachers, some career politicians bent on their unwavering agendas to abandon and bury public education is a continual threat. The shortage of teachers is seriously rampant and shortchanging students while overworking current educators. The vital academic freedom needed to teach and make a difference in the lives of students is replaced with forced data collection for political reasons.
Michael insists that in spite of these challenges to the profession, educators wear many hats and are masters of multitasking. Indeed, learning can become fun, and in his teaching bag, the use of humor is a key methodology. Learning can be exciting, entertaining, and challenging in creating a positive and proactive learning environment. Knowledge of the art of Aikido instills in him a sense of calm, confidence, and control in the face of adversity. It is turning anguish into positive action. It enables him to be in charge of the situation and not the situation in charge of him. To this day, the author firmly believes in teachers, trusts in teachers, and applauds teachers that shower students with praise, compassion, solid example, and instill hope for a brighter future while unleashing student imagination.
“Reach Out, Touch Others & Make A Difference”

Can you share a story from your journey that illustrates your resilience?

Following in the footsteps of his grandfather and mother, Michael Floyd, the author of “I’m Just A Teacher”, has been an educator for over fifty years in the areas of English, social studies, music, filmmaking, and community-service engagement. Sharing his love of teaching and his passion for learning, he unfolds many of his highly creative, innovative, and insightful methods of teaching in students educational and personal journeys.
Walking into Michael’s classroom, the recipient of over four hundred state, national, and international awards of educational excellence, is like no other. With enhanced skills, students delve much deeper into subject matter. His classroom is not confined to a school building, but in actuality, his classroom is the entire United States because he literally travels to the far-reaching corners of the country time and again with students.
Michael’s lifelong goal has been “To Reach Out, Touch Others, and Make a Difference,” establishing personal relationships with students and their families. Like the Robert Frost poem “The Road Not Taken,” Michael took the road less traveled by, and that made all the difference. A gifted storyteller, he feels that his clever use of humor, his warm personality, and calming demeanor are affirming to students. At the heart and center of his life, Michael has been devoted to his wife, Georgia, for over fifty years along with their three children and eight grandchildren.

“Reach Out, Touch Others & Make A Difference”

Have any books or other resources had a big impact on you?

The goal of Windsong Pictures, Inc. has always been ” To Reach Out, Touch Others and Make a Difference.” The book that I wrote and published in July of 2023, ” I’m Just A Teacher”, captures the essence of who I am, what our mission has always been and how we have done it through the greater grace of God.

Contact Info:

• Website: www.WindsongPictures.com
• Instagram: www.instagram.com then WindsongPictures.com
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/WindsongPictures
• Linkedin: Linkedin.com WindsongPictures.com
• Youtube: WindsongPictures.com
• Other: /Users/michaelfloyd/Documents/I’m Just a Teacher Youtube.mov

Image Credits
All rights reserved through Windsong Pictures, Inc.