“Hi, My name is Matt and I’m a teacher. Today I’m going to tell you a story about a sticky note.”

Perhaps, like me, you’re one of the more than 345K followers who tune in to Instagram or Tik Tok to hear one of Mr. Eich’s wildly popular stories about his students. Matt Eicheldinger is an author and sixth grade language arts teacher who has amassed a treasure trove of stories, lessons that help him, and us, learn what it means to be fully human. Stories are, as he quotes author Jason Reynolds, baked-in empathy machines.

“I happen to have a really good memory from my childhood,” he says of his new found superpower. “I remember lots of embarrassing moments… and so [one day] I told my class, if I tell you an embarrassing story, will you do what I ask?” Needless to say they said yes. He placed a jar in his classroom and filled it with stories from his own life, sharing them with his students. It was that first collection of stories from his own life that formed the basis for his first book, Matt Sprouts and the Curse of Ten Broken Toes. But over the years of teaching, his collection of stories grew to include anecdotes from his time with his students. His new book, Sticky Notes, captures them in narrative form.

Matt Eicheldinger, or Mr. Eich, as he is known to his students, is a teacher, storyteller and author of three books, Matt Sprouts and the Curse of Ten Broken Toes, Matt Sprouts and the Day Nora Ate the Sun and Sticky Notes, Memorable Lessons from Ordinary Moments. He lives in Minnesota with his wife and two children, and tries to create new adventures with them whenever possible. When he's not writing, you can find him telling students stories in his classroom, or trail running along the Minnesota River Bottoms.

As you listen to this episode, consider:

• We all have favorite stories from our childhood. What is one that opened your eyes and heart to a new way of understanding?

• In his story “Phillip”, Matt talks about the power of the pause. Where can you find places in your own life to pause and open yourself up to something surprising?

• “Stories are baked-in empathy machines,” says Jason Reynolds, the author and former Ambassador for Young People’s Literature. How can we use the power of story to create a more compassionate world?

You can listen to Matt’s episode here.