Episode Transcript
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Mark Herring (00:00):
So for me as a
leader, one of the takeaways is
(00:02):
that number one, I need to know,what gives me joy and what gives
me energy. And so, you know, oneof the answers, I'm definitely
like, I hope people aren'thearing me and saying that
teachers don't work hard,because I think that teachers,
you know, in schools, educationsector, people do work really
hard. And I think they areworking harder than ever. But
maybe part of the solution isactually for me to know the
(00:22):
types of things that I can getenergy from. And so I can lean
into that. And then hopefully,by the end of the week, maybe
there'll be some some betteroutcomes for my energy levels
and, and the school willactually get more out of me and
fall into those spaces. Thebetter mindset podcast. Welcome
(00:43):
to the better mindset Podcast,episode 800, that I'm Dex
conversations about leadership,learning and educational
technologies. On today'sepisode, we've got an inspiring
conversation with a teacherabout his five year long steam
project with his class andcounting. We hear about some new
features on Canva, that toolthat keeps on giving. And we
took our toes into a newapproach to tackling that
(01:04):
teacher burnout crisis thatfaces our schools everywhere.
All right, thanks for makingwaves. today. It's my turn to
bring up the topic. And I'vebeen thinking about probably
what I think is one of the most,let me ask you the question,
what would you say would be thebiggest concern or stressor or
thing that is concerningleadership in schools? Pretty
(01:27):
much well, right. At the moment,
Bex Rose (01:29):
I would say the rapid
shift in the way we teach and
learn. And they're all thechanges in technology, just a
massive disruption to how weteach and education right now.
Mark Herring (01:41):
Yeah, and the
thing that that's leading to
that wasn't quite exactlyexactly the answer that I was
hoping for. Sorry. No, no, itall leads through the thing that
it's leading to as overwhelm andalmost burnout. You know, like,
I know that in some of theAustralian states, there are,
you know, incredibly highnumbers of teachers, either
(02:01):
resigning or leaving theprofession or thinking about it,
like I think it's, you know,double the normal rate. I know
that in the States, the sameacross the states there. And
then New Zealand, here, we'vegot a lot of principles,
particularly in the New Zealandsector are leaving the
profession. And that the topic Iwanted to talk about, I'll give
you the give you the title ofwhat I've put down, the title is
(02:23):
called stop playing with thedead birds already. So it's
interesting, isn't it? Stopplaying with the dead birds. And
I'll show you exactly what Imean by that. It actually came
from a conversation that I hadwith a staff when I was running
a teacher only day in NewZealand at the start of this
year. And I made the statementthat I think that a lot of the
(02:44):
overwhelm that a lot of us arefeeling in education and burnt
out nature that we're in eventhough it was at the very start
of the year, I said that one ofthe reasons I think that we're
feeling so burnt out is not thatwe've got too much work, but
that a lot of us are doing thewrong kinds of work. So what So
what I'm what do I mean by thedead birds analogy, please, if
(03:06):
you're from the SPCA, or you'rea bird lover, please don't, I'm
not I'm talking metaphoricallyabout birds. So I'll just wind
it back a little bit. At thestart of this year, I had the
chance to set the certificationfor the working genius, model
and framework. And for those ofyou who have listened to the
podcast all the way for sinceepisode one has come up a couple
(03:27):
of times, because the workinggenius model from Patrick
Lencioni says that there are sixletters to every job and six
geniuses effectively. Soeverything that we have to do in
schools, whether we're planningand assessing, or whether we're
trying to, you know, do acurriculum refresh, or we're
running, you know, just anythingin our classroom spaces or as a
(03:48):
leader in our school. Everythinghas six leaders, six geniuses
that you have to go through. Soit all starts with a question
that you asked. So that's thegenius of wonder. And then the
the next role or the letterletter is that having an idea.
So you have a wonder, then youhave an idea, and then it moves
through to the discernmentphase. So somebody has to be
(04:08):
able to ask some questions aboutwhether that's going to work or
not, and make some statements,then you need to galvanize and
then we're talking about thegenius of enablement and
tenacity. And so we'll put alink in the show notes if you'd
like to look into those geniusesa little bit later. But the the
framework says that every job isa six letter word. And so there
are six geniuses they have to gothrough and for every single
(04:31):
person there are two of thosepart two aspects of that job
that give us joy and give uslife and we get lots of energy
from them but then to that, thatwe are not so good at we might
be good at it but we can't do itfor very long. It doesn't give
us joy. They called our workincompetent or frustration.
(04:51):
Sorry. So those are the thingsthat don't give us joy. So two
that are your strengths you giveyou joy and two that aren't and
for a lot have us in the rolesthat we're playing in schools.
Sometimes I know for me, I canbe working the same amount of
hours in a week. And one week Ican feel absolutely exhausted.
And then the next week feelingenergized, and I just want to
(05:12):
keep going, and I don't want tostop, you know, it's all becomes
something that i i come alive atthe podcast is one thing, like I
love, you know, jumping on thesecalls and, and interviewing
because a lot of the things thatwe're doing on these podcasts
with we're asking questions, andwe're talking about ideas, and
we're coming up with lots ofdifferent things that that give
us give me joy, because mygeniuses are wonder and
(05:36):
invention. I'm a wi, in theframework. But for a lot of
teachers, a lot of us andleaders and schools, we're doing
things in our schools that arerobbing us of that energy and
robbing us of that joy. So if Isaid to you, you know, what are
your what would be your twofrustrations in the working
genius speaks, for me
Bex Rose (05:55):
is a discernment and
tenacity. So I hate having to
think about all the bad thingsor how things could go wrong and
an idea. And then I'm alsoreally not that good at
finishing things off. So thoseare my two frustrations.
Mark Herring (06:10):
Yeah. And so in
any particular week, imagine if
you had a week where you werechasing a whole lot of people to
sort through some of theproblems that they were having
with things. And then you werehaving to chase up contracts and
make sure that spreadsheets werecompleted and all that kind of
thing at the end of that week,because those were the those are
the frustrations, if your jobwas heavily leaning into those,
(06:31):
then you would be exhausted. AndI think for a lot of us, and I
think of myself, and I'm almostthe same, my frustrations are e
and t. So if I had to supportand help people do a whole lot
of things, like I love tosupport people, but I just don't
like to, you know, be given atech sheet of things I need to
work through. And so, you know,when I was a teacher in that
(06:53):
situation, I'd get exhausted atthe end of the day, if it was
about me following someoneelse's lesson plan, or if
someone said, Hey, here's theunit that I want you to do go
away and run this unit with yourclassroom, that would just tire
me out. And I think that for alot of people, it can be the
reverse. So if yourfrustrations, you know, in the
planning phase, or coming upwith ideas for lesson plans, or
(07:13):
if you're, and those aren't yourgeniuses, then you're going to
be really tired about that. Sothe big idea behind the working
genius is that you want itdoesn't mean that you don't do
those frustrations, but becausesometimes you just have to
that's just the nature of work.
But it's about trying to get abit of an 8020 You're trying to
lean into the things that weknow, give us energy and bring
(07:34):
us alive. So for me, I'm alwayslooking for opportunities to be
creative, and explore thosedifferent parts of my classroom
practice or the things in myschool that I'm leading, what
are the areas that I can look atthat we can start to ask some
questions about and you know,how can we get some teachers
together to solve some problems,or some parents and some
students and things. So the bigidea is to have more energy,
(07:55):
it's not about doing less hours.
It's not about, you know,removing some of the things from
my plate, it's about me, maybetaking some of those things off
my plate that don't give meenergy and giving them to
somebody else, recognizing thatnot only will that give me more
joy, but it might actually givethem more joy because they might
(08:17):
enjoy those things. nameberry Ireally enjoy running that lesson
plan and following up thatspreadsheet and checking
students assessment records, andall of those types of things.
Those are the things that theyreally love. But the types of
things that give me energy mightnot be their energy givers. So
what does this have to do withthe dead bird analogy, what it
all comes out of thecertification, one of the things
(08:38):
that they taught us was thatoften what I do, because my
geniuses are W and I, what Iwill often try and do is audit
intuitively, I'll just think,hey, let's order let's let's, I
really enjoy being creative withmy planning or my assessment. So
I'm going to pull some otherteachers into that, because that
will really enjoy that as well.
And that's like your catbringing you a dead bird into
(09:00):
the house. Because the catenjoys the dead bird and thinks
that you want it as well. Andyou know, if you've ever had a
cat and you've been in thatsituation, it's terrible because
there's feathers everywhere andgoodness knows what else. Or if
the birds alive, it's flyingaround and flipping around. Now
the cat is really chuffedbecause the cat thinks that it's
bringing you something thatyou're going to enjoy, and it's
(09:20):
going to give you life but forthose of us who don't live in
cat world, or don't think thatwe're cats, that's that's a
disaster. So for me as a leader,one of the takeaways is that I
number one, I need to know whatgives me joy and what gives me
energy. And so, you know, one ofthe answers I'm definitely like,
I hope people aren't hearing meand saying that teachers don't
(09:42):
work hard because I think thatteachers, you know, in schools,
education sector, people do workreally hard. And I think they
are working harder than ever.
But maybe part of the solutionis actually for me to know the
types of things that I can getenergy from, and so I can lean
into that. And then hopefully bythe end of the week, maybe
there'll be Some, some betteroutcomes for my energy levels.
(10:02):
And the school will actually getmore out of me. And if I lean
into those spaces, but also as aleader, also, as a teacher in
the classroom, when I'm thinkingof the types of things that I
know you, for example, getenergy from, I'm not going to
give you some jobs that I knowwill drain your, your tank. So
I'll look for the people, ifI've got something on my plate
(10:25):
that I think somebody else wouldwant, I'm not going to take them
a dead bird, I'm going to taketry and give it to somebody who
sees that as something that'sreally life giving and is going
to give them energy. So it'stwofold. It's knowing about my
own genius, and what gives meenergy and looking for those
things. But then also knowingwhat my team need, and the types
(10:46):
of things that they're gonna getlife and energy from, and then
enabling them to be able to leaninto that. So it's a real kind
of a seesaw balance, isn't itbetween knowing yourself and
knowing others,
Bex Rose (10:56):
I'm thinking of staff
room and meetings, and I'm
thinking of events that you haveto do for the school. So for
example, say a cultural festivalor some sort of parent evening
or something like that. And inthat staff, you should know,
where they sit in terms of whatgives them energy. So there
might be some real clever clogsthat are like Rachel, who talk
(11:16):
about the Canva. And they willbe the ones that design and
create all the advertisementsfor it. But there might be
someone that wants to create theGoogle Form of who's who's going
to be developing the attendancewho's coming along that kind of
thing. So I guess it's kind oflike, there's a big task to be
done. Instead of dumping it onone person's desk, thinking
(11:37):
about how that could be evenlydistributed across the staff, so
that everyone is working in aspace that they find is a
genius, so that they find theyget the energy from rather than
giving it all to one personwhere from where to go is
absolutely going to drain them.
I mean, it's even any any staffmeeting, there may be a way that
you could restructure the staffmeeting so that people only
(12:01):
attend where they sit where theybest fit into that coordinate,
or the conversation that's goingon. Because I do see on teacher
Facebook pages, the amount ofmeetings and things like that,
that they have to attend. Andthat's one of the things that
will drain lots of people.
However, there's some peoplethat would absolutely love being
at meetings, because they wantto be completely over all the
details. They want to knoweverything that's going on. So
(12:23):
that would make them feel betterif they knew everything. So it's
has disruption. It's disruptingthe, the what we got what how we
do things now. And right at themoment, our our the workloads
and education is just growingrapidly, like the expectations
on teachers the expectations onSL t. So this is something
(12:45):
that's going to continue tohappen. So how are we going to
combat that? So that we don'tall end up feeling like we've
just given out drugs by weekfour, like this is what I'm
saying like by week, four peopleare absolutely stuffed. And so
yeah, so it's looking at wayslike this framework that we can
put people in the right placesso that they're going to get
energized from tasks that haveto be done. You can't say no to
(13:08):
them. Yeah. But giving thepeople the right jobs.
Mark Herring (13:11):
Yep, yeah. 100%, I
think this is the conversation
that needs to happen. So like,one easy answer to that is, is
to have your whole team sit theworking genius assessment. So
there's, there's a series ofquestions that you can do, and
then you'll find out personallyfor you what your geniuses are.
And there's a lot of differentthings that you can do, to
workshop and to discuss andexplore what your geniuses are.
(13:32):
And then to understand thedifferent types of people on
your team and what gives themenergy as well on the types of
things they they like to do.
Because, you know, in a, in thecorporate world, sometimes
people's roles change based onwhat their working geniuses are.
And I know a lot of I'm hearingfrom a lot of other people who
are working in differentindustries, you know, and you
can change people's roles andresponsibilities based on those
(13:54):
genius outcomes. But in theclassroom situation, if you're a
teacher, you're saying ateacher. So there are some
things that you you justnaturally have to do. But in a
in an education setting, I thinkthere are still lots of things
that you can do to lean on thepeople next door to you, even if
you're a single cell teacher,you have one class or your high
school teacher, and you havemultiple classes that you're
(14:17):
working with. I think it's it'sjust realizing that there are,
you know, teaching as a teamworkapproach. So we have to lean
into each other a lot more thesedays. And so I think the days of
a teacher seeing themselves asan island, and they're not a
part of a team of people,whether they're in your faculty,
or you know, a lot of modernlearning environments where
(14:39):
you've got the advantage ofhaving different teachers that
you can lean on, you can sharethose roles out. But even even
leaning into your students to beable to share some of that
workload would be an interestingavenue to explore as well. But
yeah, big idea. Have a thinkabout what types of work at your
school you really enjoy. And howcan I leaned into that more so
that I'm looking forward togetting to work because there is
(15:02):
an element of that. But then Ithink there's more that we could
do to that. And then what arethe things that we're doing in
the school that I don't reallyenjoy that really drain me, but
I know that further down thetrack, you know, someone in the
room next door to me, theremight be someone I'm not going
to pass off. Like, for me, I'mnot going to pass off all my
assessment data to the personnext door. But there may be
some, some shared ownership thatwe could take, or some ways that
(15:24):
we can have a chat about how we,how we work in the staff
meeting, and particularly forleaders, it's a really good
conversation to start havingwith your team about how you can
share some of that workloadaround and share some of those
roles. Good conversations. Oh,my guest of the show for today,
we've got miles wave, it's goodto have you on miles miles is
the deputy principal at auto aschool, which is a very, I would
(15:46):
always say small in terms ofinternational size, but you're a
rural school and the Taranaki inthe North Island of New Zealand.
And we're excited to talk to youmost today about the steam
project that you've been workingon, you know, for multiple
periods of terms and years. Andwe're excited to dig into that
from a school perspective andfind out some things that we can
learn about that. But could youjust explain your classroom?
(16:08):
Tell us a little bit about someof the other steam projects that
you might be doing in yourschool? Because I know that when
I visited there before therehave been some amazing stuff
happening. Thank
Myles Webb (16:17):
Hello Mark, and
hello Bex, and Kyoto everyone,
yet, so I'm Myles Webb. I'm theDeputy Principal at odo a
primary school in Southternasky. I've been here now on
staff for eight years. So we'rea score of 200 students were
really, really lucky that thoughwe're very much rural, we're a
one on one iPad school and andour senior year submit classes,
we've got MacBooks MacBook is, Iguess the biggest thing with our
(16:41):
school is we are really, reallylucky with the support we have
from the community. And also thesort of pedagogical approach
hear that we've got a lot ofprojects that are running and
we've got, for instance, our PTAjust going to authorize the
purchase very shortly of a brandnew industrial laser cutter for
the school. We've got multiple3d printers in the school,
multiple devices and sort of ourkind of one of our ethos is that
(17:04):
we want to get the kids involvedin well projects. And as myself
as a teacher, originally, I'vebeen teaching for over 20 years
now. I originally startedteaching in, I guess, inner city
schools, which I absolutelyloved. And so in Sydney,
Auckland, New Zealand's biggestcity, and in Hamilton for time,
both those locations but ormyself, but my family, we wanted
(17:28):
to look at moving somewheredifferent and we ended up
somewhere rural. So I went fromTeach Dec. And then the
environment, we are in a citykind of things with them what I
guess what we'd look at it tosee kids to we have a school now
with 200 students. But if wewalked out onto the front of the
school on the road that goespast, there are no cars, just
because it's just a quiet dayand sort of farming and dairy
(17:50):
farming in particular studentsand their families is the main
driving force. So a lot ofthings that we do get tied in
with that. So we've got a reallygood community, we are spoilt
thanks to the community supportfor some of the projects that we
do. I like that tying in with asort of steam side of things
where, like, in the past, we'vehad students who had a year long
project to build a full scalepinball machine, we've then used
(18:13):
sort of online on streamcompetition for the students and
things like that, which has beenreally good. So I had never
worked to the school longer thanfive or six years. And I'm out.
And then I started teaching, Iwas like five years, they've
never got to do any more thanthat. Like, that's all. Yeah.
And I stuck to that. And thenthe other day, I was like, I've
been here nine years, and youkind of go record. But I'm,
(18:36):
like, one of the dentists for meas a teacher, I want to stay
motivated with what I'm doing, Iwant to do something that
excites me, if I'm behind, Ithink as pictures is there's a
challenge for us not to fallinto a kind of a pattern or to
or to do the same things overand over again. So I like
changing gear levels. I liketrying to do different things
(18:59):
and trying to look at gettingthe students involved in things
that are like, I guess, reallyworthwhile, but also really
relevant to them. So that'swhere that longitudinal STEM
project where the longest oneI've been involved in, sort of
comes in with
Mark Herring (19:17):
Yeah, yeah, I
think maybe just to help people
give you a bit of context aboutyour school to I don't know,
let's call it you think we mightthink that community connection,
the rural flavor, you know thatthat's a real distinct part of
the character of it. One of thethings Beck's you've been there
as well, is that you walk outYeah, days and you're on the
main road. And there's thebeautiful mountain there. You
know, that's the sunshine, amassive icon, I guess that's
(19:38):
sort of sitting in thebackground of everything that
you do. It's so visible there ona good day whenever it's not
covered in cloud and that that'sa beautiful, distinctive thing,
among other
Myles Webb (19:46):
amazing and like, if
I'm doing if we do a mystery
Skype call or with Googleanything out of school somewhere
else, you know, or if we'resometimes sharing photos. Yeah,
we reference the fact that wehave had them on I have a
volcano next week. which is notwearing shoes and plants, or
people in America.
Bex Rose (20:06):
And miles, I could you
could feel you could feel sorry,
I'm just gonna go back therebecause it is an incredible
device and you can feel it themoment you walk in, and I think
this has been integral to thesuccess of your projects is that
you've got this incrediblecommunity, that back what you do
and support what you do, andhelp fund what you do. And this,
(20:26):
in turn has given these kids andincredible experience like I can
I'm when we came out of them,but the visiting visiting there,
Nicole and I were justdumbfounded with the
opportunities your kids get. Wewere absolutely blown away. They
are so lucky. So yeah, I thinkthat's that's sort of the
foundations in order to getwhere you are to get these
(20:48):
projects. Yeah.
Myles Webb (20:52):
Yeah, it's Yeah.
Yeah, no, absolutely. And, youknow, like, so the project, the
with the sound blue sort of partof things. wasn't supposed to be
a long mile project. But we'reactually looking now at going
and sort of five years. And now,in essentially, some of the
students have now moved onthrough to high school, but sort
(21:12):
of the main aspects is sort ofstill there. And so I'm kind of
running it in a much more, Iguess, hands off approach with
that originally, but I think ifyou look at the sort of
progression of it, and it's beenexperience, I don't know,
because of the length of time ifI necessarily want to do
something like that again. Butagain, it comes back to that
(21:34):
ethos of, for me as a teacher, Iwant to be challenged by what I
do if then, before I startedthis thing, I dabbled a little
bit since sort of electronics,but not to a major label. And I
guess I've probably upskilledmyself a lot. And then this, can
we
Mark Herring (21:52):
go right back to
the beginning. Because what
you're describing you startedthe sound law project that was a
steam and integrated when we'retalking about STEAM. For those
who aren't aware, you know,we're talking about an
integrated curriculum approachwhere you've got like an inquiry
and kind of a level problem thatyou need to solve, you're
working towards a solution thatobviously connects with
authentic real worldapplication. So tell us how it
(22:14):
all started for you.
Myles Webb (22:15):
Right back in 2017,
and 2018, we had done a couple
of projects to do with our localour local river. And when we
were looking at those, we werelooking at the fields that were
blue duck, and which has beenwas has been previously in
Terran ecchi. But as essentiallybeen apart from very protected
(22:37):
narrow, tech sub land, locally,it's been eliminated, and it's
been eliminated predominantly bystoats or just introduced pest
species into New Zealand. And sowe did a study of sort of the
New Zealand ecosystem. And forthose people who don't know, the
New Zealand ecosystem isamazing, but through its
(22:59):
geographic isolation, and the1800s when we had the first sort
of European settlement, theybought with them some particular
animals and amongst those withthe brushtail possum, which and
we've we've talked about this,but so the brushtail possum and
New Zealand is probably ourbiggest pest, whereas in
(23:20):
Australia, it's protected. Butthe at that time they've gotten
some of the muscle and familywhich are the states the weasels
and ferrets and where we livelocally. So we liberally in the
last two months, I've probablyseen a thing pistol only three
or four stoats predominantlyshooting across the road as I'm
(23:42):
as I'm driving to and from workand only live 15 minutes from
work. But they and those animalsare extremely aggressive and we
had problems with them. And sothe context for the problem
originally was, you know, wewere looking at this summative
boot and whether we'd be able tointroduce it. And then we were
(24:04):
looking at some way to follow itup. We've got students in the
farming environment who areactively involved in trapping
and chatting of we've identifiedas pistes. Now areas, and again,
that's prom predominantly, butnot exclusively those ones. So
we have a large number ofawesomes if as we were all
although even some of Bernardsort of towns now areas still
(24:26):
have them. And again when you'relooking at things like stage
weasels and ferrets, so I've gotstudents in my class and have
students in my class at thetime, that which vaping the
council was very keen to getstudents involved in in doing
extra things. And we werelooking at something something
(24:46):
extra and then at the same timeI was trying to think of a way
that I could tie in that stemapproach because I had these
kids who were traveling at home.
We had units of study to do withthe council when units of study
to do with like resourcing Doc'sgot some great resourcing. And I
wanted some way to sort of tieit all together. And it I had a
really like a really luckymoment where a person who worked
(25:10):
for doc amazing guide came inand he gave me this little
electronic box. And he said, Isaid, maybe your kids can make
something like this. And it wasjust the little, what I
described as a sound box saystiny little box that I could
hold in the palm of my hand, itwas set up with disposable
(25:32):
batteries. It had a little lightsensor on it, it had been like
hot glue gum together. And itjust basically they put it out
with some possum traps, and madenoise and some possums and shown
interest in it the sort of wastalking about that, that sort of
was one of those moments where Iknew because we had kids at
(25:53):
school who had we had we done Iwas aware of some things like
microbot kits, we've done somebasic add, we know with with the
stim. And then I wanted to seehow and the little bits kits as
well, which are the same kindsof things. So there's small like
electronic things that the kidscan put together make beeps and
(26:13):
noises. And so I wanted to thinkof a way to get the students
operating with some electronics,but instead of making something
in the classroom that made somenoise, to see if we can
replicate this box andessentially put it out with a
sort of conventional preppingthing because conventional
preps, for those people whodon't know for stoats at the
(26:35):
moment and Doc still do this,they use rabbit meat as as low.
There are some variations andthings going on. But it's
essentially how they do it. Soit was that in for possums, the
main thing is you're using fruitand food and things like that.
So that was sort of the kind ofthe, the genesis of it. And then
(26:56):
as a teacher, because I knewnothing about electronics, I
decided to I sat down with myclass, who at the time was sort
of a world where year five, andyou're six. And then they they
were great, because I kind oflooked at it and thought I think
I could do that. But we'll see.
And then one of the kids in thevery first meeting we had,
(27:16):
because they were disposablebatteries, and every three days
they had to find this unit,which was take the batteries,
throw the batteries away, putnew batteries and change it
over. And one of the kids justsaid, why don't we do a little
solar panel with it. And I see,whoa, he can't get solar panels.
And then one of the kids waslike, what Bunnings or the
(27:39):
warehouse, I can't remember theall those little Oh, they're
still here, they've got those521. Yeah. So it was like could
somehow get that done, and havebeen used that to make the sound
(28:00):
and then try and see what effectthat would have. And I then
started looking at some sourcingof funding. Now schools really
well funded. But I thought if Iwant to do this justice, I need
to get involved with a sort ofpeople whose skill set I might
be able to adapt but bringing onthe project. Because originally
(28:22):
I was going to I've just orderedsome parts on AliExpress. And
I'll just put some stufftogether and I'll make it no be
great. I, after about a crash acouple of months, I'd resorted
to ordering a recording box thatwas from a stuff like was a
stuff near or something and youcould record a message and put
(28:43):
it inside via and then like aback on like a loop. And then so
I tried like a real basic leveland wasn't really getting
anywhere. And the kids were sortof having fun with it. And we've
modified a couple of doorbellsand stuff and changed some
things around but it wasn'treally happening. And then I'd
(29:04):
been involved in a scienceproject before. We have internet
at the curious minds projectwhich is funded by venture
teriyaki, which is amazing. Andwe were able to put a proposal
together that got accepted thatbank rolled it which was really
good for my school because myscores would have been amazing
and fantastic. But I was able tocome to it and say they're gonna
(29:27):
give us X number of dollars andand it was a lot of money for
the project and we had to manageall the costs. But that allowed
me to then tap a couple of localexperts. And from there, we
developed a prototype which issolar powered, which essentially
does the job that we wanted todo that's programmable, the kids
(29:50):
were able to put it together soit did require some installed as
required some basic soldering,but we had the kids essentially
making it and plus at the sametime And the the trapping part
of it, you know, the units weresort of there, and we were
developing ideas and stuff. Butwe also had the kids that were
getting involved with thetrapping, and still in the
(30:11):
trapping. Now I've got kids now,who they've, they don't like the
term farm kids, I don't likepeople saying city folk or
whatever. But we have childrenliving locally, who are tripping
actively at the moment, becausethat's good for the environment.
And my big sort of thing, thebig kind of takeaway for the
project for me, I've probablyspent a few too many hours on
(30:37):
it, and a little bit of my time.
But my big mantra for me hasalways been, we want to upskill
the kids, because it's the kidsin the future that are going to
be the people with the mindsetand the skill set moving forward
to do things. And if I'm gettingthese kids aware of things like
costumes and the damage they do,or or stoats and particularly,
and the damage they do, they'llcarry that forward so that when
(31:00):
they become adults, and they'vegot that skill set that mindset,
so that was sort of how that allstarted. And as I said, we've
got experts involved, you know,I, I could use a voltmeter a
little bit. But I found a localelectronics expert, who's been
amazing. And I'm still workingwith him now, five years later.
(31:22):
It's kind of a friendship that'sgrown out of the project. But
his expertise filled a massivegap I had the kids got involved
in it, we got a little longer totell us
Mark Herring (31:34):
about that miles,
because that was one of the
things that I think we startedhaving this conversation when I
was in your office, and I sawyour trophy on the wall. Tell us
about that.
Myles Webb (31:43):
So we had we got
nominated for like a regional
environmental award. And so thechildren were able to go to the
actual Council awards. And wewere one of sort of four
innovators nominated, which wasgreat. And they got to speak in
front of a few 100 people. Weentered the 123 tech Awards, the
title, tech Awards, which we wonin 2020. With with this project,
(32:07):
which was, yeah, for me as ateacher, yeah, I want these,
like, it's not just about awater that like water and stuff
myself, but for the kids to beinvolved in like a nationally
recognized project or an actualcompetition as a result of work
that they're just doing anyway,that was really, really awesome.
And so they won that which wasgreat. And it put us in
(32:28):
connection. You know, it was itwas a Spark has been some of
these funny things. We weredoing a thing about stoats at
the start. And one of the kidssaid to me, I have found this
person who has it, WaikatoUniversity who's like a stone
expert, I will just send them anemail. And the lady actually had
been responsible for writing anactual hard book text on Stokes,
(32:52):
but she was happy to hear backfrom the kids getting involved
with the kids give us feedbackon what we were doing. The kids
generally just been, I guess,barriers I'd probably put in
place because like the solarpowered pallet power thing is an
example right at the start. It'sprobably not something I would
have thought of the studentslooked at it with their eyes
(33:13):
when they said, well, haven'tyou tried this? Haven't you
tried that, and it was thingslike that, but we've got
working. So it's technicallystill an up got got ongoing
project at the moment. But thegood thing is the last couple of
years, I've been able to slipaway from it a little bit. And
I've got a group of kids who aregoing to work on it, we kind of
we spent a lot of time lookingat getting the unit made
(33:35):
originally and having the unitworking originally. And we've
got one prototype that's nowbeen working so effectively.
Rotate, rotating, it's it'scycle now for four years, and
it's still working. We've gotanother batch units, we're just
running a test with at themoment, and we've got to go out
with a field trip and just checkhow that's working. And we're
(33:57):
getting ready next term to havea look at our students deploying
the, you know,
Mark Herring (34:02):
it's incredible
miles. And I think one of the
things that makes this projectstand out is just the length of
time that you've been working onit. You know, I work with a lot
of schools that are trying todevelop what we call one day or
one month, or sometimes it'svery sort of timely to fit a
steam project into a term. Youknow, it's like the 10 week term
magical wrap it up at the end ofthe term. And then we go on
holiday and we're on to the nextthing. What is it? What is it
(34:25):
about what have you been able todo to your approach managed to
go over year after year? Becausehe said it's been five years.
Myles Webb (34:35):
So So the intention
with that originally, and
particularly with that firstlevel of funding was to do one
year and then be finished andCOVID throughout the timetable
completely because we'd hadtrips, you know, scheduled and
things were going to happen andthey closed. Apple school was
closed and we had all thesebarriers put in place. I guess
(34:58):
the other thing too is that theWe looked at when we started the
project, and we've got thatfunding, the things that we got
weren't disposable. So becausewe purchased the kind of
hardware, we still got thehardware from, you know, from
the now and it's still working.
The other thing, I guess, forme, I can see that there's still
very enthusiastic students atthe school for it, because it's
(35:20):
something authentic to them. Andsomething a lot of them are
doing anyway, there, I've got,I've got one of them at the
moment, who I need to get somegear to, and he's in a really
positive way, is kind ofbadgering me about it. But what
he's doing is just coming backto me and saying, right, you
know, I need this, this andthis, can you get this for me,
and I've got the connections toget it for him. But I, you know,
(35:41):
because it's been established tohim, and it's been a bit crazy.
And so he's going to keep going,I've got several families where
it's like older siblings havedone prepping, and it's sort of
passed through to the next kindof group of kids. So that's been
really good. I guessunderpinning it, I wanted to see
inclusion. And I'm not quitesure where that's gonna go.
(36:03):
Because the the child part of ithas been great. I've really
enjoyed the child part of it.
That explained that we'd beenmore challenging in some ways.
Yeah. So the the catsenthusiasts, and it's been
really great. Their ideas havebeen fantastic. They haven't
(36:23):
looked at certain areas orcertain challenges, and they
didn't. And when I say again, Ithink it's changing the word
kids, I should say, students,but students involved have been
from year five to eight, butthis year, I've got a three,
four class, yeah, if there'sbeen a problem they've done,
they tend to look at it and say,Well, why can't you do this?
Whereas No, you probably are abit more guarded about things
(36:46):
because you made me think,successful. That's been really
interesting. And the other thingtoo, is that sometimes, because
I've got I'm using the studentsat my school, my students at the
school are using some of thetechnology or some of the
equipment, we're not having topre arrange things with anything
else, you know, we've got that,like, I've done the paperwork,
(37:07):
or I've got the preparation, theso they'll go and do it. With
some of the organizations I'vebeen involved in, we've had to
have pre meetings for peoplecoming here, we've had to have
sort of some things that that wecan be discussed. And we've had
other other influences in it. Soit's been, the kids have been
amazing. And adults have beenpretty good. We've met some just
(37:28):
incredible people through somany different organizations.
And that has just beenphenomenal. And then you know,
we've just had some other otherbits and pieces happen. And it's
been like, for me as a teacher,I've done bits and pieces for
few years with some things, butabsolutely been the the the
longest project that I've beeninvolved in and I guess you want
(37:50):
to make something definitive atthe end and have an endpoint for
it, but also for those years andtherefore it it becomes a self
fulfilling thing. I guess one ofthe the enthusiasm of the
students. Yeah, I think that's areally key thing. You want to
get something that's authentic,you want to get something that's
Bex Rose (38:09):
just going to touch on
that, actually, because all I
can hear right now is thisstudent agency. It's authentic,
relevant learning for your kids.
It's something though, that Italk to schools all over the
place, and they keep saying, Oh,we want to do stay, we wanted to
stay when we end. That'sawesome. But then we seem to get
quite a few barriers in quite afew like, oh, no, we can't do
(38:31):
this. Oh, no, this is or it'snot, you know, it's not gonna
work. How do you think, whatwhat would you recommend to
teachers? Or how could youendorse steam? Why would you
want to have that in yourschools? Like, what what is it?
What is the magic that it hasproduced for your kids,
Myles Webb (38:49):
I appreciate that
every school is different with
the setup, and sometimes thevalues and sometimes the
program. I and mean, I've beenvery lucky, in my experience,
I've been a couple of times tooverseas schools and seen some
different educational systemscompletely. And I also know in
(39:10):
New Zealand, depending on theschool that you know, the values
of the school and sometimes thatthe I guess the progression of
the students can can be a reallybig thing. Like I said, if I go
back to the start for me, I wantto be motivated by things that
interest me as someone who'sbeen a teacher of over a long
period of time, I want to get mystudents motivated. I think if
(39:31):
I'm motivated, my students willget motivated. I like the
openness of the steam. You know,one of the examples I like to
use with people with 3dprinting, and I've done a bit of
3d printing over the years, butone of the things that I'm
really even this year like,despite my advancing years, you
know, I've got a three fourclassroom of students. I think,
generally the mindset would notnecessarily be that 3d printing,
(39:55):
maybe it's a little bit too muchfor them. But actually, I've
seen some just fantastic stuffalready for My new class and
some of those kids are eightyears old. And that took that,
like, I liked them to have alittle bit of a tattoo I like,
like them to be able to playwith stuff and do stuff. That
creativity, those ideas thatkids get it's magic in a bottle.
(40:15):
Yeah. Similar, and it's notmagic in a bottle. But you know
what I mean, you have thosemoments. And me as a teacher,
that's why I want to keepteaching, because I want the
students enjoy themselves. Andas I say, I think, you know,
Steam, you've got, obviouslychildren who excel with
everything, you've got some whoexcel in some ways, but that
(40:35):
creativity, being able toharness that, and that way, is
really good. It doesn't workeverywhere. I've worked in
schools in the past with theapproach that that I'm using now
wouldn't work. I'm very luckythat I managed. And as their
pedagogy, I go back to thestart, it's one of the reasons
I'm still here, then if I comeup with a crazy idea, but no, I
(40:57):
wouldn't come up with a crazyidea. But something that could
be challenging, or somethingthat could be, you know, like,
like approach, and
Mark Herring (41:03):
that is certain
that is, I think one of the
critical factors that make anenvironment at your school where
this type of learning canthrive. And I think it's
testament to the leadership, youknow, like, we've, you know,
I've known Jared for a while andyou know, as a principal, one of
the things that you and you doin your leadership with, with
the team as well, like, we oftenwhat I used to end my stain
(41:24):
workshops, when I wasintroducing schools to It was
around this whole idea of, youknow, not so much seeing your
classroom or your school is afactory, which is what we used
to have in the preindustrializing industrialized
area, we were kind of pumpingstudents through a factory line.
And sadly, I think a lot of ourclassrooms are like that. It's
like I've got this curriculumand kind of get them through,
and we're going to assist themat the end. But trying to
encourage people to see theirclassroom like a garden. And so
(41:47):
you've got to kind of look atall of the cultural aspects, the
structure, the things that youput in place, to be able to help
students thrive in that kind ofenvironment, and steam is the
perfect way for that to happen.
I think that's so good. One ofthe one of the things that I've
picked up, just while you'vebeen talking miles is that in
that steam approach, you know,we're often talking about how it
(42:08):
starts with a problem, and youhave to find a solution. And
you've got a big overarchingproblem, which was, you know,
for you, it was trying to find away to help those native ducks
Thrive back in an environmentwhere they weren't in it
anymore. But then what happensis you're trying to unpack that
problem, then you start tostarting to find all these other
little problems along the way aswell. It's sort of like a
problem chain, which it's onlyjust occurred to me, that's
(42:30):
exactly what happens along thatprocess. And because you were
able to keep going back to it,and because you're able to guide
the students through thatproblem. So solution finding
process, you just kind of keepthe momentum going, then yeah,
yeah, yeah, we
Myles Webb (42:45):
did. And it was
interesting mark, because it was
things like the whole solarpower thing, which we talked
about, which came from like theliterally the first
conversation, it kind of took usabout, like, what the, I had to
eventually get the expertsinvolved and make sure that it
was going to be robust enough towork. And that ended up taking,
I don't know, a couple of yearsto get that perfected. But like,
(43:08):
even in terms of knowing what toorder, and how the unit needs to
work and stuff. And with thebenefit of hindsight, like, we
obviously made some decisions todo with, like, bits and pieces,
and it has worked out but therewas there were things like that,
that we get a lot of rainfalland winter here. So the moisture
(43:30):
with units on the manga was aproblem and how we're going to
keep that how that keep thatworking. The other thing too
with it, some of the biggeststuff. So we've got hours of
footage of possums and otherpests interacting with these
with these trips or with thelovers specifically, one of the
things that we're trying to dothis year is to get some of the
(43:52):
children interacting with somekind of audio experts so we can
test the sounds that we're doingbut actually, like
scientifically get get them usedbecause some of the stuff we've
been doing the kids, one of thethings that we needed possum
sounds right back at the start.
One of my kids goes, Oh yeah, Ican do that. And she kept she
came back later with about 1015Awesome calls and all these
(44:14):
sounds and I'd ordered them. AndI said where to get them from.
And so she'd just been onYouTube. She had found people
filming the audio Tim
Mark Herring (44:28):
How do I how do I
do that? Like you wouldn't even
know where to start. A majorityof teachers wouldn't include.
Yeah,
Myles Webb (44:33):
yeah. So yeah, it's
not well, that's, you know, like
I've I, my, my long, longsuffering wife a few years ago
asked me to a 3d printingproject specifically to do with
3d printing. And I had to admitto at that point the spot
despite having kids in the pointdoing it for about five or six
(44:55):
years in the classroom, I'venever actually probably done it
myself. jobs are one of the kidsto do it. But skill sets really
like to be that's reallyimportant like that, because you
see, these kids that arestudents that come up with this,
this skills and these ideas. And
Mark Herring (45:18):
one final
question, and this is, I think
probably where the rubber hitsthe road, I'm keen to hear what
you think about this. I knowthat for a lot of teachers, and
a lot of leaders in schools,what, what this conversation has
done, it's probably broken theglass ceiling of what they
thought was possible, because Ithink for a lot of people, and I
was like this when I was aclassroom teacher, you're
thinking and a term, you mightbe thinking a year, you
(45:38):
definitely aren't thinking offive year project. But we've
just heard the value, right, andthe impact that it's had for
your students, if you're ateacher who wants to start a
project, and they might bethinking five years, you know,
or at least beyond the year,where where do you start? How do
you find something that's goingto be authentic and will have
enough legs over a period oftime that wouldn't, you know,
(45:59):
not only it can capturesomething that's going to be
motivating for you, but moreimportantly, is going to
motivate the students? Wherewould you start for me
Myles Webb (46:07):
with the sort of, I
guess, how kind of the model I
follow some a local issue or alocal community based real
learning experience, those thoseterms that, you know, I think it
needs to be something that thestudents are able to maybe test
or look or contribute to, notnecessarily in the classroom
(46:29):
environment, and the classroomenvironments really powerful.
But anything that we can dothat's going to affect locally
and affect, maybe the livingwill have an impact on that has
got the potential to be reallypowerful. So I think local,
it's, to me, that's a little bitof a no brainer that you want to
think where you out locally andwhat's affecting your students.
(46:50):
And or, you know, what's the andas I said before, that student
voice about ideas about stuff,you the students have the most
amazing projects and the mostamazing ideas. And I just, you
know, you tap into that and findout what, what they want to look
at or what they
Mark Herring (47:09):
are so good. We'll
put a link to your Twitter
account in the show notes,because I know that there's lots
of things that you've beensharing. And that was how you
and I connected years ago, Iremember you sharing some
things, and we knew each otheron Twitter for about four or
five years before we even met.
And several, we'll do that. Andif you want to check what Mars
is doing out here, I recentlyhave been posting some of the
pretty amazing 3d printedmaterial that you could have
(47:32):
been working on. So that'sreally cool
Myles Webb (47:34):
for people who are
interested. So the other thing
too, that was really importantwith the sound, lower parts of
things. So I documentedeverything. I'm still,
unfortunately, I am a creatureof habit. So it's just on a
blog, but I'll supply the linkto that. So there's various bits
of information. And if there arepeople like one of the things
right throughout the project,where I'm still wanting to
(47:56):
connect with people who want todo trials and set things up. So
if you have a environment whereyou've got, you know, that sort
of issue with some students, ifsomeone wants to get ahold of
me, I'm more than happy to helpout. We're able to do the units
for 30 $40. And the technology.
Mark Herring (48:14):
class would be
quite happy to jump on a Google
meet or a team's call or Zoomcall in and have a have a chat
with that.
Myles Webb (48:21):
We could Yep, well,
we've got tips. Yep, we've
absolutely got kids with thatexpertise that will be available
to do that. Same thing with likeeverything else. Sharing as
teachers is really important.
Just letting people know whatamazing stuffs happening. And
then, you know, no one wants tobe a gatekeeper. We want to help
so
Mark Herring (48:38):
good master. Just
awesome. And it's it's an
amazing story to hear as thefiring spot. Oh, yeah. So good.
Thanks.
Everyone, I just wanted to jumpin here with a quick message
about an upcoming online programthat we think you might be
(49:00):
interested in. So if you'relistening to this message, this
conversation with Mars and youhave a teacher or you are a
teacher, and you're inspired tolearn more about STEAM learning
and the impact that it couldhave for your school and your
classroom. Or you're reallyteaching with this approach.
Maybe you'd love to go deeper oracross the school with this
powerful teaching method. Wehave got a great program that we
want to tell you about. Ourcertified steam Leader Program
(49:23):
is starting its next cohort ofteachers this May and it covers
topics such as what a steamframework looks like how do you
assess it? How do you overcomecommon barriers with your own
classroom and with your team andso much more. It's delivered
over six months with a series ofonline modules that we send to
you. You unpack them on sixgroup calls, roughly one a
(49:45):
month, month and then we work onthat with a steam project
alongside a coaching programthat works to help you develop
your classroom and your schoolsteam learning program. If you
want to find out more go to ourwebsite at UTB dot FYI forward
slash steam go and register andall the information is there. So
that's UTB dot FYI, forwardslash steam leader. Okay, we've
(50:11):
got Rachel, one of our trainersin the North Island here to join
us about Canva. And I know thatone of the things about
leadership and teaching in theclassroom is there are so many
features that are coming outwith some of the tools that
we're using. Even if you'rereally familiar with Canva, and
you've used it in your classroomor in your school. Rachel, this
is your chance to tell us someof the new features that are
coming up.
Rachel Lelieveld (50:29):
Yeah, code. So
one of the first new features
that I absolutely love, it'sbeen around for a little while.
But it's slowly getting morethan making it better just
because of all the AI that'skind of coming out and coming to
the forefront. And that is thetext to image total. Now, the
thing that I love about this isthat it can be used in so many
(50:50):
different areas, but it makesyour life easier for like those
days where you just need like awriting prompt. That's what I
personally would use it for andhave used it in previous last
year when it first came out.
It's one of those great things.
So it is one of the apps onCanva, which can be found if
you've got a premium account. Soteachers, if you need to get one
(51:11):
of those premium accounts, it'sactually free, you can get
teacher Premium accounts forcrew, which is great. Everybody,
especially teachers loves freethings. And it's one of the apps
that's actually you've got toplug into the apps on the side
of your canvas, you've got allthe templates, you've got all
the elements, your projects andthings like that. And then right
down the bottom is apps now andthat you will find text to Image
(51:36):
tool which is right there and islike one of the top ones that
you can find if you can't tosearch through Canva apps and
write text to image and it doespop up. So the thing that I love
about this is it does give you afew sentences of inspiration for
you to start off with. But youcan enter it anything that you
want. And it will generate animage whether it be a concept
(51:58):
art photo, a painting, drawing a3d image, or even like heaven,
and it will go straight intoyour documents and also upload
it so you can grab it from yourimages later on as well. So it
saves it for you all in yourcamera account. I was having a
bit of a play with this againbefore because it has changed.
(52:18):
And it's gotten out all thedifferent art forms that you can
do. So your photo, your 3d yourpatterns and things. fun one to
do, if you want to have a bit ofa trial with it is just use one
of these sentences. Third one onthe list is a panda riding a
bike through a city with depthof field and you can hear the
description there. So you canadd as many words as you want,
(52:39):
add as much description as youwant. And then it'll generate
some kind of image, whether itbe square landscape, or
portrait. Or you can just pop itinto whatever document you've
got there. So I mean, you canuse this not just for literacy,
there's so many other ways thatyou can use it and get students
to start creating pictures. Foranything. They're doing
presentations. So there's areally fun little app to just
(53:01):
have a bit of a play with anduse within your scope. Give me
something that you want to seewhat should we don't go go
Beck's
Bex Rose (53:10):
snake climbing up a
tree on Mars.
Rachel Lelieveld (53:15):
And we'll push
create. So you can put locations
and you can put objects inthere. It does take a few
minutes to transform it. Anddon't forget to There you go.
There's your eligible.
Bex Rose (53:29):
Goodness. So the whole
like, I think that's when I was
in the classroom. And I had todraw that on the whiteboard. And
all because we like peacock andit's supposed to be a person,
you know. So this takes all thatout of
Rachel Lelieveld (53:43):
it. Right? So
cool. Definitely. I don't mean
you think of this as well. It'sa piece of art where you get
students recreating that artworkas well and using it to do
different styles of art becauseyou don't only just have the 3d,
you've got the sketching toolsas well. So that's what I love
about it. You could draw fromthat. And so many different
ways.
Mark Herring (54:02):
It's not searching
in Google is it for for those
who aren't quite aware of what'shappening, this is artificially
intelligent, working behind thescenes to actually recreate
images that haven't been made.
Could you say now create it inthe style of Picasso?
Rachel Lelieveld (54:17):
It doesn't
respond like GBT or the thing
does, you just have to kind ofstart digging in and put in some
more words, but hey, there couldbe something that Canva is
working on. Because that hassaid when you click onto this
that these more works happening.
Feedback. So there you go, Mike,why don't we see in Canva that
feedback and ask them to make aconversation rather than just
(54:38):
start over at and this is keyfor
Bex Rose (54:41):
on steroids in my
opinion. Like when Canva came
out. It was so exciting becauseI was one of those people that
would love to create awesomeslides for the kids or like for
my staff meetings or even I evendeveloped our strategic plan and
did that all on Canva as sort ofa design tool, but this has come
So far, and I can just see howit can make teachers lives so
(55:05):
much easier and so much better.
Because there's so manytemplates on there already. I
mean, there's slideshow, Teamplaces, Doc templates, there's
lessons that are already readyto go on there. So it's one of
those tools that really, youreally need to dive into and
have a play around and just seethe opportunities are endless to
use it in the classroom, and inschools, and even your senior
leadership as well,
Rachel Lelieveld (55:26):
definitely.
And I think the great thingabout Canva is now that you can
actually be sharing theseassignments to Google Classroom.
So if you've got a classroomintegrated, these are options as
well, you don't just have thetemplates, and things like that
it's now sharing you can bringin on the apps is actually the
option to bring in photos fromyour Google Drive. So I've got
the Google Drive app there. Sobringing your photos, anything
that you've been doing thatmaybe you've saved your photos
(55:48):
to Google Drive, you can bringthem in to whatever you're
working on. It could be a jamboard background, and you want
to have a picture there and thebrainstorming different things.
Just use the app, put thepicture in from Google Drive,
and it just makes your life somuch easier. And Canva is just
there's so many creative formshere that you can use. And it
just makes things just so muchmore, I guess, I'm not going to
(56:11):
say five alive units. So yeah,you've got the emojis and the
Arabs, you've got, I know,teachers love to use the
Bitmojis tone. So you canconnect your Bitmoji and put
your Bitmoji onto whateveryou're creating with your
students. There is so manyendless options, or there's also
Google Maps. So add in if youwanting to look at maps,
(56:32):
geography and things like thatsnapshot from Google Maps, and
that's one of the apps as wellthat you can use toes. So yeah,
so many
Mark Herring (56:41):
lots to explore.
And I think jumping in there andhaving a look around and seeing
all the features that keepgetting added almost like
weekly, you know, I heardsomebody saying on one or an
Instagram reel about how you canadd text your bullet pointed out
and then hit the text slidesbutton, I haven't found this
feature in there yet. You justhave to do a little play, but it
will turn that text into a slidedeck for you based on the
(57:01):
templates. So if a teacherdoesn't have access to the free
premium account, or the premiumaccount that they can get for
free, how do they go about doingthat?
Rachel Lelieveld (57:11):
So you jump on
to these a page Canva for
education, and they can applyfor it. Now lots of teachers in
New Zealand, I don't know ifthis is also across the world
have been struggling a lot withgetting their account verified
to be a teacher. And so whatwe've figured out is like you
can just kind of screenshoteither a little bit of your
(57:32):
payslip as long along with yourregistration, flip it to them,
and an email with the emailaddress that you're using for
the Canva free account. And thenthey should come back to you and
give it to you for free. But itis available to be free for all
teachers. And within that youcan create your own Canva
classrooms for your students,get them into the team, get them
(57:52):
creating things as well. Soyeah, don't worry, if it
declines you they will acceptit, you just have to go around
and email them and it will be onthat camera for Education
website tab as well. Yeah,
Bex Rose (58:05):
can I just add a
little plug in the end here is
that Rach is one of ourincredible trainers in New
Zealand. And you can get herfree into the schools if you
come through our Ministry ofEducation. PLD funding. So if
you want help with this kind ofstuff, this is what we do is
their bread and butter. So comeon out. Yeah, hit me up. And I'm
happy to help. But that's wework in New Zealand. We work in
Australia working all overSoutheast Asia now too. So we're
(58:29):
here to help. And yeah, hit usup if you want some more support
with this kind of stuff, becausethat's what we love to
Rachel Lelieveld (58:33):
do. Exactly.
And I'm more than happy to dosome online sessions with people
as well, if that's what they'rewanting. We don't just do it in
person. We do online sessions.
And this is yeah, what a greattool to be able to utilize
within your classroom or evenwithin businesses to
Mark Herring (58:47):
cope. We'll have a
couple of links there for people
to get in contact with Rachel orget in contact with their team.
And we'll have a link to be ableto get the free camp. Thanks.
Thanks for joining us, Rachel.
Thanks.
Rachel Lelieveld (58:56):
Sorry. No
worries.
Mark Herring (59:00):
All right, episode
eight in the ken Vic's final
thoughts from you. All right. So
Bex Rose (59:04):
we have dived into two
really exciting ways to enhance
classrooms and schools todaywith Canva was Rachel I urge you
to go and have a play around andI don't blame me when you
suddenly lose hours of your daygo down those rabbit holes. And
then hearing Myles talk aboutStephens schools. If you want an
authentic and engaging learning,this is the way to go. And he's
(59:25):
a wealth of knowledge. So feelfree to use the links in the
show notes to hit him up.
Lastly, I just want to touchbase on marks making waves
segments. Please do take stockof your energy. If you're
feeling like things are feelingheavy or hard already identify
something or someone in yourlife that can refill your cup.
I'd also make this a weeklyreflection a temperature gauge
at the end of the week for youto be still and notice how
(59:46):
you're feeling and act on that.
We're in early and we're earlyon in the year so putting
practices like this into placewill really help you see out the
year positively.
Mark Herring (59:57):
differently. It's
it's one of those things that's
a work on For all of us, I thinkand the more that we go through
this year, the more that we cankeep working on ways that are
going to fill our tanks. So ifyou're after some links or some
resources from some of thethings that were talked about
today, whether you want tocontact Myles on his Twitter
account, or you want to have alook at his blog, particularly,
there'll be links in the shownotes, you can go and check
those out. We post every weekand we'd also I'd love to have
(01:00:19):
you subscribe to our channel ifyou want to find out some of the
latest updates and things thatare coming out. We'd love to
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covered that you think they'dget a special value from. And
(01:00:39):
lastly, if you've got questionsor anything to share with us,
email us as always at team atusing technology better.com We'd
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and see you next week.