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February 6, 2023 44 mins

There’s nothing more important for schools in this season than looking after the well-being of their teachers and students. Beth Reading, from ‘My Pilates Time,’ joins us in this episode to chat about her journey as a teacher to wellness. Rachel tells us about Nearpod, an online teaching tool that opens new worlds and opportunities for guided or independent learning, and Mark shares a new reading method he’s discovered that helps us store and treasure the things we learn in what we read.

Here are the links or resources that we’ve mentioned today:

1. Alex and Books
2. Tiago Forte
3. My Pilates Time - Access to hundreds of 'On Demand' Pilates classes you can do from home, healthy recipes and access to live online classes each week. Use the coupon code for the discounted price of $12usd per month (no lock in contracts, cancel anytime)  Coupon code: specialpricem 

We post every week and would love to have you keep up with us. If you know someone who would get value from these episodes, hit the share button and let them know. Lastly, if you have questions or anything to share with us, email us at team@usingtechnologybetter.com. You can also contact Bex at bex@usingtechnologybetter.com to find out how you can get free PD in your schools (NZ) or follow us on Instagram at @usingtechnologybetter or on youtube.com/@utb

We’d love to hear from you! See you next week.

Mark as Played
Transcript

Episode Transcript

Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Mark Herring (00:00):
I've been kind of reading and came across an

(00:02):
interesting approach to readingand I thought I'd share it with
you. It's from a guy calledThiago forte. And he interviewed
someone. His name is Alex, werekowski. And I hope I got that
right. But if you want to lookup his his approach to reading,
and it's all based on this wholeconcept that our brains are made
for having ideas they're notmade for keeping them

(00:29):
Welcome to The Better Mindsetepisode four. I'm Mark. And I'm
Bex, and this podcast is aseries of conversations that
seek to help you be betterleaders, teachers, and to be
better at using your technologyfor education. On today's
episode, we'll talk about awhole new strategy for reading
books and making what you readvaluable for a lifetime. We'll

(00:50):
be chatting with Beth readingone of the founders and
directors of UTB and tight andbasically talking about how to
take better care of ourselves asour best assets. And Rachel
shares a new tool that can levelup the interactivity of your
lessons, let's get into it. OrBeck's for making waves today,

(01:10):
I've got a little bit of aninteresting one. I know that for
a lot of teachers, you know,it's the summertime and there
are lots of things that you'redoing to relax and unwind. And
one of the things that I'vealways enjoyed over the years
during the Christmas break isseeing teachers posting on
Twitter, their summer readingstack. Have you ever seen those
posts before? I don't know ifthey're on Instagram, because
that's where you might say,

Bex Rose (01:30):
Yes, I normally screenshot them. So I've got
some ideas.

Mark Herring (01:34):
Yeah, so so often with a lot of teachers, whether
you're a classroom teacher, or aleader in a school, often you've
got a series of books that maybepeople have given you, or you
have, you know, like mine, my mybookshelf behind me, has got
probably about three books thatI've been waiting to get to you
know this because I know thatI've got this time. So I've been
kind of reading and came acrossan interesting approach to
reading and I thought I'd shareit with you. It's from a guy

(01:57):
called Thiago forte. And heinterviewed someone, his name is
Alex, were kowski. And I hope Igot that right. But if you want
to look up his his approach toreading, it's called a it's got
a website, or website and aYouTube link called Alex and
books. And it's all based onthis whole concept that our
brains are made for having ideasthey're not made for keeping

(02:18):
them. So the problem that thisapproach solves is you know how
like, you'll get a book. So I'vegot an example of here, this one
here, Mike gave me this book alittle while ago, I'll show you
something. And so for those ofyou who are listening, this is
the 12 week year. So this was abook that I read this year, I
really enjoyed it got a lot outof it. But after a while you get
a book, if you read it, you getsome good things out of it, you
might highlight a few things.
Maybe you take a note somewhereand a push, but then it goes

(02:41):
back on the shelf. And then alot of it you forget so our
brains aren't made to retain allthat information. So what these
guys describe so Thiago forteinterviews, Alex. And what he's
what he's explaining is thiswhole new approach to taking
notes, so that you retain thatinformation, you can go back to
it, and you can get it wheneveryou whenever you need it. And
it's based on the second brainidea. So you, because our brains

(03:04):
aren't designed to hold theinformation, we have to have
that somewhere else. And we andit's all about the productivity
systems and the way that we getinto it. Now the second brain
idea is something I'd love tounpack on another making waves,
maybe just maybe touch on that.
But I want to show you theiridea. So this this book that I
got I got from Mike, so he readit first. And I was really

(03:25):
surprised the first time I gotit, he said to her, I hope you
don't mind, but I've written allthe way through it. And I was
like what that who does that whobuys a cover book, and then
write it. But if you're watchingthis on YouTube or on a social,
like you can see there the notesthat Mike's taken, I found that
really interesting. This is thefirst time that I've ever seen
somebody go to task on a book,sometimes, you know, university,

(03:45):
you might scribble on someprinted pages or something like
that. But that was the firsttime I've ever seen it. But what
Alex is Alex, and boxes approachdoes is it collates all of those
highlights in a really easy wayfor you to be able to go back to
them and find them. So there's afew things that they described.
So number one, I'm going to showyou a couple of examples. And

(04:06):
I've just started this approach.
So this is what the workinggenius book. Sounds like there's
a dog in the background thatwants to come in and have a
listen. Sorry. Oh, that's cool.
Yeah, maybe they're going toread a book. So there's three,
three steps, I'll just give youthree easy steps will link the
podcast interview on on to yourForte's website or on his

(04:29):
YouTube channel, in the shownotes if you want to go into it
and see a deeper and much betterexample than what I've started
with. But the first thing to dois to go through the book and
just highlight as you go. Solet's say you found something
and you think well that's that'sa really important note. I want
to save that for later. So whatthey suggest you do is you
underline it, highlight it witha highlight pin and then put a
star on the margin. Thensecondly, the next thing you do

(04:51):
is you record where thathighlight was with a quick
little note on the inside cover.
And what they show is that onthe inside cover, you've got
these two kind of first pagesthat are all completely blank.
So you see, I've started tocollect some highlights. So you
just put a title at the top callit highlights on the first
inside cover page. And then youjust put like, whatever chapter
it's in, and then write a briefsummary of what that highlights

(05:14):
about. Now, the reason you dothat is, let's say in the
future, you're you're doingsomething for school, or you're
preparing some presentation. Andyou think, oh, there was a
really great quote about suchand such a note in that book,
you know, so you go and grab thebook off the shelf, you go to
the front, what was that quote?
Oh, it was on page seven, youcan flip to page seven, and

(05:34):
you'll see the highlightstraightaway. Pretty cool.

Bex Rose (05:37):
Very, very cold. And I think there's the other thing
about when you're writing stuffdown, your brain remembers it
even more Is it is it.

Mark Herring (05:46):
There's some, there is some research behind
that. But yeah, and I guessthat's kind of like an offshoot.
But the this approach, what Ithink it does, and the way they
explain it is that it allows youthe ability to be able to skim
through, you know, so if I'mdoing a presentation or workshop
on the working genius with withwith a school somewhere, then I
can just go back to this andjust skim through and really get

(06:07):
some gems, you know, like I cansee are the three stages of
work. That's right, this isgoing to be a really important
point. And I can see it's onpage, chapter six, page 61. And
I can turn straight to it and Ican get the diagram or whatever
it is, what I need a good way ofcondensing that and distilling
it down

Bex Rose (06:23):
to such a great idea and so timely, because that is
that book right there is on myto read list next week when I
can have some time. And so I'mreally excited. And I'm going to
do that. Because exactly right.
You always go Oh, that's right,there was that great quote, and
you flip through the book. Andso having it at your fingertips
like this such a great idea. Ilove it.

Mark Herring (06:45):
Yeah. And so apparently over time, what you
do is you build a bit of a bankof all of these different
distilled summaries in yourbooks, and you can go back to at
any particular time. So in acouple of years, you can go
back, grab that book, what wasthat thing, you know, just read
through it, you might want toread through it and maybe just
jump through all the highlights,but it's just a way of sort of
refreshing it and then keeping abit of a distillery, I guess, of

(07:06):
all the little gems that youcollect over time, there's one,
there's one more step that theythey that they talked about that
I thought would be quite handyto share on share with people.
The last thing that once you'vefinished the book is to go to
the very back of the page and doa couple of things. So on the
second to last clear back page,you've got this just write down
a quick reflection of all themain summary notes. And then you

(07:28):
can link them back to some pagesif you want to. But they just
talk about what Alex talks aboutthe ability to summarize
everything into a few keypoints. And that allows you to
go back to a book in the futureand just open it up and say what
was that book about? Again, youknow, what were the key points,
and it just refreshes and remindyou. And then the last thing is,
is write down your key takeaway.
So what are the things that I'mgoing to do? What are my main

(07:50):
action points, and that's a wayof taking those gems distilling
them down, but then applyingthem to your life in a
meaningful way. Because there'sso many books that we read over
the years. And obviously, I'mtalking about nonfiction books.
Well, I guess fictional as wellmight give you some life
lessons. Or maybe that's not thekind of podcasts books, but

(08:12):
there might be, you want to havesome application of what you're
you're reading, right. So youwant to have it impacting you
and changing you and, and thatsort of thing. And I think the
other spin off from thatapproach, too, is not just
having a place that you can goback to, but you've also got a
whole lot of little gems thatyou can share in conversation
and you can bring up with yourstaff or, you know, things that
you can implement in yourregular coffee time. My wife's

(08:35):
always, especially me about allthe little facts and things like
that, that I bring data, youremember that stuff? And I'm not
I don't know, just sticks

Bex Rose (08:44):
You'd be great on a quiz night I reckon, Mark. But
um, but I think that having acouple of key takeaways that
you're going to apply is such agood strategy, because sometimes
you read these books and you'relike, Oh, I'm going to change my
life. And then you read? Oh,yeah, cool. And then you're
like, Oh, that was a bit hard.
It's kind of like what we'vetalked about before, like a big
goal, breaking it down into tinyhabits is such an applicable way

(09:04):
of looking at as well. So beingable to pull out just a couple
of things that you might want tochange. So you can actually make
it a habit in your life. It'slike when you go to conferences,
and you go to all thesedifferent things. And you're
like, I'm going to do this andthis and this in my classroom,
but actually just reallybreaking it down into a couple
of things that you're going todo or that's when you're going
to actually see some changehappening. So yeah, what a great

(09:26):
idea and so timely while we'rereading and this time, thanks,
Mark.

Mark Herring (09:33):
No worries. And one last little jam, I just have
to squeeze this into the lastthing that they describe as
being really valuable. Alextalks about putting a start date
when you start reading the bookand then an end date. So just at
the bottom of the left handcorner or somewhere, just the
date that you started readingthe book and then the date that
you ended, and he said thatthat's a nice way for him to be
able to have a look at the book.
He can see the period of hislife with that that book was

(09:54):
read and sometimes you can do alittle bit of a back casting or
a back roughly friction on theimpact that it made for you at
that particular time. And thingsjust kind of start to make
sense. So yeah, so it's a nicelittle, I think, an intentional
way to read a book. And sohopefully it inspires some of us
to get into those books thatwe've got grab a pen, make sure
that you're writing all over it,you know, and get the most out

(10:17):
of what we're reading.

Bex Rose (10:19):
Awesome, thanks.

Mark Herring (10:24):
Well, my guest on the show today is Beth, it's
awesome to have Beth, you arethe co-founder or co-founder
along with Mike, he started thecompany more than 10 years ago.
And we're excited to find outabout some things that we can do
as teachers and as leaders inthe school where we can try and,
you know, not just survive theterm that's coming up this year,
but really do this the thrivingpart of what we're doing. So

(10:47):
excited to hear from you. We'dlove to love to start with, you
know, some history or yourbackground context. And because
I know that you're working as aPilates, social media influence,
instructor facilitator, that'syour role. And you also work
with Mike directing the company.
But I know that you've got ateaching background, I'd love to
start with it and hear about howyou got involved in that part of
your life.

Beth Reading (11:10):
So it's great to be here and have a chat to you.
I started up in education, and Iwas teaching primary school, so
five year olds to 12 year olds,and absolutely loved it.
Actually, the last seven yearsof my teaching career, I was a
music teacher. So my classroomwas a very busy place. And loud,

(11:36):
I'd often go to bed at nightwith caution ringing in my head.
But it was. And I loved that.
And I loved it. Because thatwhen there's children came into
my classroom, it was sort oflike a treat for them through
the day, you know, somethingthey could look forward to dance
and sing and create. Yeah, so itwas a great time. And then I

(11:59):
sort of got to a point to behonest with you. The music was a
bit much for me, like the noiseand also the the pressure of
concerts and productions, it wassort of a bit of an intense
years there. So I just thought Iwould have a bit of a career

(12:22):
change. And I started to enjoysome Pilates myself a couple of
times a week. And then I did myteacher trainings, for Pilates.
So that's how I sort of got intothat. And, yeah, I've been
teaching Pilates now for eightyears. And I really feel like
the work being a teacher hasreally directed the way I teach

(12:45):
my Pilates classes. It's givenme such a I don't know what to
say advantage. But you know,like a heads up on how to read a
room when when people come in. Iteach online, and you can still
do that online, like notice themood, who's there, adjust your
lesson plan, and really helppeople along.

Mark Herring (13:10):
Yeah, that's awesome. And I think for a lot
of people who are teachers, youknow, there's lots of different
avenues that you can take yourteaching in, aren't there,
especially these days whereyou've got like a worldwide
audience and that sort of thing.
Yeah, that's cool. What we'dreally love to get from you
today is a few kind of tips andtricks of things that we can do
as teachers thinking about theyear ahead and going into

(13:30):
another year, because I knowthat a lot of the teachers that
we worked with last year backs,you know, we'd be talking to
them, and they're just they justhang in there till by the end of
the year, you know, they'reexhausted. It was, it was kind
of the first year of normalbeing back after COVID. Again,
and I think a lot of peoplereally struggled to keep on top
of their own health, and thatkind of thing. So like it be

(13:52):
really interested to hear fromyou with your experience. What
was it like for you in theclassroom as a teacher? What
sort of things did you findhelped or didn't help as you
were going into a new year tostay on top of that kind of
battery? Personal battery thatyou have when you're rolling?

Beth Reading (14:10):
Yeah, well, it's actually quite interesting to
look back at that time. Now. Youknow, now that I'm in the health
world, you know, I look back andI can see what I was doing,
trying to keep myself going. AndI can see that some of the
mistakes that I made, you know,like, my children were young
then too, so there's a lot goingon. I'm trying to care for

(14:32):
everybody, my family, the kids,my students, you know, my career
is a lot going on and it is ahard balance. And I want it to
do well. So I did try a lot ofdifferent things and I went hard
at it, you know, like followinga diet plan where you had to
weigh all the food and there'sjust you're just adding a lot

(14:56):
more pressure to yourself andand I I wasn't really into
exercise before, you know. Butwhen I was doing that teaching,
I noticed myself feeling tired.
And I thought, you read all thethings you should exercise. So I
tried running. And so I would,after school, I do the kids
organize them in there afterschool activities, get the
dealer on. And then I'm like,Kenny, I got to do my run. And I

(15:18):
hated it. absolutely hated it.
And I know I'm talking to tworunners here, but

Bex Rose (15:28):
you don't know how to deal with all the kids at night.
It says a lot, that's a lotempathy to the run.

Beth Reading (15:36):
Really, really tried so hard to do what I
thought would be the rightthing, I should do it. And I
would run it hurt my body, Ihated it. And I couldn't succeed
in keeping it up. And then bythe time the term started a
couple of weeks in definitelycould not keep it up. So I felt
what's wrong with me, I seethese other people going to the

(15:57):
gym, and they're doing all this,and I couldn't do it. So
basically, I just thought, I'llgive up on that. And I'll, I'll
go to a Pilates class. And whatI found when I did that, is it
was so good for my stresslevels, because it was so
relaxing. It was I just zonedinto myself, I could almost like

(16:18):
have all the distractions or theTo Do Lists kind of left me and
I could move and meditate. And Ihonestly didn't think it was
doing my body any good. But itwas definitely good for my
mental health. But it wasn'tuntil about 10 Like one term
into the you know, I booked himfor one class a week for a term,

(16:39):
finished term one. And I startedto notice my, my body changed.
And it was absolutely sosurprising to me because I
thought that I had to dosomething hard for it to be
good. The case the gentlemovements were targeted. And I
started to notice my body toneup. And I never had muscle tone

(17:02):
before we ever had muscles. Soit was surprising. And yeah, and
my body didn't ache. So youknow, after having the kids, I
would have just a backache. AndI thought that was normal. But
most most people had that. Andit went away. You know, I didn't
I'm sitting here now go Oh, myback.

Bex Rose (17:26):
And that actually resonates so much like yeah,
that's such a yeah, thatPilates. Yeah.

Beth Reading (17:35):
The second term, I did Pilates, so I thought this
is great. Like, it's it'shelping me be a better person
because I was better at home.
Because I was calmer. I wasbetter at school because I could
go into the classroom with thatenergy. And I felt happier
within myself. So I'd come intothe classroom happy and you know

(17:56):
what that does to a classroom.
When you when you're there, andyou're happy to be there makes
all the difference to the waythe day unfolds? Oh, 100%

Mark Herring (18:07):
Yeah, I think it's something that I realized when I
was in the classroom, I thinkearly on, I started teaching
your three and fours and youknow how they sort of grade five
and six, I think in Americanterms, that there's so much like
sponges, so they just basicallykind of set to the temperature
that I bring to the room. And Irealized that when I was having
a really good happy day, and Iwas kind of pumped and excited,

(18:28):
enthusiastic, the class rose tothat. But I remember there are a
couple of days where I would bedown or you know, negative or
something was happening in mypersonal life where I just
didn't have the energy or theenthusiasm, they really like
really made a huge impact and sothat that's a huge takeaway for
us, you know, when we're walkinginto those situations to think
about where we're at bothmentally and physically, you

(18:49):
know, in the things that we cando to help so that was that's
really interesting to me thatthe Pilates actually helped with
the mental health not just thephysical part of it as well.

Beth Reading (18:57):
It definitely. And I do feel like it sometimes we
can think that we have tomeditate every day to get the
benefits but I just startingadding small habits. And you
know, you can get that centeringfeeling or that refocus of your

(19:18):
mental clarity within just 15minutes of Pilates 15 or 20
minutes. And you know mybusiness at the moment I have a
an online Pilates business wherepeople can log in and just do a
20 minute class. And so findingsomething like that can be
achievable because you can dothat before you get going in the

(19:38):
day. And it's just a really niceway to sort of ground yourself.
Okay, you know, I feel goodabout who I am what I'm doing,
and then take that with youthrough the day and it's a
really nice way to end the dayas well because it's it's not
too strenuous, but it's a niceway to kind of stretch out sort
of close off the day and thensleep well. Move on.

Mark Herring (20:01):
Can you explain the difference between Pilates
and sort of like regular, like aHIIT session or because I've
never done Pilates? Pilatesnewbie, if I was gonna jump in
and do it, what's the differencebetween that and then sort of
like the general exercise, hitsession, that kind of thing?

Beth Reading (20:17):
Well, I guess every Pilates Pilates teacher
has their own flavor. And Ithink, first of all, one of the
main things, if you're lookingto add in some stress relief,
and some movement, which we knowis good for our health, the main
thing is to find something thatyou enjoy. So like, you know,
like I said, at the beginning,running wasn't for me, but it

(20:37):
might be for someone else.
Laurie's was for me, and it wasfinding the right teacher as
well, someone who, who I couldconnect with. But basically, the
movement of Pilates is movementthrough the spine. So really
making sure that our mobility ismaintained. And it's targeted
exercise, so we don't jumparound. But we can lay on our

(20:59):
side on it back. And in a way,some of the positions are
similar to yoga positions. Withmy classes, I use weights as
well, because I like feelinglike you've got a little bit of
resistance. And we know thatmaintaining our muscle tone is
is really important. As we getolder, our muscle tone naturally

(21:22):
gets weaker. So we need to workon it. Using a bit of weight can
help maintain our bone strength,helps with our metabolism keeps
our metabolism working well. Andit's also been proven
maintaining muscle tone actuallycan help with that mental side
of things as well. Yeah,

Mark Herring (21:41):
it's I was listening to somebody describing
muscle tone as being like thethe foundational building blocks
of health. You know, like theimportance of protein and
building muscle and street,especially as you kind of get
beyond 40. There's the steroidor some crazy thing that people
over 40 lose about 10% of themuscle mass every year, in an
incremental stages, if you don'tlook after it, and keep an eye

(22:04):
on it. And if it's as important,as you're saying, I mean, that's
a really, really important thingto, you know,

Bex Rose (22:11):
to, since I'm so far away from it. So yeah, I just
really just want to say I reallylike the way that you see it,
you know, like it's notinstantaneous, you know, and
this is something about we weretalking about the other day, you
know, like forming that tinyhabit is something that you
enjoy something that you know,you can fit in in your week that
it's not going to be somethingthat's, you know, the running

(22:33):
after all that that you said,putting a run and at the end of
the day to like that's not goingto be sustainable, right, you
just can't keep going like that.
But being able to do it once aweek that was achievable,
manageable, you probably lookforward to it. So it became a
habit and look what it's done.
Now it's created, it's created areally incredible life changing
thing he really hasn't. The 1%better every day is something

(22:56):
that I know Mike talks about aswell. And that applies to this
as well. So you know, go to oneclass, that's not going to
change you straight away, butdoing it 1%. So finding
something I think the keytakeaways for the from for me
were that you finding somethingthat you really enjoy, keep
chipping away at it. And and thedifference will come from there.

(23:16):
Just like the habits we'vetalked about before we

Mark Herring (23:20):
Beth, why do you think a lot of teachers don't
find something like whetherthey've tried something is the
fact that they've tried runningand they hate it like you didn't
don't find that other thing?
Like you did? Or are there otherfactors, because we're not when
we go into schools, and we'reworking with schools, obviously,
there are a lot of people who,for a variety of different
reasons, whether it's time orwhatever, they just don't, you

(23:41):
can tell they're just not happyphysically, they don't, they
don't look healthy. You know,like, I'm interested to find out
what you will hear what youthink, are the reasons why we
don't look after ourselves aswell as we should.

Beth Reading (23:54):
I think, you know, I've, I've taught a lot of a lot
of people and I've actuallytaught a lot of teachers
actually to, and the thing Ihear a lot is they've had a bad
experience, you know, maybethey've gone to the gym, and
there's been a big class, andthey're trying really hard. But
maybe the class wasn't at thecorrect level for them. So

(24:16):
they've ended up injury. Andthat can put someone back and
make them feel nervous abouttrying something new. And I also
think people can feel nervousabout trying something new
because what if they can't doit? And, you know, when I went
into my first class, I had neverdone Pilates before and I was

(24:36):
super nervous. I actually walkedinto the class, looked around,
went and then I realized, ohgosh, everyone's got shoes off
and I had shoes on. So it's allthese things you don't you're
trying to think oh gosh, that'sI take my shoes off, come in,
sat down on the mat, thinking Iwas at the back of the room and
then the teacher comes rightstands in front of me and I was

(24:56):
like South Korean remember thatwhen I teach because I know what
it's like it, it can feel like,you know, and it's kind of
vulnerable because it's yourbody as well. But yeah, I, I
think just don't try and do likesomething really extreme would

(25:17):
be my advice. So don't, don'tjoin up for a gym program if
you've never been before, andyou need to commit to five days
a week and hard classes, youdon't have to start like that.
And like I said, when I startedwith gentle classes, I didn't
think it would do anything, butit really did. So yeah, just
starting with somethingmanageable. And adding those

(25:38):
habits in. So just 120 minutesession a week that you could
log on, do it online, do it athome, practice at home, on your
own, see how you feel, noticehow it feels tuned in. And then
once you've got that tuning intoour body, then that helps me
make a good choice about whatI'm going to eat the next
morning for breakfast, becauseyou've zoned in. Yeah, I think

(26:03):
when out when we feel wellphysically, and we've got
clarity of mind, then life isbetter. And that's where we can
feel like our well being iswhole and good. Because then we
can work on our relationshipsthat easier. But I do I see lots
of women in pain. I teach womenmostly sorry. But I teach lots

(26:26):
of people who are in pain andjust seeing how an achy body can
really affect your life, or ifyour digestion is not good, or
headaches. And there are thingswe can do to improve our health,
not just through exercise, butthrough what we eat as well.

Mark Herring (26:46):
Yeah, that and I think all of those different
things combined. It's one ofthose, everybody knows this,
like we should exercise weshould eat? Well, you know, and
I think for a lot of teachersgoing into a new year, we have
kind of a sense that we want todo things differently, you know,
this is a whole new year, we canturn the page, you know, and
start again, what are some ofthe things that that teachers
could do during a school termand during just a regular school

(27:09):
day to kind of improve the waythey feel by the end of it,
obviously, doing a Pilatescourse in the morning or evening
or going for a run or something?
But is there anything during theactual day once we get to school
and then between we leave toschool? What are some of the
things that we could do there?

Beth Reading (27:24):
Well, thinking back to my own teaching my own
life in the classroom, Iremember my top drawer was
always full of muesli bars. Andlooking back now I was thinking
this a healthy choice, you know,I'll just eat my lunch label on
running to the next class. Butlooking back now that was like,
I wouldn't probably do that nowbecause that's such a high sugar

(27:47):
hit. So, you know, I wouldn'texpect that thing again, you
don't have to overhaul yourwhole diet, but maybe just one
day a week he you could think ofgrabbing something different.
You know, like, small tub ofnatural yogurt, or a handful of

(28:07):
raw nuts, or a little even asquare of dark chocolate. Hummus
is really good. So I've sort ofTadmor to try to be something
that's more nutritious, likenutrient dense and with some
good quality fat.

Mark Herring (28:21):
Yeah. So you mean starting the day with like a
huge canovee is not a great wayto start a school day. Because
Because I I've seen so manyteachers do that. And I'm not
judging but like, it's no wonderyou know, for a lot of people
they kind of wonder why theycrash around about 12 or one
o'clock you know, like becausethose cans are massive. So

Bex Rose (28:45):
I think there's also the problem like that, like when
you go to the staff room andthey put on a morning tea and
it's all high sugar foods like Iwas always the one that brought
the fruit platter are broughtthey're different. So that so
that there was that option aswell. But that's a whole nother
podcast conversation aboutnutrition 100% Yeah,

Mark Herring (29:05):
teachers teach the dangers of peer pressure. But I
reckon the staffroom Fridayafternoon or Friday morning tea
is probably the I always foundin the classroom. And I'll have
people that you know, I used toteach with they'll laugh about
me, but I used to sit there Igot really good at just not
eating everything but but I justfelt terrible because it's like,
eating pies and cakes andpastries. Yeah, but but the

(29:27):
pressure to eat you know, likethat's it's a social connection.
It's like a little bit of sociallubricant isn't it's like
drinking when you're out. Youknow, in the evening when you
were younger, or for most of usit was when we were young. What
do you do in that situation? Isit just a case of like, I'm
gonna make sure I'm gonna bringsome characteristics and some
dirt like, you know.

Beth Reading (29:45):
I guess I could see what you say. And it is it
is really hard. Mm. Yeah, Ithink you know, like I said, not
to try and change everything allat once, but I was just thinking
about it. You know, like maybechanging one thing, you know, if
you're used to grabbing a coffeein the morning, so to start the

(30:06):
day and a piece of toast, maybejust one morning a week, he
could try something a bit morenutritious. And it could just
mean like on a Sunday nightmaking a big frittata with all
the leftover veggies liketomatoes, mushrooms, spinach,
just throw it all in cheese inbake it. And then you've got
that there for a couple ofmornings through the week and

(30:26):
just start pay attention to howyou feel. Yeah, afterwards

Mark Herring (30:31):
that we were talking about that on a previous
episode weren't, we've talkedabout, you know, one of the
things that I tried to do isnotice how I feel after doing
something that I know is goingto be good for me, and then
focusing on that feeling. So thenext time I come to that, like
my motivation is like, I don'treally feel like going for a
run. I don't really feel likemaking that nutritious lunch,
but I remembered how I feltafter I did it. So that's kind

(30:52):
of what drives me. Like, do youthink that might help people
make better choices throughoutthe day? When they're at school?

Beth Reading (31:00):
Yeah, definitely.
And also talking to yourself,you know, having those
conversations in your head andbeing expecting that the
conversations are going to comeup in your head, if it's just
me, but you know, you say toyourself, and something that an
opposition is going to come upand just have a have an answer
or pre prepared ready to go of,I am going to eat that that

(31:22):
salad I made for lunch, becauseI know it's going to get me
through the afternoon. And so,pre practice that conversation,
so it's ready. Because you knowthat when you get to lunch, and
the sausage rolls are in thestaff room, you might, you know,
say Oh, it'll be fine. But thenyou know that that's going to
come up in your head and you'reready for it. You prep them.

Mark Herring (31:46):
Yeah. 100%. Do you think like one of one of the
reasons why maybe sometimesteachers don't look after
ourselves as much as well as weshould? Do you think sometimes
it's because we're often puttingother people or other things
first before ourselves. Like,we're always, you know, like,
we're putting our classroom, youknow, in terms of planning and
assessment all the time, like alot of people will say, I don't
have time for a Pilates class,or I don't have time for a run.

(32:09):
I don't have time to make thatfritatta because I've got I'm
putting my family first. Butit's about kind of reorganizing
those priorities and realizingthat when we put ourselves in
our priority, then the classroomand our family and our partners
actually get the best of us,don't they like it's a whole
different way of looking at it.

Beth Reading (32:26):
Yeah, it is. And it is a bit of a hard switch to
make. Because you know, I'vebeen there where you do you put
yourself at the end of the list.
But like I said, it wasn't untilI booked in that cloud Pilates
class that things started toshift because I saw the change
in my life. When I saw that,then then it was just like the
proof.

Mark Herring (32:47):
Fantastic. Well, this challenge for everybody. I
think it's a challenge for allof us to think of one one thing
that we're going to do thisyear, you know, not sitting, you
talked about not setting a goalsuper high, like done making it
achievable, just making onelittle step. You know, and so
for a lot of people listening,Pilates might be the thing that
does pique their interest? Howwould people get involved?
Here's a chance to do a littlebit of a plug for My Pilates

(33:08):
Time. Do you want to tell us howpeople can connect? And just
have a go at one of those littleclasses that you're talking
about?

Beth Reading (33:13):
Well, my website is mypilatestime.com. So if you
go over there, you can downloada series of five classes for
free and give it a go. And I'lljust pop in the show notes, a
coupon code. So if you did wantto keep it going with regular
Pilates classes, you can usethat coupon code to get a really
nice discount, because I have asoft, very soft spot for

(33:34):
teachers.

Mark Herring (33:37):
That's awesome.
Thanks, thanks. So great to talkabout that. And I have lots of
food for thought, literally andfiguratively, you know, things
that we can kind of go into thenew year and make a new start
something so appreciate yourtime. Thanks so much. Well, it's
good to have Rachel on the call.
We've got our one of ourtrainers in new the New Zealand

(33:59):
team. And you're going to sharea little tool here. And this is
Nearpod, isn't it? This issomething that I'm not very
familiar with. I don't knowabout you, but I'm really keen
to find out more about it.

Rachel Lelieveld (34:07):
Yeah, well, this is a tool that I used when
I was a teacher. I started usingit during COVID times or the
lock downs and then actuallybrought it into my classroom and
shared a lot with my colleaguesat my old school. So this is
Nearpod. Nearpod is aninteractive kind of lesson
platform where you can put somethings in like gamification, you

(34:29):
can have interactive videos. Andthen you also get to see how
your students are going withtheir lessons as well or within
like a live setting or it couldbe also student lead
participation kind of thing aswell. So when you log in, I have
just got the free version at themoment, which does give you that

(34:51):
is one of those pain things onlygives you a little bit of
storage, which is just a littlebit of a pain. but it still
gives you enough storage to haveabout two or three lessons
within that within yourdashboard. If you do get the
premium version, you can have asmany lessons as you'd like. And
you can also put them intofolders just like what I've got

(35:13):
up the top, which is reallycool. We have a look on the left
hand side these reports. So youcan do all the lessons that you
either create or from theNearpod library, you can do them
in person, or you can allowstudents to do it from home,
whether it's like a homelearning activity, I prefer to
say home learning rather thanhomework, because homework just
doesn't sit well with students.
So you can either do it thatway. And then you also get to

(35:36):
see the reports whether it'sstudent led, or live
participation as well. So itdoes give you some really cool
reports. Now on my screen, I dohave a couple of my favorite
ones. And that is because theyare VR, and the VR ones actually
takes you to a whole notherplace, I've got to take a trip
to France, it's got a whole heapof lessons, like different

(35:59):
slides and trade activities,which is all about France, and
you get to see a little bit ofFrance, it's like taking a trip
there just from sitting in yourclassroom. There is also another
cool one, which is the crazyhouse one which is just like a
panorama of a crazy housestudents can move around and
kind of check it out. And thenthere's a really neat writing
activity afterwards, which I'veused a lot, I've used both of

(36:23):
these lessons a lot with mystudents, and just the fact that
some of these students had neverbeen overseas, we've never seen
such things before, that is sucha cool way to kind of hook them
in to the lesson. And then fromthere, you can extend it in any
way that you want to. And itdoesn't need to be using the
interactive slides, it could besomething else that you've added
on from there.

Bex Rose (36:43):
I love opportunities to use a platform to inspire
curriculum areas like whatyou're talking about with
literacy or inquiry based thingslike going to France. authentic
learning that is a sharedexperience for the whole class,
you know, like it means it'sequity there, there's the kids
are able to all see the crazyhouse and all have their own

(37:05):
interpretations. And how awesometo see all the different
interpretations of a similaridea. So cool. When you've

Mark Herring (37:14):
got students saying, Are you we weren't there
last month. You the studentssitting next to them, like what
we went down the road.

Rachel Lelieveld (37:28):
Because the students can share the
experiences. And then you cankind of talk about maybe those
photos were really taken, taken.
When you create a lesson. Itdoesn't just have the VR, I
think that's probably myfavorite part, though, is that
there's actually a lot ofdifferent activities that you
can involve the students. And sothere's videos and you can add
some questions afterwards.

(37:49):
There's different quizzes, andthese, each of these options
have got pre made things inthere. So you don't have to
spend time to make it theremight be a resource here that
you can use already. TheseAirdroid activities, students
can respond with drawing or evenimages, the game which is time
to climb so you can have somequestions maybe at the end of

(38:09):
the lesson, and get them engagedmore through a game.

Mark Herring (38:13):
So can you I was waiting for a pause there. But
that's obviously how manyfeatures and different things
that you can add. Can youexplain what it looks like to be
able to run the lesson like whatit looks like how it works from
a student perspective, what theteacher does. So obviously,
you're what you're showing onthe screen there for those who
are listening as all of thesedifferent elements that you can
create, in the lesson sort ofsequence or learning journey.

(38:37):
What does that look like whenthe teachers running this in the
classroom

Rachel Lelieveld (38:40):
Cool. So it depends how you want to run it,
you can run it as a whole classor you could even do it within
small groups, it's up to you.
The one that is used a lot is alive participation, which is
where you are standing up in thefront or in front of your small
group or your whole class. Andthey're doing it with you. And
you can kind of pause on eachlittle slide. Or if you want to

(39:00):
you can do it as student paced.
And the cool thing is, is thatyou can actually flip between
life dissipation and studentpace, if you're kind of at a
point where like, the studentsare good to go. Let's get them
finishing this off bythemselves. There's a few
activities that they can doalone or with a partner, just
like a student paced, and thenfrom there it goes. So if I go

(39:22):
on to, if you click on to liveparticipation, it'll give a link
all the students will come up toNearpod and kind of put in the
code, just kind of like andthings like that,

Mark Herring (39:32):
like, what's the PDF as well. So that's a way
that you so they go to a websitelink and then they get a code to
join your lesson.

Rachel Lelieveld (39:40):
Or you can share their classroom and things
like that as well or viawhatever platform that you use.
Click on to preview. It doesgive you a bit of a preview and
most of the Nearpod resourceshave got what the teacher needs
to do beforehand to prepare forthe lesson. It's got all your
learning intentions as well. Andthen you can also just kind of

(40:02):
click through and decide if itis for your students or I know
so many teachers who are makingtheir own ones as well. So this
one has got the directions, it'sgot a bit of pattern of
discussion, if you want to, youcan make that a collaborative
board, and they can kind ofwrite their ideas on there. This
one's more to be done in frontof the students and kind of with

(40:22):
the live participation. Now,you've got to make sure this is
one of the pain points that Ifound at some schools, some of
the security is not allowingthem to jump into the VR. So you
do need to make sure that thatis tested first. Otherwise, your
whole lease and kind of goes outthe window. But again, if your
school doesn't allow thatthere's so many other ways that

(40:43):
you can interact with thestudents and make it really
interactive for them.

Mark Herring (40:47):
So cool. So that would this, this is one of those
tools that you can plug intowhatever platform you're using.
So whether you're a you know, onan Apple, Microsoft or Google
platform, this is a third partytool that you can introduce and
to guide students through selfpaced, you can do it at the
teachers pace, you can do smallgroups, large groups is just
it's one of those reallyflexible tools. Isn't that so

(41:10):
powerful to use?

Rachel Lelieveld (41:11):
Definitely.
I've done it with 60 students atonce when I was modeling it. So
you can have up to I want to sayabout 60 students on a free on
the free version. Otherwise,it's kind of the limit is
endless when you do have thepremium version as well. Yeah,

Bex Rose (41:29):
yeah, based on the age range. So do you think what your
levels all the way through,

Rachel Lelieveld (41:34):
it depends how great your students are with the
device, I would probably saveyou three up. That's where I
started with it, with usingthese lessons with it, but they
do have lessons for students whoare younger. So when you go on
to the Nearpod library, you canclick on to the grades, and
there is a lot of lessons and itstarts from kindergarten, and

(41:57):
goes all the way up to higheducation. It really depends how
your students are using devices,how are they how are they using
that? So

Mark Herring (42:04):
but if you're at the junior end, you know,
kindergarten and first, second,third grade, if the teacher was
just managing that process on alarge screen or on a large iPad
with a small group, it wouldjust be teacher leave, right? So
the students would beparticipating. So yes, yeah. I
mean, it's no wonder that thisis something that covers all age
groups.

Rachel Lelieveld (42:21):
And I think the cool thing is that there's a
lot of publishers, so I knowthat they connect with common
sense education, which is hugefor digital technology teachers.
There's lots of different peoplethat they do connect with. And
actually make things you've gotNational Geographic, the net geo
Keds yet, it's endless. And youcan check that out and the

(42:43):
publishers underneath and thepod library

Mark Herring (42:45):
for now. Thanks, thanks for sharing ratio. So if
you're a teacher on your summerbreak, like we've been talking
about, you know, this is areally good chance to be able to
have a little bit of an exploreand have a look at Nearpod,
maybe get ahead of things, maybeprepare some lessons that you
can share with some of yourcolleagues, and they can offer
you a coffee further down thetrack a little bit later.

(43:09):
Well, that's the end of EpisodeFour that came fast again,
because what are somereflections you've got? Oh,
gosh,

Bex Rose (43:16):
how awesome was beer, her calming presence is
contagious. And she's reallyinspired me to change up my
exercise regime. I'm absolutelyheading up her website over the
holidays. Our righteous Nearpodideas were awesome. What a great
tool to explore over the breakto help you with your challenge
of changing it up and 2023. And,Mike, we need to wrap this up,

(43:39):
because I'm excited to dash awayand get cracking on my working
genius book. And we'll do somedon't take me as you suggested
and making waves. It's such agreat idea. I'm excited.

Mark Herring (43:48):
Super cool. Yeah, it's a nice little tip. So if
you're after some of the linksand resources, they've been a
few that have come up today,we'll put those in the show
notes for you. And do make surethat you subscribe. We talked
about this every week. But we'dlove to post every week this
year, moving forward and we'dlove to have you keep up with
us. If you know someone who getssome value from some of the
episodes or if there's anythingthat resonated make sure you hit

(44:08):
the share button and let themknow. Lastly, if you've got
questions or anything to sharewith us, email us at team at
using technology better.com We'dlove to hear from you guys. See
you all next week.
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