January 22, 2023 • 32 mins
This week we unpack just what ‘A Better Mindset’ is; why the title and how it can add value to us and the people we work and live with. Mark and Bex explore the way our world view, perspectives and approach to live can be hard-wired but also a learned behaviour. Kelly gives us some updates to some google tools you’re going to want to check out and the Making Waves segment explores the value of goal setting through a word or theme for the year!
Here are the links or resources that we’ve mentioned today:
1. The Working Genius - Patrick Lencioni
2. Google Tools for In-Person Learning
3. Start with Why - Simon Sinek
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):
You know, when you're coming up with a podcast,
(00:01):
and you really want to be ableto connect and have
conversations around a theme, wetalk about leadership,
technology, and teaching. Thoseare really our three big sort of
pillars or themes. And the waythat we're tying all those
together is this whole idea ofbeing better. So always trying
to, to do better to look forbetter to improve and enhance
what we're doing. The bettermindset podcast. Welcome to the
(00:27):
better mindset podcast episodenumber two, I'm Mark Herring,
and I'm dextrose conversationsabout leadership, learning and
educational technologies. Ontoday's episode, we chat about a
different approach to goalsetting for your year a little
bit different from last episode,BEX and I are your special
guests as we unpack what makes abit of mindset and whether some
people are just wired that way.
And Kelly is going to share asmall but game changing approach
(00:50):
to Google Docs. Alright picksthe making waves segment, I
quite like this, this approachbecause what we're going to try
and do this little in thislittle segment is focused on a
big idea or a trend or somethingthat we think is quite timely,
you know, just try to unpacksomething between the two of us.
(01:10):
And it's the beginning ofJanuary. So that for a lot of
leaders and teachers andschools, you've got some
reflection time, you've got sometime to be able to just really
unpack what your year has beenlike looking back, resetting a
few things, and then maybelooking forward. So my my
approach with this is a littlebit different from episode one.
So in episode one we had Mikestarting to look at as a guest,
(01:33):
we had a director on looking athow to set goals across the
school. And that's stilldefinitely you know, something
that we really recommend theschools do, obviously, goal
setting is a huge part ofsuccess as a leader and in your
classroom, you want to be ableto have some goals with the
students. But the big idea thatI wanted to unpack is this, this
idea of instead of setting goalsactually having a word for the
year. And it's something that Ifirst heard probably about six
(01:56):
or seven years ago, there was afriend of mine who was teaching
as a DP and a school. And theywere really are one of those
schools that were they weredeveloping model learning
environments. They were doing alot of collaborative practice.
And so professional learning wasreally big for them. And she
told me on Twitter, actually, wejust connected on Twitter, and
she said, Oh, we've got a wordfor the year. And she shared
what that was. And that was thefirst time I'd heard of that
(02:18):
concept. Yeah, this is and Iknow that this is something that
you've talked about before, aswell, haven't you?
Bex Rose (02:26):
Absolutely. And I think is something it's that
it's that grounding, anchoringthing that we've mentioned
before. Something that youalways bring it all back to so
rather than go, I'm gonna dothis, I'm gonna do this, I'm
gonna do this, I'm gonna dothis, and you kind of just
treading water the whole time,you're actually really digging
deep into some sort of conceptthat you really want to target
(02:46):
and your life. And funny, Markand I are generally on the same
page on most things, and funnilythat he should bring this up is
because I downloaded this exactthing for me to do for this year
as well. This weekend, so yeah,so on the same page, Mark, love
it.
Mark Herring (03:03):
You call it the universe talking? Yeah, exactly.
Yeah. So there's a couple of,there's a couple of ideas, I
guess, things that I've beenthinking about that make the
word for the year work reallywell. And, you know, it'd be
interesting to hear what otherpeople think about this as well.
And this is an approach thatthey've used before, if it's the
first time, these are some ofthe things that we think might
(03:23):
help you work with that. So thefirst thing is, I would
recommend find a word that isgoing to connect with you both
professionally and personally.
So one of the things that Ithink has become quite in vogue
is kind of separating yourpersonal and professional life,
you know, this demarcation, andwhile I'm all for boundaries, I
think you definitely need tohave boundaries in your work
life. I think, you know, for me,it's much more healthy to think
(03:47):
of myself as a in a holisticway. So thinking about me at
work, and at home, I'm the sameperson, you know, like,
technically, I shouldn't be thesame person, you adapt in
different ways. But what I'mtrying to develop for myself
professionally, should reallymake some connection in my
personal life as well, becausethen I think the two to start to
(04:07):
tie together and then you'restarting to see yourself as a
whole and it's not, you know,kind of broken down into parts.
This the second thing and Ithink one of the things that
would help define theprofessional and the personal is
really unpack the why behindyour word. So if you've got a
key word that you're working on,and that's your word for the
year, that why behind it isreally critical, because number
(04:29):
one that'll help you sustain itright when things get hard, or
maybe you lose track or youforget about it. But having that
or it gets hard. That's theother thing, but really the why
behind it just gives you a wholesense of purpose and a sense of
mission behind what you're gonnado and it just helps to motivate
you. I'm one of those peopleneed to be motivated to do
something like by a greatercause. I don't know you're the
(04:52):
same, actually. Yeah.
Bex Rose (04:55):
Should we go through Can I can I suggest some words
maybe Yeah, yeah. There are someI've got my phone here because
I've got, I uploaded a couple ofpictures of words of the year.
Now, these can be easily foundon the internet. So if you just
type in Word of the Year ideas,but some of the top ones here
are things like focus, grow,organize. I think my kids need
(05:20):
that one. Personal, simplify,simplify your life. Mine last
year was gratitude. grateful forall the opportunities thrown
this way. It's something that Iguess it just makes you look at
world in a different way whenyou start being grateful for
(05:41):
opportunities, and events andchallenges. These other ones
like, mindful, considerate,calm. Yeah, might be mine for
next year. I think. Positivityrespects. Appreciate
enlightened. So there's heapsand heaps of ideas. But if you
have that central focus thatreally helps you dig deep into
(06:04):
making decisions across yourlife actively engaging a
mindset. Yeah, I actually reallylike that one calm, I think that
needs to be you know, withoutthe last couple of years have
just been. So all I can picturein my head right now is like
waves crashing like one thingafter another one thing after
another. So just getting intothat sense. And it's funny,
(06:27):
because when I was down on myfavorite place in the whole
world, fundamentality otherweekend, you can go there
sometimes and the beach isabsolutely crashing around
crashing around. And then when Iwas there the other weekend, it
was completely calm. And I waslike, like, it just gave me that
sense. So yeah, sorry, I digressa little bit there. Yeah, Mark.
But yeah, there's some ideasright there for you.
Mark Herring (06:47):
Yeah, yeah, well, exactly what you just did them
when you thought of a word thatresonated with a need, usually a
word will come to your mind,because of something that you'd
like to see yourself growing ordevelop or develop a strength
around. You know, I think that'sthat's one of the things so the
other the other I guess advice,I'd say, for people who are
thinking about a word is todevelop that word in your summer
(07:11):
break, if you've got a holidaytime, or even in the weekends,
or evenings with someone thatyou trust, you know, whether
it's a partner or someone,someone close a good friend, and
just unpack it verbally. So justgo through what you think the
word might be, and why it isbecause they, you know, a lot of
neurologists will say thisresearch that says there's 1000s
of words that float around inour brain at any particular
time, or 1000s of thoughts. Theysay that the average person has
(07:34):
about 6000 thoughts a day. Andso all of that if you think
about all the thoughts you'vehad over the last year, there's
a lot going on for us. And inour summer period, this is a
time for you to be able todistill that down and just talk
it out. And so the juxtapositionis a good word for a summer
break between how many thoughtsyou've got and how many words
you can say the 6000 thoughts,you might have a particular day,
(07:57):
but we can only speak 125 wordsa minute, usually, I think Kiwis
New Zealanders tend to speak alittle bit faster. But the more
you talk and the more you getthose words out, it's kind of
like getting all of those wordsin that washing machine that's
in your brain and actuallyfilter it out through, you know,
through verbally with somebodyand I'm a real thinker while I
talk. So I have to verbalize inprocess and unpack what I'm what
(08:21):
I'm saying at the same time. Sothat's really important. Yeah,
so
Bex Rose (08:26):
that accountability too, is that when you start
talking to people about yourword, then people go how's that
word going? And you go, alright,I heard that word. I've got to
be calm.
Mark Herring (08:35):
Yeah, or even make it part of like if your social
media part of your bio word forthe year, semicolon. Or have it
on your planning. Like if you'rea teacher who's got planning,
you have it at the top of yourplanning and actually distill
that word out and maybe unpackit a little bit into a
statement. Great idea. Yeah,lots of different things you can
do. I'll tell you my word forthat. So you're just calm. You
(08:55):
think yours is calm?
Bex Rose (08:56):
I think that's where I'm gonna hit to. Yep, yep.
Mark Herring (08:59):
Yeah, mine's build. So what I'm, what I'm
really keen to be able to do isjust build some skills and a
development phase for me, like,I'd really like to continue to
grow in my leadershipdevelopment and a few other
different areas. But I knowalso, for my wife, she's an
illustrator, and there's somethings that she'd like to build
in that and I'm gonna, you know,help her out in that area. So
(09:19):
we're going to really see, Ithink that there could be
another little last tip as well,you know, do it as a couple if
you're, if you're, if you've gota partner,
Bex Rose (09:28):
I'm gonna ask that. So you both you're both gonna use
that word I Yep. So you can holdeach other up account? Yeah.
Mark Herring (09:34):
Yeah. I don't know if she's, yes. I don't know if
she's, we haven't talked aboutit too much. But I was just
talking to her about thismorning, because this is
obviously the another big thingthat we're going to be talking
about this morning. So yeah,with there's a lot of things
that we want to build, you know,kind of looking forward for us
into the future. So there yougo. So that's the big idea.
Yeah, like you said, if you wantto unpack what that looks like,
and maybe get a few more ideas,there's lots of things on the
(09:56):
internet that talk about that.
from a teaching perspective andfrom a labor perspective, you
know, whatever you're doing,check it out. Alright, guest on
the show episode two, we'veactually decided that you and I
are going to be the guest on theshow. So what we what we thought
would be quite good for, for usto be able to have a
(10:18):
conversation about would be thewhole concept of the better
mindset podcast what what does abetter mindset mean? And we're
going to dive into a few littletopics around that. But what I
thought I'd just unpack isreally the whole idea of better,
you know, when you're coming upwith a podcast, and you really
want to be able to connect andhave conversations around a
theme, we talk about leadership,technology, and teaching, those
(10:38):
are really our three big sort ofpillars or themes. And the way
that we're tying all thosetogether is this whole idea of
being better. So always tryingto, to do better to look for
better to improve and enhancewhat we're doing. And so that's
really the whole energy dress,really, that's kind of the the
bit of mindset approach. It'skind of like a lens or a pair of
(10:59):
glasses that you're lookingthrough all the time, isn't it?
And I think, you know, makingthe connection between that and
using technology bitters, one ofour core values is make it
better, which is really a reallynice way it's in our name. It's
one of our core values. It'ssomething that we do and so
every school that we engage withevery teacher, every business,
(11:19):
everything that we're doing,we're always trying to improve
things and make them better. SoI want to just ask a couple of
questions about that, and justhave a little unpack a couple of
questions. The first one is, isreally around this whole idea of
why we think there are, youknow, there are some people who
are really engaged and attunedto see the things that need to
(11:40):
be improved. They're kind ofalways seeking for better and
why some people aren't. I'mwondering if you've got any
thoughts about that? And wecould start with it. Why do some
people just naturally feelattune to wanting to make things
better?
Bex Rose (11:56):
It's a big question. I think. I think I might just dial
it back a little bit is that Imight not have always been this
way. I am a massive fan ofneuroplasticity, because I am a
product of it. So historically,I guess when I was a teen, and
when I was a kid, I didn't lookat things to be better. I was
always the negative Nancy. I wasalways thought the world was
(12:18):
against me. I thought it was theword. Yeah, things always went
wrong for me. Of course it is.
Because that's how I'm thatwasn't my catchphrase. Of
course, that will happen to me,you know, that kind of thing.
And as I've grown in, both in mycareer, my leadership, my life,
I have actively changed the wayI've thought and my mindset. So
(12:41):
I have really worked on buildinga better mindset and a more
positive mindset. I've done alot of learning around it. And I
feel like I am a product of, ofneuroplasticity, I've been able
to change my mindset. So I cansee for the things that are
better. One of the key thingsthat I guess I've always had, in
(13:02):
the back of my mind is all ittakes is 1% better every day, it
doesn't have to be a massivemind shift, it can be something
that you do one tiny thing, likewhat we've talked about in the
habits and episode. One 1%Better can equate to something
massive by the end of the year.
(13:24):
Yeah. So whether that beexercise, whether that be how
you view challenges in life, ifyou change something small, that
can amount and compound and dosomething big.
Mark Herring (13:40):
Yeah, yeah. And that's what I think personally,
for me, too, I think back, youknow, in, I guess everybody
changes as they grow. But, youknow, my life, we moved around a
lot as a kid. So we were alwaysin the state of change that were
and that was one of the thingsthat was just a constant in my
life. The family was always, youknow, very stable and very
secure. But that kind of changementality, it was all I saw it
(14:03):
as an opportunity to make thingsdifferent and better every time
we moved. So, you know, it'slike, oh, great, you know, I get
to have a new, a new bedroom,and I get to make my bedroom
better. And then, you know, theschoolwork I could kind of be
better as a person when I get toa new school and all those types
of things. So I kind of grew upin this ecosystem or this
incubator, where I felt like Ihad opportunities to improve and
(14:27):
develop and grow kind of likeyou. Yeah, it's interesting to
sort of look at your ownbackground and see how that has
shaped you and what you're doingnow. But it's like I think you
can definitely change and becomemuch more as somebody who's
who's got that mindset wherethey always want to improve and,
and I think some people havethat more than others. I think
(14:49):
for me, it's definitely been aprocess but so it's just the way
I'm wired. Like I think, youknow, if you ask my wife, we've
we've done some discovery overthe last few years, and she has
come to recognize the thingsthat really ticked her off are
the things that make me great atmy job. So I'll explain. So So
(15:10):
one of the things that she getssick of is me always telling her
things that she could improveor, you know, spotting things
that she could be doing better,you know, because every, every
spouse wants to hear that fromtheir partner, right. And
there's a situation that came uprecently where we run, and we
like to run together. And I, shehad told me, you know, you need
(15:31):
to stop telling me to do things,you know, like, I'm quite happy
the way I do things. You know,she has a strong personality.
She's quiet, but she's very,yeah, very, you know, very
secure. And I saw that shewasn't tying your shoelaces very
well. There's a waiter? Well, Idon't know, you can actually
Google it. So it's, there's aYouTube video, and there's a way
to tie your shoelaces thatapparently they get one to 2%
(15:53):
like people who are speedrunners, you know, races, you
can get into, you know, it'stotally not. But there's a way
that you tie your shoelaces,where you can actually lock the
the heel down a lot better, andyou get much more distributed
tension across the lace. I triedto tell her that one time, and
it just became one of thosefunny things where she's like,
(16:15):
you know, you're even trying totell me how to lace my shoes
better.
Bex Rose (16:18):
Do you know what Mark, I think this is going to bring
me to something that we reallywant to talk about. When when we
are learning and growing andtrying to you know, be better.
There are frameworks that canhelp you clarify this, right. So
just then, which is notsomething that I would have
thought of you being much betterof discerning. Right, so. So we
(16:40):
we've talked about, I'm gonnaI'm gonna jump ahead of you on
this, because this is somethingI'm very passionate about. But
it definitely has changed mylife. We have mentioned it
before the working genius, andthe working genius for me. Oh,
my goodness, it was like itopened up this whole
appreciation for other people.
Okay, so I found out cool. I'm agalvanizers. Sorry, I've just
(17:02):
been my head. I'm a galvanizers.
I'm I when I find something thatI want, that I think is awesome.
I want to share it witheveryone. I want to get everyone
excited about it. I get theright people in the right
places. And go ahead, right.
That's really cool. When Ilearned that about me, I was
like, yep, piccies that's me.
Okay. But what it does, what thewhat the framework did for me
(17:26):
was appreciate things that mayhave used to frustrate me about
other people, right? So so forexample, that that discernment
that you potentially were doing,we're talking about the shoe
laces and trying to say, hey,maybe this is a different way,
or this might be a better way ofdoing it. Sometimes I used to
sit in staff meetings and belike, for goodness sake, can we
(17:48):
just I this is a great idea,because I'm ideation is also one
of my geniuses. I'd be like,desk, let's do this. And someone
go, oh, did you think aboutthis? Yeah. And I go off, for
goodness sake. But now I'm like,I need that person. Because if I
hadn't, if I hadn't heard thosewhat ifs, we might, we might be
(18:10):
left with a dud product. So Iguess we're how I'm getting back
to that is, I'm i feel like iIt's been a mindset for me,
because I look at other peopleand go, that might have
frustrated me a couple yearsback, but I can totally I
totally appreciate that part ofyour personality.
Mark Herring (18:27):
Yeah, yeah. And I think that's one of the key
ideas about about always tryingto make things better is that
everybody's got a different roleto play in that aye? So just for
those listening, if you haven'tcome across the working genius,
you can look it up, it'sworkinggenius.com. Patrick
Lencioni has developed this ideawith the table group as a group
of thought leaders that he workswith and his company have
devised an AI an idea orframework with their six
(18:49):
geniuses. And everybody has atleast two of those. And so they
go through a bit of a process.
Or there can be a ProductivityProcess that you can take things
through with as wonder,invention, discernment,
galvanizing, enablement, andtenacity and I've sort of
memorized those over the lastyear that we've been working
with, with schools and using itinternally in our company as
well. And I think that's sort ofone of the questions that I
(19:10):
wanted to kind of flesh out inthis conversation. When you're
thinking about some people beingmore wired to a better mindset
than others. I think there aresome personality types and some
people who've got certain typesof geniuses that do fit with
seeing opportunities andinstigating change and things
that need to be improved thanothers, you know. And in the in
(19:32):
the working genius framework,one of the things that they talk
about is there are some thereare some people who are wired to
be disruptors. And then somepeople who are wired to be
responders. I think that's theway they phrase the second part.
So my, my my working genius is awonder and invention. So I'm
often asking big questions. I'moften coming up with ideas that
then prompt some change or someopportunities for change and
(19:56):
it's the people who are youknow, More around the enablement
and tenacity, they're respondingto the disruptors that, you
know, the disruptions that I'msuggesting. So when you've got a
lens that's looking for thingsto improve and looking for ways
to make things better, thenthere are other people involved
in that process that can, cankind of move that through. But
(20:17):
yeah, it's interesting that, youknow, personality types, the way
you're wired, or, or those typesof things that they, they just
make you appreciate everybody inthat whole process, don't they,
you know, in the fact thateverybody's got a part to play.
And that,
Bex Rose (20:32):
and I think it's just that constant learning, and just
just keep, keep learning. Ithink that a lot of strategic
plans, and a lot of visions, anda lot of mottos and school is,
is to grow the learner, youknow, like the ongoing learner,
what's the word? I'm lookingfor? Mark? Like, just that just?
Mark Herring (20:51):
Yeah, lifelong learners, and those lifelong
learners.
Bex Rose (20:57):
Lifelong learners.
Exactly right. And, and toreally embody that is, is where
the sweet spot is, right? So ifyou just keep on learning, and
keep on being open to shiftingthat mindset to make it better.
That's where the sweet spot is.
And I think that, yeah, that'ssomething really important and
to go through 2023 with is justbe open to learning. And, of
(21:21):
course, at the moment, thechange in the world is just
rapid after COVID and lock downsand AI and all the things that
are coming in and just beingopen that to enable your life to
be better through change. Soyeah, having that open mindset
Mark Herring (21:38):
to learning, right? Yeah. Yeah, it's, it's,
it's a really importantperspective to have, isn't it?
You know, for anybody, I wonder,too, like, for some of us, there
are some of us who are wired, toalways be looking for the
improvement, I think there's,there's kind of two ends of the
spectrum, there's the oneextreme, there are the people
who are always looking foropportunities to improve things.
(21:59):
And I can tend to fall into thatopportunity, that that kind of
mindset, but then there areother people who are, you know,
at the other end, and that isquite happy for things to say
the same, you know, like, theyjust, they like stability, they
like structure, they don't wantthings to change, and they're
very, you know, quite happy tostay there and just keep things
ticking over. I wonder if thechallenge for us moving into a
new year is for us to be able toget a bit more of a balance,
(22:22):
maybe not not to totally changedthe way that we see things,
because I think we're all wiredand we all have a contribution
to make. But for people like me,you know, if I'm constantly
always looking to improvethings, then that means that I
don't enjoy what we've got, anddon't appreciate, you know, and
feel gratitude for, for where weare and what we're what we're
doing and what we're achieving.
I wonder what would you say tothe people who are kind of quite
(22:43):
happy with where they are? Whatwould you say the little shift
would be that they could make,
Bex Rose (22:50):
to move into to making it better?
Mark Herring (22:53):
Yeah, to move. But what could they do to move a
little bit more towards a bettermindset?
Bex Rose (22:58):
I think it's surrounding yourself with the
right people as well. SomethingI really want to dig deep into
the podcasts in the next coupleof episodes, surrounding
yourself with people that thatyou may be aspire to have the
same sort of mindset, as I wouldchallenge people to learn
something new, because that orwhatever it is, whatever it is,
(23:22):
you'll face challenge, becauseyou'll go into the the pit where
you go, Oh, I don't even knowwhat this is talking about. I
don't know how to do this. Andthen you'll start gradually
going back up the other side ofthe learning pit and start
having those new learnings inyour your growth just from that
challenge of learning somethingnew, no matter what it is. That
would be my challenge to peoplelearn something new.
Mark Herring (23:43):
Fantastic. And no better time to do that when
we've got a summer break. Andwe're, we've got some times on
the beach or if you're in thenorthern hemisphere, you've
you've got a little bit ofchristmas holiday time, just to
be able to unpack at the startof the new semester. So yeah,
good challenges there abouthaving a bit of bit of mindset
graduate. Well, this is asegment where we get to have a
(24:04):
look at some new tools, we arefinding out some new things that
are happening, which is quitetimely for the beginning of the
year. And we're coming into anew year, especially if you're
in the Google workspacesenvironment. We're in your
school. We've got Kelly, good tohave Kelly here. Kelly is one of
our trainers in New Zealand, andis a Google Certified Trainer,
which is fantastic. Tell us whatwe've got Kelly,
Kelly Kenyon (24:24):
what's on thanks for having me. So today, I
thought I'd run through a few ofthe updates that I personally
got from Google last week. Sothe hot off the press. So the
first one I thought I'd runthrough with you is that Google
have upped the Google forEducation website. They've done
a big sort of rollout of newproducts. And so if you end up
going to I just normally GoogleGoogle for Education, it's the
(24:46):
first website that pops up. Andif you go to the for educators
thing at the top, and then overthe left hand side, you've got
these things called productguides. So these will guide you
through all of the differentproducts from Google And there
are some training courses andstuff in here as well. So some
really cool updates inside theactual Google website. They also
(25:09):
have a new product called inperson learning, which is a
small little course that you canjump into, particularly if
you've had a lot of kids thathave either been hybrid
learning, or they you've hadquite a few kids that haven't
actually come back full timeinto your classroom, you can
jump in here some real cool tipsand tricks on how to really
reengage them and back into yourclassroom in person.
Mark Herring (25:32):
So secret things for teachers to be doing, you
know, you've got a little bit oftime off before things start
ramping up. And you're kind of,you know, your kids are at the
beach, and you've got a littlequiet time to spend this. This
could be a good a good platformto go and just do a little bit
of in person learning really,isn't it? Yep. Yeah,
Unknown (25:48):
yeah, just you know, you might want to find something
neat and engaging to to helpyour class when you come back
and the new year. So yeah,there'll be a few things on
there for you. Awesome. And thenmy most exciting update, which
I've been waiting for this forages, is that now in Google
Docs, with tables, so when Iinsert a table, normally, I
(26:10):
would have had to, for thought,how many cells I wanted, across
and down and then be able tomerge them to create the cells
that I wanted, because youweren't originally allowed to
split them. But now you canactually split them. Cut it out.
Mark Herring (26:27):
Are you kidding me?
Unknown (26:32):
So when I insert a table, I don't have to think
ahead about how many cells Iwant, because I can actually
split them, which is reallycool. I can right click on a
Mark Herring (26:48):
file. That's one of those things that is quite a
small little addition towhatever algorithm they've got
running in the background ofGoogle Docs. But it does make a
huge difference for teachers.
I'm a teacher, why would I care?
Tell me why I care about that.
Kelly Kenyon (27:02):
So when I was teaching, I use tables for
everything for my planningtemplates for kids worksheets.
For just like graphicorganizers. They're real quick
and easy just to like insert atable into a doc, share it with
your class, and get them toinput information. But every now
and then you need to splitsomething into because you've
got too many things in one cell.
So you want to split it intotwo. And you can really quickly
(27:23):
easily split your informationnow and just copy and paste what
you need on either side of thatsplit cell.
Mark Herring (27:31):
Yeah, that's right. If you're a PE
administrator, and you'reorganizing rosters and
timetables and those types ofthings as well, there's a lot of
uses for that it's it's isn't afunny, big sale, like something
small like that can just totallychanged the way that you're
working. Because up until now,you had to create your table,
like you were saying, and thenand then you'd sort of be like,
I have to start again. Becauseyou
Bex Rose (27:53):
just want to add in the egg. Google's really good at
listening to check wantingchanges that people want to have
made. So as it down to thebottom right hand corner, Kelly,
my right there. If you seesomething that isn't there that
you want there, click on thelittle bottom button at the
bottom. And it should say whatdoes it
Kelly Kenyon (28:12):
say Kelly? No, you don't have one and tape
Bex Rose (28:15):
helpline. Yeah. And you can go improve
And you can add in yoursuggestions there. And they do
literally listen to you. So ifyou think that it's something
that's really important, getyour friends to write it too.
And they'll see the same thingcoming through. And they do make
changes according to yoursuggestions. So just a little
tip there, Google do listen toyou. They've got a team of
(28:37):
people that are dedicated tolooking at those suggestions,
and they make the update. Sothere must have been a bunch of
people that said, Hey, why arethere no split cells in here?
And then they've made the changeaccordingly. So that's just a
little tip there. And Google?
Kelly Kenyon (28:51):
Yeah, like the more people jump on and do the
same thing that they wantchanged, the higher up Google's
list that goes. So a lot ofpeople asked for Taddeo to be
part of the Translate withinGoogle and became part of the
Translate within Google. So Soyeah, so a lot of people
currently, like wanting groupsin Google Classroom. So if you
(29:15):
want to go to go and ask for it,it's just not going to happen
with you thinking about that.
Mark Herring (29:19):
Yeah, that's probably a great tip as well.
And so if you're using Googleworkspaces with students, and
this goes for any platform,whether it's Apple or Microsoft,
as well, getting them engaged,like having them come up with
ideas of things that they coulddo to improve the tools, that's
that whole better mindset, isn'tit because you're actually
engaging the students in thatprocess as well. So there's
another little tip that youcould do, you know, getting
(29:40):
students engaged with, you know,suggesting things to Google, it
just helps them feel likethey're connected to an online
community and they're part ofthe whole process of the tools
being developed, you know,further down the track so that's
really cool. Thanks, Kelly.
Great, great little tip there. Ithink everybody's going to be
running out now and creatinglittle cells and and different
things like that on the on theTables. That's awesome. Thanks
for sharing.
Bex Rose (30:02):
Thanks for having me.
Thanks, Kelly.
Mark Herring (30:06):
Well, that's it for another episode, next
episode to what did you think
Bex Rose (30:10):
I'm just loving this, I love having these chats, I
loved hearing about the word ofthe year and what your Word of
the Year is. And I and I put thechallenge out there to all the
listeners to think of theircouple of words and talk with
their fan and friends and familyaround what they might want to
achieve throughout the year. Ialso do challenge you to go and
(30:30):
try something new. And justobserve your mindset in that in
that time, how you feel, whatwhat are the thoughts that are
coming to your head, becausethat's a really good starting
point of working on building abetter mindset. And just that
last thing with Kelly'supskilling us and her spotlight
session with this with the splitcells, just thinking about, the
(30:52):
reason behind us having thatspotlight is to build your
efficiency in your classroom orin your practice of whatever
practice you are. So buildingyour efficiency in a tool
enables you to have a betterwell being have better well
being being able to do thingsfaster. And more efficiently is,
is all to make you better as aas an educator or practitioner
(31:12):
as well. So just a bit ofbackground while we pop those in
there.
Mark Herring (31:16):
You're fantastic.
It really does help you feellike you've got confidence and
mastery of the tools, you've gottwo dozen. That's great. So if
you're after some of the linksor resources that we've
mentioned today, whether it'sthe working genius, you know,
some of the Google resources,there's lots of different things
that we mentioned, we'll putthose in the show notes for you.
And make sure that you subscribejust to make sure that we don't
miss anything we're trying towhere our aim this year is to
(31:37):
publish every every week. Sowe'd love for you to be able to
keep up with those episodes thatcome out. If you know somebody
who would get value from some ofthose episodes, we'd love you to
share that with them. Whetherit's anything in the content or
something coming up in thefuture. We'd love for you to
share them and let people knowabout what we're doing. Lastly,
if you've got any questions oranything to share with us, we
(31:59):
are really going to value yourfeedback. And we're looking
forward to hearing from you youcan email us at team at using
technology better.com. We'd loveto hear from you. And we will
see you on the next episode. Seeya
You know, when you're coming up with a podcast,
(00:01):
and you really want to be ableto connect and have
conversations around a theme, wetalk about leadership,
technology, and teaching. Thoseare really our three big sort of
pillars or themes. And the waythat we're tying all those
together is this whole idea ofbeing better. So always trying
to, to do better to look forbetter to improve and enhance
what we're doing. The bettermindset podcast. Welcome to the
(00:27):
better mindset podcast episodenumber two, I'm Mark Herring,
and I'm dextrose conversationsabout leadership, learning and
educational technologies. Ontoday's episode, we chat about a
different approach to goalsetting for your year a little
bit different from last episode,BEX and I are your special
guests as we unpack what makes abit of mindset and whether some
people are just wired that way.
And Kelly is going to share asmall but game changing approach
(00:50):
to Google Docs. Alright picksthe making waves segment, I
quite like this, this approachbecause what we're going to try
and do this little in thislittle segment is focused on a
big idea or a trend or somethingthat we think is quite timely,
you know, just try to unpacksomething between the two of us.
(01:10):
And it's the beginning ofJanuary. So that for a lot of
leaders and teachers andschools, you've got some
reflection time, you've got sometime to be able to just really
unpack what your year has beenlike looking back, resetting a
few things, and then maybelooking forward. So my my
approach with this is a littlebit different from episode one.
So in episode one we had Mikestarting to look at as a guest,
(01:33):
we had a director on looking athow to set goals across the
school. And that's stilldefinitely you know, something
that we really recommend theschools do, obviously, goal
setting is a huge part ofsuccess as a leader and in your
classroom, you want to be ableto have some goals with the
students. But the big idea thatI wanted to unpack is this, this
idea of instead of setting goalsactually having a word for the
year. And it's something that Ifirst heard probably about six
(01:56):
or seven years ago, there was afriend of mine who was teaching
as a DP and a school. And theywere really are one of those
schools that were they weredeveloping model learning
environments. They were doing alot of collaborative practice.
And so professional learning wasreally big for them. And she
told me on Twitter, actually, wejust connected on Twitter, and
she said, Oh, we've got a wordfor the year. And she shared
what that was. And that was thefirst time I'd heard of that
(02:18):
concept. Yeah, this is and Iknow that this is something that
you've talked about before, aswell, haven't you?
Bex Rose (02:26):
Absolutely. And I think is something it's that
it's that grounding, anchoringthing that we've mentioned
before. Something that youalways bring it all back to so
rather than go, I'm gonna dothis, I'm gonna do this, I'm
gonna do this, I'm gonna dothis, and you kind of just
treading water the whole time,you're actually really digging
deep into some sort of conceptthat you really want to target
(02:46):
and your life. And funny, Markand I are generally on the same
page on most things, and funnilythat he should bring this up is
because I downloaded this exactthing for me to do for this year
as well. This weekend, so yeah,so on the same page, Mark, love
it.
Mark Herring (03:03):
You call it the universe talking? Yeah, exactly.
Yeah. So there's a couple of,there's a couple of ideas, I
guess, things that I've beenthinking about that make the
word for the year work reallywell. And, you know, it'd be
interesting to hear what otherpeople think about this as well.
And this is an approach thatthey've used before, if it's the
first time, these are some ofthe things that we think might
(03:23):
help you work with that. So thefirst thing is, I would
recommend find a word that isgoing to connect with you both
professionally and personally.
So one of the things that Ithink has become quite in vogue
is kind of separating yourpersonal and professional life,
you know, this demarcation, andwhile I'm all for boundaries, I
think you definitely need tohave boundaries in your work
life. I think, you know, for me,it's much more healthy to think
(03:47):
of myself as a in a holisticway. So thinking about me at
work, and at home, I'm the sameperson, you know, like,
technically, I shouldn't be thesame person, you adapt in
different ways. But what I'mtrying to develop for myself
professionally, should reallymake some connection in my
personal life as well, becausethen I think the two to start to
(04:07):
tie together and then you'restarting to see yourself as a
whole and it's not, you know,kind of broken down into parts.
This the second thing and Ithink one of the things that
would help define theprofessional and the personal is
really unpack the why behindyour word. So if you've got a
key word that you're working on,and that's your word for the
year, that why behind it isreally critical, because number
(04:29):
one that'll help you sustain itright when things get hard, or
maybe you lose track or youforget about it. But having that
or it gets hard. That's theother thing, but really the why
behind it just gives you a wholesense of purpose and a sense of
mission behind what you're gonnado and it just helps to motivate
you. I'm one of those peopleneed to be motivated to do
something like by a greatercause. I don't know you're the
(04:52):
same, actually. Yeah.
Bex Rose (04:55):
Should we go through Can I can I suggest some words
maybe Yeah, yeah. There are someI've got my phone here because
I've got, I uploaded a couple ofpictures of words of the year.
Now, these can be easily foundon the internet. So if you just
type in Word of the Year ideas,but some of the top ones here
are things like focus, grow,organize. I think my kids need
(05:20):
that one. Personal, simplify,simplify your life. Mine last
year was gratitude. grateful forall the opportunities thrown
this way. It's something that Iguess it just makes you look at
world in a different way whenyou start being grateful for
(05:41):
opportunities, and events andchallenges. These other ones
like, mindful, considerate,calm. Yeah, might be mine for
next year. I think. Positivityrespects. Appreciate
enlightened. So there's heapsand heaps of ideas. But if you
have that central focus thatreally helps you dig deep into
(06:04):
making decisions across yourlife actively engaging a
mindset. Yeah, I actually reallylike that one calm, I think that
needs to be you know, withoutthe last couple of years have
just been. So all I can picturein my head right now is like
waves crashing like one thingafter another one thing after
another. So just getting intothat sense. And it's funny,
(06:27):
because when I was down on myfavorite place in the whole
world, fundamentality otherweekend, you can go there
sometimes and the beach isabsolutely crashing around
crashing around. And then when Iwas there the other weekend, it
was completely calm. And I waslike, like, it just gave me that
sense. So yeah, sorry, I digressa little bit there. Yeah, Mark.
But yeah, there's some ideasright there for you.
Mark Herring (06:47):
Yeah, yeah, well, exactly what you just did them
when you thought of a word thatresonated with a need, usually a
word will come to your mind,because of something that you'd
like to see yourself growing ordevelop or develop a strength
around. You know, I think that'sthat's one of the things so the
other the other I guess advice,I'd say, for people who are
thinking about a word is todevelop that word in your summer
(07:11):
break, if you've got a holidaytime, or even in the weekends,
or evenings with someone thatyou trust, you know, whether
it's a partner or someone,someone close a good friend, and
just unpack it verbally. So justgo through what you think the
word might be, and why it isbecause they, you know, a lot of
neurologists will say thisresearch that says there's 1000s
of words that float around inour brain at any particular
time, or 1000s of thoughts. Theysay that the average person has
(07:34):
about 6000 thoughts a day. Andso all of that if you think
about all the thoughts you'vehad over the last year, there's
a lot going on for us. And inour summer period, this is a
time for you to be able todistill that down and just talk
it out. And so the juxtapositionis a good word for a summer
break between how many thoughtsyou've got and how many words
you can say the 6000 thoughts,you might have a particular day,
(07:57):
but we can only speak 125 wordsa minute, usually, I think Kiwis
New Zealanders tend to speak alittle bit faster. But the more
you talk and the more you getthose words out, it's kind of
like getting all of those wordsin that washing machine that's
in your brain and actuallyfilter it out through, you know,
through verbally with somebodyand I'm a real thinker while I
talk. So I have to verbalize inprocess and unpack what I'm what
(08:21):
I'm saying at the same time. Sothat's really important. Yeah,
so
Bex Rose (08:26):
that accountability too, is that when you start
talking to people about yourword, then people go how's that
word going? And you go, alright,I heard that word. I've got to
be calm.
Mark Herring (08:35):
Yeah, or even make it part of like if your social
media part of your bio word forthe year, semicolon. Or have it
on your planning. Like if you'rea teacher who's got planning,
you have it at the top of yourplanning and actually distill
that word out and maybe unpackit a little bit into a
statement. Great idea. Yeah,lots of different things you can
do. I'll tell you my word forthat. So you're just calm. You
(08:55):
think yours is calm?
Bex Rose (08:56):
I think that's where I'm gonna hit to. Yep, yep.
Mark Herring (08:59):
Yeah, mine's build. So what I'm, what I'm
really keen to be able to do isjust build some skills and a
development phase for me, like,I'd really like to continue to
grow in my leadershipdevelopment and a few other
different areas. But I knowalso, for my wife, she's an
illustrator, and there's somethings that she'd like to build
in that and I'm gonna, you know,help her out in that area. So
(09:19):
we're going to really see, Ithink that there could be
another little last tip as well,you know, do it as a couple if
you're, if you're, if you've gota partner,
Bex Rose (09:28):
I'm gonna ask that. So you both you're both gonna use
that word I Yep. So you can holdeach other up account? Yeah.
Mark Herring (09:34):
Yeah. I don't know if she's, yes. I don't know if
she's, we haven't talked aboutit too much. But I was just
talking to her about thismorning, because this is
obviously the another big thingthat we're going to be talking
about this morning. So yeah,with there's a lot of things
that we want to build, you know,kind of looking forward for us
into the future. So there yougo. So that's the big idea.
Yeah, like you said, if you wantto unpack what that looks like,
and maybe get a few more ideas,there's lots of things on the
(09:56):
internet that talk about that.
from a teaching perspective andfrom a labor perspective, you
know, whatever you're doing,check it out. Alright, guest on
the show episode two, we'veactually decided that you and I
are going to be the guest on theshow. So what we what we thought
would be quite good for, for usto be able to have a
(10:18):
conversation about would be thewhole concept of the better
mindset podcast what what does abetter mindset mean? And we're
going to dive into a few littletopics around that. But what I
thought I'd just unpack isreally the whole idea of better,
you know, when you're coming upwith a podcast, and you really
want to be able to connect andhave conversations around a
theme, we talk about leadership,technology, and teaching, those
(10:38):
are really our three big sort ofpillars or themes. And the way
that we're tying all thosetogether is this whole idea of
being better. So always tryingto, to do better to look for
better to improve and enhancewhat we're doing. And so that's
really the whole energy dress,really, that's kind of the the
bit of mindset approach. It'skind of like a lens or a pair of
(10:59):
glasses that you're lookingthrough all the time, isn't it?
And I think, you know, makingthe connection between that and
using technology bitters, one ofour core values is make it
better, which is really a reallynice way it's in our name. It's
one of our core values. It'ssomething that we do and so
every school that we engage withevery teacher, every business,
(11:19):
everything that we're doing,we're always trying to improve
things and make them better. SoI want to just ask a couple of
questions about that, and justhave a little unpack a couple of
questions. The first one is, isreally around this whole idea of
why we think there are, youknow, there are some people who
are really engaged and attunedto see the things that need to
(11:40):
be improved. They're kind ofalways seeking for better and
why some people aren't. I'mwondering if you've got any
thoughts about that? And wecould start with it. Why do some
people just naturally feelattune to wanting to make things
better?
Bex Rose (11:56):
It's a big question. I think. I think I might just dial
it back a little bit is that Imight not have always been this
way. I am a massive fan ofneuroplasticity, because I am a
product of it. So historically,I guess when I was a teen, and
when I was a kid, I didn't lookat things to be better. I was
always the negative Nancy. I wasalways thought the world was
(12:18):
against me. I thought it was theword. Yeah, things always went
wrong for me. Of course it is.
Because that's how I'm thatwasn't my catchphrase. Of
course, that will happen to me,you know, that kind of thing.
And as I've grown in, both in mycareer, my leadership, my life,
I have actively changed the wayI've thought and my mindset. So
(12:41):
I have really worked on buildinga better mindset and a more
positive mindset. I've done alot of learning around it. And I
feel like I am a product of, ofneuroplasticity, I've been able
to change my mindset. So I cansee for the things that are
better. One of the key thingsthat I guess I've always had, in
(13:02):
the back of my mind is all ittakes is 1% better every day, it
doesn't have to be a massivemind shift, it can be something
that you do one tiny thing, likewhat we've talked about in the
habits and episode. One 1%Better can equate to something
massive by the end of the year.
(13:24):
Yeah. So whether that beexercise, whether that be how
you view challenges in life, ifyou change something small, that
can amount and compound and dosomething big.
Mark Herring (13:40):
Yeah, yeah. And that's what I think personally,
for me, too, I think back, youknow, in, I guess everybody
changes as they grow. But, youknow, my life, we moved around a
lot as a kid. So we were alwaysin the state of change that were
and that was one of the thingsthat was just a constant in my
life. The family was always, youknow, very stable and very
secure. But that kind of changementality, it was all I saw it
(14:03):
as an opportunity to make thingsdifferent and better every time
we moved. So, you know, it'slike, oh, great, you know, I get
to have a new, a new bedroom,and I get to make my bedroom
better. And then, you know, theschoolwork I could kind of be
better as a person when I get toa new school and all those types
of things. So I kind of grew upin this ecosystem or this
incubator, where I felt like Ihad opportunities to improve and
(14:27):
develop and grow kind of likeyou. Yeah, it's interesting to
sort of look at your ownbackground and see how that has
shaped you and what you're doingnow. But it's like I think you
can definitely change and becomemuch more as somebody who's
who's got that mindset wherethey always want to improve and,
and I think some people havethat more than others. I think
(14:49):
for me, it's definitely been aprocess but so it's just the way
I'm wired. Like I think, youknow, if you ask my wife, we've
we've done some discovery overthe last few years, and she has
come to recognize the thingsthat really ticked her off are
the things that make me great atmy job. So I'll explain. So So
(15:10):
one of the things that she getssick of is me always telling her
things that she could improveor, you know, spotting things
that she could be doing better,you know, because every, every
spouse wants to hear that fromtheir partner, right. And
there's a situation that came uprecently where we run, and we
like to run together. And I, shehad told me, you know, you need
(15:31):
to stop telling me to do things,you know, like, I'm quite happy
the way I do things. You know,she has a strong personality.
She's quiet, but she's very,yeah, very, you know, very
secure. And I saw that shewasn't tying your shoelaces very
well. There's a waiter? Well, Idon't know, you can actually
Google it. So it's, there's aYouTube video, and there's a way
to tie your shoelaces thatapparently they get one to 2%
(15:53):
like people who are speedrunners, you know, races, you
can get into, you know, it'stotally not. But there's a way
that you tie your shoelaces,where you can actually lock the
the heel down a lot better, andyou get much more distributed
tension across the lace. I triedto tell her that one time, and
it just became one of thosefunny things where she's like,
(16:15):
you know, you're even trying totell me how to lace my shoes
better.
Bex Rose (16:18):
Do you know what Mark, I think this is going to bring
me to something that we reallywant to talk about. When when we
are learning and growing andtrying to you know, be better.
There are frameworks that canhelp you clarify this, right. So
just then, which is notsomething that I would have
thought of you being much betterof discerning. Right, so. So we
(16:40):
we've talked about, I'm gonnaI'm gonna jump ahead of you on
this, because this is somethingI'm very passionate about. But
it definitely has changed mylife. We have mentioned it
before the working genius, andthe working genius for me. Oh,
my goodness, it was like itopened up this whole
appreciation for other people.
Okay, so I found out cool. I'm agalvanizers. Sorry, I've just
(17:02):
been my head. I'm a galvanizers.
I'm I when I find something thatI want, that I think is awesome.
I want to share it witheveryone. I want to get everyone
excited about it. I get theright people in the right
places. And go ahead, right.
That's really cool. When Ilearned that about me, I was
like, yep, piccies that's me.
Okay. But what it does, what thewhat the framework did for me
(17:26):
was appreciate things that mayhave used to frustrate me about
other people, right? So so forexample, that that discernment
that you potentially were doing,we're talking about the shoe
laces and trying to say, hey,maybe this is a different way,
or this might be a better way ofdoing it. Sometimes I used to
sit in staff meetings and belike, for goodness sake, can we
(17:48):
just I this is a great idea,because I'm ideation is also one
of my geniuses. I'd be like,desk, let's do this. And someone
go, oh, did you think aboutthis? Yeah. And I go off, for
goodness sake. But now I'm like,I need that person. Because if I
hadn't, if I hadn't heard thosewhat ifs, we might, we might be
(18:10):
left with a dud product. So Iguess we're how I'm getting back
to that is, I'm i feel like iIt's been a mindset for me,
because I look at other peopleand go, that might have
frustrated me a couple yearsback, but I can totally I
totally appreciate that part ofyour personality.
Mark Herring (18:27):
Yeah, yeah. And I think that's one of the key
ideas about about always tryingto make things better is that
everybody's got a different roleto play in that aye? So just for
those listening, if you haven'tcome across the working genius,
you can look it up, it'sworkinggenius.com. Patrick
Lencioni has developed this ideawith the table group as a group
of thought leaders that he workswith and his company have
devised an AI an idea orframework with their six
(18:49):
geniuses. And everybody has atleast two of those. And so they
go through a bit of a process.
Or there can be a ProductivityProcess that you can take things
through with as wonder,invention, discernment,
galvanizing, enablement, andtenacity and I've sort of
memorized those over the lastyear that we've been working
with, with schools and using itinternally in our company as
well. And I think that's sort ofone of the questions that I
(19:10):
wanted to kind of flesh out inthis conversation. When you're
thinking about some people beingmore wired to a better mindset
than others. I think there aresome personality types and some
people who've got certain typesof geniuses that do fit with
seeing opportunities andinstigating change and things
that need to be improved thanothers, you know. And in the in
(19:32):
the working genius framework,one of the things that they talk
about is there are some thereare some people who are wired to
be disruptors. And then somepeople who are wired to be
responders. I think that's theway they phrase the second part.
So my, my my working genius is awonder and invention. So I'm
often asking big questions. I'moften coming up with ideas that
then prompt some change or someopportunities for change and
(19:56):
it's the people who are youknow, More around the enablement
and tenacity, they're respondingto the disruptors that, you
know, the disruptions that I'msuggesting. So when you've got a
lens that's looking for thingsto improve and looking for ways
to make things better, thenthere are other people involved
in that process that can, cankind of move that through. But
(20:17):
yeah, it's interesting that, youknow, personality types, the way
you're wired, or, or those typesof things that they, they just
make you appreciate everybody inthat whole process, don't they,
you know, in the fact thateverybody's got a part to play.
And that,
Bex Rose (20:32):
and I think it's just that constant learning, and just
just keep, keep learning. Ithink that a lot of strategic
plans, and a lot of visions, anda lot of mottos and school is,
is to grow the learner, youknow, like the ongoing learner,
what's the word? I'm lookingfor? Mark? Like, just that just?
Mark Herring (20:51):
Yeah, lifelong learners, and those lifelong
learners.
Bex Rose (20:57):
Lifelong learners.
Exactly right. And, and toreally embody that is, is where
the sweet spot is, right? So ifyou just keep on learning, and
keep on being open to shiftingthat mindset to make it better.
That's where the sweet spot is.
And I think that, yeah, that'ssomething really important and
to go through 2023 with is justbe open to learning. And, of
(21:21):
course, at the moment, thechange in the world is just
rapid after COVID and lock downsand AI and all the things that
are coming in and just beingopen that to enable your life to
be better through change. Soyeah, having that open mindset
Mark Herring (21:38):
to learning, right? Yeah. Yeah, it's, it's,
it's a really importantperspective to have, isn't it?
You know, for anybody, I wonder,too, like, for some of us, there
are some of us who are wired, toalways be looking for the
improvement, I think there's,there's kind of two ends of the
spectrum, there's the oneextreme, there are the people
who are always looking foropportunities to improve things.
(21:59):
And I can tend to fall into thatopportunity, that that kind of
mindset, but then there areother people who are, you know,
at the other end, and that isquite happy for things to say
the same, you know, like, theyjust, they like stability, they
like structure, they don't wantthings to change, and they're
very, you know, quite happy tostay there and just keep things
ticking over. I wonder if thechallenge for us moving into a
new year is for us to be able toget a bit more of a balance,
(22:22):
maybe not not to totally changedthe way that we see things,
because I think we're all wiredand we all have a contribution
to make. But for people like me,you know, if I'm constantly
always looking to improvethings, then that means that I
don't enjoy what we've got, anddon't appreciate, you know, and
feel gratitude for, for where weare and what we're what we're
doing and what we're achieving.
I wonder what would you say tothe people who are kind of quite
(22:43):
happy with where they are? Whatwould you say the little shift
would be that they could make,
Bex Rose (22:50):
to move into to making it better?
Mark Herring (22:53):
Yeah, to move. But what could they do to move a
little bit more towards a bettermindset?
Bex Rose (22:58):
I think it's surrounding yourself with the
right people as well. SomethingI really want to dig deep into
the podcasts in the next coupleof episodes, surrounding
yourself with people that thatyou may be aspire to have the
same sort of mindset, as I wouldchallenge people to learn
something new, because that orwhatever it is, whatever it is,
(23:22):
you'll face challenge, becauseyou'll go into the the pit where
you go, Oh, I don't even knowwhat this is talking about. I
don't know how to do this. Andthen you'll start gradually
going back up the other side ofthe learning pit and start
having those new learnings inyour your growth just from that
challenge of learning somethingnew, no matter what it is. That
would be my challenge to peoplelearn something new.
Mark Herring (23:43):
Fantastic. And no better time to do that when
we've got a summer break. Andwe're, we've got some times on
the beach or if you're in thenorthern hemisphere, you've
you've got a little bit ofchristmas holiday time, just to
be able to unpack at the startof the new semester. So yeah,
good challenges there abouthaving a bit of bit of mindset
graduate. Well, this is asegment where we get to have a
(24:04):
look at some new tools, we arefinding out some new things that
are happening, which is quitetimely for the beginning of the
year. And we're coming into anew year, especially if you're
in the Google workspacesenvironment. We're in your
school. We've got Kelly, good tohave Kelly here. Kelly is one of
our trainers in New Zealand, andis a Google Certified Trainer,
which is fantastic. Tell us whatwe've got Kelly,
Kelly Kenyon (24:24):
what's on thanks for having me. So today, I
thought I'd run through a few ofthe updates that I personally
got from Google last week. Sothe hot off the press. So the
first one I thought I'd runthrough with you is that Google
have upped the Google forEducation website. They've done
a big sort of rollout of newproducts. And so if you end up
going to I just normally GoogleGoogle for Education, it's the
(24:46):
first website that pops up. Andif you go to the for educators
thing at the top, and then overthe left hand side, you've got
these things called productguides. So these will guide you
through all of the differentproducts from Google And there
are some training courses andstuff in here as well. So some
really cool updates inside theactual Google website. They also
(25:09):
have a new product called inperson learning, which is a
small little course that you canjump into, particularly if
you've had a lot of kids thathave either been hybrid
learning, or they you've hadquite a few kids that haven't
actually come back full timeinto your classroom, you can
jump in here some real cool tipsand tricks on how to really
reengage them and back into yourclassroom in person.
Mark Herring (25:32):
So secret things for teachers to be doing, you
know, you've got a little bit oftime off before things start
ramping up. And you're kind of,you know, your kids are at the
beach, and you've got a littlequiet time to spend this. This
could be a good a good platformto go and just do a little bit
of in person learning really,isn't it? Yep. Yeah,
Unknown (25:48):
yeah, just you know, you might want to find something
neat and engaging to to helpyour class when you come back
and the new year. So yeah,there'll be a few things on
there for you. Awesome. And thenmy most exciting update, which
I've been waiting for this forages, is that now in Google
Docs, with tables, so when Iinsert a table, normally, I
(26:10):
would have had to, for thought,how many cells I wanted, across
and down and then be able tomerge them to create the cells
that I wanted, because youweren't originally allowed to
split them. But now you canactually split them. Cut it out.
Mark Herring (26:27):
Are you kidding me?
Unknown (26:32):
So when I insert a table, I don't have to think
ahead about how many cells Iwant, because I can actually
split them, which is reallycool. I can right click on a
Mark Herring (26:48):
file. That's one of those things that is quite a
small little addition towhatever algorithm they've got
running in the background ofGoogle Docs. But it does make a
huge difference for teachers.
I'm a teacher, why would I care?
Tell me why I care about that.
Kelly Kenyon (27:02):
So when I was teaching, I use tables for
everything for my planningtemplates for kids worksheets.
For just like graphicorganizers. They're real quick
and easy just to like insert atable into a doc, share it with
your class, and get them toinput information. But every now
and then you need to splitsomething into because you've
got too many things in one cell.
So you want to split it intotwo. And you can really quickly
(27:23):
easily split your informationnow and just copy and paste what
you need on either side of thatsplit cell.
Mark Herring (27:31):
Yeah, that's right. If you're a PE
administrator, and you'reorganizing rosters and
timetables and those types ofthings as well, there's a lot of
uses for that it's it's isn't afunny, big sale, like something
small like that can just totallychanged the way that you're
working. Because up until now,you had to create your table,
like you were saying, and thenand then you'd sort of be like,
I have to start again. Becauseyou
Bex Rose (27:53):
just want to add in the egg. Google's really good at
listening to check wantingchanges that people want to have
made. So as it down to thebottom right hand corner, Kelly,
my right there. If you seesomething that isn't there that
you want there, click on thelittle bottom button at the
bottom. And it should say whatdoes it
Kelly Kenyon (28:12):
say Kelly? No, you don't have one and tape
Bex Rose (28:15):
helpline. Yeah. And you can go improve
And you can add in yoursuggestions there. And they do
literally listen to you. So ifyou think that it's something
that's really important, getyour friends to write it too.
And they'll see the same thingcoming through. And they do make
changes according to yoursuggestions. So just a little
tip there, Google do listen toyou. They've got a team of
(28:37):
people that are dedicated tolooking at those suggestions,
and they make the update. Sothere must have been a bunch of
people that said, Hey, why arethere no split cells in here?
And then they've made the changeaccordingly. So that's just a
little tip there. And Google?
Kelly Kenyon (28:51):
Yeah, like the more people jump on and do the
same thing that they wantchanged, the higher up Google's
list that goes. So a lot ofpeople asked for Taddeo to be
part of the Translate withinGoogle and became part of the
Translate within Google. So Soyeah, so a lot of people
currently, like wanting groupsin Google Classroom. So if you
(29:15):
want to go to go and ask for it,it's just not going to happen
with you thinking about that.
Mark Herring (29:19):
Yeah, that's probably a great tip as well.
And so if you're using Googleworkspaces with students, and
this goes for any platform,whether it's Apple or Microsoft,
as well, getting them engaged,like having them come up with
ideas of things that they coulddo to improve the tools, that's
that whole better mindset, isn'tit because you're actually
engaging the students in thatprocess as well. So there's
another little tip that youcould do, you know, getting
(29:40):
students engaged with, you know,suggesting things to Google, it
just helps them feel likethey're connected to an online
community and they're part ofthe whole process of the tools
being developed, you know,further down the track so that's
really cool. Thanks, Kelly.
Great, great little tip there. Ithink everybody's going to be
running out now and creatinglittle cells and and different
things like that on the on theTables. That's awesome. Thanks
for sharing.
Bex Rose (30:02):
Thanks for having me.
Thanks, Kelly.
Mark Herring (30:06):
Well, that's it for another episode, next
episode to what did you think
Bex Rose (30:10):
I'm just loving this, I love having these chats, I
loved hearing about the word ofthe year and what your Word of
the Year is. And I and I put thechallenge out there to all the
listeners to think of theircouple of words and talk with
their fan and friends and familyaround what they might want to
achieve throughout the year. Ialso do challenge you to go and
(30:30):
try something new. And justobserve your mindset in that in
that time, how you feel, whatwhat are the thoughts that are
coming to your head, becausethat's a really good starting
point of working on building abetter mindset. And just that
last thing with Kelly'supskilling us and her spotlight
session with this with the splitcells, just thinking about, the
(30:52):
reason behind us having thatspotlight is to build your
efficiency in your classroom orin your practice of whatever
practice you are. So buildingyour efficiency in a tool
enables you to have a betterwell being have better well
being being able to do thingsfaster. And more efficiently is,
is all to make you better as aas an educator or practitioner
(31:12):
as well. So just a bit ofbackground while we pop those in
there.
Mark Herring (31:16):
You're fantastic.
It really does help you feellike you've got confidence and
mastery of the tools, you've gottwo dozen. That's great. So if
you're after some of the linksor resources that we've
mentioned today, whether it'sthe working genius, you know,
some of the Google resources,there's lots of different things
that we mentioned, we'll putthose in the show notes for you.
And make sure that you subscribejust to make sure that we don't
miss anything we're trying towhere our aim this year is to
(31:37):
publish every every week. Sowe'd love for you to be able to
keep up with those episodes thatcome out. If you know somebody
who would get value from some ofthose episodes, we'd love you to
share that with them. Whetherit's anything in the content or
something coming up in thefuture. We'd love for you to
share them and let people knowabout what we're doing. Lastly,
if you've got any questions oranything to share with us, we
(31:59):
are really going to value yourfeedback. And we're looking
forward to hearing from you youcan email us at team at using
technology better.com. We'd loveto hear from you. And we will
see you on the next episode. Seeya
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