My name is Adele Nathan. I'm a second grade teacher at Anne Arundel Public County Schools in Annapolis, Maryland. So I've been doing, I've been teaching for about nine years I think now, and over the summer I got the opportunity to work with our tech department to put together some lessons on Wixie for teachers.
So I was really excited to do that, and I'll show you guys some of the things that I made and some of the things that I use in my own classroom too, that has been really helpful during this time when a lot of us are doing some online teaching. So thank you again for coming. We'll go ahead and get started.
So today we'll talk about our ready-to-use resources. One of the great things about Wixie is there's a ton of stuff that is already pre-made. I know how busy everybody is and how hard it is to create stuff on the fly.
So Wixie already has a lot of stuff that's already made for you that you can just go in and use right away. We'll talk about digital manipulatives. We'll talk about best Wixie tools for differentiation and data.
We'll also be talking about how you can use Wixie to do teamwork projects. One of the things that I really miss about being in the classroom is getting kids to work together and really feeling that group work that happens. It is just a great part of learning.
And then lastly we'll talk about some tips and tricks for making things in Wixie. So let's start with ready-to-use resources. One of the great things about the resources in Wixie is that if you go to the templates, there is templates made for just about everything.
So the templates when you log in are going to be right here in your menu on the side. You'll click on that and there's a whole ton of stuff that's in there. So there's art, general organizers, language arts, and then today we'll talk about math.
So we'll check out those math ones today. There's everything in here so if you're in the intermediate grades or even older there's lots of stuff in here. Algebra, ratios, I teach second so we don't usually get into stuff that complicated.
Data analysis. One of the things I really like about this is that graphs can be really tough for kids especially when you're trying to do it on paper. So having those manipulatives like already made in the graphs can be really helpful.
It's like much easier for the kids to be able to like click into something versus like trying to put lines and set up the boxes. So I really love the graph templates here. There's other things in there too.
So lots of geometry, lots of shapes, lots of really great sorts in here. Some are activities, some are things that are resources for you to use, and there's lots of stuff in measurement too. One of the things I love in here is definitely the time.
It has like things for a lot of time because creating materials on your own with clocks can be a little bit cumbersome. So they already have that in here for you too. One of the ways that I like to use this is that if you're teaching a lesson and you're not really sure if your kids are getting it or not, one of the things that you can do is you can come in and you can click on any of the lessons that you might want to use as like a quick check and you can copy the link.
So you can go in to the three dots on the side, click share, and then copy the URL. So if you guys are in my class today, I could copy the URL, put it into the chat. You guys would be able to go directly on Wixie and be able to see your work right away.
So it's one way that you can just do a quick little quick check with your class to see how it's going as far as learning. As you're doing your lesson too, you can also assign something. So if you see somebody's having a hard time, you're like, okay, they maybe need to practice something a little bit more.
You can also assign lessons and you don't have to assign them to the whole class. You can just assign them individually to particular students. So if you see a student, you're like, whoa, my friend here really needs to work on like maybe adding numbers before we get to two digit or this kid's really got it.
They can go on to something a little bit more challenging. You can assign just to the kids that you see in your group who are doing well or the kids that might need a little extra practice. So you can do that by clicking on the button, hitting assign, then it'll show you your list of students and you can just click on the ones that you want it to go to.
Another thing that's awesome about this is that it auto saves. That can be one of the trickiest parts for our kids is that it's really hard when they're working sometimes to save their work. So here auto save is just amazing.
Like anything they do, they can automatically like the power goes out or the interconnection goes down, all their work's already saved. So sometimes the kids will ask me like, how do I save it or how do I turn it in? And it automatically turns it in for them. So that's a really great feature and you can already see like as the kids are working, as they update stuff, you can check in on the student section and you'll be able to see their work right away.
So let's get to digital manipulatives next. That's definitely one of my favorite features right now because as we are looking at going back into the building, students aren't really going to be able to share as many manipulatives when they're in that setting. Also digital manipulatives help us.
A lot of times it can be a little bit of a struggle trying to pass everything out, collect everything back, make sure nothing's like missing on the floor or anything like that. And also when we're using manipulatives, it's hard to like save the kids work to be able to see it later. So one of the things that I really love about Wixie is that all those digital manipulatives are already in there for you.
So we'll do a little walk through those and I'll show you where to find them. So right here, if you go into templates, the ones that we're about to look at are under math and then numbers and operations. And then they're all right here for you.
One of the really cool things about these new manipulatives too is that you can also use the video feature to give your kids like a little extra lesson or to introduce the problem or to even like give them a little way to check their work afterwards. We'll talk about that in just a second. All right.
So here's our tense frame. This is one of the manipulatives you could use. One of the ways that I customized it for my kids, it's already in there, but you can actually add a video clip of like yourself introducing the problem.
So here we can check out the video I set up for my kids. Hey Del, we're still looking at your templates. Is that correct? Nope.
Alrighty. No worries. All right.
There we go. All right. Awesome.
There we go. So one of the things that you can do is you can add video to your templates. So that's one of the new features.
You can go to add, you can go to video, and then you can do a video of yourself introducing the problem. So let's try again and see if you guys are able to hear the video. Wait to see your answers.
Be sure to- There we go. Hi class. Welcome to math problem I'm going to be solving today.
So today I have three red markers. I also have four blue markers. How many markers do I have in all? I want you to be thinking, is this a kind of problem, an addition problem, or a subtraction problem? Can't wait to see your answers.
Be sure to make sure that you write your number sentence and use your counters to show your work. Then you're going to tell me how many markers I have in all down at the bottom in a sentence. All right guys, happy learning.
So I think this is a really great way to keep your students engaged. They get to see your face. They get to see some of the actual things you might use in the problem.
And then they can use the manipulatives that we have here to kind of just drag things over and then add their text and answer. So it has a spot up here where they can add a number sentence. Down here they can click and drag any manipulatives that they might want to use for the problem.
And at the bottom they have an opportunity to explain their answer. There's a couple different ways that they can do that too. If your student's not one who is very good at typing, you could have them use the recording feature and you can have them use the video feature too.
So here's another example of manipulative maybe for the older grades working on decomposition. So in this one I added a sentence for the kids and then the video is a little bit different this time. Instead of introducing the problem, you can use it to help walk them through like a hint for solving the problem.
So for this one. All right class, welcome to our lesson on decomposition today. Today we're going to be using the decomposition strategy to add together two digit numbers.
Remember when we do decomposition, we're going to be breaking up each of our numbers into tens and ones. Then we'll add all the tens together and all the ones together. Be sure to be on the lookout for any numbers that are going to make more than 10.
Think about how you'll be able to solve those problems when you get into your decomposition strategy. All right guys. So for that one, kids can also use the place value blocks down at the bottom.
But if you have a student who's more interested in writing or typing their answer, they can do that as well with the paint features up top. So here a student could take their 32, add 59, then they could break up their problems into tens and ones and then show you how they solved it. So it's a great way for students to like keep track of their thinking and a great way for you to kind of see like what they're thinking as well.
It gives kids a lot of different options as far as like being able to solve the problem. They can write it on there, they can use place value blocks, they could explain their work using the microphone, any of those kinds of things. The other way that you can use video in is that you can use it to have them check their work.
So for this one, this one has manipulatives, you just drag and click as far as the number line. So if you're having students solve 134 plus 245, they can use those same manipulatives here. They might start with 245 on the number line, then they can click and drag the number line pieces.
This one I kind of like for my kids especially because they have a little bit of a hard time drawing all those bumps and putting all the numbers in. So having like pre-manipulatives for this part I think would make it way easier for them to be able to solve the problem. So one of the things that I did here is I hid the video so that they could move the block and then watch what the answer was to the video.
So that's just another way to use Wixie to incorporate ways for your kids to check their own work. Hi class, welcome to the answer for today's problem. Let's go ahead and check out how we can add 134 plus 245.
One of the first things I did is I, so there would be like where you would put your answer after they're done working on it. There's also plenty of other templates, things that would match higher grade levels or lower. So there's part, part, whole.
The kids are able to use the same kinds of counters to click and drag there and show their work, but they could also use if you're working with bigger numbers, they could draw their place value blocks in here if you're doing like a number with tens and ones, or they could put the number. So any of those different ways. I also made sure to put the answer because a lot of times I like to have my kids get into the habit of explaining how they figured something out, what they did first, what they knew from the problem, and you can always add the problems in there.
Like you could just screen, like if you have something that's on already pre-made worksheet that you have from your county, you can like screenshot it and just add it in right in the section right here. I'll talk about how to do that a little bit more later too. There's another one for hundreds charts.
Kids can direct click and drag the counters and then help themselves count it out. So lots of different ways for your kids to show their work. Place value blocks, one of my favorites.
They can click and drag the place value blocks too, and then you can also have them do it on a math choice board. So the math choice board is already in those templates. If you want to have them choose which way they want to show their work, that's definitely an awesome way to get kids engaged and excited about the different ways that they get to show their what they know in math.
Now for my kids, they probably wouldn't be ready for all these options yet. So if you have kids and you're like, well maybe not all the options, maybe let's just pick two today, you can also cover up some of the top options on the math choice board. So I'll go to the add, I'll go to the image, in this case I'll add a little splat, and then what I can do is just have that splat cover up the ones that I'm not going to want them to use.
Maybe I do want them to use our whole intense frame, but maybe we're not ready for these other ones. When you're doing that, you can go through and you can edit and lock those, and that'll make it so that the kids can't choose those options. So the other ones will take you to each of those frames if you click on them.
So all these are just little pictures with the link attached to it, and it'll take you to that other spot in Wixie where they can go ahead and complete the template. Any way that they go to it, it'll save automatically in their assignments, so it's a really great way to see their work. All right, so on to best tools and differentiation for data.
One of the things that I really love about Wixie is that it lets you get to hear more about your students' thinking when it comes to math, and it also has lots of different ways to help kids wherever they're at when it comes to reading or writing. So here, one of my favorite features is that any text box that's in Wixie, it can be read aloud. So I have a word problem here that we might use.
All you have to do to get it to read aloud is to push the yellow little speaker button right here, and then it'll be able to read to them, and there's a totally realistic math problem for you. Another one right here is that you get to listen to every student's answer be explained. So sometimes when you're in class, you're running short on time.
You really don't get to hear everybody's answer, but the great thing is when you're using some of the features here, you can. You can hear everybody's answer. So you can use the record button right here.
All students get to share their work and their thinking. It's a great way for them to be able to communicate with you, maybe if you're not available right that moment, but also it's a great way to document their thinking. So if you're looking at they meet their IEP goals or I want to look at their thinking and be able to show their parents what they can do in conferences, it's a great way to add that on.
Also new to Wixie is the video feature, which I'm absolutely loving. Not only can teachers go ahead and leave video pieces there, but kids can leave little video messages too. So you can go to the add button, the video feature, and then if your students are working on anything like manipulatives that they have at home, or maybe they prefer to do dry erase board, they're writing on dry erase boards, they can record themselves talking about that and show you their work through that.
So I have a lot of kids right now who are really into using like the physical pieces of math, which is awesome, but that camera, the record camera feature is a great way for them to be able to show their work. So the next one is teamwork in the digital world. Definitely one of the things I missed and I had a really hard time with when we started going digital is that it's really hard to get kids to be able to create that teamwork in that environment of learning where they're able to learn from other people.
So the cool thing about Wixie is that you can use the team button and add students on to a particular project and then they can all work on it at the same time. So I'll show you how to do that in just a second. It's also great, you can turn any of those pre-made lessons into challenges where everybody can be working on it.
You can even turn them into games, partner work, and you can help stretch students thinking with higher level questions. We'll see just a couple simple examples of like how you can make things like that in Wixie too. So the first one is one that I like to do in the classroom.
It's a, they call it a graffiti map. It's got like four parts. Kids can work on each part of it and they can also see other people's work.
So in this one you can just, you know, put a simple question out there. How many ways can you make? It could be a two-digit, three-digit number. It could be a decimal.
It could be anything. In this case I figured money would be a great topic because you can also check out, Wixie has like a ton of really great manipulatives for money and it makes it a lot easier when it's all digital versus having to get out all those little tiny pieces of money in the classroom. So each student in this case will put their name in one of the corners and then they'd be able to add their, what they think they would use to make 350.
So you can go into the add button, go into images. We'll go back to stickers and scroll down to the money section. So in there it has pictures of all the coins which is awesome and in this one they're trying to make it as many ways as they can.
So being able to like have that freedom to make it all different ways and see what other kids are making I think is a great aspect of learning in math that we can do online. Another one, a great way to incorporate like higher level questioning. The answer is 54.
What is the question? So you could just put anything in the middle there. It could be any kind of number. It could be place value.
It could be decimal, whatever. And then on the outside they can come up with a question where that would be the answer. So another way to kind of stretch your kids thinking and like ask them those really great open-ended questions.
And that's super easy to put together too. This banner's fancy but really all you have to do is click the bubble button and then you can select one of these and the rest is just text. You can make it a teamwork project.
So you could say like hey blue team you're going to do this one. You could have differentiate by having like a different number for another team. Another thing you can do is like a little partner game.
So in this case I was looking at shapes. In this one you can also add instructions too on the side. So the instructions will be can be read aloud to the kids as well but just as another like really awesome feature of meeting kids where they're at.
So here for this one the partner will look at the shape rule under the math sticker and then the sort shapes into the diagram and cover the rule when you're done. Partner two would guess the rule that the partner one uses to sort the shapes. You'd have one kid and you close their eyes for a little bit and the other kid would look at the shape rule.
So perpendicular sides and parallel sides. They'd sort all the shapes cover it back up and then partner two would get a chance to guess like how did my partner sort the shapes. What do you want what do I think those two rules are underneath them based on what I see in my map.
So here you can add it added students using the team button. You can add it'll give you like a nice drop down menu of all the kids in your class. You can click the ones that you want to add onto that particular assignment.
All right so Wixie tips and tricks. One of the things that I really loved about Wixie is that you can add pretty much just about anything in there. You can use the screenshot feature.
It's different on different computers but that's how I added like all my little bit emojis in there too. If you want to use it for an assignment that you already created. Maybe you have like a nice wealth of resources that you've already created back before we went online.
You can just screenshot those when you bring them up. Maybe your county gave you something that they wanted to use. You can screenshot and put them on Wixie and then it's just like just like one of those things that you would use in the classroom too.
Oh so the properties button also another awesome tip. One of the things that is really helpful about that is a lot of times kids will go in and they'll start deleting stuff or moving stuff and all of a sudden you go in and stuff's just kind of everywhere. So you can go ahead and use that button.
I take my little bit emoji and go to edit and then properties. You can lock it in place. You can make it a cloner.
So there's a whole you can just click and drag a bunch of them. That's perfect for the digital manipulatives so that you're not like running out of them. You can protect it that way kids can move it around but they can't delete it.
Scale make it bigger or smaller and then rotate only. So all those features are really great if you're making your own types of activities. If you want to make your own like digital manipulative activity especially with the clone button.
And then you can customize any template by clicking the customize button and adding it onto your project. So anything that's in there you can add your own video instructions to it. You can add your own answer keys to it.
Your own problems to it and it's already right there to go for you. And anything that you do just like the kids it'll be automatically saved. So no worries about you know trying to find something because it'll all be right there in your project section.
So I did I do think I have a couple minutes left. So I did want to show you guys how to make a simple choice board. So one of the things that you can do to make a choice board it really could be about anything.
It could be we did one earlier in the week that was about a final project for trees and the kids came up with they could either do like a comic or like a newspaper article or a poster and then it was different options that they could choose based off of like see. So I'll show you just how to use that. It's a great thing for independent work a great way to add and help kids with help them get motivated for like independent work and assignments like that.
So one of the things you can do is you can go over to any of the templates that are already in there. So we'll head on back to templates. Since we're doing geometry we'll head on back to that.
So I really love this classifying triangles activity. I can take a little screenshot here and I can go back and add it to my picture and then I'll head back and I'll copy the link from my triangles activity using the share button and then I can take that choice board and all I'm going to do is click that picture that I just took in and then stick the link in. You can add a grid in the background.
It already has a whole bunch of really awesome grids if you're working on arrays this is a great thing to be able to add in and then add my picture right in there. Now one of the things remember to make sure that you lock all your options. So what this will do is once you have like your different options put into your choice board the kids can just click on it and it'll take them straight to that other Wixie assignment.
You could actually have it take them to any other link so these links will link outside of Wixie too. You have other things that you want them to be doing. Hi Del can you show us the choice board? Yes.
Wonderful thank you. So here is where you put all the assignments so you could go back into the templates you can make your own things add it into each of the choice board boxes and it would be ready to go for your kids as something they could do. All right so I think I'm ready for any questions that you have.
Thank you again for coming and I really appreciate that everybody came out tonight. I know it can be like a long day for some people and thank you for coming.
