Good evening, everybody. My name is Heidi Shorter and I am currently a technology education teacher for Howard County Public Schools. I teach elementary school and I teach grades K through five.
We see the students for about an hour a week. Some grades we actually only see for a half an hour a week. But we are what's considered a specialist or related art teacher.
And so the students come to see us once a week. And I will say it is very easy to be able to talk about Wixie because it's such an amazing, amazing tool. And one of my favorite things to do is go through all of the templates.
So I'm going to take you on a little tour today of all of the templates. But before I get started, I also want to give the reason why. So I think all of us can attest to the fact that the past pretty much year and a half, almost two years now, has been very, very trying on teachers.
We've been asked to learn and do so many things that are new, so many things that are challenging, so many things that we've never done before. And it's really causing all of us to feel just like the dog in the picture. And we really are just tired and it's hard to have all of these things thrown at us.
Sometimes the change comes by the day. Sometimes it's by the hour and you never really know what's coming except that, you know, what do they say? The only thing that's consistent about change is change. So we know it's coming and it certainly does make people tired.
And so these templates and knowing where to find some of these templates can help out with some of that. But I do just want to reach out and just let all of those tired teachers know, if you are feeling worn out, it's because you are doing your job well. And so it's because we care and it's because we are making that difference and because we are putting ourselves out there to learn.
So I do want to say thank you, first of all, to all of the tired educators who are out there who came to this webinar that is above and beyond your school day, just to learn and hear some more. So my goal and my hope is that you hear something or get inspired by something that will help you make your life just a little bit easier and help make you not so tired. So that's the goal for tonight.
So why the template gallery? So for me, the template gallery in Wixie is just such a phenomenal place to go. First of all, it's very easy to use. You can assign templates.
You can get inspired by ideas just by looking through the template gallery. You can use them as they are or they're customizable if you want to change or tweak something that you see. Most of them are completely ready to go and they're always changing.
Even this week, I'm noticing templates that are in the template gallery that have been uploaded by Wixie that are brand new. So it's something that's ever changing and staying current. And if you're new to Wixie or if you're not sure how to get started or if you're not sure what to do, it is truly the best way to start to help yourself gather ideas and figure out how you can use this tool to help your students.
So the templates are the place that you can go to find what you are looking for that Wixie has already gotten started for you and uploaded. So when you log into Wixie, you get that left-hand menu bar that kind of goes through all of the different categories that you can use, including your school system that you work with and your school. And then, of course, there's the template place on the left and then all of the categories for the templates are on the right.
So there's so many different options when you go into the template gallery. When the gallery opens up, depending where you are, there's a whole picture view of all of the templates. And right from that page, you can just assign the template as is.
It's right there. You click on that little keypad and you can assign it. You could also print it out.
You can share it with someone. You can demonstrate it to your students where you're going to be able to show them what to do, but not edit on the template that they're actually going to be using. You can move it to a different folder or copy it yourself to your project so that you can make edits if you choose.
You can also open it and make it bigger. And from the template gallery, you get the choices at the top. Again, you can just assign it the way that it is.
When you open it in this view, you do get the directions that Wixie has included or the instructions that come with the template. However, you can customize it as well. So if you click the Customize button on the top side, you can customize what you see in the template.
You can customize the colors, the directions, however you want to use it. But at least it gives you that start and it gives you that inspiration for an idea of where you can go. So as we move forward, I'm going to kind of highlight my favorite categories of templates.
I wish I had time to go through them all, but I know that we're all tired and I certainly don't. I know that you don't want to spend your time listening to me go through it all. And that would be a better use of your time for you to do it.
But at least I can highlight some of the ones that I really appreciate and that I have found some awesome projects in. So the first one we're going to look at is the All About Me category. So one of the first templates that I've used in the All About Me category, this one was new this year, is a profile image.
So when students log into Wixie, in the upper right-hand corner, there is a profile image, you know, that kind of grayish Facebook looking like creature that you when you don't have a Facebook picture. It's kind of like that. It's just a little white head that is very impersonal.
So the students can actually use this template to go ahead and create their own profile image. And what a great way to start out or to get your Wixie going is for the students to actually create their own template of their profile image that they can put onto their Wixie account. And right in Wixie, as they're working, there's a setting under the Edit menu where they can take the picture that they've used and set it as their profile image.
Literally, this image was in that template gallery. It was something that I did the first week of school and I opened it up. I hit the peapod and I hit assign.
And there was my lesson and it was done. And the students had such a ball going through and designing their own profile images, using the paint tools, using different features to really highlight who they are. You can see one student even put like her favorite food on there.
And so it was a great way for the students to kind of really show their identity. It was very easy for me. It was right there in the template gallery and it was done.
So it was a quick, easy way for the students to kind of showcase themselves and to use it to personalize their Wixie account. So I really liked that one. Another one in All About Me is a wanted poster.
So on this one, I just show how I customize it a tiny little bit. So the wanted, we talk a lot about how wanted posters are typically for somebody that's wanted because they've done something bad. Oh my gosh, they're wanted.
They're an outlaw. The town is looking out for them because something went wrong. And so we kind of tweaked it a little bit and decided that we want more kindness in our school.
And so instead of a wanted poster and someone wanted for something bad, we highlighted that they were wanted for more kindness and more activities that showcase how we can all get along in school. And so the students decorated and made posters about who was wanted. And it was very, very simple and very easy to do to just take that template and customize it a tiny little bit and change some of the categories.
So you can see here that Jake is wanted. His location, HF stands for hollow field. That's actually the name of my school, because he let his friend play with him at recess.
And another one, Mila was helpful because she helped someone when they fell down. And so we were able to even share these with the students. So it was a great way to take a template that was already there, tweak it and adjust it a little bit.
And it made a great activity that the students could personalize. So stop number two on the template tour in the templates is the month by month gallery for templates. And I do have to say, even though I put it as stop two, it's actually probably my favorite place to go in the template category.
And it's probably the place that I go to first at the beginning of each month, just to see, because like I said, Wixie's always kind of updating their templates. And so there's always new things in there. And they're very, you know, they're very key as to the time of year.
And when you go into month by month, there's some really awesome templates that kind of go with what's happening throughout the school year. And it's a great resource and a great place to find some ideas. So here's one from September.
So here's a template again on the left that Wixie has in there for Johnny Appleseed Day at the end of September. However, we took that template, same idea. Again, it's an inspiration that kind of like triggers, oh, I know we're working on some math and some sorting.
So we took the same template, but we just added a little bit more to it. And we created a template where not only did they have to sort the apples, but they had to put the number and then they had to mark with a star and with the basket that had the most, and then a triangle for the basket that had the least. So it just pushes that math just a little bit further in the template that was already there.
Very easy to go in and customize it. But the idea, the general idea was living there in the template. And then we just took the idea and kind of adapted it to our curriculum so that we could make it a little bit more challenging for the students just so that they could advance some of their math skills.
I mean, this is obviously a younger grade and a younger category. So here's just a student sample of them sorting the apples and putting the star and the triangle. And of course, you know, you get the inevitable student, I don't know how to draw a star.
I don't know how to make a star. But because Wixie has so many tools, you know, I told the students, you don't have to draw the star. You can go to the shape category and you can just take the shape from the shape category and put it on your basket if you want.
Some of the students with the numbers, like the seven, four, the three, and the five, they actually drew the numbers and some of them went to the sticker category and used those numbers. So it really does give a little advantage of trying different tools and using different ways for students to showcase what they know from a template that was in there that we just kind of customized a little bit more for them to be able to show a little bit more. So another template that is in Month by Month that we found last June, and this was a new one that kind of I think was added towards the end of last year, was this beach ball template that you see on the left.
And so we customize it just a tiny bit. And instead of putting just a blank, you know, beach ball for ideas, we actually put, you know, these students last year when we did this in the spring, actually it was it was in June, right before we left. Some of the students last year never stepped foot in a building and they took their entire school year on a computer and they were constantly, constantly looking at screens.
And so the idea was, okay, summer is coming, it's time to put these computers away. Let's think of some things that we can do that we can go into summer that we can participate in that have nothing to do with screens. Give yourselves a break.
Close the screen and go away so that you can enjoy your summer. And so we had students that went through and picked lots of different ideas. You can see some of them changed the fonts.
They used pictures. Some of them drew the different pictures because maybe they couldn't find one in the sticker category. They used images.
And so they really highlighted different ways that they could talk and think about, oh, wow, this is how I can start doing things and spending my summer away from this computer screen. And again, we just saw the idea in the template category when we went into month by month. We're like, oh my gosh, we're going to pull this so that we can really talk about what we can do this summer to help kids get a get a break from the screen.
Done for us, we literally just changed what was in the center of the circle and the lesson was there. So again, a quick, easy way to take a template and customize it into what we needed. So statement number three, another template category that I really enjoy and that I think is very useful is the art category.
And so one of the templates in the art category that we saw was the template over here on the left. Very bright pictures and just the boxes that are sitting there that it's completely open ended. So we took that category because it looked so springy and we were doing five senses and we decided to do the five senses of spring.
So you can see on the template, we just added the five senses with a little bit of a picture cue as well. So students who can't read understand, oh, what is this that I see? And what is this that I hear? And then we actually took it a little bit further, though we didn't have a picture of the blank template, but we also had students. We decided because some of them were doing really well on the computer is not only do I want you to put what you see, but in this first box up at the top, I want you to use the image tool.
And so those pictures of the image, the little mountain and the little paintbrush, all of those images are in the Wixie image file. And so we just pulled those right in when we were customizing the template. OK, I want you to use the image category in the seek in the in the C box.
So we just went to the image category and put that one in there. And so you can see this student sees flowers and robins in the spring. And then we wanted them to draw for smell and then for touch and taste.
We wanted them to use some of the some of the the media tools. And I think this is going to work. Let me just make sure that it's what I what I think is the grass, because sometimes I'm outside playing in three and I'm running in the grass and I might fall and then I touch the grass.
Did you guys hear that? OK, OK. Yep. So he made a video about what he could touch in the grass.
And then over here, this one didn't come through the speaker when I brought it in. I don't think it did. No, I don't think that one because I kind of pulled it in differently when I put it into the show.
But and then for this one, they actually use the microphone tool to talk about something that you taste. And I know you guys can't hear it, but he talked about tasting ice cream and popsicles in the springtime. So, again, it was a template that was in the art category.
We just pulled some other customized it very quickly by putting some of the tools in there and then used it to showcase five senses of spring. So we got some different objectives with that one just by looking and getting inspired from the art category. Oh, sorry.
OK. And then this is another one that's in the art category. It's one of my favorites and you can find it in the kindness choice board and I'll get to choice boards in a few minutes.
But this is literally just a picture, like a close up picture. If you look close at it, it's blacktop. It looks like a close up picture of the blacktop.
And then there's the Wixie tools that you can use the paintbrush to make a chalk symbol or a chalk texture when you're using the paintbrush. And so we made chalk art and the kids really went, you know, creative and got some different ideas. And we use this also to be able to send to different friends.
We use canvas at my school. And so we sent to teachers and to classmates in the canvas inbox, just a message to kind of brighten someone's day because we were talking about kindness. And it's just a simple, a simple background that's right there, ready to go in the art category.
And then the students can just, you know, take their imaginations and personalize it the way they see fit so that they can share. So that's a I love that template. And it's so easy to use.
All right. So the next step and probably again, I said I think I said that month by month was my favorite. But then this might be like my second favorite or it's really close to my favorite is the social emotional.
And so with everything that we've been going through, there's a lot of social emotional focus on all aspects of education at this point. And I love the fact that last year with Wixie added a social emotional folder. And there's so many amazing ideas in the social emotional folder that students can use.
And my favorite one is these affirmations. And so I do have to call out my friend Rachel, who's on here, because the minute she saw this template, she was like, oh my gosh, Heidi Shorter, this is so you because I just love all of that energy things and, you know, talking about, you know, the way we feel. And so I love the fact that it's like looking in the bathroom mirror and we watch that quick little video.
I don't know if anybody's seen it before. That little girl, she's got like really curly hair and she stands on the mirror. You can find it on YouTube.
And she's like, I am powerful. I am strong. I am brave.
And she talks into the mirror. So it was a perfect segue to be able to put this social emotional affirmation Wixie up for the kids. And literally, this is one of the ones where we just went to the peapod and said assign.
There was nothing else that we really needed to change. And so here's some affirmations from some students. I am here for a reason.
I am never giving up. I am powerful. I am listening to the teacher when they're talking.
I am responsible for what I do and say. And I make my own decisions. I'm talking in the mirror to themselves and really just reiterating those positive things.
And so I love that. So easy. Go in, click that peapod, assign it.
And you've got a great social emotional lesson that's ready to go. Here's another one that we've used before. That's right there in social emotional.
Again, didn't edit it at all. Went to the peapod and said, let's assign this one. And it's just kids blowing on a dandelion just to make their wish.
And so we have wishes here. You can see some students get really creative. Some students do not.
Adding backgrounds and adding images or, you know what, I'm just going to put my wish on there and then I'm done. So wishing that I could fly, wishing to be a princess and have a playful cat. Don't we all? And my wish is for a new boat.
So just different ways that kids can start to think and use their imagination. And again, a really easy template that you can just go in, click the peapod and go ahead and assign. All right.
So step number five and another category that's amazing that I really use a lot too, is the teacher category. And this category in the template category is really designed to kind of use for teachers to help make your lives a little bit easier and a little bit faster and better. So I love the fact that Wixie has just blank grids to use as a template.
I can't tell you how many times that I go in there and I want to grab, I want to make a tic-tac-toe game or I want to make, you know, maybe I want to make a choice board. I'll get to some of those in a minute. Or I need something where I'm designing, you know, boxes or I need to cut even different like manipulatives for kids.
There's so many grids in the teacher category and it's so easy to go in there and just pull it in and it's all done for you. You don't have to do the measurement. You don't have to worry about, oh, are the boxes the same size? Yes, they are so easy to use.
It's such a great tool to have in that teacher category. They also have pre-made certificates, which is fabulous. Again, you can use them just the way they are or you can completely customize it.
So for those incentives that you can do for like a class award or for something happens, you know, that you want to recognize students, it's a great way to go in there. It's all done for you. You can customize the colors, make it your school colors if you want to.
It's very easy to do that with the painting tools and it's already done for you. It's none of that purchasing of certificates or anything from an outside source. It's right there in your Wixie ready, free to use so that you can, you know, congratulate and award those kids who are doing what they need to be doing.
And I love this. This was something new that I found too, is a seating chart. And I was like, oh my gosh, this is so fabulous.
I can actually use this and create a chart for my class. So the one on the left that you see on the screen, that's the seating chart that's in there, but this is the one that inspired me. So I didn't necessarily use the template that was in Wixie, but I was like, oh, I love the fact that I can make a seating chart in Wixie.
So the one on the right is the table formation that's in my classroom. And so I just made a general seating chart using the drawing tools in Wixie and printed the seating chart out because for my classroom, I see lots of different homerooms that have to come to technology. So it's easy for me to go ahead and put the class name on there and write down the kids who are on there.
And then I can put it in my subfolder so that when a substitute has my class, they know that the kids are sitting in the right seat because it's sitting right there. So I didn't, that was an inspirational thing for me from Wixie because I saw the seating chart and I was like, oh my gosh, this is great, but I don't have individual desks like the seating chart they have in there, but I'm going to use Wixie to make a seating chart for me that works really easily. So it was an inspirational piece of the template that I really liked.
And of course, the last piece that is in the teacher folder that is amazing are these choice boards. And so the choice boards, if you're not familiar with them, are housed in the teacher folder under ideas, and they have all, so many of the Wixie categories and the templates that are already pre-made, ready to go. So if you look at the back to school one, there's 20 different lessons right there that you literally can assign the choice board to the students, and there's 20 activities.
And the nice thing about the choice board is if the students choose an activity this day, it's something that can happen if they finish their work, or if there's another day that you really are tired like that dog at the beginning of the presentation, you can say, you know what, I want you to open the choice board and I want you to pick a different one. And so they're all there and they're all easily assigned. So in one click, you can assign 20 things to students.
They can make a choice in what they want to use. You know that they're all, you know, wonderful activities that Wixie has created. And it's a fabulous way for the kids to really see, and it's all linked completely.
Like if you click on the back to school ideas and click on the activity, it takes the students right to their own copy of that lesson. So you don't even have to assign them individually. You can assign the whole choice board, which again inspired us.
So we've made some choice boards ourselves. And again, using the grid from the teacher choice, from the teacher category, the grid with four. So we took some of the teacher appreciation activities that were in there and made our own choice board.
So during teacher appreciation week last year, we assigned this choice board so that students could, you know, pick an activity that they wanted to do for their teacher. And if they finished, they could click a different one and do it for another teacher. And so in one click, we were able to assign four different activities.
And just recently we made choice boards for our kindergartners. So right now we have an activity, like I don't know about any of you, but if you've ever had a kindergarten class login, you have one kid that can log in in 20 seconds, another kid that can log in in a minute, another kid that it takes 10 minutes to get them to log in. And so we do have the means to be able to send activities to the student Chromebooks at my school.
However, all the students have to be logged in in order for that to work. And it's too hard to individually send something to each computer when the kids are starting to log in. So we've made these choice boards in Wixie and these are all just trackpad games and activities.
It's very easy for the students to get themselves into Wixie. And then by assigning this choice board, they get the choice of these games. So as they log in and as they're getting their computers ready to go for the day, they're not sitting once they log in trying to wait for something to do.
They go right to Wixie. We've made this choice board and then we link. Because when you use Wixie, you can take any kind of an image, and these are just screenshots, you can take an image and then link it to the URL on the right hand side of the menu.
And if you lock the picture in the file menu, all the student has to do is click the picture and it takes them right to the website. So they don't even realize that they're just opening it up. They're like, oh, I want to play the bouncy ball game and they click it and it takes them right to the website.
So it's just a really quick and easy way to be able to share websites also with students and giving them a choice of which one they want to play by using the grids from the teacher menu and the ideas of the choice boards and kind of pulling it all together. So my hope was that after hearing some of this, that you realize it's very easy to use Wixie templates. You can customize certain ones that you want to.
You can leave them the way they are. They can inspire different and new ideas when you see the way they've designed something like, oh my gosh, I can use that idea and I can tweak it just a tiny bit and I can make it really work for my students. It's a great way to get to know Wixie.
Everything's ready to go. And again, like I said at the beginning too, they're always changing and they're always, always adding things. So my hope, but I tend to talk a little long and it's almost 730, but I really wanted for each of us to kind of take some time to go through because I also know too, if I ever go to PD, I want to take something with me.
I want to say, you know what? I'm going to use that and I'm going to use it tomorrow. To me, that's one of the best ways that I can use any kind of a session that I go to. So don't we have enough time now to say, my hope was we could all look and then reshare some things that we saw in the template folder, but I hope I've inspired you enough to maybe take some time to go through and look at some of the categories at some of the templates to kind of inspire you.
You know your students the best, you know your curriculum the best. And so use that template category to help inspire you and make it a little bit easier for yourself, make yourself a little less tired and know that you're giving a quality lesson to your kids. So that is a very quick tour.
So the tour is complete. I hope you've enjoyed it and enjoyed our little stops along the way and that didn't go too fast. But thanks for coming and I appreciate everybody and please know too that all the work that you do does make a difference.
So thank you. Heidi, thank you so much. I'm going to hit the stop recording, but I'm going to stay on and people can ask questions and whatnot.
Okay, there you go. Anybody have any questions?
