Getting Started Pt 2: Log in, organize Lessons, and add students

Learn how to set up your account, organize Lessons, and add your students.

Teachers and students all need to create accounts in order to use Stile Classroom. This article will take you through how to set up your own account, organize Lesson content for your Class, and how to set your students up with accounts so they can access the content. By the end of this article, you'll be all set to teach your first Lesson in Stile.

Follow along step-by-step, or you can click on a section below to jump straight to it:

• Create an account and/or log in;
• Create a Subject (and what that means);
• Browse the library to add Lessons to your Subject;
• Look at the structure of a Lesson;
• Customize the content;
• Release Lessons (and what that means);
• Add students to your Subject.

 

Create an account and/or log in

Everyone needs their own account to use Stile. This includes both students and teachers, for Stile X and Stile Classroom. If you've already created a Stile account, then you just need to log in at www.stileapp.com.

 

To create an account as a teacher, you will first need to be invited to join your school on Stile. Your school's Stile admin - most often a Head of Science or a Learning Coordinator - can send you an email invitation. Once you receive your invitation, click the included link in the body of the email to get started.

 

The invite link will take you a special login page that will guide you through creating an account. Confirm that the email address is correct (or you can use a different email address that you prefer), and then enter your name and choose a password. Click the blue Sign up! button when you are ready to go, and you will be taken to your new Stile homepage.

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Create a Subject (and what that means)

A Stile Subject is where you will organize your content and your students. You can create and control multiple Subjects, and students can also be enrolled in multiple Subjects. A Subject is like a digital classroom where you organize your Lessons and students, and so the first step in preparing your first Lesson is to create a Subject.

 

Click into the text box in the middle of your home page and type the title of your first Subject. Rather than naming it for a specific topic, like "Body Systems," we recommend you name it for descriptors like your year level and overall Subject area e.g. "Year 8 Biology." You can use this one Subject to teach the same materials to more than one group of students, so there's no need to add a specific group identifier to the name, e.g. "Year 8A" vs "Year 8F." We'll get to that later.

 

Click the blue + Create subject button once you settle on a name. The name will turn green and a workbook icon will appear to its left. Click on the Subject's name to open it.

 

Welcome to your shiny new subject!

At the top of the page, you'll see the name of the Subject on the left side of the green header. On the right side, you'll see Lessons, Students, Markbook, and Options. You are currently on the Lessons page of the Subject. This is where you will add and organize the Lessons you'll assign to your students. Lessons can include tasks, practical activities, exams, worksheets, and projects. Keep reading below to learn how to add a collection of Stile Science Lessons to your Subject.

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Browse the library to add Lessons to your Subject

Ready-made resources can be found in the Stile Science library. To use them with your students, you'll need to add copies of the resources to your Subject.

 

In the body of your Lessons page, click the blue Browse the lesson library button. A menu will slide out from the right side of the page. 

 

Click the first option in the Library menu: Years 5-10 Science Lessons. This will take you to the Stile Science library.

 

The library contains Stile's entire collection of pre-made resources. You can use the filters and the search bar at the top of the list to refine the menu or browse freely from the whole collection. Lessons are organized into collections called Units. Click on a Unit's cover image to reveal more information about it.

The Overview tells you what main concept you'll tackle in the unit, as well as a list of big ideas covered and some of the highlights that your students will enjoy. This page also offers links to additional resources including a parent email template, the unit teaching plan, Stile X, and the digital Lab Guide for any practical activities included. The Preview lessons tab allows you to see some of the content available in the unit, from a student's perspective. Teacher tips and model answers are hidden in this preview. The Curriculum tab lists the curriculum requirements met by completing the Unit.

Take some time to have a browse and see what's available.

 

Once you find a Unit that fits your needs, click the blue + Add unit button. This will bring up a message verifying that the Unit will be copied to your new Subject. Click the blue Continue button and the copy process will begin!

This only takes a few seconds, and then you'll be given the option to either Go to your copy of the unit (blue button) or Keep browsing (white button). Click the blue button to be taken back to your Subject, now populated with your freshly copied Lessons.

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Look at the structure of a Lesson

Your new Lessons are organized into a Folder within your Subject. If you add more Units from the library, then they will all be organized into their own, separate Folders as well. You can have any number of Folders in your Subject, and you can add new Units to your Subject at any time. 

 

Click on a Lesson's title to open it.

 

At the very top of the page, you'll notice a toggle switch with three options: Prepare, Teach, and Analyse. Each mode will give you a different view of the Lesson, with different tools. Clicking into a Lesson from your Lessons page will always put you in Prepare mode. We'll get to the other two modes later. Scroll down on your page to explore the Lesson.

 

The Lesson is introduced by its title overlaying an eye-catching cover photo. Below that you'll find a variety of content: text, images, teaching notes, questions, polls, and more. Teacher tips are just for you; they are invisible to students and provide you with additional info, prompts, helpful tips, and resources to help you engage your students. Have a look through the whole Lesson to get a feel for the structure and how you'll guide your students.

 

Scroll back up to the top of the Lesson and click the Preview as student button above the top left corner of the cover photo. Your whole view will change: your Subject header will turn from green to blue, your Students and Markbook buttons will disappear, and the teaching notes will be omitted from the Lesson.

This is what the page will look like to your students when they open the Lesson. Have a look through again to get a feel for the difference between what you see in Prepare mode and what your students see. When you're ready, scroll back to the top and click the Exit preview button to return to Prepare mode.

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Customize the content

Stile Lessons are fully customizable. You can change anything you'd like. Every piece of content is an independent element called a widget, and every widget has its own Edit button. As a teacher, you have access to most of the same creative tools as the Stile Content team, so you can even build your own Lessons from scratch!

For the sake of this tutorial, imagine you want to add a possible answer to a Multiple-choice question. You can copy this sample Lesson to your Subject to try out the steps in the tutorial. 

 

Each learning goal has a corresponding Key question in the Lesson to ensure your students meet those goals. In this Lesson, questions 8 and 12 are the Key questions. Find Question 8 and click its Edit button.

 

At the bottom of the question is a blank textbox. Click into this textbox and type your new answer option. This will be marked incorrect by default because a correct answer has already been chosen. To make this a correct answer, click the red cross. Click the blue Done button to save your changes.

 

You can also delete whole questions by clicking the More menu and then selecting Delete.

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Release Lessons (and what that means)

Now that you have familiarized yourself with the contents of the Lesson, how it looks to students, and maybe even customized some of it, it's time to control what your students will be able to see when they log in.

Go back to your Lessons page by clicking on the Lessons button in your green header at the top of the page.

 

Look at the Lessons within your Folder. To the right of each Lesson is its Differentiation controls. This is where you can decide which Lessons are visible to your students, and which ones are hidden. By default, Lessons from the Stile Science library are released (visible) to all students, excluding quizzes and tests. Each Lesson can be controlled individually.

Having that many Lessons available on the first day could be overwhelming to students, or distracting for others, so let's hide all but the first few.

 

Click the white Hide all button on the right side of the Folder. You'll see the Differentiation controls for each Lesson switch from All students to Hidden from students. Next, you will select which Lessons to release to your students for their first day.

 

To the right of the Lesson you want to release, click on Hidden from students. For now, your only option in this menu will be a tickbox next to All students, so tick that box. This menu will become much more powerful once you enrol your students! 

Repeat this step for each Lesson you would like to release.

 

You can preview the Lessons page in student view, similar to to the student preview for an individual Lesson. Near the top right corner of the Lessons page, click on the View As menu and select Students. Your green header will turn blue, your Browse the library and Create folder buttons will disappear, and the Lessons available to you will become limited to only those you released to students. This is a great way to double-check your selection before adding students! 

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Add students to your Subject

It's finally time to add your students. Lessons in your Subject can only be accessed by students and teachers who are enrolled in the Subject.

Watch this short video, or you can continue reading below:

 

Enrolment is managed via the Students page, so click the Students button in your green header.

 

Students are organized into Classes within your Subject and the first Class is already created for you, simply called Students. You can create any number of Classes in a Subject, but we'll just use the default one for now.

At the top of the page is a very large, six-digit code. This is the unique Class code that your students will use to join this specific Class.

 

On your first day with your students, direct the students to go to www.stileapp.com/join and enter the Class code into the text box on that page. They will each be prompted enter their email address next, and then they will be guided through creating an account if they are brand new to Stile. If they have a Stile account tied to their email address already, then they'll be asked to enter their password to log in. They can reset their password if it's been forgotten over the holidays!

 

As your students log in, you will see their names pop into your Class list in real-time. Enrolment is a one-time process for each Subject, so they will not need to use the Class code again. Next time they use Stile Classroom, they can log in at www.stileapp.com and find the Subject on their homepage.

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Whew, you made it! You should now have your Subject all set up and ready to teach your first Lesson.

 

Continue on to Pt 3: Run your first interactive, engaging Lesson in Stile

or go back to Pt 1: What Stile can do for you