Over the summer I listened to some podcasts about a new tool I could use in the classroom called SeeSaw. Now granted I had seen a thing or two about it before on Instagram, but I hadn’t taken the time to research it to find out more. Why did I wait so long???
SeeSaw is both a website and app that allows students to create an online portfolio of work that is shared with their family. It has been super easy to use and the company even runs free PD sessions online, so getting up and started was a breeze. My students have used SeeSaw now for about a month and already I have seen increased engagement during lessons and excitement over this new learning tool.
I could go on and on about all the minute details from setting up to what we have done today, but I thought it might be more fun to just give you a quick recap of all the things I love about SeeSaw instead.
- It’s student driven. Students are the ones taking pictures of their work, captioning it and then sharing. This takes one thing of my plate and puts the power in the hands of students.
- Sharing with families. Each family gets a code that allows them to see just their child’s work so privacy is not an issue. And in turn this has allowed me to share way more about what is going on in the classroom than ever before.
- Like and Comment Feature. After a student has posted something to SeeSaw and I have approved the post, parents, other students and myself can go in and like their work or leave them a comment. Students are constantly asking me, “Can I like other people’s work now?” when they are done with their own SeeSaw assignment. I mean how can you say no to spreading a little love?
- It keeps a record of student work. I picture is worth a thousand words, and boy or boy have I learned a lot about my students through what they have posted. Some activities we do that are more hands on or involve a whiteboard marker that at the end of the time is wiped away forever. Now instead of losing that work students can capture it in a picture and I can take a look to see what they did. This has given me the opportunity to see both excellent work and work that show me I need to do a mini lesson to reteach. Now that is a powerful tool!
- An online bank of pre-made lessons. If we are working on drawing conclusions, I don’t have to create a document, save it, attach it, and write the directions to have my students complete it. There is a database of lessons made by other teachers that I can review and decide if I would like to use them too. This has saved me a ton of time and come in handy!
I am so excited to continue to use SeeSaw this year with my students this year. I know that as we become more comfortable with this digital tool it will open doors to new possibilities and exciting, engaging learning.
Katy
