Seesaw

Seesaw

This week I decided to look into Seesaw, an educational site dedicated to teachers, students and families. This application has multiple uses; it works as an interactive tool for students, an assessment for teachers, and a way for families to stay connected to what their child is doing in the classroom. This application can be used on laptops, computers, iPads, iPhones, and androids. 

To the right is the introduction video that pops up as soon as you create an account and designate yourself as an educator (there are also instructional videos for students and families as well). 

Starting Out

After you first sign up and watch the information video, you will be asked to name your class and select your grade level. This is important because Seesaw will make suggestions of activities based on the age group of your students.  There are a ton of different actives already made for you to use and implement with minimal setup. 

 The activities cover a large portion of the kindergarten curriculum such as then and now, counting by fives, coin identification, read alouds, and even digital citizenship  for Pre-K - 1st grade. You can even look up specific activities based on learning targets and browse by subject.

Assigning Activities

After looking through all the activities and finding an activity that you like, you click the heart to add to your library. From there you can share out the activity to your students you've added to your class list.




On their devices, students will then log in and see the assigned activities. They are able to respond by taking a picture, recording, typing, or even drawing out their answers.

2018-2019 is the name of my kindergarten class this year (as seen on the bottom).

Create  Your Own

Teachers also have the opportunity to create their own assessments for students. You can take a picture, write out the instructions, or record verbal directions for students to follow. There's also the option to include a template for student responses where you can upload, draw, or write out guidelines for responses. Students will then record their answers right over the template provide.

Student View

 After clicking on the assignment students are brought to a page similar to this. In this particular activity they can hit play to hear the directions read to them and then take a picture to show their work.

After taking a picture they are given the option to explain or reflect on their work. They can record a verbal response, draw on their picture, add labels, and captions.

Teacher View

This is the home page that teachers access on Seesaw. You can view assignments you've saved and ones that you've already sent out to students to work on. There's also a record of how many responses there are, how many are waiting for approval, and how many have yet to record a response. 

Once students have responded their work is saved to the class journal. You can go through and like, comment, and tag student posts with your own set of skills as well as a star rating to see how students are progressing (though this is considered an "upgrade").

Teachers also have the option to send out announcements to all students. While students can receive these announcements, they are not able to message back or message other students.

Finally, teachers are given an option to host a blog to showcase student work samples.  After adding their work to Seesaw, you can publish some of their work to a class blog to share both around the world or privately to familiar just in the class.

Bottom Line:

This is a really useful tool for assessment, student involvement, and including families in the loop about what their students are working on. Seesaw is easy to use, there are plenty of resources, and this is the kind of app that could be implemented in elementary through high school because it is easy to differentiate.