by Maya Staresinic
What happens to you when I say the following: excellent parent/teacher communication, formative assessment and independent documentation of learning? Is your brain spinning? Maybe a little bit of steam coming out of your ears? As teachers we try our very best to attain and practice the above in our classroom. But I get it; it’s not always easy. We have multiple items on our plate at one time. We want to create an environment where our students can be their best, while giving them the opportunity to connect, reflect and share their learning with their peers, their parents and their teachers.
Seesaw is an app that allows for just that to take place. By using Seesaw, students are able to create digital portfolios that capture their learning in any form. Seesaw allows students to demonstrate “what they know” by uploading photos, videos, drawings, text, PDFs, links, and so much more. When a student uploads content to their Seesaw journal, it is immediately accessible by the teacher. Both the teacher and the students are able to review progress over time and demonstrate growth. It is the ultimate app for tracking independent learning. The app makes it easy for the teacher to review work from an entire class or from a specific student. Teachers are able to organize work by using folders to separate different subjects, projects or activities.
The app creates an opportunity for the student to advocate for himself or herself. It makes them more responsible and places them in a position of accountability when it comes to their work. The beauty of the app is that it does not just capture the end result, but helps capture the entire lea
rning process. Seesaw gives the students the ability to record themselves, draw or caption tools to reflect on what they’ve learned, how they learned, their struggles, and how they came up with the answer. From there, real and informative feedback can be provided to the student that will encourage deeper thinking.
One of the “best” features of the app, is that it strengths the connection between school and home. The parents of our students are busy people and it is not always possible for them to attend meetings and take phone calls from their child’s teacher. Teachers can invite parents to view updates to their child’s Seesaw journal, which involves them in the learning process. Parents can log onto their child’s Seesaw journal from anywhere at anytime.
Seesaw is supported by iOS devices, Android devices, Kindle Fire, Chromebooks and computer with Chrome or Firefox.
For a list of pricing please visit http://web.seesaw.me/pricing/
