The Next Tech Thing: 12 Examples of Seesaw Use Taking Off in Minnetonka E-3 Classrooms

Monday, January 20, 2020

12 Examples of Seesaw Use Taking Off in Minnetonka E-3 Classrooms

Since starting in September, Seesaw use in Minnetonka E-3 classrooms continues to increase each week. Students are creating content documenting learning, teachers are posting activities for students and pushing announcements to parents, and parents are viewing and commenting with their child. An average of about 500 parents per week per school view Seesaw content and leave comments or "Likes" for their student. We have seen very few, if any, other educational technology programs take off so quickly and become so popular.

To support the startup and continued growth of Seesaw, our elementary tech coaches offer monthly Seesaw training and sharing sessions. After an initial teacher training at each school in September they have followed up each month by facilitating a teacher sharing session of ideas and best practices. They communicate these ideas between all sites to spread the knowledge and speed up implementation of the best use of the platform, too. We also have set goals of topics and skills to introduce each month for the remainder of the school year. Technology coaches have attended trainings and presentations both online and in person at last month's state technology conference to learn more. Later this month Minnetonka is hosting a Twin Cities Metro Seesaw User Group meeting to network with other districts and build a community to share ideas.

We have seen some great, creative and innovative uses of Seesaw by our teachers so far. Some of these include:

Students labeling photos they take in science of their sunflower seeds or videos of their crayfish as pictured.
Multiple photos of individual and classroom shots shared with families to help them understand more of what is happening at school.
Students documenting learning, such as a photo of their writing journal pictured above, or recording reading aloud--audio or video--for parents and classmates. This is a great formative assessment for the teacher and gives students an authentic audience. Some teachers are using soft-sided cubes like the one pictured to block out extraneous noise. One teacher had all her students practice being "videographers" for their partner, learning recording tips.
Posting a video explaining how to solve the math skill(s) currently being taught for students to review and to help parents understand how to reinforce and help with homework. Or posting instructions for parents on how to repeat any classroom activity, such as the retelling of the Three Little Pigs pictured.

Teachers posting the "Star Student" of the week in Seesaw for everyone in the class to see and encourage further home discussion.
Sending links and announcements home to parents such as the conference sign up form, book fair links, and other items normally sent home in a class newsletter.
Teachers are working on building class community and helping students learn from mistakes; valuing the process, building understanding, learning how to support each other and handle mistakes.
Posting videos for parent volunteers to watch prior to the day of helping out the class. The parent comes ready to start at a station and does not need to ask the teacher what to do and take time away from the students.
Teachers recording a weekly video for parents rather than sending home a newsletter. Teachers love the fact that they can know through Seesaw when each family viewed something.
Students using the screen recording feature to write Chinese characters so the teacher can see whether or not they are using the correct ink strokes.
Teachers are using Seesaw to post things parents wouldn't typically see such as work in progress, a picture of a math notebook page, and recordings of reading own writing in immersion language.
Reading poems Chatterpix and sharing their work with classmates and parents via Seesaw.

As our teachers continue to become more familiar with Seesaw, they are utilizing the Activity Library and sharing resources with one another across the district and beyond. Seesaw has proven to be an easy to use platform that students, teachers and parents love. It will be fun to see what the second half of the year brings!