Showing posts with label iPads. Show all posts
Showing posts with label iPads. Show all posts

Monday, February 1, 2021

Setting Seesaw Expectations: Raising the Bar for In-Person and e-Learning

We are now in our second year using Seesaw as our as our Learning Management System (LMS) for grade PreK-3 students. We use Schoology as our Learning LMS for grade 4-12 students, and until moving to Seesaw, had used Schoology for grades PreK-3, too. In September 2019 when we introduced Seesaw, adoption took off quickly. I am so thankful we made the change when we did, as just seven months later in March 2020 we were in a great place to more fully utilize Seesaw when all students shifted to e-Learning. The pandemic was a catalyst for technology integration in education, and our use of Seesaw exponentially increased as seen in the stats comparison below from this past fall and a year previous for one of our elementary schools. 

Fall 2020 Seesaw Stats for Items Posted Clear Springs Elementary

Fall 2019 Seesaw Stats for Items Posted Clear Springs Elementary


This past fall as school resumed, K-3 students were either in hybrid learning pods at 50% capacity five days a week or at home in 100% e-Learning. In both cases, Seesaw was heavily used. Prior to students returning in the fall in August 2020, we created and introduced Seesaw Expectations for teachers to help bring consistency between classes. We want students (and parents) to easily find content and communication regardless of the teacher. So to do this, we identified the subject color for tags/folders and naming conventions to provide further clarity in structure. We set the expectation for the frequency of announcements. We also encouraged active student engagement and minimum student use of Seesaw as well as set a teacher expectation for providing student feedback.

Setting the bar, so to speak, on Seesaw by identifying these expectations of use helps drive both consistency as well and increase the level of use across the board. It provides administrators and our technology coaches with a guide to follow and goal to encourage teachers. We have found this true as well with our Schoology Expectations introduced five years ago. The expectations are altered as more features in each tool are introduced and teachers, students (and parents) gain more experience using the platform. Other districts have created Seesaw Expectations as well, and we built off of their ideas when creating ours for Minnetonka.

(Open Seesaw Expectations in separate window)


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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!

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Monday, September 9, 2019

Seesaw Starting in K-3 Minnetonka Classrooms


Starting this month Minnetonka K-3 Teachers will be implementing Seesaw for Schools. Seesaw is a student-centered, student-led communications tool. It provides a variety of exciting features teachers can choose to use including individual student portfolios and journals, assessment tools and a class blog. It works great with shared iPads; students simply scan a QR code to log in. To learn more watch What is Seesaw? and read How does Seesaw work?

Each year on our annual parent survey elementary parents state their number one concern is not enough communication home. Communication home is a critical part of a child’s academic success as parents partner with us in their child’s learning. Seesaw will be a powerful tool in helping to build parent support and understanding of what is happening in the classroom.

Specialists working with K-3 students will each have a Seesaw course, too. Our Tech Department is creating teacher and student accounts. Later this month, parents will receive instructions to download the app. If parents choose not to use the app they can receive Seesaw updates via email. Our Elementary Tech Coaches will offer short before/after school Seesaw training opportunities beginning this week and help support teachers throughout the year. 

Additional iPads have were delivered to schools this summer for each third grade classrooms to support a 1:2 ratio, and additional iPads will arrive later in September for second grade, bringing the ratio to one iPad per two students as well. In K-1 classrooms, each classroom has six student iPads. 

Over the past few years I've had the opportunity to see Seesaw in use in other schools and how quickly it was adopted. I'm excited to see how our students, teachers, and parents in Minnetonka use Seesaw! 

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Monday, December 18, 2017

Modified In-Class Flipped Instruction in Elementary Art

Grade five students working on clay animal sculptures.

Christin Congdon, one of our art teachers at Minnewashta Elementary School, regularly uses video for her daily instruction in a unique way I haven’t seen often. For the past two years, she has been recording a video that instructs her kindergarten through fifth grade students on the lesson steps and process of the art technique which they are learning. Lessons are on everything from painting techniques to clay, to rosemaling, drawing and weaving. She shows these instructional videos during class, so it is a modified flipped learning technique. 
First grade students working on weaving.
Since she has multiple sections of the same grade and therefore teaches the same lesson four to six times per week, she started doing this as a way to not have to repeat herself multiple times. She likes the fact that through video, each student has the ability to clearly see the steps and process on the screen rather than trying to crowd around her and get a spot to watch. By using video, she only has to use up art supplies once rather than using more up on demonstrations for every single class, which can get expensive.
Christin has a dedicated art classroom now but was on a cart moving from classroom to classroom in prior years. During that time, she found the use of video instruction efficient because it increased the amount of instructional time for her students--they watched the video as she set up supplies and distributed materials. By far the biggest benefit Christin told me about is the fact of increased time for her to work with individual students. Now with a dedicated classroom, as the videos are playing, she is able to walk around the room and help students who are struggling, encourage students, and answer questions.

Just 12 of almost 200 videos on Christin's YouTube Channel
She often plays the video repeatedly during a class period, so students are able to continually look at the screen to be reminded of the steps and techniques rather than forget things or need to ask for things to be repeated. In addition, fifth grade students all have an iPad in our 1:1 program, so students bring those to class and have their own individual learning station which they can pause, rewind, and loop as they work. Recently I saw this first hand when I observed Christin’s classroom making clay animals as pictured above.


iPad stand
Christin has been putting her videos on YouTube and there are currently almost 200! She has over 250 subscribers to her channel and some of the videos have thousands of views. Her most watched video has been seen by over 33,000 people. These views are well beyond just the students in her classroom, as she has about 130 students per grade level. Her art instruction is reaching beyond her classroom walls around the world. To record the videos, she uses her iPad. Her husband made an adjustable  iPad stand as pictured using PVC pipe, some glue, and a dado blade on a table saw.

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