As a teacher I am always looking for innovative ways to have students work and to connect families with the classroom. I found both of those things in Seesaw! I have been using this app with my students now for 2 years and this year invested fully by becoming a Seesaw Ambassador.
This app/website, depending on your device, allows my students to create a digital portfolio of work that we can then share with families. They are able to do this by completing things on the app/website that are created there or by taking pictures and videos that include sound recording. My families have absolutely loved getting to see work and hear their students reading and working in the classroom.
To get started with this tool head over to Seesaw and get started with a free account. There is a paid option but for starting out the free option will be great! Once you have created your account it is time to set up your class. You will set up your class and now you are ready to get started with your students.
If at an point during this you need to go back and make changes you can always click on the wrench in the upper right corner. From here you will be able to add students and families and change different settings. Be sure to think about whether or not your students are ready to be able to see each others work. This is a digital citizenship skill that we are working on in my classroom. With this icon you can also set up whether your students will be using the same ipad/laptop every day or if they share and how they then log in.
At this point it is time to get your students started with it. If they are on chrome books you will give them a code that is specific to your class and if they are on ipads you can print and have qr codes for them to scan. I have ipads in my classroom so I have the QR code posted so that students are always able to scan. You can find these by clicking on the +students button on the bottom right of the page.
You are now ready to have your students create, you can share an activity with them from the activity library or you can have them create their own original work. The first time I use it with my students at the beginning of the year I like to do an activity all together where they get to explore the different options in writing, drawing and recording. This gives us some guided practice before we start to use it independently.
Check out this video to learn more about setting up your Seesaw account.
Watson's Elementary Classroom 