Seesaw

The language domains, listening, speaking, reading, and writing, are the 4 ways that people can interact with language. Two of these skills, speaking and writing, are described as productive skills as we create language with each of these. The other two skills, listening and reading, are receptive skills because we use these skills to receive information from an outside source.   In this post, we will focus on practicing the language domain of speaking and how Seesaw can help you meet this need.   But my students talk all day long… If I told a kindergarten teacher that we need students to...

At Elkhart Community Schools, we have a surprisingly large population of English Language Learners for a small midwest town. Because of this, we have to be very intentional about planning for and utilizing the four language domains to help boost understanding of the English language when providing content to students. The language domains; listening, speaking, reading, and writing; are the 4 ways that people interact with language. Two of these skills, speaking and writing, are described as productive skills, as we create language with both of these. The other two skills, listening and reading, are receptive skills because we use...

If you haven’t checked it out yet, now is the time. This past semester, Seesaw released a new *game-changing* feature, Seesaw Groups. Seesaw groups allow you to assign student work to groups of students with one click.  Creating and Assigning to Seesaw Groups Seesaw groups are also super easy to create. From your Seesaw homepage, select the wrench in the top right corner. Under students > Manage Student Groups > Type in a name for the student group > Add Student Group. From there, you can select the students you want in that group, then select the green check mark...

We have made assignments that you can import into your canvas or seesaw class that helps guide students through IXL. We also made a Youtube video (Scroll all the way down) specifically for students to help navigate finding assigned skills & the resources / tools they have available to them.

As a kid, I felt so satisfied when holding the small wooden scraper tool to scratch away the layer of black ink, revealing all the hidden rainbow colors on a scratch art pad.   You can create the same nostalgic Scratch Art feel digitally in Seesaw! Using Scratch Art can amp up engagement with students while holding on to the content you want them to focus on.  Simply use the rainbow Seesaw background, add a layer of black with the marker, then use white to write your content.  Students then use the eraser tool to trace your content or anywhere...

Seesaw has updated their messaging! You can now add more than one person to a message, including students, other teachers in your building, and parents. Read on to learn more!

Finding small and easy ways to connect with our students doesn’t just help engage them in content, it also creates small opportunities in building relationship. Making videos can become an easy tool that you keep in your Batman Utility Belt. Check out some new ideas and strategies below on how to use videos in your classroom. Building background / academic language Instead of starting a unit with a video you found on youtube, make your own! Talk about how it connects to your prior unit so it activates prior knowledge or sparks engagement with a fun video of you going...

Seesaw has just released some amazing improvements that will make your teacher life so much easier! Students can’t delete teacher-created activity pages anymore Smarter pen vs move tool selection Accidental page reordering and creation fixed No more accidental unlocking Be sure your app (and your students’ app) is updated to fully enjoy these five new changes. Keep reading to learn more! Prevented Page Deletion by Students Before: Students could delete pages from Activity templates.  After: When responding to an Activity, students cannot delete pages that are part of the Activity template created by teachers. Tapping on the 3 dots will only...

The majority of my students in my 4th grade classroom are able to use writing to explain their thinking and answer any given problem. They may need sentence starters or a bit of extra support, but they will be able to find success and mastery just by writing. However, there is always a student or two that need a little more than extra support, and would benefit from being able to respond to problems in different ways. Explaining answers aloud is a common IEP accommodation and strategy for our EL students, but can often be mentally draining to put into...

Formative assessment is the piece of the teaching puzzle that allows us to quickly gauge how well our students are understanding the material we’ve taught. From there, we make the important decisions about where our lesson will go next. Do we need to reteach, or are our students ready to progress? Do some students need additional practice? And which students need to be pushed to achieve the next level? The best formative assessments will not only answer these questions but will also engage students in their own learning. Seesaw has a set of ready-to-go Check for Understanding Activities that make...

No two students enter our classroom with the same life experiences. This is especially true when you have English language learners as members of your classroom community. To help counter the differences in our students’ diverse backgrounds, we work on the SIOP strategy of Building Background. Building background simply means we prepare our students for what they are about to learn. There are three main considerations for when you are actively working on building background with students:  A student’s own background is important. As teachers, it is important that we recognize that students from culturally diverse backgrounds may struggle with...

Are you looking for some back to school activities that introduce the iPad and/or Seesaw to your students? Look no further. Below you can find a small collection of activities that you can use to help bring technology into the classroom the first few weeks of school. K-2 Activities Reading Room – Seesaw Read Alouds:Interested in some back to school read alouds? Here you can find a Seesaw activity with links to 9 different read alouds for your scholars.  Check it out, here. Back to School with Seesaw: Need a good activity to introduce your students to the Seesaw Tools? Look...

As the end of the year draws near, are you looking for a way to keep your students engaged and excited about doing their Seesaw activities? Or in some cases, even just get students to complete? Well look no further! The spotlight seek and search activity adds an extra element of fun for the students. It is easy to create and can be used for any subject! Here’s how to create one broken down step by step. Creating your OWN spotlight Activities! Go to “My library” within your activity library and then click on “create new activity”. On the next...