The Whiteboard

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!

Dear struggling teacher, below you will find our 4 big suggestions when approaching this issue with best technology and SIOP practices, Smekens strategies, and utilizing our ELA curriculum resources.  Tip #1: Use accessibility features on the iPad, including those within Seesaw and Canvas. First and foremost, ensure your content is accessible to your students. Have you taught your students the basic accessibility features within the iPad? Be sure to take time to teach these features and then remind students to use them! This will allow your students to be more independent while working through work that the rest of the class has...

Below are the changes and updates for Canvas starting April 16th.  Change Default Due Time  You can change the default due time for your courses. Go to Account Settings or Course Settings and change the time that fits your course’s needs. *The new default due time will not update existing assignments with due dates already set.  Apply Score to Ungraded Assignments A new option in the gradebook allows you to apply scores to ungraded submissions all at once. The options menu from an assignment group or the Total column in the Gradebook allows instructors to select to Apply Score to Ungraded....

Dear frustrated teacher, below you will find our 3 big suggestions when approaching this issue with de-escalation, Trauma-Informed Care, and SIOP in mind.  Tip #1: Don’t take student behavior personally.  Before you can help students control their outbursts and time on task, you need to ensure your own emotions are regulated. This starts with rational detachment. In a nutshell, rational detachment is the ability to control our own behavior/emotions and not take student hostility personally. Sounding easier than it is, you may need to practice regulating your own emotions and reactions to student behavior.  Take a step back and take...

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...

We are excited to invite you to participate in Elkhart’s first Summer DOT Conference taking place on June 1 & 2, 2022. With a focus on Tier 1 Instruction, the Summer DOT Conference will feature Elkhart’s best resource, our own teachers, teaching other teachers. We believe you are the heart and soul of our district, and have amazing ideas and strategies to share. Our hope is that every teacher walks away with one thing they plan to take with them into the 2022-2023 school year.  Interested in sharing your best one thing you do with students to make sure they’re...

If you have yet to open flipgrid, here is your friendly reminder and gentle nudge to give it a try this school year. While there is no substitute for students speaking directly to a teacher or peer, flipgrid can be an amazing way to encourage students’ communication and dialogue. This is especially true for our English Language Learners who may benefit from extra time and practice before speaking.   Wait, what is Flipgrid? Flipgrid is a video discussion platform that allows all student voices to be heard. Students respond to prompts posted by their teacher by recording a video response....

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...

PLC productivity and organization is crucial to help save time, energy, and simply make things easier. Below are 5 google apps that can help improve your PLC process. Google Keep Keeping files and thoughts organized and digital is essential for PLC. Google keep doesn’t just store notes. You can add reminders, collaborators, and store links all in one place. For PLC, google keep is helpful with Keeping track of notes about your PLC goals Copying and pasting links to your documents Linking emails to google keeps to stay organized (Read more below)  Adding labels to your google keep so you...

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...

Classroom Screen has been around for a long time, and I thought it could be helpful in the classroom, but I never realized what a game changer it truly was.  I’ve now been using Classroom Screen for a week – that’s right, only a week – and I can already tell you that it makes a difference for my students.  I am a type B teacher.  Organization is not my strong suit and consistency doesn’t come naturally. Despite this, I know that is what students need in the classroom, so I try my hardest to find ways to be organized and...

February is Black History Month! Below are easy to print posters that make an interactive bulletin board quick and easy! Each poster has a QR code that is linked to a google slide that has a video and information about the person. The posters also come with their own coloring sheet so your students can help decorate the bulletin board. Along with the bulletin board, there are some other activities you can do with your kids to celebrate this month, as well. You can find articles on influential African Americans on Newsela and do a writing prompt, have them make...