Seesaw is a platform for student engagement. Teachers can empower students to create, reflect, share, and collaborate. Students “show what they know” using photos, videos, drawings, text, PDFs, and links. It’s simple to get student work in one place and share with families, and nothing is shared without teacher approval.
Getting An Account
Seesaw for Schools is currently being piloted in our district. You can contact the Technology Innovation Coordinator for your school to set up a teacher account for you. You can choose to have your class uploaded (ensure you have the parent consent form signed) or we can assign you demo students so that you can play in the platform! You will also need to let the team know if you would like to connect parents to your classroom. Check out the video below to learn more about setting up your account once you have been invited to Seesaw.
Setting up and organizing your class
Once your class is set up, you can Customize your class settings by clicking on the Wrench Icon (top right). Some customization options to look at are:
- Students: set controls to manage how your students interact with SeeSaw.
- Sign in mode: Change how students sign in.
- Class Code/QRSign In: Designed for young learners (PreK-3) and shared devices. No usernames/passwords are required.
- Email / Google Sign In: Designed for students who can remember email addresses and passwords.
- Learn more about sign-in modes HERE.
- Student likes and comments: Decide if students can like or comment on posts. Many teachers decide to turn this ON after they have been using Seesaw for a few weeks.
- Students can see each other’s work: Decide if students can see other students’ journals in your class. Please note, turning this feature OFF in a shared devices class will mean students will not see any content in the journal when they log in.
- Sign in mode: Change how students sign in.
- Families: Invite and manage invitations for family members to join SeeSaw and comment on their child's work.
- Class Blog: Seesaw Blogs give students an authentic audience of their classmates, families and other students around the globe, encouraging better work and providing opportunities for real feedback. Learn more HERE.
- Folders: Decide if you would like to organize student portfolios by subject, theme, or competency.
- Progress:
- Manage Skills: Once you create activities, you will see your grade level curricular competencies loaded in automatically. From the Class Settings panel, you can add in additional custom skills if you would like.
- Skill Rating and Colour Scheme: Decide how you would like these set-up. These are only visible to teachers and will populate the Standards Based Gradebook.
Get familiar with Seesaw by trying out some features in your class by using the Sample Student! You can assign Sample Student an activity, add posts as Sample Student, and more! Check out the Getting Started guides below to see what SeeSaw can do!
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Creating and assessing an activity/Post
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Unlock student voice, choice, and expression with open-ended creativity, right in Seesaw. Students can use creative tools of their choice to respond to activities/posts and reflect on their learning. See the Integrate Seesaw into Instruction Guide for some ideas on how to embed Seesaw into your class routines.
Understanding the difference between a student's journal and an activity is crucial to understanding Seesaw. The Journal is a place teachers and students can spontaneously share with their teacher or class on an as desired basis- this can be photos, drawings, videos, uploads, notes, and links. Learn how to create and respond to a Post in the Student Journal HERE. |
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Activities are more structured. They are assigned by teachers and completed by the class. Learn how to create and respond to an activity HERE.
Learn how to assign and assess skills (curricular competencies) in an activity or post HERE. The great thing about Seesaw is that you can easily personalize which skills are being assessed!
Please note: families and students are unable to see the Progress Skills View or the Skill Ratings. This tool is for teachers.
Below every post in the Seesaw journal, teachers can find the [...] button in the lower right corner. Tap this button to edit the post, tagged students, folders, date of publication or to create a copy of the post. You can also share, save, print, or get a QR code for the post. If you choose to delete the post, it will be permanently deleted from the class. You will not be able to recover it.
To give students feedback use the commenting tool found at the bottom of every student submission (activity/post). You can do this prior to approval or after approval. You can also choose to 'edit' their work and annotate by drawing or recording on the original post.
If you want to organize student work by subject area or learning objectives, you can create Folders in your class. Folders are visible to teachers and students, as well as family members if you have invited them to your class. To set and use folders in Seesaw, please follow these steps. Folders can also be used to label proficiency.
Both activities and posts can be turned into a Point of Progress for the purposes of formally Communicating Student Learning.
Learn more about Seesaw's Accessibility Features HERE and watch the video below for some ideas on how to differentiate activities.
- HERE is a list of icon shortcuts to use when creating activities.
- Learn how to lock the size and shape of items on the student template HERE.
Learn how to assign and assess skills (curricular competencies) in an activity or post HERE. The great thing about Seesaw is that you can easily personalize which skills are being assessed!
Please note: families and students are unable to see the Progress Skills View or the Skill Ratings. This tool is for teachers.
Below every post in the Seesaw journal, teachers can find the [...] button in the lower right corner. Tap this button to edit the post, tagged students, folders, date of publication or to create a copy of the post. You can also share, save, print, or get a QR code for the post. If you choose to delete the post, it will be permanently deleted from the class. You will not be able to recover it.
To give students feedback use the commenting tool found at the bottom of every student submission (activity/post). You can do this prior to approval or after approval. You can also choose to 'edit' their work and annotate by drawing or recording on the original post.
If you want to organize student work by subject area or learning objectives, you can create Folders in your class. Folders are visible to teachers and students, as well as family members if you have invited them to your class. To set and use folders in Seesaw, please follow these steps. Folders can also be used to label proficiency.
Both activities and posts can be turned into a Point of Progress for the purposes of formally Communicating Student Learning.
Learn more about Seesaw's Accessibility Features HERE and watch the video below for some ideas on how to differentiate activities.
Student access and submissions
Help students sign in to Seesaw.
- Class Code Sign In: Print your Class QR Code poster for students to use to sign in. To find this Tap “+ Students” (bottom right, under the class list) > tap Print student sign in poster. Students will choose “I’m a student” from the Seesaw Class App, then the blue "scan code" button and then scan your class QR code. Note the Home Learning Codes will allow you to print individual student access QR codes vs class access. Visual instructions here.
- Email / Google Sign In: Tap “+ Students” (bottom right, under the class list). Share your Join Code with your students. They will type it in, create student accounts, and connect to your class from their device. Students are encouraged to use their sd22learns.ca account.
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Once students are logged in, they can submit portfolio items in two ways, by adding to their journal tab or by responding to an activity.
Seesaw has many built in creative tools such as video, photo, screen recording, and drawing. See all tools HERE and watch the video below to see the Drawing tool in action. Students can easily edit their submissions by clicking on the [...] button in the lower right corner. |
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Students and their families can also use the commenting tool at the bottom of every submitted activity/post to respond to teacher feedback, add additional information, or reflect.
creating a point of progress
Content in Seesaw can easily be used to generate a Point of Progress.
You can create a point of progress using any student submission (evidence of learning) by adding strength-based feedback and indicating the proficiency level. Feedback can be added via the commenting tool, or within the student submission.
Examples of points of progress in Seesaw look like:
In this first example, the teacher is using the commenting tool to provide the required point of progress information. In this example, the student has submitted evidence of learning over time on multiple slides. To see all evidence submitted, click HERE.
You can create a point of progress using any student submission (evidence of learning) by adding strength-based feedback and indicating the proficiency level. Feedback can be added via the commenting tool, or within the student submission.
Examples of points of progress in Seesaw look like:
In this first example, the teacher is using the commenting tool to provide the required point of progress information. In this example, the student has submitted evidence of learning over time on multiple slides. To see all evidence submitted, click HERE.
In the second example, the teacher is adding the required point of progress information directly into the student submission. This can be done on the same slide or by adding a new slide to the submission.
further learning
The best predictor of student success is family involvement. Learn how to engage families on the Family app.
Seesaw also has many more resources HERE to support teachers in moving beyond the basics. These resources include live webinars and on-demand videos.
For further help/questions, please reach out to your school Technology Innovation Coordinator.
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Learning together on the ancestral, unceded territory of the Syilx Nation. |