Seesaw

My school is a Leader in Me School, and as a part of that culture, our students are the leaders during our parent conferences.  We prepare Leadership Binders to showcase student work, and allow our students to guide their parents through the highlights and difficulties, if any, of their journey through fourth grade up to that point.  Some children are naturals!  I marvel as they thoughtfully muse over their writing pieces and explain why and how there ideas became permanent fixtures on the page.  Others struggle to find the tabs in the binder that highlight content areas such as reading, math or writing.  In the recent past, we created a Power Point template for our students to "drop" their information into, allowing them to "present" this information during the conference. 

RED FLAG!!

More than half of the time, the kids had absolutely NO idea what they were talking about, or couldn't read the slides, or BOTH!!  Talk about embarrassing.  There has to be another way, there must be some way for us to put the power into the hands of the student allowing them to assume the responsibility and ownership for the presentation. 

Once the one-to-one devices arrived, I thought, great, not only will we showcase student work, but we will also show our families how we are using the technology we've been given to the fullest!  Win-win for all...or so I thought.  I created a template using Google Slides (a wonderful tool, by the way!), have students fill in the information, and ta-da...a beautiful presentation, created by our students (mostly), and the kids will totally know what they are talking about.   Can you see where this is going?  I'm sure you have figured it out by now.  Just as before, some kids rose to the challenge and did an amazing job of presenting a polished piece of perfection.  But alas, those same kiddos still struggled, not being able to read, interpret or understand what in the world they were talking about. 

Back to the drawing board...

Lo and behold, along comes Seesaw into my life.  Nice to meet you!  Wow!!  Kids are excited, teachers are excited, parents WILL be excited!!!  What's the difference?  Well, taking selfies to start.  What kid doesn't like to take a selfie?  Adding voice to the presentation is another key selling point for some, if not most of our kiddos.  The app lets you record your voice in advance, so the nervousness of saying the right or the wrong thing is now a thing of the past.  Students are still selecting what they want to showcase during the conference, and will have the prideful work in hand during the conference, but with the help of Seesaw, the explanation has been taken care of in advance.  Some kids will be able to add onto or say more about each of their featured samples of work, but for those kids who struggle with oral presentations, we have now leveled the playing field...and more!  Now, don't get me wrong, I'm still a newbie with this one, too.  But, the idea that we can empower our kids to take ownership of sharing their successes with the people who matter most is a very exciting possibility that gives me hope and a willingness to be vulnerable to the idea that its okay to make mistakes and learn as we go, all with the children at the forefront of the learning.