Summer is wrapping up! My summer was filled with chasing our four-year-old, wrangling our puppy (who likes to chew up shoes, socks, pretty much anything, thus the pen in the kitchen!),

working on our avocado ranch, going on several road trips to downhill mountain bike with the family,

and LEARNING! I became an official Seesaw Ambassador! “Seesaw is a student-driven digital portfolio that empowers students to independently document what they are learning at school. It gives giving parents a real-time, personalized glimpse into their child’s school day.” (Seesaw) I have been using Seesaw in kindergarten for the past two school years as a way to give parents a birds eye of our day. I tended to take the pictures or videos, rather than having the kindergarteners doing it themselves. It is QUICK…I snap a picture, click on the students’ name, and parents receive a notification that there is a new post. Seesaw in no way takes away from my teaching or the students’ learning. In fact, it has the potential to add so much depth to instruction and learning!

First, look at the great parent communication aspect of Seesaw. It is so user-friendly!

(Slide courtesy of Seesaw)

After my training, I realized that I was not using Seesaw to its fullest potential. In the past, I was the one making the posts to the students’ journals. But look how at easily students can add posts themselves. Ms. Downing (our Technology Instructor) and I are planning to collaborate with the kindergarteners to get them up and running on how to use Seesaw. They will be able to document their work during Reading Centers or explain how they solved a math equation. Another important part of the program is that I approve every post before it is sent to parents.

(Slide courtesy of Seesaw)

Furthermore, the annotation tools are a wonderful way for students to demonstrate their learning.

(Slide courtesy of Seesaw)

But the best part is that Laguna has purchased a subscription for Seesaw to be used in all classrooms EK-6 (and possibly seventh and eighth!) This means that your child’s learning journal will roll over year after year. When he or she is in fifth grade, you will still have a digital record of all the learning that took place in kindergarten. Yay!