Senses with Seesaw

Seesaw has quickly become my favorite app for elementary students. (I can't thank Mrs. Davidson enough for sharing it with me!) It is an open ended app that allows for creation, sharing, and communication - essential life skills educators must help students develop. After working through a few speed bumps in accessing the app from iPads, I've used this app on a near daily basis with students. Over a dozen teachers at HCES and JGES are experimenting with all it has to offer and I'm looking forward to hearing the parent perspective as teachers begin to send family letters home.

Yesterday a class of kindergartners used Seesaw to demonstrate what they have learned about their five senses. Students used the drawing feature to illustrate something they can hear, see, smell, taste, or touch. Next they recorded themselves explaining which sense they associate with their picture and words to describe it. In centers that lasted about 20 minutes students were able to complete this task and most were able to create two images for different senses. Students will now be able to view on another's work and the teacher can get a glimpse of what each student knows about senses and their oral communication skills.  This is a great example of how easy it is to get students creating, sharing, and communicating with Seesaw!

Click here for an example of a student's work

Students working on their illustrations

How fluent are you?

When is the last time you listened to yourself read? Why should students listen to themselves read? Over the last few weeks several classes at JGES learned about the different components of fluency, how fluency impacts reading comprehension, and how to self-assess their fluency.

For our purposes we broke fluency down into four areas - accuracy, speed, expression, and punctuation. After practicing what each component sounded like, students used the app Seesaw to record themselves orally reading a piece of text. Afterwards, students listened to the recording and assessed themselves on each of the four focus areas. Based on their self-assessments, each student set a goal that he will focus on over the next several weeks before repeating the process. 

Students using Seesaw to record a reader's theater

A student self assesses her fluency

Hour of Code

This week, across the globe, individuals are participating in Hour of Code. This introduction to computer science is designed to demonstrate that anyone can learn the basics of coding. One class of first graders used the resources at code.org (visit to have your own Hour of Code) to better understand computer programming. In their tasks, students worked to help Pixel the puppy find his way home.

Students learned how to program a series of commands and put to use their knowledge of patterns to create loops! What a fun way to practice math skills! After coding, I asked students about the task and the responses were overwhelmingly positive. Each student I spoke to individually commented on the challenge that the task faced and how much they enjoyed it. 

The Hanover ITRTs are currently reading "Mindset" by Carol Dweck and I couldn't help but think how these students demonstrated a growth-mindset in their willingness to accept a challenge and the joy that they found in working to solve that. How can we, educators and parents, help our students continue that mindset moving forward? What do you do to help instill a growth-mindset in your students or children?