Suzanne's Ed Tech Reflections

Welcome to a new school year and some great updates from Seesaw.  The Seesaw team has been busy this summer revamping their interface and adding more and more features for both students and teachers. And there is more coming! More options for students to Create. Reflect. Seesaw. Here's a little over view: Seesaw has completely updated the Drawing Canvas. It is wider, more full screen. There are new pen tools - a pencil, marker, highlighter, eraser, and check out the Glow Pen! You can add backgrounds and shapes - even pattern block shapes and base ten blocks. Shapes can be rotated, resized, duplicated, and colors can be changed.                                                                                    Backgrounds Shapes     The new new collage builder allows users to add up to 25+ photos. Students can take photos and upload their images. Once photos are added they can be resized, duplicated, and rearranged. In the most recent app update, users can a

Seesaw recently added some new features. While not a major update, there are a couple of exciting things. Sample Student is a feature that adds a student to your classroom allowing users to test out features in a class. Teachers can: Try out all of the Seesaw Creative Tools just like students would Test out activities and see how they work before sharing with the whole class Add posts to the Sample Student journal and more When a new class is created, Sample Student will now automatically be created but Sample Student can also be added to any existing class. Simply click on the Wrench icon in the top right of the class, Class Settings will open up; then scroll down until you see Enable Sample Student and click to turn it on (while there check to make sure Enable Item Editing is also enabled). Sample Student is similar to the ".Teacher: student many teachers created in the past - but a much better option. Note: If your Seesaw iPad app has not yet been updated

University of Colorado Boulder Online simulations are a great way to support understanding of certain concepts through a form of experiential learning and developing conceptual understanding in math and science. Studies have shown that students often develop conceptual understanding and master concepts in less time through simulations. There are many simulation websites and resources available but one of my favorites is PHET Simulations form the University of Colorado:  https://phet.colorado.edu/ .  These simulations are designed for math and science in a variety of grade levels including elementary and middle school. The simulations can be accessed on both laptops and iPads (be sure to select HTML5 simulations - look for the 5 in lower right corner or select HTML5 from the menu). Designing PHET Activities for the K-12 Classroom K-5 teachers can share the link to a PHET Simulation to students using a QR Code or URL shortener, such as bitly.com or tinyurl.com . A

Ms. Pana is an international educator and technology and design coach at Taipei American School. She loves teaching and integrating technology. Seesaw is one of her favorite resources and she appreciates how students can use Seesaw to share their learning with the world. She created these fun posters as a way for students to identify key Seesaw icons but also to " reflect on their own process of creation and learning." Just like our students, many of hers get "check" happy in Seesaw and their enthusiasm often leads to tapping the check mark before they are really ready. The posters are designed to help them stop and think before submitting. Here's an example of one of the posters: You can download a free set of these posters for your classroom on Ms. Pana's website - just scroll down to the bottom of the post. They are available in several languages too. Icons as a Visual Scaffold Enjoy!

Google Classroom is getting an update with a new look and features! While Google Classroom is only 4 years old, we have seen lots of changes and improvements over those 4 years! But this year, Google has made some big of the biggest changes ever to Google Classroom - all based upon user feedback.  You will now see three main tabs: Stream, Classwork, and People. Teacher View Stream The Stream tab is where educators create and post announcements. It also shows due dates for upcoming work and when new assignments are posted. It's a great place to host discussions and help students develop their online communication skills. Classwork Classwork is the real meat of Google Classroom. This is where educators will create and post student assignments and questions. One of the big changes is adding Topics to organize and identify assignments - you will definitely want to use Topics to organize Classwork. All assignments created and labeled with a Topic will be organiz

Yesterday Seesaw announced that you can now download parent invite letters in 10 different languages! It's the "official" parent invite letter with a QR code included. You can only access this letter option on a laptop or desktop computer. Example parent invite letter in Russian: Looking forward to Seesaw adding additional translations in the near future! Enjoy!