PRINCIPAL BLOG
Seesaw is a digital portfolio that allows students, teachers, whanau and the wider community to be able to share and discuss the learning journey of individual children. It is an interactive tool where the children are able to share aspects of school life while allowing viewers to comment on posts. This means all invested in the children’s learning are able to have regular discussions and both school and whānau can gain a unique view into their child’s learning.
Journals
Through Seesaw children are able to connect instantly to the wider world, share their work with a real audience and receive comments and feedback. Individual journals show learning in progress – work will not be ‘perfect’ but the learning journey over time. This will also assist in helping both students and whānau to understand their next steps in learning. Journals are able to be organized into folders so that work around a particular area can be found easily
Messages
Personal messages and notices can be sent to the classroom teacher directly through Seesaw. This component allows for lines of communication between teachers and whānau to be simple and easily accessible.
Announcements
Weekly updates, whole class notices and quick messages home can be sent via announcements. This keeps notes etc away from the children’s learning journals and easy to access under the inbox.
Sharing a range of learning tasks and activities with whānau and the wider community that is related to learning and school events
If you are using a tablet or a phone you will need to upload the seesaw families app. If you are using a computer use the following link seesaw login
Your child’s teacher will send you an invitation to sign into your child’s account using a Q-R Code or via an email link. Up to 10 family members can be assigned to each child’s account so that the wider whānau can also comment and share your child’s work if you wish. At the beginning of a new academic year your child’s account should continue for the next academic class.
If you are using a tablet or a phone you will need to upload to Seesaw class app. If you are using a computer use the following link seesaw login
Year 1-2 will be sent home a home learning link to be able to sign into their account.
Year 3-8 students will sign in using their school google account as a student.
BYOD children should all ready have this on their device as they will be using it at school.
If you have any problems please contact your child’s classroom teacher.
Commenting on your child’s learning is a powerful way to be involved in their learning. It gives the child feedback on their learning from someone other than the teacher and it helps strengthen the home – school partnership.
Below are 5 Top Tips for effective commenting. These tips are based on tips from a teacher and experienced blogger called Mrs Yollis and although they talk about tips for writing, they can be adapted for all posts, not just writing.
Start by telling the author something that you like about their writing. Be specific about what it is you like. Comments such as ‘I like your writing’ don’t really tell the author much. Instead comments such as ‘I like the way you have remembered capital letters and punctuation’ are more useful to the writer as they give information.
A good way to make sure you are being positive and still providing constructive feedback is to use the ‘two stars and a wish’ format. This means saying two things you like and one thing you wish they would include next time. Relating your comments to the students specific goal is important. This ensures we give feedback about what they are focusing on, rather than focusing on something they may not be ready for.
Adding new information or facts in your comments is a good way to keep your comment relevant. Check the other comments to make sure no one else has already said what you want to say.
If someone writes a post that reminds you of a time you did something, then tell them about it. Add some facts if you can.
If you can, end with a question – you might get a conversation going between you and the writer. Make sure your questions are relevant to the post though.
Make sure you check your comment for things such as capital letters and punctuation. Remember ‘I’ as a pronoun needs to be a capital. Only use one exclamation mark – if you are really excited by the writing maybe use more words.
