Providing Powerful Access to Learning for All

Transcript

Kris (00:00)

Welcome everybody to the Learning Loop Podcast, your best source for educational insights and trends. I’m Kris, your host. Today’s special guest is Sandy.

Sandy is an assistant principal in Texas and a Seesaw certified educator. Sandy is a Seesaw power user with over three million student responses, excuse me, over three million student responses on her community activities. Sandy is a true advocate for all learners and we are so honored to have her on the show. Sandy, welcome.

Sandy (00:39)

Well, thank you, Kris, for having me. I’m excited to be here.

Kris (00:42)

First year, we’re so excited to hear all of your wonderful answers. We’ll start with kind of a basic question, just kind of open up the conversation here. When you consider all of the learners in classrooms, what is like the first thing that you consider when trying to make sure that you’re addressing all of the learning needs in classrooms?

Sandy (01:00)

Is accessible to everybody. Will it be something that I can easily apply to the student that’s going to struggle, to the student that’s advanced with as minimal scaffolding? And that’s something that I really loved about Seesaw is that the visuals are clear. It’s very easy to use. Once you teach it, everybody picks up on it. And to the point where even if you struggle a little bit with it, a kindergartner could easily help another one because they figured it out. It’s so intuitive for them.

Kris (01:33)

I want to make sure, like I love how you said, both ends of that spectrum. It’s not just about the students who might need extra support. Let’s make sure we’re extending those ones who might need some more and just kind of want to continue to journey as they go. Such a powerful kickoff. Can you tell me about a time when you successfully differentiated instruction, maybe a story or something that you had experience with when you were like,

Man, I really just nailed that lesson there and I really made sure that that was supportive of all learners.

Sandy (02:04)

One of the things I really loved with Seesaw and that kind of was pre -pandemic was that I used it more as a portfolio so that parents could see what kids were doing at home or at school, they were doing at school at home. And I did a lot of project -based activities and collaborative group work. And what I feel throughout all the studies and we only got better at it was being able to share kind of our thought process. So for five -year -olds, that’s a really a hard thing to do. But to document and have everybody learn to take turns in a presentation. Not the best filmography as a five -year -old, but they would really work it and being able to share. Like, you know, we decided we were going to work on a dinosaur and we researched the three facts about a dinosaur. We built the dinosaur from this. And this is what we’re going to share about a dinosaur. Like that was one example that I thought every learner could do that. And since it was something they were working with together in pairs, they were all successful, but they were able to document it with Seesaw and share that to their families.

And it was beautiful to see. So even if the parents couldn’t come see our dinos or museum, they were able to see it at home.

Kris (03:12)

is completing that learning loop that we talk about here at Seesaw. You know, the teacher hands something out, students complete it, and then families get to be a part of that learning as well. What a great example. When you were thinking about that specific activity or even other activities that relate to addressing all the needs, is there any specific strategies that you put into place that really helped you to be and have much more accessible content for learners?

Sandy (03:39)

I think being using that same platform that Zeehassah has with the infographics and like just the buttons, making those charts and my expectations very clear before they even got to their iPads was something that I thought I was able to provide everybody to be successful. So if I knew that you were going to research, write three things, you’re going to share on Seesaw here are the three steps to do it. The visuals were presented ahead of time. Students were able to go can do their work and then be able to share and all that would stay the same on my slide or my graphic of what they needed to do, and it correlated to Seesaw, so there was never any questions. And it became such a ritual for us that kids could go, oh, I’m on step two, I need to do this. And they would go back and reference the chart that was up and displayed, and would be able to help each other out or know where they were to complete a task. So it became very independent for users, which I really liked.

Kris (04:34)

Amazing, amazing. Spoken like a true veteran teacher of someone who sets up a powerful routine for students and has them follow through on that as they go through their learning. So, so good.

Sandy (04:37)

Thank you.

Kris (04:45)

We’re going to continue on this same conversation around, you know, instructional design and how that really works. But I want to ask you a question on the balance that you might strike with technology. You know, we love Seesaw for supporting learning and being a part of that learning process. And how do you think about that balance between using technology, but also meeting students where they need to be as far as using hands -on approaches? Maybe they’re writing something and capturing it with Seesaw. Like, how do you find that balance and what do you think?

about to make sure that you’re hitting that in the right tone.

Sandy (05:18)

I think that’s every early childhood teachers struggle because we do live in a technology world, but we know that kids need their hands on things so that they’re learning. And coming to Seesaw early on, it was easy to see how kids could do something physically and then document and share that out. I noticed a shift post pandemic where, you know, it became here are our lessons. This is what’s going to happen. And people gravitated towards because kids were at home. That’s what they needed. They didn’t have access to hands on materials.

And so it’s bringing everybody back and even the teachers I work with now, making sure that they know, yes, Seesaw is an amazing tool and it can capture so many things and you can do something on there. But what’s the tangible part before we get onto the technology? Because that’s what we’re using to share home, not necessarily a substitution for the learning in school. And so it’s a good balance, it’s good conversations when the coach can talk to teachers about it.

Kris (06:11)

Absolutely, absolutely. And I think the thing you didn’t actually say, but I think you’re doing, is you’re also meeting teachers where they are too. We know that sometimes technology, there can be some fatigue with that. And I think you’re finding that perfect balance between what your teachers would desire to teach through what your families are asking for, what your students need. So that’s, yeah.

Sandy (06:30)

Absolutely, even my three kinder teachers, they’re all in three different levels of technology. One is right on board and just jumps in and ready to go. And one was like, I never use Seesaw, I don’t know much about it. I was like, I’m happy to come in. Let me start with a small group and model it for you and just show you its potential and you use it as you can. And so just where they’re at, like you said, is always really important for teachers too.

Kris (06:55)

So amazing. Good, good. I want to continue one more time on this same theme. And if you have any examples or any stories that you had of an explicit time when Seesaw really helped a struggling student to thrive, do you have any stories to share around that specifically?

Sandy (07:14)

I do, and actually it’s a student I have come back in contact with as a fourth grader, fourth grade. And so he was, I was a two -way dual language teacher in kindergarten. So 10 students who spoke English, 10 who spoke Spanish. And he really struggled to figure out which language he even wanted to go to, because he came from a bilingual home. But he was definitely struggling academically, mainly learning two languages is always really difficult to navigate.

but his specialty and his uniqueness always shined in book writing and drawing. He was an amazing artist and had many tales, tales to tell about Ninja Turtles and superheroes and Seesaw. What we did with our writing for Seesaw is that kids always had to write a book. So, you know, four page book we write, we’re our authors and we’re our illustrators. Here’s what we’re going to share once we do that and we go through the writing process. The end result, I would use Seesaw and I had one of those phones that you plugged in until the end of it and they would sit and read their stories to their parents. And so it was interesting to hear his stories from the beginning to the end because in the beginning you couldn’t really understand what he was saying because he was kind of navigating both languages and to come to the end where he clear his day chose to be an English speaker and just was really excited and he would his parents would even say we hear him talk so much at school and he is not really talking that much at home. What is going on at home at school that’s made

I was like, I let him write about and talk about what he wants to talk about. And that’s that was the area of our day. It was an hour of our day that he just shined and so see saw getting to share that home and that tool just really bridging it helped the parents see the uniqueness in him and get him to feel really confident in something that he didn’t know that he was good at and getting to see him now as a fourth grader who shines in his art class and is actually a really good storyteller and it’s helped him with his writing. Now it’s good to see it. that had an impact on his strength and his confidence level.

Kris (09:17)

So amazing, and I think there’s so many students that fit that same bill of just they need a unique avenue. They need some kind of tooling and creativity that they can really just pour themselves into a little bit. And it sounds like this student really found that in Seesaw and with the supports and scaffolds that you baked into your classroom as well. So what a powerful story.

I have one more question before we’re going to jump into our loopy question here. This one really relates to the digital portfolio as a whole. We know that contributing to it and using Seesaw to collect all that stuff is really powerful. How did you use that in your classroom to really start to measure success and use that to really make sure that all of our students, regardless of their level, are continuing to move forward?

Sandy (10:09)

I think that’s one of the things that I have loved that Seesaw has grown in that area. It was an amazing portfolio tool to begin with just so that parents could see what kids were doing and so that kids could share with their parents what they were doing. So that was amazing. And in pre the assessment tools and all the amazing things Seesaw has now, I would really use the notes and just write, okay, in this picture, your child said that they built a robot and they were able to write out robot on this. Like, so I know that they know these letters. So I would put anecdotal notes to start to kind of build.

here’s what kids are doing through play, but it does mean something so that I would be able to document it all instead of going through a lot of kind of testing for them. And then to CCs all come now with some really amazing assessment tools so that that’s also something that kids can just pick up and take.

the assessment tool I would use like in kindergarten like an alphabet chart and once a month the kids would sit with it. Just tell me what you know, record it and we move on. And that’s how I documented it so that I could just build that and they just thought it was like, oh, on Fridays this is what we do and they just were OK with it. It wasn’t something intimidating and it was personal because they got to sit with the phone and they just got to say the letters and the numbers and that way parents could also see where my child was at in August versus December to oh my God, it’s March and they know almost all the alphabet.

like this is huge. And it was so powerful for the parents to see that and the kids to be able to go back because they would go back and look at their stuff and see like, oh my God, I know so many more numbers or you know, I can actually read a sentence now. So it was huge for them. And I just I loved that they they felt so empowered in their learning because they could see it as well. And it was all kept in the cloud and Seesaw in the world. And it doesn’t take 20 binders or 24 binders in your classroom. So that was always nice on the teacher end because it was all in one place.

Kris (11:58)

Absolutely, absolutely. Streamlining the teacher workflow too, because we know as important as this is for students and be able to capture that and include families, at the end of the day, the teachers have to make sure that they can use it successfully and it’s not taking up instructional minutes. So, wonderfully well said on how that really just helps to benefit a whole classroom from end to end, from starting with something to building that full digital portfolio and then eventually sharing that with students and families.

Sandy (12:13)

Absolutely.

Kris (12:27)

We’re going to jump into our loopy question here. This is a question we ask all of our guests. It’s just a question that has a little bit of a fun factor here. So if you had to pick any pet that you would have, what would you pick and why would you pick it?

Sandy (12:32)

I’m highly intrigued. Okay.

Sandy (12:48)

I would pick a so I had a lot of classroom pets, but, and I love pets in general, but I, if I was in the classroom still, I would pick a tarantula again. So I had a Chilean rose hair tarantula and her name was Rosie and she was amazing. She lived for about eight years. She was phenomenal. The kids were so fascinated by her and just when it was time to feed her and watch her and just kind of when she molted, there was so much going on. So that in the teacher world, it was just amazing to have somebody.

Kris (12:54)

Sure.

Sandy (13:22)

who engaged kids and brought great discussion. And, you know, I just took care of her over the summer and through the year, but it was, she was a great pet to have. So. It is, I loved it.

Kris (13:33)

I can see so many science connections there.

Kris (13:39)

Amazing. Yeah, I would probably have to agree with you, especially for a classroom pet, like something like a tarantula or praying mantis, something like that in the bug world. That seems very doable, but amazing.

Sandy (13:47)

Fascinating.

Kris (13:54)

We have one final question here that we always close up with some advice for anybody who’s listening. There’s someone who’s listening, they’re like, I like to use Seesaw, but I want to continue to level up. I want to give more access to all my learners. What advice would you tell that teacher, Sandy, to just get them started, get them kicked off, so that they can get to a point where you are having three million now student responses on your community profile?

Sandy (14:19)

I think it would be the same advice I give anybody when it comes to technology. The only way to get better at it and fall in love with it is to find one thing and be really good at it. So then you get more successful at it, you’re like, I can try one more thing and I can try one more thing. And you just keep leveling up your technology world, but you got to build that confidence in one area. So it’s not overwhelming because technology can be super overwhelming for everybody and anybody some days. And just thinking of it as one task, one thing to master really helps make you a tech person at the end of the day.

Kris (14:55)

laser focus back in on one thing just to make sure that you’re diving deep and getting to become that expert like you are. So, amazing, amazing advice. Well, we are at time. I want to make sure that everybody has a…

close up things here and we’re taking away all of the amazing pieces that we need to. Sandy, I want to say thank you so much for being here, for being a guest on our podcast. We so value your contributions to the Seesaw community and your expertise here on our episode, just sharing about how we really design content, how we make sure that it’s accessible for all learners. So thank you, thank you so much for being here.

Sandy (15:32)

Thank you so much for having me and thank you to all the Seesaw people because you make our lives so much easier in the education world and I appreciate that.

Kris (15:41)

Thank you so much. Bye.

Sandy (15:42)

Thank you, bye.