Background
Each one of the 52,000 students in Garland ISD brings their own unique abilities, learning style, and experiences into the classroom, and each day educators rise to the occasion of connecting with those students and their families to meet those needs. The district serves a diverse population of students through 70+ school campuses across three cities in Texas, and partners with Seesaw to help each student achieve academic success during their formative elementary years.
In 2020, the Digital Learning Team wanted to enhance their elementary curricula and improve the interactivity of elementary lessons. An infusion of 1:1 devices expanded access to technology to support each student’s learning needs. The task of evaluating the right edtech tools for those devices was no small feat for the four person Digital Learning Team due to the amount of platforms and apps available on the market.
Garland selected Seesaw as one of their core platforms for elementary learners in the district. “There are apps or tools that can be customized or “appsmashed” to achieve some of the capabilities that Seesaw offers, but Seesaw is a swiss-army knife. It provides a number of benefits to administrators and teachers across the district in one place,” said Chelsey Cody, Digital Learning Coordinator. The Digital Learning Team highlighted family engagement, interactive lessons, curriculum enhancements, and the ability to effectively teach a large population of bilingual students.
Implementation
To successfully implement Seesaw, the Digital Learning Team at Garland started with curriculum alignment & lesson development. The district’s curriculum writers created subject-specific content within Seesaw and added it to their District Library.
“District curriculum writers developed and shared activities, lessons, and instructional resources in Seesaw that aligned with our core curriculum and Seesaw use caught fire. Others saw how impactful the lessons were and how much time it saved their colleagues, so they started using it, too.” said Andrea Etheridge, Digital Learning Specialist for Garland, ISD.
Part of Garland’s implementation strategy focused on modeling subject-
specific lessons. By first demonstrating the application of Seesaw to science instruction, they showcased how the platform can be used as an interactive notebook that could be shared with families. For math and reading, digital manipulatives and multimodal tools helped students understand critical foundational concepts in literacy and numeracy.
As more teachers across the district adopted Seesaw, they primarily used the platform in centers, small groups, and individual instruction, where personalized learning and differentiation were key goals.
Impact
High-Quality Instructional Materials
Seesaw’s multimodal teaching and learning tools and formative assessment capabilities allowed the Digital Learning & Curriculum teams to create and share high-quality, standards-aligned lessons to teachers at 46 elementary schools across the district.
Student Engagement
Students and their families enjoyed using Seesaw. “Students play with it, they have fun with it.” said Ms. Etheridge. When learning is fun and joyful, everyone benefits. Due to the availability of multimodal tools in Seesaw, students had more voice and choice when answering questions or completing activities. By giving students options and different ways to express themselves, Garland fosters a sense of ownership and investment in their students. Students can see and hear feedback from their teachers, reflect on their own learning, and continue to refine their skills while receiving encouragement and support from teachers, family members, and peers.
Family Engagement
Family engagement is a key pillar of Garland ISD’s success. In the 2023-2024 school year, there were 7,000 elementary family members who actively participated in their children’s learning journey on Seesaw. Not only can Garland families communicate with educators and school leaders, but they can view class posts and interact with their children’s portfolios, giving them a window into what’s happening in the classroom.
Garland ISD serves students and families from a variety of backgrounds, including large populations of Spanish and Vietnamese-speaking families. Seesaw helps these families feel more included in their children’s education by translating messages into 100+ languages. The Digital Learning Team shared an inspiring story of a student who did not speak English when they first arrived in the district. The multimodal tools and translation features in Seesaw made it possible for this student – and their family – to access instructional content, something that was previously not possible without Seesaw. At the end of the year, the student earned a perfect score on their end-of-year MAP math assessment.
Conclusion
Seesaw continues to assist students in Garland ISD by offering opportunities for personalized instruction and enabling them to build confidence through voice and choice. When asked for advice on evaluating new educational technology resources, Ms. Etheridge shared “Start with clear goals and define what you’re trying to accomplish with technology. Consider what it will achieve for all stakeholders in the district. For us, we wanted to foster creativity and student agency with a tool that aligned with our curriculum & instructional goals.”
Through interactive lessons, digital portfolios, and two-way communication features, Seesaw keeps Garland teachers, administrators, students and families in the learning loop by providing continuous visibility into students’ learning experience.
