Authentic Education For Deeper, More Remarkable Growth

Transcript

Kris (00:00)

Welcome everyone to the Learning Loop podcast, your best source for educational insights and trends. I’m Kris, your host. Today’s special guest is Caitlin. She is a current third grade teacher in California and now transitioning to be a STEM specialist still in California, but a very exciting new role. Today we are talking about how Seesaw has helped Caitlin in her classroom, guiding instruction, shaping assessments, and gathering data to help her move forward. I can’t wait to get started. Caitlin, welcome to the show.

Caitlin Arakawa (00:12)

Yeah.

Caitlin Arakawa (00:39)

Thanks for having me, I’m so excited!

Kris (00:42)

Absolutely, and so are we. We’re going to start by just kind of setting the stage. When did you first hear about Seesaw?

Caitlin Arakawa (00:52)

Wow, let’s roll back in time a little bit. I think, you know, in my first, so this is my ninth year in education. And I would say around like, I frame my mind in like year two, year three, you know, sort of thing. So I think about it, I think I heard it about it at a conference year two. And I remember these two presenters just so lively. I think they had like a guitar and like, it was like,

The session was full. I was like, wow, these people are fun. I don’t even know what’s like, see size, but I’m gonna go in there and was like, wow, this is pretty neat. And it took a little time for me to, you know, let it settle. Think how am I gonna use this in the classroom? And then I would say year three is where I really like took it off and running. And I was teaching kindergarten at the time. Yeah.

Kris (01:43)

You’re awesome, found a natural fit right away, which is always good. I’m gonna jump into kind of talking about how this has really helped you as a teacher. I know you taught kindergarten and third grade. Can you just share a little bit how Seesaw has helped you as a teacher, whether that’s you’re planning your instructional day or really just being your assistant. Can you just share some insights into how Seesaw has helped you?

Caitlin Arakawa (01:46)

Mm -hmm.

Caitlin Arakawa (02:08)

Yes, I mean, I don’t want this podcast to go on forever, but I’ll highlight a couple of my favorite ways that SeesawS really helped me. First of all, I think in terms of like keeping parents updated and being transparent with this is what your student knows and here’s a real work sample that’s at your fingertips, right? Beforehand, it was so time consuming to collect those pieces of

of artifacts or student data, you know, you’re pulling things off the walls. And then you’re having that sort of awkward conversation sometimes if a student needs a little bit more growth or they’re struggling a little bit, you know, and the parents sitting there, well, that doesn’t happen at home. And, you know, those conversations can be awkward, but when you are just showing that parent on a day -to -day basis, here’s what your student is doing. You’re being transparent.

and they have live, you know, up to date sort of information constantly. It makes those parent conferences really easier, a lot easier. It facilitates those conversations with parents a lot easier. So I feel like I loved that. I love that so much about Seesaw. And then I just love the aspect of documenting student work when I’m, you know, not facilitating that instruction. So.

In kindergarten, for example, small groups was like all day every day, right? And students could be at different centers, rotations, and whether they’re working with those hands -on manipulatives or they’re working on, you know, just a collaborative activity, they can document that work right there and I can go back, check later, you know, when I’m, you know, sitting with my feet up at my desk during lunch, look through and see, you know, how did they do? Who do I need to check in with?

And that’s just like something I couldn’t do beforehand, you know? So it really, like you said, having like another assistant in the classroom and, you know, giving students that like opportunity for me to make a video of myself and have it right there for students to play as many times as they need to. And then I don’t have to repeat myself as many times as I need to. But I think those are my favorite kind of like.

Caitlin Arakawa (04:32)

ways I used to see saw and how I felt like it saved me some time and energy and like really made my teaching more impactful.

Kris (04:42)

Absolutely. And you hit on so many elements there. Everything from providing more access to all of your students to really just allowing you to have the information you need in a portfolio that allows your parents to be involved, but also informs your instruction moving forward. So many, so many powerful nuggets there. I want to lean into the portfolio first. We’ll come back to accessible learning in just a little bit, but we’ll talk about the portfolio and

Caitlin Arakawa (05:00)

Yes.

Caitlin Arakawa (05:08)

Okay.

Kris (05:11)

really the power that that has collecting all that information, beyond just using that to collect your standard activities, standard check -ins after a center or something, what other ways have you used this as far as like an assessment tool to really measure like academic growth? What kind of things have you found to be helpful with CSUN that specific realm?

Caitlin Arakawa (05:27)

Mm -hmm.

Caitlin Arakawa (05:34)

Yeah, so academic growth, like that just like boom right there. I can see at the beginning of the year, you know, what was their fluency at? What did their writing look like? Save that all to a folder and then boom, at the end of the year, you can measure growth so easily and it’s right there at your fingertips. Parents can see that growth and you’re like, look, I really am teaching your kid.

And as a teacher, it’s really hard day after day to see that growth. And so sometimes it can be a little discouraging, are my students getting it? They really struggled with that lesson. And as a teacher, we want to do our best and we want to see the most growth in our students. And we just don’t see that on a day -to -day basis because you see them every single day. But with Seesaw, I can go back and whenever I need that confidence boost, like am I doing the right thing or are my students growing, you scroll back and see, wow.

this growth is incredible. I am doing something right. My students are learning. And it’s nice for parents to see that too. And then as far as that portfolio piece, we started doing student led conferences and that was like a game changer. And I think I went around this school being like, you guys, y ‘all need to use Seesaw for this. And whether that work is, you know,

Kris (06:38)

Yep.

Caitlin Arakawa (06:57)

in Seesaw and it started in Seesaw and it lives in Seesaw or if it’s outside of Seesaw, take a picture of it, take a video, have your students record their thoughts and ideas with it because that just made student -led conferences so much smoother. Students were prepared and you can make those accommodations. If the student’s not ready, a second, sorry.

Kindergartener. If a kindergartener is a little nervous, their parents are there and they all of a sudden, you know, don’t know what to say about this work and what they learned about it, you know, you know, those students, they’ve, they can create a recording beforehand, click play, and then the parents can start asking them those questions and make that environment a little bit more accessible and accommodating and more comfortable. So yeah.

Kris (07:45)

So nice. Yeah, that’s an amazing step to get to is coming to the point of completely passing the baton onto students of like, we want you to lead this, we want you to showcase your learning and really understand what that means beyond a score, a grade, and even just like, we’ll say, satisfying the teacher. Like, how do you feel about your growth? And what do you want to highlight? And how does that showcase your growth as an individual internally? So.

Caitlin Arakawa (08:13)

Yeah.

Kris (08:15)

Amazing step to get to it. I’m so glad that you’re shouting it down the hallways and getting everybody on board because I think that’s just such an awesome practice to put into place. I’ll lean into one more question around assessment and just kind of thinking about how Seesaw has helped to provide you with more information. If you want to compare things like paper pencil assessments versus what you get in Seesaw, what have you really found to be kind of the unique parts that you collect in Seesaw that you can’t get when you do things in paper pencil. What have you kind of found to be those big differences?

Caitlin Arakawa (08:53)

Yes. So, you know, as teachers, we’re always, you know, depth of knowledge questions, right? DoK level one, DoK level two, DoK level three. And I feel like sometimes those paper pencil assessments are just, you know, fact memorization. A plus B equals C, A plus B equals C. And students, you know, can sort of kind of rattle that off, right? But…

Our assessments and what we’re trying to prepare our students for in the real world is not just A plus B equals C. It’s like, well, can it be something else and why not? And can you explain? And have you looked at it this way? And asking our students to really apply something in real life, solving a problem, finding solutions, being critical thinkers, explaining their knowledge and why they know something, giving their rationale.

and a paper and a pencil just don’t always do that in the best way. And if it does, it’s not the most accessible, right? So with Seesaw, it’s like all of it in one, right? I can have my students document their work that is, you know, more collaborative. It is kind of like deeper, like depth of knowledge, right? So students are now having to explain their thinking.

they’re telling me why they know something. They’re either showing me in a drawing or a recording or audio or writing, and there’s multiple modes of explanation, right? So our students can sort of have the ability to choose.

what way works best for them in explaining their thinking, getting deeper into that understanding. And then me as a teacher, I can see their level of understanding that goes beyond a paper and pencil, right? I can see what were those misconceptions. I can pull them back, meet with them to do a little reteach to make sure that I address those misconceptions.

Caitlin Arakawa (10:56)

paper pencil, I’m just thinking, oh, they got it wrong. Let’s figure out what we did here. Let’s recircle back. But I can be more intentional when I can see those misconceptions in their audio recording or in their drawn record. So I also, as you mentioned, I’m a STEAM program specialist now. And STEAM has been so using Seesaw with STEAM, right? So thinking of the engineering design process and…

students are asking questions and they are designing and creating and redesigning and reflecting. And that whole process can live right in Seesaw, right? You can see their first prototype. You can see where their reflections are with how they’re gonna change it. You can see their second prototype and it can be just pictures of whatever they’re building or creating. And then having that final project live in Seesaw of,

you know, their final build and their explanation. And it’s all right there, right? A lot of times we do things in the classroom and it doesn’t make it home because you can’t, you know. But getting to see every single piece of the process, whether it’s math or science or scene or language arts, you can see every part, every step of the way and what they were thinking every step of the way.

And that’s really like transformed learning for students and transformed teaching. Yeah.

Kris (12:31)

Absolutely. I love the word that you said was transparency. You’ve said it multiple times, but I think that’s the one that really resonated with me because even when you unpack the engineering design process, like maybe they did a prototype, but if they needed to fix something or they needed to correct it or they ran into a roadblock, you as a parent might not ever see those things come home. And so using a platform like Seesaw to just capture those learning moments that…

Kris (13:00)

might not have transferred their way home, whether it was STEAM, science, math, reading, it doesn’t matter. Those things, if you can capture those and put those into this learning journal, you get a much more holistic picture of how students are learning, how they’re moving forward, and really how they’re growing throughout the entire year. So I love the examples that you pointed out. I think they’re just absolutely spot on into how Seesaw really is that difference maker between paper, pencil, and digital assessments.

Kris (13:31)

I got a couple more questions left here. I want to lean into accessible learning here really quick for just one question. I know that you talked a little bit about recording yourself to have students replay a video. Is there anything else that you do inside of Seesaw that really helps to provide equitable access for all of your students? Maybe a tip or trick or something that people could walk away with that you have learned in how Seesaw really helps to provide that access for all students.

Caitlin Arakawa (13:36)

Uh -huh.

Yeah, so I taught early elementary, so that’s sort of like my realm of thinking. But I love the different ways for students to share their learning, right? Drawing, recording, video, we’ve talked about all of those, right? So at the beginning of the year, I like to sort of give them an assignment that focuses on one, right? Give them a taste, a sampling of what it is like to draw and record, what it’s like to take a video, what it’s like to do audio.

or just do a plain old drawing, give them a sampling and let them sort of discover for themselves what jives with me, right? How do I like to share my learning? What do I feel comfortable with? Because if students can sort of like have the exposure and then hone in on what their interests are, where they feel most successful, like that’s where I want to.

drill into is where do you feel most successful in sharing your learning and let’s leverage that, right? And giving our students that opportunity at a young age to discover that for themselves is going to make them more successful, but also make learning more accessible for them, right? If they’re leveraging their strengths, then we’ve made learning most accessible for them.

Kris (15:17)

Mm -hmm. Yeah.

Kris (15:25)

Absolutely, for sure. Coming back to also your point around student -led conferences, being able to just truly pass that baton, allow them to understand how they learn, how they showcase their learning, how they want to even archive that and then demonstrate that later, that’s truly a great demonstration of how a teacher can empower students to really start to own their learning with a tool like Seesaw at their fingertips. I absolutely love that tip.

Caitlin Arakawa (15:53)

Yeah!

Kris (15:56)

I’m going to ask kind of a broader question here, one that just says, Seesaw in general, can you share like a success story or a win that you’ve had in your classroom with Seesaw? It can be anything that you’ve ever experienced, whether it’s around an accessible learning opportunity provided for a student or a specific growth that you saw that couldn’t have happened without Seesaw or even some family engagement that you unlocked with the power of Seesaw. Can you just share a little story about a win that you’ve had with Seesaw in the past?

Caitlin Arakawa (16:17)

No.

Caitlin Arakawa (16:26)

Yeah, so going back to, I don’t know, it’s hard to pick one. You’re asking a big question. I’m like, hmm, I think the first thing that came to mind though is probably one of my favorite like Seesaw activities or projects that we did that was, I did it one way for a few years and then when Seesaw came along, it was like, wow, this is such a better project. But in kindergarten, we used to get some larvae.

some butterflies. I’m sure a lot of teachers do out there do that. And, you know, we used to have very little, you know, journal and the students would write down it has, you know, it is one centimeter long and, you know, and they, they would draw a picture of it and, you know, sort of, you know, every few days we would take a, we would do another reflection. They would do another drawing of it. And they’d have their, their larva right there growing with them at their desk.

Kris (17:08)

Yeah.

Caitlin Arakawa (17:24)

And so the first year we did Seesaw, we used Seesaw, we took a picture of the larva first day, right? You got to see like how small it was. And then the students would record their reflection of it. And so they would say, you know, it is black, it is pokey, it has pokey back, it’s one centimeter long. And…

I created these little like recording booths for them to put their computer in or their iPad in and record with their voice. And it just streamlined the process so much more. I wasn’t like writing down every sentence for them. They were just like copying it. They could just like speak and explain what they saw and that picture was right there. And so then in three days, you saw that larva and like, whoa, it doubled its size.

And the students could really see that now. Like I said, you see the larvae day after day, it’s like, it’s growing a little bit, but when you have that picture right there, the students are like, wow, this is great. It’s just like their level of excitement over this whole project just like went through the roof, right? And then again, just them explaining what they saw. And it just was more authentic, I think, because it came straight from them and it’s…

saved me a little time and energy. I’m not writing things on the board for them to copy down. And it just made the project meaningful and more exciting and more authentic. And then the last picture of their journal was them holding their little butterfly that is hatched. And it’s like, exactly. And like, so cute, right? And so I love that project. The kids love that project. The parents love that project.

Um, just because they got to see something, you know, grow and, and their students every step of the way explaining and then the final product of them with their butterfly. So it’s kind of one of my favorite projects and so yeah.

Kris (19:27)

You know, I absolutely love it. I think the authenticity that comes with taking a picture versus drawing what you think it looks like, especially for kindergarten, drawings aren’t the most accurate. They’re usually not perfect. So just being able to see that growth over time is super fun and a super awesome project. And one that is unlocked and also easy for kindergartners to pick up and be able to do on their own.

Caitlin Arakawa (19:36)

Mm -hmm. Mm -hmm. It’s like a little wonky sometimes.

Caitlin Arakawa (19:48)

Mm -hmm.

Caitlin Arakawa (19:56)

Mm -hmm.

Kris (19:57)

with the accessible tools that are right inside of Seesaw. So, love that story. We’re gonna jump to our loopy question, which is our second to last question here. And this is just a silly question we ask everybody. If you are going to a sporting event, doesn’t matter the sport, any game, what is your go -to snack that you’re gonna pick up?

Caitlin Arakawa (20:00)

Yes.

Oh, hmm. I would say, I don’t know, I’m not like a popcorn type of person. I’m not, you know, I would go for like an ice cream or like any sort of ice cream. Honestly, I’m sold. If I could have ice cream for breakfast, lunch, and dinner, it’d be great. So like Popsicle, sometimes they have those little frozen lemonades.

Kris (20:47)

Yeah.

Caitlin Arakawa (20:47)

Even if it’s cold, that’s probably my biggest weakness is ice creams on the menu, count me in.

Kris (20:54)

Yep, yep, nothing wrong with that. Excellent choice, especially in summer when we’re thinking about warmer weather. You want to cool off, watch the game, just relax. That sounds like a dream to me.

Caitlin Arakawa (20:59)

Yep. Mm -hmm. Mm -hmm. Yep.

Kris (21:07)

We’re gonna end with just an advice question. We know there’s probably people listening here who are new to Seesaw. There’s probably people listening who are brand new to teaching. What are like one or two things that you would tell this teacher to just help them to get started either with Seesaw or moving towards more of the being a really like a STEM specialist like you’re moving into? What advice would you give these teachers just how to improve their teaching skills using Seesaw at their side?

Caitlin Arakawa (21:30)

Yes, I would say, and I tell teachers this all the time, is you do not have to be an expert to get started. You don’t have to be an expert to get started. Your students will play around, they will teach you things, and let that culture be okay, because you’re going to grow from that, your students are going to grow from that. We want our students to be inquisitive and asking questions and learning on, like,

learning based off of their own exploration. And so model that for your students. I don’t know how to use everything in here, but we’re gonna try it out. I’m gonna assign you this activity. Let me know what you think. Play around, use the tools in there, and they will always exceed your expectations, right? If you’re…

giving them that assignment and you’ve told them exactly how to do it, you’ve sort of set a cap for them, right? There’s the ceiling. You want them to go to that expectation, they’ll meet you there. But if you leave that a little bit more open -ended and create this culture of exploration and asking questions and trying new things, then they will always exceed your expectations and think, wow, that was awesome. I would have never even thought of that. So.

My advice is you never have to be the expert and allow your students to teach you something new.

Kris (23:06)

Amazing, amazing, I love it. And it’s a perfect culminating statement to this entire interview, because you’re talking about student -led conferences, you’re talking about passing the baton for assessments and growth, and now you’re talking about instructional practice, really how to allow students and to empower them to guide their own learning, to be more inquisitive, to ask questions, and to really just come to their own conclusions around things, with your guidance, of course.

Kris (23:33)

But that’s just an amazing culmination statement that’s there. So I super appreciate that. And I super appreciate you being here today, taking some time out of your morning. I know teachers are super busy, so this might have been some prep time for you. So I appreciate you being here, taking some time to just share your amazing expertise and experience with Seesaw, and just kind of making sure that you’re providing value to everybody who’s around you.

Caitlin Arakawa (23:46)

Heheheheh

Kris (23:57)

Even as an educator, and now moving into a coaching role, we’re super excited to see kind of the growth that you continue to have and to share with everybody around you.

Caitlin Arakawa (23:59)

Yeah, thanks for having me on Chris. You know, anytime I get to work with y ‘all is fun and connect, you know, so it’s a great experience and I’m excited to for this podcast.

Kris (24:19)

for sure. Thank you so much. Bye!

Caitlin Arakawa (24:22)

Thank you.