Families play a crucial role in education, especially in elementary school. Their support builds a network for academic success for students after school. It has been shown that students with parents who are actively involved in their learning are more motivated and have a stronger sense of self-control. As a result, students who have involved families academic lives will achieve better results throughout the school year.
Keeping families engaged and excited about their child’s education is an important part of a teacher’s job. As teachers, we are always looking for unique ways to keep families in the loop about what is happening in the classroom. Involving families in the learning process can foster a sense of community and partnership between home and school. This, in turn, can lead to improved student outcomes and a more positive school climate. This this blog, we’ll cover 10 creative ways to get families excited and engaged with what’s happening in your classroom on Seesaw.
1. Share Student Work
Many parents have a memory box filled with their child’s schoolwork. If you are looking for a simple way to get families more engaged, start with sharing memories of student work through the Seesaw journal. Students can use the green add button in Seesaw to capture what they are learning. Students can also contribute to their journal by completing an assigned activity. Regardless of how students contribute to their journal, connected families immediately see authentic work done while at school. Here are three examples to show just how engaging student work can be for your families.
2. Create a Class Newsletter
By using the built-in messaging tools within Seesaw, you can easily send messages to families in a variety of formats, including links, PDFs, notes, images, and more. If you want to engage families in a more streamlined way, consider sending your class newsletter through Seesaw the next time. As a result of using one tool to share student work and classroom announcements, families will experience a smoother, unified approach to classroom communication as a result of using this tool.
3. Create Student Selfies or Digital Greeting Cards
A student selfie activity is one of the most common “first posts in Seesaw” activities. Not only does it teach your students valuable technology skills, but it is also a great way to celebrate what is happening in school with your families. Use selfies to celebrate a milestone that has been accomplished in class or to send a special message or digital greeting card home on a holiday. Students can take selfies through photos, then enhance their photo voice recordings, drawings, or text leading to an inviting journal contribution that is sure to hook families.
4. Share Reading Fluency Passages
A frequent practice in almost every elementary classroom is the completion of reading fluency passages. Using Seesaw’s video or voice recorder helps students record their reading fluency passages, saves teachers time in capturing fluency compared to 1:1 assessment, and gives teachers the option to share these passages home with parents. This helps teachers keep families in the loop with student progress, and gives families opportunities to build skills and celebrate reading growth.
5. Set and Share Goals
Setting goals is a powerful practice for students. Goal-setting is a great activity to complete at the beginning of the school year and is also a good practice to revisit as the year progresses. Students’ goals can be captured in class quickly and easily by writing out lists, completing activities, or simply recording their voice. Families can support student progress and celebrate milestones throughout the year by sharing student goals. This creates a more supportive learning environment for every student.
5 Ideas You May Not Have Considered
6. Send A Cliffhanger
Cliffhanger is not only a popular Silvester Stalone movie, it is an excellent way to keep families engaged and excited about your classroom. Quickly get everyone excited about a new unit or an important change that is happening in your classroom with a cliffhanger. It can simply be a photo that has a “coming soon” sticker on it or a video that suddenly cuts off. It is important to create excitement about learning for your students, but it is equally important to do with families. Sending cliffhangers home can spark family discussions and build excitement about what’s to come in your classroom.
7. Start Open-ended Conversations
Conversations are key to fostering trusting relationships. More often than not, the communications coming from school are one way. Giving families the space to share questions, reactions, or enthusiasm is a simple and powerful way to build relationships. With Seesaw, you can send messages as a conversation instead of an announcement. If you want to go a step further, open a new conversation thread for families to connect with each other. This has been proven to be a powerful practice for classrooms as families now have a space to create community meet ups, share birthday invitations, and even build a classroom directory.
8. Lean into Comments
A powerful way to engage families with comments is to have students create a voice or text comment directed to their connected family members. This could simply be a simple question they ask like “how do you think I did? ” Alternatively, it can even be a tricky prompt such as “what would you have done differently?” These simple questions open up a conversation in the comments that fosters deeper student engagement & sparks meaningful conversations between students and their family members.
9. Facilitate a Game
There is no doubt that games are an integral part of the classroom environment, especially at the beginning of the year. Using Seesaw, you can include family members in classroom activities as well. Use the messaging tools to prompt families to play the game at home for homework. Not only will your families enjoy playing together, they’ll get firsthand experience with the lessons you are teaching at school.
10. Ask for Something Back
The messaging feature inside of Seesaw allows for robust two way communication. Families have the ability to capture and send photos, videos, drawings, and more back to the teacher. Ask your families to send something back to you next time you need it! This could be a photo of the pets at home, a family portrait, or even an academic task like a photo of the moon. If you do ask, be conscious of each child’s home context. Not every family has access to the same resources or is comfortable sharing personal details. Respecting any differences and boundaries will help promote inclusion and make each family feel comfortable participating.
96% Teachers find Seesaw helpful in providing family members with visibility into their child’s learning in the classroom.
Foster Family Partnerships with Seesaw
Seesaw provides a powerful platform for fostering meaningful connections between the classroom and home. By implementing these 10 creative ideas, you can significantly enhance family engagement and build a stronger sense of community around student learning.
Start small and find approaches that work best for your classroom and connected families. Simple actions like sharing student work, creating digital greeting cards, or setting and sharing learning goals can go a long way in making families feel valued and invested in their child’s education.
As you continue to experiment and build upon these strategies, remember to keep an open dialogue with families. Seek their feedback, encourage two-way communication, and be responsive to their needs. By positioning families as true partners in the educational process, you can foster a climate of trust, collaboration, and mutual support – all of which will positively impact student success.
Engaging families through Seesaw is a win-win for everyone involved. When schools and homes work together, students thrive. So take the first step today and watch as your classroom community blossoms through enhanced family participation and support.
