“We have to focus on the ‘what’ and not ‘how long.’ The ‘what’ and the ‘why.’ What are you trying to do? Why do they need to show you what they know?”
Gina Marchionda,
Technology Integration Specialist,
Fond du Lac School District
For Fond du Lac School District, thoughtful technology use in elementary classrooms starts with purpose.
What are students learning? How can they demonstrate what they understand? How can teachers respond to that evidence? And how can families have a meaningful view into their child’s learning?
Seesaw connects Fond du Lac elementary schools by enabling multimodal student learning, providing teachers with actionable evidence, and giving families daily insight into classroom growth.
For Gina Marchionda, Technology Integration Specialist for Fond du Lac School District, that’s what intentional technology should accomplish.
9
Elementary Schols
School Profile
DISTRICT
Fond du Lac School District
LOCATION
Fond du Lac, Wisconsin
1:1
Chromebooks
Impact at a glance
With Seesaw, Fond du Lac is:
- Giving students multiple ways to show what they know
- Capturing evidence from hands-on learning
- Providing real-time feedback that helps students take greater ownership
- Helping teachers make more responsive instructional decisions
- Giving families greater visibility into everyday learning and progress
- Supporting targeted instruction during WIN (What I Need) time across all nine elementary schools
Starting With the Learning Goal
For Marchionda, intentional technology shouldn’t feel separate from teaching and learning.
“I think intentional use looks like it being completely integrated into what you’re doing. It’s not seen as separate. It’s actually enhancing or celebrating the work that students are doing.”
That distinction becomes especially important as schools and families ask more questions about technology use among younger students.
Fond du Lac starts with the standard and what students need to learn. From there, educators can determine how students should demonstrate understanding and which tools best support that goal.
With Seesaw, that doesn’t have to mean completing an activity entirely on a device. Students can photograph physical work, record an explanation, draw, write, reflect, or combine digital and hands-on experiences.
Technology has a role because it supports the learning, not simply because it’s available.
Making Hands-On Learning Visible
As part of a science unit on cycles of nature, Fond du Lac second-grade students selected a cycle they wanted to explain. They combined physical objects with drawings, photographs, and Seesaw templates to demonstrate their understanding, then recorded themselves teaching the concept.
Their fourth-grade buddies were learning about the rock cycle. They worked with actual rocks while using Seesaw to capture their thinking through pictures and drawings.
Then the students taught one another.
The goal wasn’t to complete a digital activity; it was to understand a concept well enough to be able to explain it to someone else.
Seesaw gave students a way to capture the learning experience and preserve evidence of what they understood.
That same approach can happen throughout the school day. A student might work with manipulatives, participate in a small group, create something on paper, or complete a hands-on project, then use Seesaw to document or explain their thinking.
Put Purpose Behind Every Learning Experience
See how Seesaw can help students capture authentic learning, show what they know, and give educators meaningful evidence of understanding.
Turning Learning Into Evidence Teachers Can Act On
Marchionda saw the value of actionable evidence firsthand when a group of second-grade teachers believed their students were struggling to identify coins and understand their values.
She suggested using Seesaw for a quick formative assessment.
Across three classrooms, students completed the assessment in approximately 45 minutes. The results told a different story. Students understood the coins and their values and were ready to progress to the next standard, adding coins up to a dollar.
Rather than relying on assumptions about what students understood, teachers had evidence they could use to determine what came next.
It’s one reason Marchionda describes Seesaw as providing a more complete view of the learner:
“Seesaw is the tool that sees the learner in a 360-degree view. It’s not two-dimensional. It holds the child accountable while it also checks parent and teacher biases.”
That evidence can also reach students quickly.
“When we let kids get feedback in real time, they can be responsive to their own needs and own it. It belongs to them. They’re not waiting for somebody else to tell them.”
Students can recognize mistakes and adjust, while teachers can respond to what they’re seeing in the moment.
Giving Every Student a Way to Show What They Know
Evidence becomes even more meaningful when students have appropriate ways to demonstrate their understanding.
Marchionda remembers teaching a student who entered her first-grade classroom after being homeschooled. The student was unsure of the alphabet, lacked confidence as a reader, and struggled with traditional pencil-and-paper work.
But she loved to draw.
Technology gave her other ways to communicate what she understood. She could draw, talk about her learning, create projects, and see herself on video. Through Seesaw, her family could also see that work, respond, and celebrate her progress.
“Because she could celebrate what she knew, she was more apt to do the work.”
Today, Fond du Lac students can use Seesaw to demonstrate understanding through writing, drawing, photographs, audio, video, and other modalities.
The learning objective doesn’t change. Students simply have more than one way to demonstrate that they’ve reached it.
Bringing Families Closer to the Learning
Fond du Lac had heard through family surveys that some parents, particularly at the elementary level, didn’t feel they knew how their children were doing academically.
A traditional report card could communicate an outcome, but it couldn’t always show the learning behind it.
Seesaw helped bridge that gap.
“I feel like Seesaw has helped open a window to the classroom, so that parents can really see what’s going on and where their child is at.”
Marchionda remembers a parent seeing a Seesaw post of their child reading beside a teacher. The parent noticed that the child appeared to read differently at school than at home and began asking questions about the skills the child was working on.
A single piece of student work opened the door to a meaningful conversation between home and school.
That connection can extend across much greater distances.
Marchionda has seen grandparents living in the United Kingdom follow their grandchildren’s experiences through Seesaw. Parents away for military duty have been able to stay connected by viewing, commenting on, and responding to their child’s portfolio posts.
That visibility also helps families understand why technology is being used in the first place.
“When parents see the purpose and they’re part of it, you’re taking them along with you on this ride. They don’t question as much.”
When asked whether that transparency helps build trust, Marchionda’s response was simple:
“100 percent.”
Families aren’t simply being told that technology supports learning. They can see the evidence themselves.
A Tool That Earns Its Place in the Classroom
For Fond du Lac, intentional technology comes down to choosing the right tool for the learner and the learning goal.
Marchionda compares that decision to something much more familiar in an elementary classroom: a pair of scissors.
Educators wouldn’t give a kindergartner adult scissors simply because scissors are available. They choose a tool appropriate for the child’s age, needs, and task.
Technology should be approached the same way.
“You have to adjust the tool to meet the student needs. And we have to get away from consumption.”
Seesaw earns its place in Fond du Lac classrooms by helping students demonstrate learning, giving teachers evidence they can respond to, and connecting families to what their children are experiencing at school.
Technology isn’t the learning goal. It’s a tool chosen intentionally to support it.
Make Authentic Learning Visible
See how Seesaw can help your school use technology with purpose, capture meaningful evidence of learning, and give families a window into their child’s everyday learning.
