Many schools are entering the new year with an unprecedented number of vacancies. There just aren’t enough teachers.
States and districts are trying creative ways to address the teacher shortage, including issuing temporary certifications, hiring long-term substitute teachers, increasing class sizes, and shortening the school week.
Such interventions may succeed in filling vacancies. They may also create additional challenges for teachers.
If your school is facing a teacher shortage, you might be wondering: How do we support new teachers with varying levels of experience? Or teachers managing large class sizes? Or teachers faced with even fewer days with students?
Seesaw can help.
Equip New Teachers and Substitute Teachers with High Quality Resources
New teachers are faced with mastering the basics. Substitute teachers are faced with getting to know a whole new group of students. Both are navigating core curriculum. It’s a lot to handle!
Ready-to-go supplemental resources can save time and ensure all students have access to effective and engaging learning experiences.
Rather than spend precious planning time searching the internet for
supplemental activities, teachers can choose from a curated selection of lessons that align to standards and best teaching practices. Complimenting their day-to-day instruction, teachers can quickly find what they need to engage students and reinforce core skills.
If your school uses Seesaw, you can organize vetted activities in your School Activity Library. New and substitute teachers can quickly access high-quality materials and benefit from the best practices of more experienced teachers in your building.
Or point teachers to Seesaw Lessons. Created by teams of educators and subject-matter experts, Seesaw Lessons reflect research-based best practices, like gradual release, multimodal learning, and reflection. Plus, they make learning really fun.
Explore Seesaw Lessons here – all teachers have access to a selection of lessons covering the subjects you care about most.
Leverage Technology to Help Manage Large Classes
In a classroom with dozens of students, many teachers wish they could clone themselves. With technology, they can!
Seesaw Activities that leverage video and audio can empower student independence and ownership, freeing up teachers to support all students. Here are a few ideas:
- Add audio recordings that explain directions, narrate objects, or read passages aloud
- Record a video that explains or demos a concept
- Use screen recording to model the task at hand
Students can access these multimodal resources as many times as they need to be successful.
It’s still their teacher in the recordings. But instead of waiting for the teacher to answer their question, students have the resources they need at their fingertips. This frees the teacher to meet with small groups or one-on-one while still ensuring the rest of the class is engaged in learning.
New to Seesaw Activities? Learn how to create multimodal learning experiences here.
Support Meaningful Learning at Home
Seesaw creates the home-to-school connections that make learning meaningful beyond classroom walls.
Using Seesaw in the classroom equips students to access rigorous
learning experiences at home – their experience on Seesaw is the same no matter where they sign in. Whether in class or at home, students sign in, complete assignments, and communicate with peers and teachers.
And on Seesaw, connected family members are always kept in the loop with learning happening in the classroom. This transparency better enables them to reinforce it at home.
Whether students need extra practice or school time is cut short, Seesaw can help make sure teachers, students, and families are able to communicate and collaborate around learning.
Only comprehensive reform can address the root of the teacher shortage problem. In the meantime, we hope that Seesaw can help.
