Monday, April 11, 2016

Episode 1 The Teeter Totter

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For the full effect click here: Episode 1...Teeter Totter

I believe the only times I have ever been on a teeter-totter were in Japan, and now I can Seesaw with students! :-)

Seesaw is frustrating!  However, I can see the benefit of students being able to read and comment on each other’s posts.  I don’t find it to be as user friendly and intuitive as other apps.  A majority of the students needed help and reminders on how to post and how to interact with Seesaw, which I haven’t witnessed with other programs that we’ve introduced to the students.  By now, I expected that more students would be experts able to guide others; this further convinces me that Seesaw’s interface is too much of a learning curve.  I love the fact that you have to approve all student posts before they are visible to everyone, but it can become daunting when you have “34 unapproved items” waiting on you and students eagerly waiting to see their posts appear.

We used Seesaw as a pre-assessment. The students were given 10-15 minutes to record all of their thoughts.  I was interested to see what they would write because we started the year learning about Modern Japan, with a brief lesson on history and religion.  Since I am not usually in the class during social studies, I was not sure how much more exposure the students have had to historical aspects of Japan. It is beneficial to have these posts all in one place so we will be able to easily look back at where each student started.  I know that if the students had traditional KWL charts, most of them would be lost by the time we get to the “L”!

Once everyone relearned how to write their own post, a majority of them enjoyed the experience.  Some were frustrated because they were somehow kicked off the site and had to start over.








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