Thing 16: Digital Portfolios for Students

I started using Seesaw last year with a kindergarten tech class that I co-teach with kindergarten teachers.  Last year there was not too much in the library that you could use.  This year, there is so much to choose from it is overwhelming.  For example, last year there was a hodgepodge collection.  This year you can choose by grade level and topic. 

I did not get too fancy last year.  I used it for Valentine's Day, What did you do over vacation and sight words and practicing nursery rhymes that they were doing for music.  This year I expanded my use.  I had always wanted to participate in the Global Read Aloud.  There are SEESAW face book sites for connecting.  I found another librarian with five second grade classes in Madison, Indiana.  We read the books and blogged back and forth.  It was not as successful as I had hoped.  Part of the problem is I only see the kids once a week and half days and other things conflict so the project dragged on longer than I would have liked and the kids grew tired of it.  Also, there was not enough time to respond fully to the other school. I would have liked to have used an older grade for this project but it just wouldn't work out.  Second graders still have trouble signing in with their login and password which you have to do to use seesaw.   On the plus side, the books are already chosen, the kids learn about something they would not have and the lesson plans and activities are mostly done for you.

My other problem is that there are only 10 free accounts and I typically have 6 of each grade level so I have to rotate a level off before I can take another one on.  Hopefully, we will be purchasing SEESAW for our district and this problem will be resolved.  I see a great deal of potential for SEESAW.  I am waiting for someone to come up with demonstrable grade level competencies/assessments in writing and/or library and/or ELA assessments that could be used and saved as standardized portfolios. 

This year I did get a bit fancier using SEESAW and my kindergarten classes.  I looked at the library for ideas and found one I liked about Abe Lincoln's Hat and  Valentine's day.   I used other peoples activity templates.  Initially, I then paired up Lincoln's hat  with "Looking at Lincoln" but the first kindergarten class I used it with did not like the book.  So, I found another one "Do You Have a Hat."  I scanned it in using my copier, dropped it into slides, then screencastified it, downloaded and then uploaded it to SEESAW.  I think that there are probably copyright issues with this so I do not share my stuff with the SEESAW library.  I also did another one like this with "Guess How Much I Love You" and a valentine's card.  What prompted me to do it this way was I looked at youtube videos but I didn't like the quality of what is available in terms of read alouds.  Moreover, the kids get a kick out of knowing it is me reading the book to them.

Here is an  example:
https://app.seesaw.me/pages/shared_activity?share_token=1t0_gBUeTNu3m_jLHXy5QQ&prompt_id=prompt.93087c31-1cab-4964-9a8e-9f734a58a78b


I have the Lincoln one too.  I just can't seem to find it in my library although I did share it with my classes.  I'll have to figure out how I do that so I have it for next year.