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Making the classroom con
for parents/guardians with
Teachers across Anoka-
Hennepin benefit from active
parents and guardians being in
the know of what’s happening in
their students’ classroom.
That’s why this year, Anoka-
Hennepin’s elementary schools
have embraced a new app called
Seesaw, which does just that.
For Dr. Amy Reed, principal
at Ramsey Elementary School,
Seesaw has been eye-opening,
and her teachers have really only
been using it since the start of the
school year.
“Each student has an online
learning portfolio, and that
portfolio allows for student
collaboration and also family
engagement at home,” said
Reed. “So the whole, overarching
strategy is that it allows for
teachers and students and
families to connect, engage and
communicate in real time.”
Basically, Seesaw creates a
learning loop between students,
teachers, and families. A student
will create something in Seesaw
— a drawing, or a video, or
something that demonstrates
their knowledge in a subject area.
A teacher can then comment on
their work and provide feedback.
And finally, parents and guardians
can login to their child’s learning
portfolio, see what they’ve created
and the teacher’s comments, and
also leave comments of their own.
It allows all three to engage with
one another in a new and unique
way.
All parents and guardians need
to do is download the free Seesaw
app when prompted by a teacher,
and from there, that teacher will
send out a notification inviting
families to see their student’s work
and read the comments about
it whenever something new is
added.
Seesaw, in some ways,
replaces the more traditional way
assignments are done. When
teachers would teach students
about the water cycle, they
would do it on a worksheet.
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The walls in first-year teacher
Dalton Pieske’s classroom at
the Compass-Bell Center are
decorated with words that he
hoped would set the foundation
for his students. Artistically
displayed he has signs that remind
students three simple, but strong
messages: You are loved, You
have a voice, and You matter.
When those signs were placed
on the wall, Pieske hoped the
messages would help his students
realize their potential, but it was
a project at the end of the first
trimester that really brought the
students together to make those
words become as meaningful
as their teacher had hoped they
would.
The project seems like a simple
one, but once broken down, it
was one that would bring students
outside of their comfort zone.
Students were given the task to
write a poem about themselves,
about their experiences and about
their feelings after reading a poem
by Kelly Norman Ellis titled Raised
by Women.
Pieske charged students
with writing a poem with
the theme of: “I Was Raised
By.” Pieske admits that the
project was immediately
met with skepticism, but the
nervousness ramped up when
students were told that the
final piece to the project
would be to submit their
work to the National Scholar
Society’s poetry contest.
“There were feelings of
nervousness, especially
when I told them about the
contest,” Pieske admitted.
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vulnerable thoughts out
there, but it can also be
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