Seesaw... no, not the kind you find on a dilapidated playground. I'm talking about the Seesaw  Website/App. This website/app was recommended to me by our librarian who is uh-mazing! This resource can be used in many different ways but most teachers use Seesaw for feedback, reflection, assignments, and assessments. Here are a some ways you can use it in your classroom:

1. Flipped Classroom: Seesaw allows teachers to post a recording of themselves instructing on any particular subject. Teachers can then use this recording and post it as an “activity” and ask students to watch it and take notes at home. When students return to class they can focus on what they’ve already learned from the video and move forward with an activity. This minimizes the time the teacher spends “instructing” and leaves more time for discussion, questions,  and/or important activities during the small amount of time in a period/block.

2. Technology Gallery Walks: This is my favorite way to use SeeSaw. I use it a few different ways when it comes to gallery walks. When my students study imagery in poetry, I assign them to bring one line of imagery to life from the poem Thou Blind Man’s Mark. The students create these beautiful presentations of a line of poetry and then use Seesaw to record themselves answering the following questions: "What line of imagery did you choose and why? Why is it impactful or important to the rest of the poem? How did you go about bringing this imagery to life? Tell us about the most important elements of your creation." Students record their answers to these questions and post their recording to the "class journal." The next day, the students bring in their creation and set them up around the room in a huge circle. Next to their creation is their name and the title of their creation. All students have an iPad from our rented iPad cart, and they walk around with headphones and listen to their peers' explanation (recorded in Seesaw) of their creation as they are looking at it. Once they have listened to their peer's recording, they must comment on the journal. Their feedback should be more in depth than just "good job." I ask them to comment on the artist's choice of colors, symbols, images, etc. and to engage their peers in conversation about their creations. This activity gives all of the students a chance to understand how each student came up with his/her creation. This also gets rid of the sometimes eye-gouging experience of one at a time presentations that take an eternity and force the teacher into a boredom-induced stupor.

The other way I use Seesaw as a resource for a technology gallery walk is through a sort of speed-dating novel review. Each quarter, my students are required to read an outside reading book of their choice. At the end of the semester, they choose one book they absolutely loved. Using Seesaw, they are assigned to record a review in the "class journal" section for their class. In the recording, they must include the title, author, genre, brief summary (no spoilers), and a recommendation. When they come to class, we set up the desks in two long columns and place the books on the desks with the student's name right next to it. Students once again grab an ipad, slip on their headphones, and go book to book listening to their peers' reviews figuring out what their peers have read and what book they might "date" next quarter. The students really enjoy hearing what their peers have read and almost always choose their next outside, reading book from this activity.

3. Discussion Thread: Seesaw can also be used as a discussion thread for important questions tied to something you did in class to help further understanding, or you can use it as a formative assessment as students work through a required reading. A teacher can post the discussion question(s) in the activity section of Seesaw for the class. You can be the one asking the questions, or the students can be the ones creating questions and answering their peers. I would highly suggest discussing levels of questioning if you want the students to ask the questions. Discussion threads can be a hot mess, but when properly set up, they can be truly beneficial for everyone. Ways for the discussion to be effective can be found here .

4. Exit Tickets: Finally, teachers can also use Seesaw as an exit ticket. Of course this depends on your students' access to technology, but the teacher can post the exit ticket on the app under "activity" and students can answer the question using their phone, ipad, etc. This is a quick and easy way to collect information from your students.

Hopefully, this didn't throw you into the boredom-induced stupor I previously mentioned! I'm always looking for new technology for the classroom, and this has been one I've thoroughly enjoyed using. Try it out!

Keep on stressin, on,

Controversy...I love controversy just as much as any Real Housewife from Bravo TV; wait that's drama not controversy. Anyway, controversy in a classroom can be an eye-opening experience for students, but it takes an abundance of scaffolding before students can have meaningful, civil discourse. So where do you start?

Before one can dip her pedicured toes in discussion strategies like Structured Academic Controversies, one must first teach her students how to listen and talk to one another (click here). I think some people have this idea that we don't have to teach children how to listen, but have you been around any children lately? Why do you think we are now teaching SEL strategies? Moving along, students need guidance when it comes to what active listening is. Before even getting into the discussion part, introduce your students to active listening: "pay attention, show that you're listening, provide feedback, defer judgement, and then appropriately respond" (mindtools.com).  Your students can't have a worthwhile discussion or conversation if they don't know how to actively listen. Heck, I know adults who don't know how to actively listen. Now we move on to the discussion part. As silly as some people may find it, accountable talk is a great way to start students off with having meaningful discussions. Accountable talk shows students what it means to "carefully listen to each other, build on each other's ideas, paraphrase and seek clarification; and respectfully disagree" (educationcloset.com). We can't expect students to know how to talk to one another when most often the only way they communicate is through a screen, not face-to-face, so in the age of millennials we must teach this skill set. BTW, no offense to millenials, I'm actually one! Don't stop reading... Once you have done a few practice discussions with your students using active listening and accountable talk, you must teach norms and expectations of small group and class discussions. You can come up with these norms and expectations as a class, such as "Allow your peer to finish his/her thought before you speak; remember to use accountable talk, especially the discussion stems, etc." Having these norms and expectations in place will help the discussion go smoothly. Now let's talk about more rigorous discussions like structured academic controversies.

SACs, yes most kids laugh at that acronym; come on they're teenagers. Where was I? Yes, SACs are a great way to have students use all of the aforementioned skills sets like active listening and accountable talk, and it also teaches students to find common ground on controversial topics. Most often we see SACs in history like this one (click here), but SACs can be used in ANY classroom. A SAC is a method that helps students move from a mindset of debate by shifting the goals from winning a classroom discussion to understanding alternative positions and coming up with a consensus. There are five basic steps to a well-organized SAC:
1. Organize student into four-person teams made up of two pairs.
2. Each pair reviews materials that represent different positions on a charged issues. For Frankenstein I use "Is genetic engineering a good or bad thing?" For Fahrenheit I use "Technology has more pros than cons." The teacher assigns the positions in order for the students to prepare for the SAC. Students may not agree with the side you assign them, but that is part of teaching them to see all sides. I provide the materials for them but also ask them to do their own research outside of class.
2. After reviewing, annotating, and filling out a pre-SAC handout, each pair comes together as a four-person team; one pair acts as presenters, the other as listeners and vice-versa.
4.  Rather than refuting the other position, the listening pair repeats back to the presenters what they understood. Listeners don't become presenters until the original presenters are fully satisfied that they have been heard and understood.
5. After the sides switch, the pairs abandon their original assignments (or sides) and work toward reaching a consensus. If consensus proves unattainable, the team clarifies where their differences lie.
(adapted from Teachinghistory.org)

As an extension to the lesson, I use the SAC as a basis  of evidence for an argumentative essay. After completing a SAC, I usually have students turn all of their research and discussion notes into an argumentative essay, where they get to decide what side they choose to write about throughout their essay. They already did the hard part, now they have to write about it!

Keep on stressin' on,