Our Timeline

Hello all, and welcome to our manual on the ins and outs of using Seesaw for online schooling. We know as well as anyone that this isn’t always an easy platform to navigate, so we hope to help you avoid difficulties by learning from our experiences. To begin our adventure together, we wanted to share with you the process that led us to create this manual for the parents and caregivers faced with Seesaw as their child’s school platform.

How the Seesaw Journey Began (for the students in the Capstone Class)

Prior to class, Dr. MC had several meetings with representatives from the school district. 

• Week 1 (8/25/2020) – The first time we met with the Iowa City Community School District (ICCSD) to discuss their overwhelming number of tech support requests. We spoke with Adam Kurth from the IT department to hear the technical aspects of the issue, and with Joan Vandenburg to understand some of the cultural implications of Seesaw for the communities that don’t have a strong internet connection or tech understanding.
• Week 2 & 3 (9/1/2020) – This was time spent as a class learning how to navigate our course, and settle on the problem we would solve. At this time, we planned to provide IT Support sessions via Zoom for the school district. We would work 1-on-1 with folks in need of support to solve their issues, no matter what they may be. We began taking online “trainings” provided by ICCSD to understand the workings of Seesaw from a teacher’s perspective.
• Week 4 (9/15/2020) – Now that we had acclimated to Seesaw from a teacher’s point of view, it was time to get to know more about those we would be helping. Doc gave us access to the Canvas and Seesaw accounts of her children so that we could practice navigating the two platforms as a user. We discussed difficulties this created, questions users might have about the format, and how we as a group could resolve their problems.
• Week 5 & 6 (9/22/2020) – In week 5, we began working with Joan and the cultural liaisons of ICCSD to understand the needs of some of the immigrant and underserved communities within the school district. For week 6, we used our knowledge during another training with the school district to help some of the “Neighborhood Nests” staff help children at the locations where they use Seesaw. We continued to have trouble setting up 1-on-1 help that Doc planned in August with the community partners.
• Weeks 7 – 10 – We were learning about theory (e.g., verbal person-centeredness skills), practicing Seesaw, and a new project was on the horizon instead of the 1-on-1 help.
• Week 11 &12 (11/03/2020) – Joan Vandenburg contacted our class again. She told us that another member of the school district, Shannon, wanted to put together a Seesaw training for childcare providers. It would count as CEU credit, and be a huge help to ensure the kids they watch over are getting the most out of their education. Our expertise on the matter was finally coming in handy!
• Week 13 & 14 – We spent this time creating and refining materials for the Seesaw Training. We made homework assignments, presentation slides, speaker notes, and in-class practice activities all from scratch, so the presenters had all the materials necessary to successfully train the childcare workers on the ins and outs of Seesaw.
• Now – All of these materials previously used to train childcare workers on Seesaw have been converted to this manual. We hope you can find them useful as you start (or improve!) your own Seesaw experience!

Content By: Kaylee Hendrix

Written By: Kaylee Hendrix (12/12/2020)