Guess My Number Activity

First grade students at one of my campuses have had a lot of fun playing ABCya's "Guess the Number" game. Ashley, one of the teachers on that first grade team, had a cool idea to let the students create their own "guess the number" game using Seesaw and Shadow Puppet, so she called me in to brainstorm during her conference period. 

{Side note: next to teaching the kids, this is my favorite part of my current position. If you are at one of my campuses, please don't hesitate to ask me to collaborate!}

The lesson we came up with sounds like lots of fun {I'm super-excited to help teach it to her kids tomorrow morning!}, so I thought I'd share! 

The Big Idea:

Students pick a number and give clues to their peers and parents to try to help the audience guess the number. 

Apps Used:

1. Whiteboard Lite
2. eGourd {optional but fun!}
3. Shadow Puppet Edu
4. Seesaw

Steps to Take:

1. Open the Whiteboard Lite app. 

2. Draw a clue onto the whiteboard, like so:

3. Save that image to the camera roll, then clear the canvas.

4. Draw another clue onto the whiteboard, like so:

5. Save that image to the camera roll, then clear the canvas.

6. AirDrop a photo to your students' iPads. Background info: Ashley had actual [physical] tens and ones mats already laminated and was going to have students use base ten blocks to create their number. She mentioned something about how both the mats and the blocks they have are yellow, so it might be difficult for the audience to see. I suggested taking a picture of the mat, importing into Whiteboard Lite, and drawing base ten blocks on top of the picture with a darker color. That worked perfectly fine, but when I went to create my own example this afternoon {to be ready to help teach her students tomorrow morning}, I ended up just creating a digital "mat" myself since I didn't have her picture. This is the "mat" I came up with, if you'd like to use it in your lesson. :)

click to enlarge, then right click to save the image to your computer

7. Import the above-mentioned photo into Whiteboard Lite. Draw on it to represent the mystery number, like this:

8. Save the image to the camera roll. Optional: Create more clues in Whiteboard Lite, saving each clue to the camera roll.

9. Open the eGourd app. "Carve" the number into the pumpkin and save the image to the camera roll:

10. AirDrop students a blank background. {I did a Google search for a plain, black background and saved the image to my device.} They'll use this blank background in their slideshow to write the words, "Can you guess my number?"

11. Open the Shadow Puppet Edu app. 

12. Students can choose the 5 {or more} photos they just saved to the camera roll and import them into their Shadow Puppet Edu slideshow. 

13. Students will record their voice dictating the clues and save the video file to their Seesaw journal. Here's my example {click here for a larger video screen}:

Afterwards, students can view each others' work on Seesaw and try to guess the number {and students' parents can try to guess the number at home, too!}. 

The eGourd app is totally optional, but it's a fun way to add a little fall or Halloween festivity into the lesson. I'm so excited to try this with students! 

How to Create a Table of Contents in Google Docs

Google Docs {the Google equivalent of Microsoft Word} can be an amazing resource for the classroom. These are my top 5 favorite ideas for using Google Docs in education:

1. Collaborative writing {up to 50 people can edit a document at the same time} 
2. Essay/research paper written by students {and then turned in/graded digitally} -- bonus: teachers can see revision history and hold students accountable for edits
3. Error correction: create a document with deliberate errors, and let students correct it digitally
4. Reading response journals: eliminate the risk of losing the paper in transit between home and school
5. Meeting notes: document minutes and discussions at team meetings and easily share with colleagues

Once you start using Google Docs regularly, you might start using it for lengthy documents. When that happens, it's time to start utilizing the table of contents tool to get the document organized again. 

1. Open your document in Google. 

2. Type headers for each section of your document, as shown below:

3. Highlight the first header. Go to format >> paragraph styles >> heading {any you want -- there are 6} >> apply heading, as shown below:

4. The heading you highlighted before should now look different. {For reference, heading 1 is the largest. The text becomes smaller and/or italicized when you choose headings 2-6.}

5. Follow steps 3-4 for all the headings you typed. {So I completed the steps for "Supplies," "Warm Up/Anticipatory Set," "Activity," "Closure/Summary," and "Evaluation/Assessment" in the mock lesson plan example below.}

6. Put the cursor in the spot where you'd like the table of contents to appear. {I always go to the very top of the document.}

7. Click insert >> Table of Contents.

8. Your document should now have a table of contents, like so:

Click on any part of your table of contents to jump to that specific part of the document. 

Click on any part of the TOC to view a refresh button; press if it you need to update any of the heading titles you typed {such as adding a completely new title or editing the spelling/structure of an existing one}. 

Tweetable:

• Tame your endless Google docs by creating a table of contents! 

Resources

• 29 Interesting Ways to Use Google Docs in the Classroom
• 32 Ways to Use Google in the Classroom

Seesaw: More Options

I used Seesaw {the free ePortfolio tool} with my K-4 students last year, and it helped us make the Science Lab almost completely paperless, so it's no wonder I continue to rave about this tool! As a Seesaw Ambassador {look for me in the southwest section!}, I get constant updates about what the team is doing to improve their {already awesome} tool, so I was inspired to write a series of blog posts on Seesaw. Check back frequently over the new couple of weeks or follow me on Twitter to make sure you don't miss any of this series!

This post covers all those little "extras" that didn't really fit in any other part of this series.

When you log in to the website, click your name in the top, left corner, click your class name, and click "manage class," you'll notice quite a few options.

Review of "Manage Class" Options:

1. Class Settings

• Class name: students will see the name of your class when they log in, so keep that in mind when naming it. {I recommend naming your class very specifically if your students have multiple teachers using Seesaw.} You can change the class name at any time.
• Grade level: remember that Seesaw assigns animal icons to grades K-4 and initial avatars grades 5+, but you can change them at any time. 
• Manage teachers: Seesaw allows you to add co-teachers to any class. Co-teachers have all the same rights the original teacher does -- they'll be able to assign and view work, comment, share, etc. 

2. Students

• Student sign in mode: Review the two QR code sign in modes in this blog post 
• Manage students: Add/delete students
• Student likes and comments: Enable or disable students' ability to like or comment on other students' work
• Students can see each others' work: self-explanatory :)
• New items require approval: If you enable this {make it green}, you'll have to manually approve each item that students submit before it actually appears in their journal for their classmates and/or parents to see
• Enable item editing: Controls whether students can copy and edit another classmate's work {including work you assign to everyone}.

3. Parents

• Enable parent access: Until you enable this {make it green}, you won't see any of the other options under the "parents" heading
• Invite parents: allows you to download a parent invitation handout or send parent invitation e-mails directly from within the app {opens your default e-mail provider with a drafted e-mail, so all you have to do is enter parent e-mail addresses and click send!}
• Manage parents: sorts students whose parents are connected v. students whose parents aren't connected. Allows you to see which e-mail address parents used to view their child's work and gives you the option to remove their access.
• Pending parent approvals: When you invite parents to view a child's journal, they sign up for an account and choose their child's name from the class roster. You, the teacher, can go to this place to approve or deny each parent. This is just an extra security measure to make sure the parent clicks the correct student when signing up. :) 
• Parent likes, comments, and sharing: enable or disable any of these things for your group of parents

4. Folders

• Manage folders: Create folders, assign colors to each folder, and edit names of existing folders
• Show add to folder step: Do you want to be the only one with access to folders? If so, you can leave this part alone. But if you want students to be able to add their own work to folders, you have to give them access here.

5. Other

• Save to camera roll: Saves a copy of work to the device's camera roll
• Video quality: self-explanatory

6. Administrative Details

• Reset QR code: self-explanatory
• Archive class: Saves the class roster and all student-submitted work but removes the class from your list {the one you see when you click your name in the top, left corner}. You can archive and un-archive classes as much as you want. Archiving a class frees up a slot in your available classes {since teachers get 10 classes by default}
• Delete class: permanently removes the class, roster, and all student work from your account

Student Avatars/Profile Pictures

If students sign in with their Google account, their Seesaw avatar is the same as their Google avatar. If you chose another sign in option for students, though, Seesaw automatically assigns an avatar to each user. Students in grades K-4 get a random animal avatar, while students in grades 5+ get their initials. Students who sign in with a QR code cannot change their avatar, but you can change it for them by selecting another animal icon or uploading a photo of your own.

I suggest making this a "getting to know you" activity the first week or two of school -- have students take a selfie on your device, and work with them to change their avatar to their "real" picture. Bonus: at the end of this activity, you'll have a picture of all your students, which will make future substitutes verrrrry happy! 

Premium

Seesaw is, by default, completely free. In fact, all of the options I've talked about in this entire blog post series are 100% free. However, there are some other options in case you feel like spending some money:

1. Parents can upgrade just their child's account for $10/year. This rolls the student's journal over to the next year so that it can be kept and revisited. 
2. Schools can upgrade to the school account for $5/student. This option is pretty cool but pricey. With a school account, student journals carry over from year to year, and you get access to an administrator dashboard that gives data on all classroom activities. I was briefly upgraded to an administrator dashboard and took some screenshots so I could share what it looks like before I was downgraded again.

Information blacked out to protect privacy :)

Tweetable:

• MORE @seesaw features, explained by @ckarasedu

Other post in this series:

• Features: available 10.10.15 {what students can do, what parents can do, and what teachers can do}
• Getting Started: available 10.11.15 {signing up, creating a class, classroom sign in vs. individual sign in, creating folders, helping students sign in}
• Student Navigation: available 10.12.15 {icon glossary, submitting work, viewing work, copying and editing, feed and calendar view, liking and commenting}
• Teacher Navigation: available 10.13.15{finding student work in the feed, individual student journal, calendar, folders, flagged work} 
• Pushing Work to Students: available 10.14.15 {converting printed files to digital ones, sharing PDFs vs. image files, pushing work to everyone vs. pushing work to select students, AirDropping images}
• Interacting with Student Work on Seesaw: available 10.15.15 {student work: dissected, editing people and folders, downloading and sharing items}
• More Options: available 10.16.15 {managing class, students, parents, folders, other, and administrative details; student avatars; premium version}

Seesaw: Interacting with Student Work

I used Seesaw {the free ePortfolio tool} with my K-4 students last year, and it helped us make the Science Lab almost completely paperless, so it's no wonder I continue to rave about this tool! As a Seesaw Ambassador {look for me in the southwest section!}, I get constant updates about what the team is doing to improve their {already awesome} tool, so I was inspired to write a series of blog posts on Seesaw. Check back frequently over the new couple of weeks or follow me on Twitter to make sure you don't miss any of this series!

This post is all interacting with student work on Seesaw.

When a student submits work into his/her journal, the default view is a newsfeed, similar to Facebook or Instagram. {Read more about navigating Seesaw in this blog post.}

Here is what the newsfeed currently looks like in my test class {click here if you have trouble viewing it below}:

 

You can interact with student work as you please. From the web, you interact with student work directly from the newsfeed. From the app, you sometimes need to click on the work in order to see all interaction options.

Student Work: Dissected

Interacting with Student Work

1. Like. Much like Instagram or Facebook, the "like" button allows you to quickly share appreciation for the submission. I have not found a way to sort work by "liked" and "not liked." If you choose to enable it, students can "like" other students' work, and parents can "like" their own child's work.  

2. Comment. Modeled after social media, you can add a comment of your choice to the submission. I have not found a way to sort work by comments. If you choose to enable it, students can comment on other students' work, and parents can comment on their own child's work.  

3. Flag. Only the teacher can flag work or see flags on work, so it's a great way to remind yourself to review something, bookmark a great example, etc. Learn more about flagging work by viewing option 5 in this blog post. To flag work, click the flag button at the bottom of a submission.

4. Folder. If you have folders enabled {read more about folders in this post}, click the folder icon to view and/or edit which folder this work was turned into. 

5. More options. Clicking on the "..." shows this:

Keep in mind that students do not have these options. :) Most of these options are self-explanatory, but let's review a couple:

• Edit people: Edit which child's journal this work appears in -- handy if your class is in "classroom sign in mode," and a child accidentally turns work in to another student's journal
• Edit folders: See and edit which folders the work is turned in to {if folders are enabled}
• Copy & edit: Make a copy of the item, edit it, and turn it in to your own journal {students do have this option}
• Download item: Right now, all downloads come in the form of a picture file, which means no videos are downloaded at all. Pictures that have audio recordings on top of them allow the user to download the audio separately, but there isn't a way to download everything as one file yet. 
• Share item: Share on social media, share via the link {I might use this to e-mail a parent or administrator outstanding work}, and embed the work directly onto your class blog or website, as shown below.

Tweetable:

• How to like, comment, flag, organize, edit, share, and download student work on @seesaw, via @ckarasedu

Other post in this series:

• Features: available 10.10.15 {what students can do, what parents can do, and what teachers can do}
• Getting Started: available 10.11.15 {signing up, creating a class, classroom sign in vs. individual sign in, creating folders, helping students sign in}
• Student Navigation: available 10.12.15 {icon glossary, submitting work, viewing work, copying and editing, feed and calendar view, liking and commenting}
• Teacher Navigation: available 10.13.15{finding student work in the feed, individual student journal, calendar, folders, flagged work} 
• Pushing Work to Students: available 10.14.15 {converting printed files to digital ones, sharing PDFs vs. image files, pushing work to everyone vs. pushing work to select students, AirDropping images}
• Interacting with Student Work on Seesaw: available 10.15.15 {student work: dissected, editing people and folders, downloading and sharing items}
• More Options: available 10.16.15 {managing class, students, parents, folders, other, and administrative details; student avatars; premium version}

Seesaw: Pushing Work to Students

I used Seesaw {the free ePortfolio tool} with my K-4 students last year, and it helped us make the Science Lab almost completely paperless, so it's no wonder I continue to rave about this tool! As a Seesaw Ambassador {look for me in the southwest section!}, I get constant updates about what the team is doing to improve their {already awesome} tool, so I was inspired to write a series of blog posts on Seesaw. Check back frequently over the new couple of weeks or follow me on Twitter to make sure you don't miss any of this series! 

This post is all about how to get work to your students on Seesaw.

Files

When using the app version, you can submit picture files only. If you use the web version, you can submit picture files and PDFs. If you submit a PDF via the web version, the only way that item can be edited within the app is by adding a caption. Students cannot annotate over the top of the PDF or add a voice recording. 

Let's say you have a worksheet or template that you've used for years and don't want to recreate the wheel. There are two ways you can make that sheet digital:

1. Scan it in. Our district copy machines have the ability to scan in work and e-mail it to anyone as a PDF. If you just want to submit the PDF to your class journal {for instance, maybe you just submit your class syllabus or some class rules for posting to Seesaw}, you don't have to do anything else. :)

If you want students to be able to annotate, record their voice, etc. with your document, you need to turn it into an image. The fastest way to do this is by taking a screenshot. First, open the PDF on your computer. 

Our district computers are PCs and come with a program called "snipping tool." You can find it by clicking on the start button {Windows button in the bottom, left corner of your computer} and typing "snip" into the search bar. Choose the program with this icon:

If you're on a Mac at home, you can press command + shift + 4 to enable screenshotting a part of your screen. 

With the PDF and the screenshotting tool open on your computer, drag the screenshot tool across the part of the screen you want to save, and release the mouse. Make sure to save the image somewhere before exiting it. 

2. Take a picture of it. This won't provide as clean of a look but at least gives you another option. Put the printed PDF on a flat surface and open the camera app in your device. Take a photo of the sheet. 

Pushing Work to Students

Once you have the correct file type {app = images only, web = images and PDFs}, you can submit the work in Seesaw. There are a couple of ways to do this:

1. PDF to Seesaw: Log in to your account on the Seesaw website, click the green + in the top, right corner, select "upload file," and select the file from your computer. 

You can select a certain student, multiple students, or "everyone." I'll talk more about this below. 

2. Image to Seesaw: If on the computer, follow the same steps as you would for submitting a PDF {detailed above}. If you're on a mobile device, log in to your Seesaw account, click the camera roll icon if you already took a picture of the item or the photo icon if you still need to take a picture of the sheet and upload the photo. 

Again, you can select a certain student, multiple students, or "everyone." I'll talk more about this below. 

3. AirDrop. If you took a picture of the item on a newer iOS device {and your students have newer iOS devices, as well}, you can AirDrop the picture to their camera rolls. 

Make sure all devices have AirDrop turned on by flicking up from the bottom of the screen 

Step 1: flick up from the bottom of the screen and click "AirDrop."

Select "everyone."

Make sure "everyone" is highlighted, and then flick the pop-up back down so you can work. Personally, I turn my AirDrop off after I'm finished using it but it's up to you if you leave it on or not!

Go into your camera roll and select the picture of the item you'd like to send. Click the box with an arrow coming out of it on the bottom, left corner of your iOS device screen. You'll get a bunch of share options, and AirDrop options will be at the top. Anyone with an iOS device that also has AirDrop enabled will appear in the AirDrop box; just click the name of their device to send that photo to them wirelessly. 

After you send the picture to students, they'll receive a pop-up screen {usually accompanied by a dinging noise}. They need to accept the AirDropped file, and then it will appear in their own camera roll. This article provides more detailed instructions about how to AirDrop and how to received AirDropped files. 

Once the picture is on student devices, they can launch the Seesaw app and import the image from the camera roll. 

Submitting Work to a Particular Student v. Everyone

This year, Seesaw provided an option for the teacher to push work to everyone. To find it, log in to your teacher account and act like you are about to turn in some work. You should see this option, except with your class roster listed below "everyone:"

Submitting Work to Everyone

Things to note:

• The work is submitted into each student's journal, but it will say "everyone" next to it.
• Students can copy and edit the work before resubmitting it under their name. 
• The original, pushed work appears in each student's journal until the teacher deletes it. {Which means that if you do this a lot, you'll have to wade through all the "pushed down" work before finding stuff the student actually completed, even if you're viewing a particular student's journal.}

Submitting Work to a Particular Student

Instead of clicking the box next to "everyone," just click on a certain student {or group of students'} name. This can be helpful when differentiating work! 

You can also add yourself as a student {i.e. Mrs. Karas} and submit work that way. If your students are in classroom sign in mode, they will still be able to see your journal and copy/edit your work before submitting under their own name. If you're in 1:1 mode, students will not be able to copy/edit your work this way, since students can't see other students' work in this mode. However, if you bring up a single student's journal during parent/teacher conferences, you won't have to wade through all the "everyone" posts in order to find actual sample work from the kid. 

How you submit work to students for copying and editing really depends on your personal preference and how you'll be using Seesaw with parents.

Tweetable

• How to get work to students in @seesaw, via @ckarasedu

Other post in this series:

• Features: available 10.10.15 {what students can do, what parents can do, and what teachers can do}
• Getting Started: available 10.11.15 {signing up, creating a class, classroom sign in vs. individual sign in, creating folders, helping students sign in}
• Student Navigation: available 10.12.15 {icon glossary, submitting work, viewing work, copying and editing, feed and calendar view, liking and commenting}
• Teacher Navigation: available 10.13.15{finding student work in the feed, individual student journal, calendar, folders, flagged work} 
• Pushing Work to Students: available 10.14.15 {converting printed files to digital ones, sharing PDFs vs. image files, pushing work to everyone vs. pushing work to select students, AirDropping images}
• Interacting with Student Work on Seesaw: available 10.15.15 {student work: dissected, editing people and folders, downloading and sharing items}
• More Options: available 10.16.15 {managing class, students, parents, folders, other, and administrative details; student avatars; premium version}

Seesaw: Teacher Navigation

I used Seesaw {the free ePortfolio tool} with my K-4 students last year, and it helped us make the Science Lab almost completely paperless, so it's no wonder I continue to rave about this tool! As a Seesaw Ambassador {look for me in the southwest section!}, I get constant updates about what the team is doing to improve their {already awesome} tool, so I was inspired to write a series of blog posts on Seesaw. Check back frequently over the new couple of weeks or follow me on Twitter to make sure you don't miss any of this series! 

This post is all about helping you, the teacher, navigate Seesaw.

Finding student work:

You have a few options about how to find student work when logged in from a teacher account. All of these options are available from the web version and via the app, but included screenshots are from the web version. 

Option 1: Feed view -- for viewing all students' work at once.

This is the default viewing option. Work appears in a"feed" of one piece of work under another. You can scroll through the work -- much like you would on Facebook or Instagram -- to see it all. If you ever leave feed view and need to get back to it, you can either click the book in the upper, right corner:

Or you can click on your name in the upper, left corner, click the class name, and then select "feed view" from the list:

Option 2: Student journal view -- for viewing work from one student only.

On the right side of the screen, you should see a list of all students' names. 

Select the student whose work you want to see:

Only that students' work will appear in the feed to the left. To go back to viewing all entries, just click "Everyone."

Option 3: Calendar view -- for viewing work from a specific date.

In the top, right corner {by where it says "get class code"}, there are two buttons like this:

Click the right one {that looks like a calendar} to quickly switch to calendar view. 

You can also click your name in the top, left corner, click the class's name, and click "calendar view."

Now you should see a monthly calendar. Use the arrows at the top to scroll through the months. On the web, you'll see the count of how many items were submitted on each day; the app only shows a bold calendar number to signify that work was turned in that day.

web view -- notice 10 items were submitted on September 26

Click the date of your choice to view more detail about which items were turned in that day:

Who do these teachers think they are, writing "hook 'em" and "wreck 'em" all over my test class?! It's "Go Pokes," y'all.  

Click on any of the thumbnails of student work to view it individually {this is where you be able to listen to any recordings or view any videos the student submitted}.

Option 4: Folder view -- for viewing work of a certain type. 

To view work in folders, you must already have folders set up {reviewed in the "getting started" post}. Then click on the folder icon next to "everyone" in your student list:

You'll see a screen that looks something like this, except your list will include the colors and names of all the folders you've implemented:

You can see that 10 items have been added to the blue folder.

Click a folder to view its contents. You'll know you're viewing content from a specific folder by looking at the breadcrumbs at the top your dashboard:

I'm viewing the blue folder in my test class

Option 5: Flagged work view -- for viewing work that you marked for review

Teachers can put a flag on any student submission. The flags are only seen by the teacher, so you can flag without worry of what a parent or student will think. For example, one time, I was listening after school to my kinder friends' recordings about flowers. I had shown a picture in class of a sunflower turning its head toward the sun as it grew. My kinder friend said in her recording, "Umm...Mrs. K. said sunflowers turn their head to the sun, so... I guess moonflowers turn their head to the moon." I flagged that project and made a mental note to talk to her about that later. ;) 

To view flagged work, find the folder icon next to "everyone" on the dashboard:

Then click "teacher flagged."

I haven't flagged any work in my test class yet.

Other Options

Manage your class by clicking on your name, the name of your class, and "manage class." There is a whole slew of other options there {that will be discussed in a later post}. 

Tweetable

• How to find student work and flag work on @seesaw, via @ckarasedu

Other post in this series:

• Features: available 10.10.15 {what students can do, what parents can do, and what teachers can do}
• Getting Started: available 10.11.15 {signing up, creating a class, classroom sign in vs. individual sign in, creating folders, helping students sign in}
• Student Navigation: available 10.12.15 {icon glossary, submitting work, viewing work, copying and editing, feed and calendar view, liking and commenting}
• Teacher Navigation: available 10.13.15{finding student work in the feed, individual student journal, calendar, folders, flagged work} 
• Pushing Work to Students: available 10.14.15 {converting printed files to digital ones, sharing PDFs vs. image files, pushing work to everyone vs. pushing work to select students, AirDropping images}
• Interacting with Student Work on Seesaw: available 10.15.15 {student work: dissected, editing people and folders, downloading and sharing items}
• More Options: available 10.16.15 {managing class, students, parents, folders, other, and administrative details; student avatars; premium version}