With many teachers pointing to challenges around keeping students engaged in the classroom as a growing issue, finding solutions can have better outcomes for both students and educators.
When young minds aren’t fully engaged in learning, the job of a teacher can become harder and less rewarding.
For high-achieving students, the issue can be that they’re not feeling challenged enough, while for students who don’t perform at the same high level, lack of engagement can be caused by feelings that they can’t keep up and don’t always have an easy time expressing their learning during lesson time.
But one other aspect of engagement is related to family. Because the bulk of a child’s school education is delivered in ways that parents and carers can’t see for themselves, providing families with tools that invite them into the classroom can make a powerful difference.
When family members have a greater connection with what their child does at school, the knowledge shared in the classroom can be expanded upon and discussed at home to provide a more holistic approach to the child’s learning that is truly inclusive.
By keeping everyone involved in that student’s education – from parents, carers and teachers – through communication that is clear and inclusive, students can feel better supported and more deeply engaged. For parents, that level of communication helps reinforce what they want to hear – that their child’s needs are seen, understood…and met.
But as teachers navigate increasingly busy workloads and often deal with a lack of meaningful resources to help them achieve this, achieving this level of communication may seem overwhelming – and turning to digital solutions can help.
Family engagement plays a pivotal role
Seesaw understands the important role family engagement plays in a child’s successful educational experiences and provides tools that create a convenient and seamless collaboration between all of the adults in a student’s life, from administrators and classroom teachers to specialists and family members.
Up to 10 family members per student can connect and view work in real-time from any device.
By giving family members greater visibility into what happens in their child’s classroom, teachers can also free up time spent answering questions from parents in phone calls or emails.
“Since using Seesaw, the conversation between parents and students has shifted from ‘How was your day today?’ to ‘Oh! I saw you were working on a presentation in social studies. What was that about?’,” says one educator about the difference nurturing greater family engagement can make.
“From a teacher’s point of view, Seesaw has provided greater transparency into what is happening in our classrooms.”
“When I show students that their parent has seen their work on Seesaw, they swell with pride. It is very motivating for them. It also opens up learning conversations at home and gives parents a window into their child’s learning in the classroom,” says one NSW kindergarten teacher.
Because parents gain a better understanding of what their child is doing during class time, they can also be more actively involved in understanding meaningful ways to reinforce that learning – and that has the potential to benefit everyone involved.
“I love the ability to reach out and share my students’ school experiences with my families, particularly those with limited or no English-speaking skills and those who work full time, who can’t often visit the school,” says a Victorian primary school teacher.