Guidelines for Journal Entries

As you introduce Seesaw to students, it's good to think about what types of items you want them to add to their journals.  

Play the Wow Work Video!

Customize the Seesaw Classroom Expectations Poster 

You should come up with guidelines and expectations that work best in your class, but we've put together the following basic suggestions.  

  • The best journal entries demonstrate student work. Student work can take many forms, but entries focused on something the student has made or produced tend to be best. For example:
    • Photographs of something a student has already made: A drawing, block structure, worksheet, or writing exercise.  Photos of students posing with their creations can also be great.
    • Video of a student performance, interview, or interactive activity.
    • A project from another app that the student has made. Seesaw supports importing from the Camera Roll and directly from hundreds of other apps.
    • An interactive activity using the Seesaw drawing tool. For example, put a math problem on the board and ask students to take a picture of it and fill in the answer with the drawing tool.
    • A photograph w/ audio recording where a student can demonstrate reading ability, understanding, or reflection by explaining the picture.
    • See our Activity Ideas section for other ideas 
  • Group projects are great.  When students work together on a project, you can easily select multiple students and add the same item to multiple student journals.
  • Keep it simple. You don't have to use all the annotation tools (audio, drawing, text) on every item -- sometimes just a quick photo goes a long way.  Parents love getting a glimpse of their child's day even if its incomplete (and can always ask their child follow up questions).
  • (If you're using Classroom Sign In). Since students will be using shared devices, its a good idea to emphasize the importance of taking responsibility for your own work, and always choosing your own name when adding items.

Guidelines for student comments: 

Or use this resource for guiding student comments, created by our friends at TeachThought.