SEESAW OPENS UPCOMING SEESAW CONNECT CONFERENCE TO ALL EDUCATORS FOR THE FIRST TIME EVER AND ANNOUNCES NEW FEATURES FOR USERS

SAN FRANCISCO, July 20, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- Seesaw, the interactive learning platform for PreK-5, for the first time has opened their annual Seesaw Connect virtual conference to all PreK-12 educators and admins, with a slate of virtual programming that addresses the most pressing needs in the classroom today and will act as a one stop shop to set educators up for success this back-to-school season. They also announce the launch of significant updates to their software that includes the addition of a new Seesaw Messages tool, Seesaw Lessons curriculum tool and Canvas integration for web.

"Seesaw Connect is our way of giving back to the PreK-12 education community, by offering a wide range of free courses that address every aspect of their back to school needs," said Sunniya Saleem, VP of Revenue Marketing for Seesaw. "By opening up to all teachers, and not just Seesaw users, we have been able to add exciting content led by a diverse and dynamic group of educators and create ways for attendees to connect, network and build their professional learning community."

Launched in-person in 2018, the first virtual Seesaw Connect took place in 2020 and welcomed more than 40,000 participants from the Seesaw Community. The fifth annual conference will be available on-demand from Monday, July 25th to Sunday, August 14th with on-demand courses that will fill educators with ideas to engage students, elevate school communities, and grow professional networks at all levels. Sessions will be led by experts in the Seesaw community around the world, educators with interesting stories, and internal employees. Certificates of completion can be downloaded for each on-demand course completed, enabling educators to document their continued learning. New this year, Seesaw will be bringing their community together in person with local Meetups in and around the world, including Egypt, Japan, Sri Lanka, Australia, Columbia, United Kingdom, Finland, and across the United States. The Meetups will be hosted by passionate members of the Seesaw Community and are open to all educators, so that participants can connect with like-minded local colleagues (virtually or in-person).

Conference courses are designed for all educators and can be viewed from anywhere - a computer, tablet, phone, all at once, or on the go. Seesaw held open applications for educators to present, selecting those with content and expertise to create a slate of on-demand courses focused on strong pedagogical practices and actionable implementation of innovative ideas and/or instructional practices aligned with Seesaw's mission. They also prioritized selecting presenters to represent their diverse and global community as much as possible. All educators get access to 8+ conference courses and Seesaw Pioneers, Seesaw Ambassadors, and Seesaw Certified Educators get access to all 20+ conference courses that focus on a wide range of topics including planning, creativity, diversity, digital literacy and family interactions. Some of the notable educators and presenters include:

• Information Literacy and Digital Citizenship with Littles - Crucial in preparing students for the future, learn ways to begin teaching these concepts through an early learning lens and lay a strong foundation.
• Led by Pana M. Asavavatana of the Taipei American School in Taipei, Taiwan.
• The Power of Creativity - This session will focus on practical ideas teachers, instructional coaches & administrators can implement to harness creativity to engage, enhance, and extend learning in schools.
• Led by Patience Bertana, the Instructional Technology Coordinator in West Northfield School District #31.
• Leveraging Seesaw as Your LMS - How to best utilizing Seesaw as a Learning Management System (LMS) and make it your hub for assignments, grading, portfolios and communication.
• Led by Melissa Sheffer, a 5th-grade teacher at a rural elementary school in Pennsylvania.
• Documenting Student Learning With Seesaw - Through planning and scaffolds teachers can support students to create quality posts that share learning. Developing these strategies can change how learning is communicated in schools.
• Led by Scott Hall, a Digital Learning Coach in Basel, Switzerland with over 20 years of teaching experience.
• Welcome to STEM Survival Camp! - Surviving in the outdoors requires grit & STEM skills. By using materials outside, build class community and creativity to teach your students some of these important skills during Engineering Design Challenges.
• Led by Naomi Meredith, a former classroom teacher turned current K-5 STEM teacher and coach.

Other notable courses include María Montemayor & Alberto Valdés course presented in Spanish and titled "App Smashing con Seesaw," a Partnership with Canva for Education called "Practical Activities that Inspire Creativity with Canva for Education & Seesaw" and two wellness focused classes, "Sunny San Diego: Fast Fun Workout with Jen Burdis" and "Creative Flow with Amber Henzi." Full details about courses and presenters can be found in the Seesaw Connect Course Guide.

Courses will also introduce educators to some of the new Seesaw features including Messages and Seesaw Lessons. Building on Seesaw's commitment to enhance learning for educators, students and families, the launch of their new product features take the Seesaw experience to the next level:

• Messages is a new version of the inbox that makes it easier than ever for learning communities to connect safely with modern, flexible, and powerful communication tools for the whole school, small group, and 1:1 conversations and announcements. Designed based on teacher feedback, it's the user-friendly solution that has been built on the requests and needs of the community. New features allow users to enable responses or keep a message one-way, message custom groups of teachers, students, and families, add or remove participants from group conversations, teacher-student messaging – if enabled by admin, student-student messaging – with teacher supervision, and message multiple classes at once. These features were also designed intentionally with student safety and privacy first, to ensure a safe environment for all students.
• Seesaw Lessons offers research-based expanded PK-5 curriculum content with a focus on Early Literacy, PK/TK content, and Computer Science to propel student engagement, ownership, and growth. The Lessons Library redesign improves how teachers find/teach Lessons and better positions Lessons as a PK-5 curriculum. An improved Teacher Preview also gives access to free Lessons across all grade levels and content areas.
• Canvas integration is also now live for the desktop web app, and is coming soon to other platforms. With more districts adopting LMS K-12 during the pandemic, it's important that ed-tools integrate. This integration will better support districts who ALREADY use Canvas and want to start assigning Seesaw activities within Canvas.

"These launches will enhance some of our most essential functions, making communication between educators, students and families easier than ever before, and providing engaging content for teachers to meet their curriculum needs," said Sara Romero-Heaps, Chief Education Officer. "Seesaw users will be able to start the school year with even better tools at their fingertips."

To sign up for the Seesaw Connect conference, visit https://web.seesaw.me/seesaw-connect, and to learn more about Seesaw's new features visit https://web.seesaw.me/whats-new

Seesaw is the only educational platform built specifically for PreK-5 students. Seesaw brings teachers, students and families together to deepen student learning and engagement. With Seesaw, even the youngest learners can bring their ideas and imagination to life so that teachers, parents, and school leaders have a window into their minds – where phenomenal growth is taking place every day. The Seesaw classroom solution provides high quality lessons, unparalleled communication tools, and the professional support that is needed to elevate all learners and their families. Seesaw is used by over 10 million teachers, students, and family members in more than 130 countries worldwide.

MEDIA CONTACT: Dinah Saglio | [email protected]

SOURCE Seesaw