Disclosure: I am a Seesaw ambassador. That means I get more classes to use for free.

The past couple of years I have had more parent conferences than ever before. They are mostly with my younger students. Their parents want to know how their child is doing in my class which is completely reasonable and should be lauded. I always tell the parents that if there was an issue with their child they would have heard from me well before the middle or end of November but I digress.

What I did notice with the meetings was that I felt a comfort level during those meetings that I hadn’t felt when I was first teaching. Some of that could be explained by my increasing knowledge of my subject area and the fact that my community knows me very well after 7 years. That is only part of the answer though.

The biggest factor in my opinion is my use of Seesaw. Every single meeting the parent commented how much they  enjoyed the videos. This gave them a knowledge of what my class is about as well as a comfort level with me. That cannot be valued enough! The conversations were pleasant and productive.

One parent told me they sit with their child and watch the videos together. They than ask them questions about what is going on in the video, did they have fun, and what were they learning. This made my year to hear that. There is nothing more powerful than enabling a family to have a window into my class that starts a conversation about learning and joy.

If you aren’t using Seesaw you are missing out.