On the weekend I came across a free app for ipad called SeeSaw. I am really keen to try it out with some students as it looks like:

a) It will work at school

b) You do not have to have your own iPad to upload to it

c) It will give a lot of options regarding what you can upload

d) Students without their own device will be able to use it too

I would love a few parents to check it out and give me their permission to trial it with their children so that I can compare Notability and SeeSaw. Apparently there is a way to make each page password protected, but it may take me a while to work this out. So essentially I’m asking parents to volunteer to give me and your child permission to upload work samples which may include videos and photos to test it out. You will need to read the terms and conditions to be fully aware of what it is that you are volunteering for. I am keen to get permission from parents of children with their device or without it.

There is no limit to how many can participate in my trial.

Please let me know if you would like to be involved by email, or a note stating that you give permission for your child’s image, voice recordings and work to be uploaded to SeeSaw.

Wow!
We’ve had quite a few students consistently earn 5 or 6 stars for their blog comments now. If you are one of them then get thinking about something you’d love to blog about! We’re ready to have guest bloggers any time you are.

If you haven’t yet earnt that right, keep posting, but make sure that you request a star rating from me because I’m going to stop rating every comment.

Wouldn’t it be great to see a guest post at least once per week?

If you are a 6 star blogger see me to talk about how to display that in our room. I’ve got some ideas, but I think you probably do too 🙂

In Melbourne recently at a wonderful IB conference on Digital Citizenship, I met a teacher who inspired his students to interact with their class blog through a 5 star comment system.

You can read his blog post here

Today our class decided that we would set ourselves a similar challenge, but ours would be a 6 star challenge!

We think that a great comment would have:

• a greeting
• correct spelling and punctuation
• descriptive sentences
• a positive comment
• a signature or sign off

For a bonus star you should try to put a question to encourage further discussion.

Students who consistently achieve a 5-6 star rating will have earnt a licence to be a guest blogger on our blog.