How should I set up specialist teachers?

There are a few options for specialist teachers. You should decide which will work best for you based on the age of your students and tech set up.

The simplest option is to create separate classes for specialist teachers and use email sign in for students. However, email sign in for students does not work well for younger students or shared devices. In that case, you should weigh the pros/cons of creating separate classes or one shared class.

Option 1: Have separate classes for homeroom and specialist teachers.

• Pros: Student work is in separate classes for each teacher. Teachers can control their own class settings. Students signing into Seesaw with email and password can switch between classes in the left sidebar menu just like teachers.

• Cons: Class code students will have to sign out of homeroom class and scan into the specialist class when they want to add things to the specialist class journal.

Option 2: Create one shared class with specialist teachers as co-teachers. Use folders to keep specialist work organized (ex: folders for Art, Science, Tech).

• Pros: Students will not need to sign in and out, or remember to switch between classes.

• Cons: Teachers have to agree on class settings. Students and teachers must remember to use folders to help differentiate which work belongs to each subject and/or needs to be reviewed by each teacher.

• Learn how to add a co-teacher to your class.

Option 3: Specialist teacher creates one large class and names groups of students after the homeroom/main teacher that group belongs to. Works great for library, makerspace, clubs.

• Pros: No need to sign in out or switch between classes. Everything is in one big class.

• Cons: There is one shared Class Journal and students do not have their own journal. Families cannot subscribe to the journal (but posts can be shared to a class blog if you want to share with a wider audience).

Family View

• If your school is using Seesaw for Schools, families will be automatically connected to their child's journals as long as the teacher in those classes have Family Access turned ON.