Family Communication is the Key to Success (Mrs. Neeti Gregg)
Family Communication Is the Key to Success
A Success Story from a Two-Time Florida Teacher of the Year Recipient
Awards and Accolades
12/2018
Ocean Palms Elementary Teacher of the Year
10/2020
INK Make a Mark Award Recipient
12/2022
Certified Educational Trainer
10/2024
Freedom Crossing Academy Teacher of the Year
Neeti Gregg is a first-grade teacher at Freedom Crossing Academy in the St. Johns County, FL school district. She has won “Teacher of the Year” award twice in St. John’s County – first in 2018 at Ocean Palms Elementary and now at Freedom Crossing Academy in 2024. She started teaching in 2004 and has been in education for the past 20 years and has taught Kindergarten, 1st, and 2nd grade and was also an online principal. Prior to working in education, she worked in the field of public relations and holds a bachelor’s and master’s degree in interpersonal and organizational communications. She understands the power of communication and has found it extremely helpful in her time as a teacher.
When you enter Mrs. Neeti Gregg’s 1st grade classroom, several impressive qualities immediately stand out. Her students warmly welcome you with a professional handshake and a kind compliment, radiating a sense of pride and belonging. There’s a strong sense of community as they support each other, creating a warm and unified environment and genuine enthusiasm for learning. It’s aweinspiring to see such young students already embodying leadership, independence, and respect for the classroom structure. As the day goes on you witness a classroom that operates seamlessly, where each student contributes to a harmonious, well-structured environment, gets to share their learning, demonstrate leadership skills, and clearly thrive. It’s a testament to the incredible impact of a teacher who believes in her students and inspires them to believe in themselves.
Mrs. Gregg was first introduced to Seesaw by a colleague six years ago and admits she was intimidated to use Seesaw at first. She thought it would take a lot of work on her part to be successful, but was seeking a solution that could help support a partnership between herself and her student’s families. She saw Seesaw could provide a way for families to have a glimpse of what happened inside her classroom and the student’s school day. A few years later when COVID-19 hit, she was grateful for her knowledge of Seesaw
Mrs. Neeti Gregg
Once teachers get into the routine and their children understand how to use it, they won’t want to stop.
Seesaw is an incredible tool.
as it continued to give her the insights into her student’s learning and seamless communication with families despite the continual interruptions in learning and challenges that came with the pandemic. Seesaw enabled her to ensure her students were using the curriculum and she could see and collect data to prove they had completed their work.
Elementary School is a Critical Time in a Child’s Life
Elementary school is a critical time in a child’s life. Many students are hesitant to go to school due to fears of leaving their parents, making friends, or finding school challenging or boring. Parents want their children to be happy and successful in school but often find it difficult to support their school experience. Mrs. Gregg loves how Seesaw gives families real-time information about what she’s doing in her class and how she can record her students reading, playing with friends, working on projects, participating on the playground, and more. This alleviates their fears and gives them ways to support and celebrate what their children are doing.
The top questions she used to hear during parent conferences were “Does my child have any friends?”, “How is my child doing at school?”, “What are your number one concerns for my child?” Now, with the help of Seesaw, parents always know how school is going. She
says her parent conferences are short and sweet and there are no surprises. Every parent has access to what their child is doing daily and how they are achieving academically. She has found over the years that the more parents know, the more comfortable they are and the happier they are with their child’s experience.
My parents never have a question about what we are doing because with Seesaw, there is no way you can’t know what’s going on in my class.
Military and Traveling Families
Never Miss a Moment
Jacksonville Florida is a Navy town and many of Mrs. Gregg’s students have family members in the military or travel a lot for work. She had one boy in class who was sad that his father would be gone for three months. But thanks to the help of Seesaw, when they spoke on the phone at home, it wasn’t, “How was school?” It was, “I saw a picture of you playing with your friends, I saw you were working on double digit addition. I can see that you’re doing great in school. I’m proud of you!”
Another little girl came in every day crying until Mrs. Gregg suggested using Seesaw. Every day she would take a picture of herself working and would draw a picture for her mom and send it through Seesaw. Her mom would always write back saying “Thank you baby, you’re doing so good!” Mrs. Gregg would read the mother’s messages back to her. When the girl started 2nd grade her mom pulled Mrs.
Now families can have real conversations about what they are learning and doing at school rather than “What did you do today at school?”
Fostering Family Partnerships Through Transparent Communication
Gregg aside to tell her thank you and that while she missed being with her, she didn’t miss a beat about what was going on in school because she saw that daily message. It made a huge impact with that mother.
For Veteran’s Day Mrs. Gregg had her students sing a song honoring America and she recorded it in Seesaw and posted it for her class families. The father who was in the military that year wrote back how honored he was and loved it.
Did You See It? Yes, I Saw It!
Mrs. Gregg likes that through Seesaw her student’s families are communicating not only more with her and what she’s doing in class, but also with each other. Her parents no longer ask them “What did you do today at school”? Instead, the child and family communication is different. Her students are excited to share their day with their families. It’s like, “Did you see my STEM project?” “Yes, I saw it! That was great! Tell me more about that!”
She’s hoping she’s instilling a habit of communication so that as her students get older, they can feel comfortable sharing what’s going on in their lives and it will be a common practice to talk to their families about their situations. She feels that life is more challenging for kids these days than ever before. They need a way to talk about things.
Mrs. Gregg knows that having an open line of communication with families not only helps give them a glimpse into what her students are doing, but it also enables her to get more support from her families and give them the best possible experience with her class. Mrs. Gregg was fortunate to receive seven iPads for her classroom via a grant, but it was still hard to navigate ensuring everyone had enough time to access and complete their work. Once families saw how much the kids enjoyed Seesaw and could see what their children were working on and how it was helping them socially and academically, many of the parents allowed their kids to bring their own iPads they had from home. Now her class has plenty of tech devices to enable everyone to work in Seesaw whether she’s doing small group, independent learning, or whole class instruction.
Like most teachers, Mrs. Gregg does a Friday newsletter to families sharing what they’ve completed each week and what’s coming for the following week. But due to Seesaw, much of it is not a surprise to them. They are already aware of what’s happening in her classroom and the student’s share with excitement what is coming the following week.
Families that take vacations or have students home sick are also a non-issue, because Mrs. Gregg has them continue to work through Seesaw to stay on track because that’s what she is teaching in class.
With
all the things going on in the
world
today, don’t we want our children talking with their families? When something big comes up they’re going to feel comfortable talking about it because they are now in the habit of sharing.
Saving Valuable Time Teaching Numeracy
and Literacy
A teacher’s day can go into the wee hours of the evening with families continually reaching out with questions, concerns, or updates. Mrs. Gregg has shared that her nights are no longer consumed writing lengthy emails, responding to families, or grading papers. Thanks to Seesaw, she can reply to her families quickly in real time throughout the day, and often share a picture to reassure them.
She’s also able to assess her students’ needs much faster by using her planning period to review student’s work and quickly find misconceptions which she can address swiftly. For example, she no longer has to do 1:1 reading assessments, which take valuable classroom instructional time, and can be difficult for students with performance anxiety.
Instead of sitting with each child for 20 minutes, she allows them to sit in the classroom reading nook and record themselves
Mrs. Gregg providing whole class instruction on a fraction lesson in Seesaw.
During learning stations, Mrs. Gregg’s students have the flexibility to choose where they work, rather than being required to work at their desks.
Providing one-on-one support for a student who had a question.
reading independently and then reviews them during her prep period or afterschool, enabling classroom time to be focused on valuable instructional time or remediation. Thanks to auto grading and fluency features in Seesaw, it takes her 10 minutes to review activities and see how many words they read correctly.
She also loves how she can find any lesson she needs in Seesaw to support standards or student’s needs and the students never complain about using Seesaw. They all love it. They never get bored of Seesaw because the activities are always different.
Mrs. Gregg uses Seesaw in all subject areas, but she particularly likes it best for math and phonics. The three goals she focuses on before her students leave her class is to ensure they have neat handwriting to write their letters, read at a first-grade level, and are able to add and subtract within 20 fluently. So, she uses Seesaw to ensure her students master all these concepts.
I tell teachers, “This is not going to be one more thing you have to do, it’s actually going to save you time and help you. There’s everything you need in Seesaw.”
A student working independently on Seesaw.
Working with a small group of students to provide additional support.
A student reading in front of the class with another student taking a video in Seesaw so he can share his reading with his family.
A student working independently on a Seesaw activity.
Alleviating Family Concerns
Another thing Mrs. Gregg appreciates is that things that would often be disruptive in class just don’t happen anymore now that she has Seesaw. For example, families often tell her, “My child might not be okay today because our dog is sick,” or “There are family situations going on,” and they are often worried about their child throughout the day because of it. Mrs. Gregg will quickly take a picture to assure the parents that their child is doing fine in class. She appreciates the 24-hour access to Seesaw’s built-in communication features.
Other times, students will complain of not feeling very well or tell her that they need to go home because they hurt their knee or something along those lines. She’ll quickly snap a picture of the child, which goes to the parent’s phone, often accompanied by a quick reply that suggests something from the family member, such as, “No, tell them they are fine and don’t need to go to the nurse or come home.” She said it truly is a partnership because her students know she is in constant communication with their family members, which makes them feel safer as well.
Student Agency Develops Leadership Skills
The word “Seesaw” can be heard in Mrs. Gregg’s classroom every day. She encourages her students to post their work or pictures for their families to see. Her students are always engaged in activities, sharing pictures of their celebrations, such as passing a reading level, obtaining a certificate of accomplishment, receiving the “Student of the Day” award, and showcasing what they are doing throughout the day inside and outside her classroom. She also posts pictures of her students leading class activities, explaining their work to the class, and showcasing their leadership skills. In her class, it is completely normal to hear, “I need to post that for my parents.” Her students
love that Seesaw gives them different ways to learn and share their learning in ways that work best for them.
Many teachers are hesitant to try new applications because they think it will take too much time and energy, but Mrs. Gregg shares that with Seesaw it’s the opposite. She often has half the kids working on various assignments, the other kids working independently on Seesaw, and others working with her in a small group. During this time, you can see students using Seesaw to build things, take pictures or videos of themselves, draw pictures, take pictures of what they wrote or show off their handwriting. She gives them free access to share what they are most proud of. She still must review what they captured before it is shared with families, but she can quickly click, click, click, and approve it. She isn’t super critical of what they share because if that is what they’re proud of then she feels it should be shared.
You’d love it if you tried it. It’s a lifesaver!
Supporting IEP and 504 Accommodations
Mrs. Gregg regularly has English Language Learners (ELL) in her classroom. She likes that with Seesaw, she can post activities at their level and use pictures to aid their understanding. Many of her ELL families appreciate the pictures of their children
working, playing, and succeeding in the classroom. She also likes that the digital portfolio feature enables her to document Individualized Education Plan (IEP) and 504 accommodations, showcasing students working in small groups or receiving the extra support they need to find success. She is proud of how quickly her ELL students begin communicating in her classroom with her help and Seesaw.
She’s also had students on IEPs for behavior. Parents have told her on the first day of school that their children struggle in school and in making friends. But when they see all the posts on Seesaw showcasing their child participating in group activities, having fun, and receiving hugs from classmates (and Mrs. Gregg), it is no longer difficult to talk about their child’s challenges, and the parents can see that their child is loved.
Meeting the Diverse Needs of Her Students
Mrs. Gregg explains that her students have various levels of knowledge in each subject area and how Seesaw makes teaching easier. For example, if she is teaching a math lesson and wants to see if her students can do it, she looks around to see who is asking a friend for help. She encourages them to try it themselves, and if they need her help, she can support them through one-on-one or small group instruction. This enables others to keep going without slowing down the whole class. Those who understand the material can engage in another activity for extra practice. It allows each child to receive what they need at their level of interest and skill.
When emergencies arise, such as a student is not feeling well or someone stops by her classroom, she tells the class to log in to Seesaw because it isn’t busy work. She knows her students will not only be excited about it, but the classroom environment will remain calm and conducive to learning.
A Win-Win For All: Capturing Hearts and Connecting the Family Community
In all the years Mrs. Gregg has been teaching, she’s never had a parent complain about what’s happening in her classroom or wondered how they can support their child. She attributes this to effective communication with families and how Seesaw supports her in doing this well. Her school is part of the nationwide Capturing Kids’ Hearts® school program that emphasizes connections and relationship building. That means making people feel loved - from admin to teachersfrom teachers to students and - students to families. The program’s motto is, “If you have a child’s heart…you have a child’s mind.”
So, having a digital portfolio to document learning, lessons to support each students’ needs, and a communication feature to bring it all together helps her support students and families in feeling loved. She said it is what makes all the difference. With Seesaw Mrs. Gregg doesn’t have to tell her families what their children are doing, they can see for themselves. After working 10 years in the field of public relations, and 20 years in education, Neeti Gregg is a big believer in Seesaw. She isn’t shy about saying, if her school took it away, she’d no longer be teaching. She said it provides a win-win-win for everyone involved in a child’s life. It makes learning fun, helps her as a teacher, and enables families to support, celebrate, and share their learning with their child.
Seesaw makes me look good.
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