This blog post will share free tools to help with your Nearpod presentations. We will cover the who, the what, the why, and how of enhancing any Nearpod presentation. However, you can use these tools for any presentation you are creating!

Why do visuals matter for presentations?

Nearpod is a powerful platform that supports educators and enterprises in creating high-quality visual presentations. You can create your presentation directly within Nearpod or drop in PowerPoint, Google Slides, or Keynote presentations. It allows for the integration of interactive experiences, which significantly enhances visual communication and presentations. When using Nearpod, educators can incorporate a variety of multimedia elements, such as video, audio, and interactive formative assessments, to engage participants. These tools help to highlight key messages and ensure that participants remain attentive and involved throughout the lesson.

To craft a great presentation with Nearpod, educators should pay attention to several important elements. By combining interactive professional development elements with Nearpod’s formative assessments, activities, and multimedia, educators can deliver presentations that convey information effectively while keeping participants engaged and actively participating. This holistic approach ensures that the key messages and material are truly retained, resulting in a more impactful and memorable learning experience.

New to Nearpod? Teachers can sign up for free below to access formative assessment activities and create interactive presentations. Administrators can schedule a call with an expert to unlock the full power of Nearpod for schools and districts.

Why do visuals matter for presentations?

• They help us communicate. If you’ve ever traveled to a foreign country, a visual of an arrow easily tells you where you should go.
• They help us remember.
• They provide visual models. As a bilingual teacher, visuals were important for visual models. If I had a student that was a limited speaker, I could rely on visuals so they could better understand and retain the information

Take a look at this example below. Which one is easier to understand?

Visuals help learners make connections, provide engagement, tie ideas together, collaborate, and accommodate different learning styles for audience understanding.

What are the challenges we face when creating visual presentations?

• Time to make it look presentable
• Meeting learners needs
• Formatting
• Designing to fully communicate the lesson
• Structuring and lack of flexibility
• Creating something creative without any knowledge of designing/art.
• Making it purposeful but not distracting

For the most part, everyone knows how to use Powerpoint. Powerpoint offers very generic templates. They are colorful and great but they do not always do the job. Have you ever found yourself using a PowerPoint template and started creating a presentation but cannot find the clip art to put in the slide, or you can’t even find the image you are looking for? Or you put an image in, and it messes everything up! Before you know it, you get frustrated, and your PowerPoint turns into one big Word Document.

What’s worse than having a PowerPoint read to you? A PowerPoint without visuals. Visuals serve a purpose even during times you may not realize it.

3 Free design tools to create visual presentations examples

1. Canva

Canva provides you with free templates for every type of presentation, flyers, infographics, and more. You can upload your own images to use. It has over 1,000 free resources to incorporate as well. You do have to register for an account to use Canva. However, it is free. Some features may require an upgrade.

2. Flat Icon

Flat Icon provides you with free icons that provide a visual representation for multiple activities, functions, or topics. All you have to do is search for an image, download the file, and attribute the source.  Icons are available in black and white or in color.

3. Unsplash

Unsplash provides free high-resolution images on a variety of topics that can be used as background or in presentations. This is a great resource for conveying stories, cover images or background images. Attribution to the artist is not required but highly recommended.

Start using Nearpod to create presentations

In conclusion, free design tools have made it easier than ever to create all types of visual presentations. In addition, incorporating bullet points can help break down information into manageable chunks, making it easier for students to follow along. With tools like Canva, Flat Icon, and Unsplash, anyone can enhance their slides with templates, icons, and high-resolution images. By harnessing the power of visuals, you can effectively communicate your message, engage your audience, and leave a lasting impact.

New to Nearpod? Teachers can sign up for free below to access formative assessment activities and create interactive presentations. Administrators can schedule a call with an expert to unlock the full power of Nearpod for schools and districts.

The post 3 Free design tools to create visual presentations (with examples!) appeared first on Nearpod Blog.

Using Nearpod during trainings keeps everyone engaged and interested. It’s a more interactive and dynamic format! You create the presentation slides and then add interactive activities and media. You can then share the presentation using a 5-digit code, and participants will be able to follow along on their own devices. Keep reading to explore tips for conference presentations!

New to Nearpod? Teachers can sign up for free below to access formative assessment activities and create interactive presentations. Administrators can schedule a call with an expert to unlock the full power of Nearpod for schools and districts.

6 Effective training presentation tips for conferences

1. Hold the room’s attention

Are your past presentations created in Keynote, PowerPoint, or Google Slides? Drop your pre-existing presentations and give them a facelift with Nearpod to create an effective and good training presentation.

With Nearpod, you can add interactive activities and engaging media. You can embed multimedia activities like questions, collaboration discussions, videos, and GIFs to keep the room’s attention. Participants will be able to follow along and complete prompts on their devices. With Draw It, you can add a presentation template image as the background as participants draw responses. Presenters can view responses and progress in real-time, provide feedback, or share out audience responses.

If you’re an administrator who wants to ensure that all of your teachers are paying attention during the training and conference talk, you can see who gets out of the lesson because that user will be highlighted red.

2. Eliminate multi-tab clicking

It’s easy to create presentation designs that link to other sites and forms. With Nearpod, you can embed your favorite web links to keep everything in one hub. Include links to forms, articles, and videos. And, of course, you can embed interactive activities, like Polls, Collaborate Board, Matching Pairs, and more. This is perfect for training sessions so participants can focus on presentation topics by keeping everything in one place.

3. Adjust training in real-time

This training presentation tip is a game-changer!

Did someone ask a question during the presentation that you would like to share with everyone? Did you think of a new slide or activity idea at the moment? Just like teaching a class, you want to be able to check for understanding in real time, and with Nearpod’s Quick Start Activities, you can do just that. Choose from popular activities to create a quick assessment that participants can complete. Additionally, Quick Launch gives you the ability to create an open-ended question, Collaborate board, or start a timer.

4. Collect presentation feedback

Embed open-ended questions, multiple-choice questions, polls, and Google Forms into your Nearpod lesson.

These training presentation tips are a game-changer! You can use this to:

• Determine during the training if anyone has questions.
• Collect attendee information after the presentation.
• Collect training feedback.

5. Brain breaks

It’s not only students who need a break from long-winded presentations; adults also need time to reset.

Here are ways to use Nearpod for brain breaks:

• Embed a fun video to break up the lengthy lecture.
• Add discussion questions to a Nearpod slide for controlled chatter.
• Use the Draw it feature to leverage the teacher’s creativity.

6. Incorporate with webinars

Use Nearpod during a Zoom meeting or webinar so that you can embed video clips without the “strain” on the bandwidth of the meeting. Nearpod allows for interactivity that you would normally have in a live session through the Polls, Collaborate Board, and Open-Ended Questions without the need for “taking turns” in audio. Have participants turn on Student Notes to take notes and have the training materials automatically emailed to them after the conference presentation.

Start using Nearpod for presentations

We hope you’ll be using these professional development and employee training presentation ideas for your next conference! With these tips for creating good presentations and tools like Nearpod, you can transform the way conference participants experience sessions.

New to Nearpod? Teachers can sign up for free below to access formative assessment activities and create interactive presentations. Administrators can schedule a call with an expert to unlock the full power of Nearpod for schools and districts.

The post 6 Effective training presentation tips for conferences appeared first on Nearpod Blog.

As an instructional coach, professional development leader, and conference presenter, I find that creating an engaging professional development session is similar to creating a stellar lesson in the classroom. 

• I need to know and explain why this content is being covered and how it’s helpful in teacher practice. 
• I need to ensure I am giving teachers the chance to learn and collaborate during professional development sessions actively. I want to consider how engaged my audience will be throughout the session and ensure that I thoughtfully use an interactive professional development experience for those attending.

I can accomplish this with active learning strategies and providing opportunities for collaboration by using handy tech tools such as Nearpod.

New to Nearpod? Teachers can sign up for free below to access and create interactive lessons. Administrators can schedule a call with an expert to unlock the full power of Nearpod for schools and districts.

Join us for Camp Engage: Back to School!

Make this summer count by participating in a professional development event like no other. Camp Engage, which is July 25-27th, is a FREE virtual professional development event packed with interactive, expert-led sessions focused on topics you care about, and innovative strategies to support your instruction — just in time for back to school. Not only will educators gain invaluable knowledge, but they will also earn PD credits, adding value to their professional journey.

How to make interactive professional development activities for teachers

Importance and impact of PD for teachers

As educators, we have dedicated ourselves to a profession that encourages lifelong learning. Our ever-changing society is in constant flux. As more research on how students learn best, our instructional practices must change to rise to the standard of today’s challenges and be the most effective. The purpose of professional development is to continue building teachers’ capacity to increase student outcomes.  Professional development is an avenue to directly impact teacher skills, leading to improved classroom practices and positively impacting student outcomes (Yoon et al., 2007).

However, teachers and administrators across the nation have been working harder than ever. When educators are stretched thin, the last thing they want (or need) is bad professional development. Bad professional development can be ineffective, unhelpful, and downright boring. How do we, as building and district leaders, ensure that we serve teachers well? We can do this by integrating professional development that is engaging and effective. Ensuring that best professional development practices are used is the key to success.

Integrating active learning

Interactive professional development should integrate active learning. Lecture-based learning professional development has low engagement and leaves little room for innovation and reflection. Bates & Morgan (2018) explain that incorporating hands-on experiences into professional development can make learning a more meaningful experience. Active learning can also include watching a model lesson (Garet et al., 2001). Whether you’re leading an online course or boosting employee engagement in person, interactive professional development can be integrated in a multitude of ways. For example, teachers can participate in a model lesson with the materials used in a similar lesson for their classroom environment. This would allow teachers to experience and think about how they would incorporate this lesson or practice into their classrooms.

Want to introduce a new website or app for teachers to integrate into their practice? Great! Use it with them so they have an opportunity to explore the edtech platform and experience how it can support classroom management. Edtech tools, such as Nearpod, create fun, professional development activities for teachers, allowing them to see how they could integrate professional development in the classroom.

Using Nearpod’s activities, presenters can take a lecture-based presentation and turn it into a fun activity for a teacher workshop. Here are a few professional development ideas presenters can use:

Interactive activities

• Have teachers try a Time to Climb activity and watch them laugh and get competitive!
• Integrate checks using the Quiz or Poll feature throughout the presentation to gauge understanding of the content and professional development topics for teachers.
• Easily watch an example lesson using Interactive Video. It can be made interactive by adding stopping points throughout the video. These stopping points can have moments for teachers to reflect and ask questions about the lesson.

Opportunities for collaboration

Discussing classroom practices can be a personal matter requiring teachers to be vulnerable and trust their peers. Building team leaders should encourage community building through activities and discussion before instructional methods. Just like a classroom teacher would build relationships with and among the students in their class, administrators are tasked with building relationships with teachers and encouraging them to build community among themselves. A strong teaching community and school culture allow educators to be vulnerable and openly share their practices, reflections, wonderings, and concerns. Deep relationships provide the space to encourage teachers to dig in and work to change their instructional practices (Bates & Morgan, 2018).

Through professional development activities, we want to encourage collective efficacy within a staff. Giving teachers time to reflect, process, and collaborate throughout a professional development session is another way to integrate interactive professional development. Either in partners, small groups, teams, or as a whole group, have teachers share their reflections, connections, and questions for the betterment of the group. “Collaboration supports a togetherness mindset and develops collective knowledge that extends beyond individual, isolated experiences in the classroom” (Bates & Morgan, 2018).

Collaborate Board

A feature on Nearpod that works well for discussions is the Collaborate Board. Participants can type in their thoughts, add a GIF, or upload an image or video onto a virtual note and post it on the board for all to see. Participants can like and comment on the posts as well.

This tool can be used in many ways, such as by having participants process, reflect, and share their thoughts and providing time for everyone to read reflections. It can also be used for small groups to share what was discussed with the larger group. With collaboration boards, everyone is given a voice, which is ideal for team-building activities and practicing communication skills.

Hear advice from teachers just like you

Post-session reports for attendance

“When using Nearpod for a live PD session, Nearpod takes attendance! One of the big pros is that we eliminate paper and pen sign in sheets and we are able to monitor participants throughout the session to ensure 100% participation for full credit. Post-session reports are great to review to clarify or address any possible misconceptions, participants are learners after all!”

Crystal Fuentes

Hear from all attendees

“Nearpod creates an interactive element that a lot of PD sessions lack when the presenter just talks through their own information or shares slides on a screen behind them. With Nearpod, the presenter can immediately gauge the audience and customize the experience to that particular session.  It helps tailor the session to the people in attendance instead of your assumed audience so the audience feels heard and their questions get addressed quickly instead of at the very end.”

Brittanie Payne

“If you need a pulse on something during the session, you can throw in a poll with just A. B. C. D. on the fly without a definite question typed in advance. Just verbalize the question and answer options.” 

Robin McLean

Have a fun hook

“I add a Matching Pairs activity at the beginning so they have something to “play” while waiting to start.”

Rebecca Hunter

“I embed Google Maps so they can pin where they would travel if they didn’t have to be in PD. I also use Collaborate Board or Draw It for them to color a picture or add funny captions while waiting for the session to start.”

Tara Vanderveer

Keep attendees interested and engaged

“Nearpod is a great tool for teacher PD because it allows us to model good teaching practice while also keeping adults engaged and interacting with the material. Everyone has so many distractions, Nearpod is a tool that keeps the audience participating without the feeling of work. The different Nearpod activities allow us to slowly bring participants into the lessons with individual responses, then move to larger collaboration activities. All learners, including the adults need differentiation and opportunities to have a voice which can be done with Nearpod.”

Erin Lopez

My personal experience using Nearpod for teacher PD

I love using Nearpod in my teacher PD training because it is a way to keep teachers focused on the content with fun professional development activities for teachers. During the pandemic, I was a guest speaker on differentiated instruction in the classroom for a virtual professional development teacher prep class. I needed a way to ensure students were engaged even online. I decided to use Nearpod from afar, and it was a hit!

The Matching Pairs activity was used to help students know the different types of student plans they may encounter (IEPs, 504s, ALPs, etc.).  I used the Collaborate Board to have them share ideas about how to use accommodations in the classroom. The Quiz feature is excellent for checking for understanding and seeing if I need to go back and explain a topic that may have been confusing. I also used Open-Ended Questions to have students reflect throughout the presentation and give me feedback at the end. Even when we returned in person, I used Nearpod as a way to turn the ‘lecture-esque’ portions of training into a collaborative one that supports all learning styles. It is an invaluable tool I will continue using for training and professional development!

@thefantasticallyfourth @Nearpod streamlines everything on one platform! Check out #Nearpod for your lessons! #ad ♬ original sound – Shane Saeed

Education is constantly shifting and changing with new research and technology. Due to this, PD for teachers will never go out of style. However, we need to hold ourselves as presenters and trainers to the same high standard as we have our teachers: to be engaging. Nearpod is a fantastic tool that can be used to increase staff engagement and buy-in. Who knows, your modeling of Nearpod during professional development might encourage a teacher not only to take what they learned from your training and apply it in the classroom but also to integrate Nearpod!

New to Nearpod? Teachers can sign up for free below to access and create interactive lessons. Administrators can schedule a call with an expert to unlock the full power of Nearpod for schools and districts.

Interested in reading more about this topic? Check out this blog post: 10 Ideas for redesigning a new teacher orientation

The post How to make interactive professional development activities for teachers appeared first on Nearpod Blog.

Nearpod offers a range of engaging activities and content that will keep your students focused, learning, and having fun during the break. Whether you’re teaching in-person, online, or hybrid, these resources can be used in your classroom to support and prevent summer learning loss.

New to Nearpod? Teachers can sign up for free below to access these resources, interactive activities, and engaging lessons. Administrators can schedule a call with an expert to unlock the full power of Nearpod for schools and districts.

Why is summer learning important?

Summer learning provides students an opportunity to review academic content and ensure that previously learned material is not forgotten. Learning loss, or unfinished learning, continues to be a focus for teachers and administrators as we’re two years out from the pandemic and still assessing the impact it had on students and learning. We know educators are coming off another incredibly challenging year where they’ve had to face burnout and tech fatigue. Summer school helps prevent the summer slide, and we have the resources and tools to make the process for you and your students as seamless as possible.

How can I keep students learning in the summer?

It’s crucial to meet students where they’re at during summer learning. After the challenging past few years, now more than ever, we should be prioritizing student and teacher wellness, so summer break should be a time to unwind and relax. This can be accomplished by using appealing lessons for both you and your students. Set realistic expectations for yourself and your class by creating a mix of lesson plans that are relevant, engaging, and meaningful. It’s crucial to find a balance between creating a learning environment where students can focus on what they’re being taught while also giving them opportunities to enjoy their time off. Implement student-driven engagement summer activities and instruction to create a space where students are looking forward to attending.

Summer learning activities to prevent the summer slide

1. Use vetted and quality lessons for summer school programs or to send home

Nearpod has high quality premade lessons and resources to combat the summer slide in targeted subject areas. There’s also a guide to assist with navigating and launching activities with your students for any learning environment. Keep reading to explore these reliable lessons and engaging features you and your students can enjoy during summer break! Sift through this lesson folder, which includes a collection of core-subject lessons, fun summer learning activities, and videos applicable to meet your classroom needs.

Additionally, we handpicked Nearpod lessons that students can use to practice core topics and strengthen their learning for the following school year. This ready-to-use guide provides a 6-week schedule you can use for your summer learning plans. These lessons and activities are perfect for independent work or live front-of-class teaching. Click to add the Nearpod lesson to your library, then share out with students using the lesson code or through your learning management system (LMS), such as Google Classroom.

2. Target social and emotional learning (SEL), math, and English language arts (ELA)

Subject areas where students tend to struggle the most during the summer months are social emotional learning (SEL), math, and English language arts (ELA). Explore Nearpod’s lesson library by using the search bar and filtering by grade level, subjects, activity types, and standards.

Here are a few summer SEL activities and lessons you can use to address these topics:

• Drawing assessments: Students can practice self-awareness and social emotional skills to identify their emotions by completing a Draw It activity to assess their mood.

• ELA: Nouns & Verbs (K-3): Students will identify whether a word is a noun or a verb by completing a Drag & Drop activity to assess their mood.

• Math: Converting Decimals to Fractions (5-6): Students can learn various math skills to express decimals, such as expanded form and converting decimals to fractions.

3. Create a flexible learning environment to meet students’ needs

You can launch a Nearpod lesson by selecting one of three delivery modes and sharing the Nearpod through a code, link, or LMS. Leverage Nearpod codes to promote student choice and support differentiated learning. For example, use our Virtual Reality Student Paced Code Template! Add student-paced codes, set the expiration date to the end of summer, and share the code with students.

Additionally, there are multiple ways you can launch a Nearpod lesson – all to fit your classroom needs:

• Live Participation: This mode allows you to control the pace of the lesson while students participate and follow on their devices. You can view real-time progress and results as you teach.
• Student-Paced: Share asynchronous lessons with students so they can move through lessons at their own pace, any time, from anywhere. You can view progress in real-time to monitor student understanding.
• Front of Class: Project a video when students aren’t joining from their devices. The premade questions in the Interactive Video can be used as discussion prompts, or you can have students record their answers.

Select the launch mode that suits your instruction and share the code or link with students so they can follow along on their devices or complete it at home as individual work.

4. Incorporate educational games to check for student understanding

When teachers bring gamification into the classroom, they provide students with the opportunity to practice life skills and see them in action from their peers. Summer is the perfect time to use educational games!

Time to Climb is an educational game that teachers and students love! Here’s a breakdown explaining why:

• How it works: Students compete to see who gets to the top of a mountain first by answering a series of questions both correctly and quickly to increase their own points to become one of the top three winners of the game.
• Build social skills: When playing in a live classroom environment, students of all ages can laugh and enjoy the integrated community-building elements of their summer school and learning experience. 
• Gain insight into student learning: View how students understand concepts in real-time and pause between questions to reflect and address misconceptions quickly.
• Students love it: Students can choose their own Time to Climb characters to play along with. There are also tons of themes to choose from, including a beach theme which is perfect for getting into the summer spirit!

4. Use interactive formative assessment activities

Students should feel inspired to show up and persist for summer school to be effective. Since students are in a summer break mindset, it’s important to weave in exciting learning opportunities and make sure they’re enjoying themselves.

Here are more engaging activities you can include in your summer instruction:

• Drag & Drop allows students to sort or order images and text sequentially or in groups. Add a background of a diagram or graphic organizer for students to fill in.
• Collaborate Board is an interactive discussion board that allows students to post text and images to a shared class board. It’s a great way to spark class discussion and brainstorming.
• Draw It gives students the opportunity to demonstrate what they’ve learned by having them respond to prompts by drawing and adding text or images on top of a background.

In addition to the above activities, you can use traditional assessment tools, such as Open-Ended Questions, Quizzes, and Polls.

Make summer learning simpler with Nearpod

Summer learning programs can be a daunting process to plan and execute, especially after the past challenging years. Using tech tools, such as Nearpod, will help reduce the stress of summer planning and give you more time to focus on teaching while impacting student growth.

If you’re looking to create your own Nearpod lesson, here are some quick tips you can use to get started:

• Work with what you got: Use an existing resource, such as a worksheet, video, or Google Slides, and upload directly into  Nearpod. Add activities to boost engagement. For example, upload a PDF image onto a Draw It to have students write, draw, and annotate.
• Keep all links in one place: It can be challenging to organize links for your students if you’re teaching virtually. Using the Google Slides Add-On, you can hyperlink text on your Nearpod slides for students to click through.
• Get real-time insight: Immediately see how students are responding and address misconceptions at the moment to prevent the summer slide by leveraging the power of the Teacher Dashboard, which gives you real-time student insights.
• Transform your presentation: Summer vacation is the perfect opportunity for professional development and preparing student learning for the upcoming school year. Whether presenting to teachers or students, make the experience engaging. Explore 5 ideas for summer teacher professional development.

New to Nearpod? Teachers can sign up for free below to access these resources, interactive activities, and engaging lessons. Administrators can schedule a call with an expert to unlock the full power of Nearpod for schools and districts.

The post Summer learning activities to prevent the summer slide appeared first on Nearpod Blog.

New to Nearpod? Teachers can sign up for free below to access these resources, interactive activities, and engaging lessons. Administrators can schedule a call with an expert to unlock the full power of Nearpod for schools and districts.

5 Summer professional development opportunities for teachers

1. Access impactful webinars, trainings, tutorials, and more

PD by the Pool webinars

Are you a teacher looking for innovative ways to enhance your summer school instruction and keep students actively engaged? Join us for PD by the Pool to dive into top-notch professional development sessions to enhance your Nearpod and Flocabulary skills in a fun, flexible way that fits perfectly with your summer 2024 plans.

Whether you’re a veteran Nearpod user or new to the platform, in these webinars, teachers learn best practices and strategies to effectively utilize Nearpod in your summer school instruction. Webinar attendees will receive a recording and certificate of attendance. If you can’t attend live, register for the webinar and you’ll recieve a recording!

Teacher trainings and resources

Nearpod’s Teacher Resources page allows you to explore all types of training and tutorials within a few clicks. Not only does Nearpod cater to all student learners, but we also try to cater to our fellow teachers and administrators to make their experience as seamless as possible. Here are some suggestions on how you can navigate these summer professional development for teachers and handy-dandy resources:

• If you like to watch sessions in real-time and follow along with a presenter, register for one of our live webinars. Scroll through our calendar and pick a topic, date, and time that works for your summer schedule. 
• Prefer to learn at your own pace? Watch our on-demand webinars and trainings. There’s a full library of recorded teacher professional development webinar sessions you can choose from. Sit back, grab a snack, and watch at your own leisure!
• Prefer a bite-sized tutorial style? Watch our getting started videos. There’s a huge list of how-to videos on our YouTube channel you can use to learn Nearpod in minutes.
• More of a reader? Bookmark this blog to read tips and guides from the Nearpod team and teachers. You can also sign up for our Teacher Newsletter to stay up to date on all things Nearpod.

Join us for Camp Engage: Back to School on July 25-27th, 2024!

If you are looking for some free virtual teacher professional development, then Camp Engage is the event for you! At Camp Engage, you can learn how to create Nearpod magic alongside thousands of educators around the world. Camp Engage helps you expand your Professional Learning Network (PLN) in happy hours, event community resources, and icebreaker activities throughout the entire event. Campers have the opportunity to earn a certificate of attendance with up to 15 PD credits for free.

Save your spot now for Camp Engage, a FREE virtual PD event designed to help you make the most of the upcoming school year and find creative ways to engage your students.

This unique opportunity allows educators to earn professional education credits while exploring cutting-edge teaching techniques and tools. Explore over 30 virtual and on-demand sessions led by renowned experts to gain insights to elevate your teaching practices.

2. Join our lively teacher communities

Learning a new skill as a teacher takes a village, and you don’t have to do it alone. Luckily, there’s nothing like a supportive and motivational teacher community to be a part of! We saw it when shifting to distance learning, and we’re still seeing it today. There are so many benefits to joining our communities, such as professional networking and peer connections, joining summer professional development for teachers, extra Nearpod support and resources, and opportunities to grow as an educator and a leader.

The educator community as a whole is impactful, inspiring, and packed with knowledge to share. The Nearpod community isn’t any different. Meet teachers from all around the globe who share the same love of student engagement. Join a community to gain exclusive resources, support for sharing Nearpod, and a network of educators transforming teaching with technology.

I love using Nearpod! Being a member of the Nearpod Certified Educator community has opened up such incredible opportunities of collaborating with other professionals who are just as excited about Nearpod. I’m constantly learning of so many new techniques and tools through my fellow Nearpod Certified Educators! Thank you Nearpod!

Sharon Low, Teacher, Florida, PioNear & NCE

Become a Nearpod Certified Educator (NCE)! NCEs are ed tech enthusiasts who love using Nearpod, want to connect with a global educator community, and receive special opportunities. NCEs are eligible for further PD with advanced badges available only to this community. Join Nearpod’s Communities!

Join Nearpod’s Educator Facebook Group! Brainstorm with other teachers how to seamlessly integrate Nearpod into your classroom. Regardless if you’re a beginner or an expert, join this group to plug into exciting resources and impactful conversations!

Follow us on our social media. We’re always sharing timely resources, tips, and even memes across our social media. Join our Twitter community to dive deep into all things Nearpod! Follow us on Instagram to view bite-sized instructional videos and tips.

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May is Asian American & Pacific Islander Heritage Encourage more representation, share the stories, and elevate the voices of those who are doing the work. Swipe & save these tips for celebrating in your classroom! #teacherresources #lessonideas #instateach #iteachtoo #teachersofig #nearpod">

Teaching is the most important job in the wor Teaching is the most important job in the world, and YOU deserve to be celebrated every day. To show some love this #TeacherAppreciationWeek, we're giving away 50 prizes all week long! $100 & $50 Gift Cards Nearpod Gold Licenses Want to join in the fun and enter to win? Here's how: Tag a teacher in the comments to let them know Sign up officially at the link in our bio This giveaway runs until May 10th, 11:59 PM (EST).">

Happy #EarthDay! How are you and your students cel Emily Maude's 1st-grade class from @KCSD96 started their Earth Day celebrations with a Nearpod on what this day represents. Students drew pictures of how they can help the Earth and things they see around their community that are unhealthy for the planet. Then, they created a poster about how to help our earth for a daily review! via MissMaude1st on X. #lessonideas #tipsforteachers #teachersofig #instateach #teachercommunity #earthday">

Financial freedom is only available to those who l What does Financial Literacy mean to you? Help set your students up with healthy money habits by teaching about: Taxes Credit Cards Budgeting & more! Because personal finance is relevant at any age. ">

We're working on the Kenergy part. You've You've got this, teachers. #teachermemes #teacherhumor #teacherlife #oscarmemes #teacherememe #teachersofinstagram #studentmemes #igteachers #nearpod">

Find your one true love this Valentine’s. P.S. You're ours! Happy #ValentinesDay from the Nearpod team • • • #nearpod #teachersofig #teachersofinstagram #teachergram">

#BlackHistoryMonth and beyond is a time to celebra

Forget a dozen roses… we know another way t Forget a dozen roses… we know another way to your heart. Valentine’s Day is a great time to strengthen students' #SEL skills. Spread some love with our activities like a special Time to Climb theme, SEL lessons, printable valentines, & more! #teachersofig #teacherresources #teachersofinstagram">

Touchdown Trivia: Did you guess right? (Answers below) Channel your students' Super Bowl excitement into our new Current Events Lesson, Super Bowl: Advertisements & Pop Culture! Dive into the intersection of sports & pop culture through the impact of the Super Bowl on advertising and American culture. Get the lesson at the link in our bio! . . . . . . . ANSWER 1: $122 million ANSWER 2: increased by 53% #teachermemes #teacherresources #teachersofinstagram #superbowl #taylorswift">

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3. Familiarize yourself with the power of Nearpod

Our mission is to make teaching easier with the interactive tools, resources, and content teachers need, all in one place. You can make slides-based lessons interactive and gather data on student understanding at the same time. Use existing PowerPoints or Google Slides, or easily create your own slides on Nearpod. You have the ability to add formative assessment tools and activities within your lesson to guide teaching and improve student outcomes. 

If you’re delivering teacher professional development over the summer, use existing training slides and upload them onto a Nearpod lesson. Add interactive activities to get participation and feedback from your audience. Teachers will leave your session feeling inspired and reinvigorated!

Here’s what makes Nearpod great in a nutshell:

• Interactive slides: Teach with slides-based lessons and choose from 20+ interactive formative assessments and dynamic media features.
• Interactive video: Create active video learning experiences by including checks for student understanding.
• Gamification & activities: Keep students engaged while getting real-time insights into student understanding with gamified learning & activities.

To boost engagement, we recommend starting off with an interactive activity that you can implement in any classroom setting.

Increased engagement can lead to increased learning gains and greater student retention of learning material. Utilize Nearpod in the next school year to ensure your students remain engaged, focused, and eager to learn more. See for yourself Nearpod in action by testing it out during a teacher professional development session. This is a great way to practice using the tech tool while also sharing it with your teachers for professional development ideas!

With our growing selection of activities such as Drag & Drop, Draw It, Time to Climb, Matching Pairs, Collaborate Board, Quiz, Poll, Open-Ended Questions, and more, teachers have multiple options to meet specific needs of the diverse learners in their classrooms. You can learn quick ways to use these interactive activities in your classroom by clicking below.

4. Explore our lesson library or create your own lesson

Making a Nearpod lesson is simple! Gold, Platinum, and School or District users can integrate Nearpod activities & content directly within Google Slides with the free Nearpod add-on. Learn more about building your summer professional development for teachers and lessons in Google Slides. Teachers also have the option to create their own lessons from scratch within Nearpod. Our Slide Editor gives you the ability to add visually appealing slides. You can add images, GIFs, shapes, and audio all within your slide. Don’t forget you can always upload slides from your existing presentations as well! We recommend getting familiar with our Slide Editor for a seamless Nearpod experience. That way, you can keep all of your lessons and activities in one place as you head into the new school year! 

Additionally, you have access to standards-aligned quality lessons, videos, and quick activities for all grades and subjects. Lessons can be searched by standard and have clear, measurable learning objectives. Nearpod also allows for easy customization to fit the unique needs of your students. This is a great resource to use to assign summer learning assignments. Explore the lesson library and save lessons you’d like to use next year. If you’re interested in exploring your options, check out this tutorial to see how to filter through the library.

TIP: If you’re using the summertime to plan ahead for next year, create folders for easy access later on. You can drag lessons into folders and organize them by name and color-coding.

5. Transform your next conference or training presentation

Now that you know the basics of Nearpod and how to make a lesson, let’s see it in action! Summer is the perfect time to use Nearpod for PD training or during summer learning. Practice your Nearpod skills now, and then you’ll be ready to use them with your students in the new school year.

Here are some professional development ideas for teachers:

• Add a background onto a Draw It slide and have teachers draw their responses. You can view their progress in real-time and also project responses to discuss. This is great for when you split your audience into groups during your PD workshops.
• Utilize the Collaborate Board to spark further discussion. Collaborate Board is an interactive discussion board that allows participants to post text and images to a shared class board. This is an amazing feature to use to brainstorm and hear from all participants!
• Time to Climb is a MUST for your next presentation! In this gamified quiz, participants can compete to see who gets to the top of a mountain first by answering a series of questions both correctly and quickly to increase their own points to become one of the top three winners of the game. Reward the top teacher with a special prize to boost morale!

When presenting at a PD conference, you can use this tech tool to hold the room, eliminate multi-tab clicking, collect feedback, conduct brain breaks, and more! If you’re looking for these styles of training tips you can use for any summer professional development for teachers session, click below.

Use Nearpod for your summer professional development ideas

Summer is the perfect time for schools teacher professional development, offering a range of short-term opportunities for teachers to enhance their skills. With various professional development programs available, educators can meet program requirements while enjoying summer travel. These professional development opportunities provide rich learning experiences, helping teachers to improve their teaching and learning strategies.

Now, it’s time to put your Nearpod knowledge into action! Use this time during the summer to truly understand the power of Nearpod and the potential it has to keep your students engaged in the upcoming school years. Friendly reminder you have a community of teachers willing to help every step of the way! The Nearpod team is also always here to support you in any way we can.

New to Nearpod? Teachers can sign up for free below to access these resources, interactive activities, and engaging lessons. Administrators can schedule a call with an expert to unlock the full power of Nearpod for schools and districts.

The post 5 Summer professional development opportunities for teachers appeared first on Nearpod Blog.

How can summer learning loss be prevented?

When preventing summer learning loss, building an effective summer learning program for both teachers and students is essential. This requires school leaders to provide teachers with a comprehensive instructional platform and an intentional focus on accelerating learning and supporting the whole child. Simply extending instruction into the summer months won’t be enough to recoup learning loss and get students back on track. Teacher burnout and staffing shortages make this summer’s school year a bigger challenge than ever. School leaders must anticipate having summer school teachers working in grades and subject areas outside of normal experience. Summer school teachers might also be less experienced than in previous years or even brand new to the profession.

No matter how you and your fellow educators decide to tackle summer learning for students, know that Nearpod is here to support you through planning, execution, and providing a space for educators to learn from one another. Teachers can make any lesson interactive within one platform that has real-time student insights through interactive lessons, interactive videos, and gamified learning. When exploring how to prevent summer learning loss, Nearpod’s interactive lessons can keep teachers ahead of the curve and ensure you return to school in the fall ready to take on the challenges of the new academic year.

Unlock the full instructional power of Nearpod with the unlimited access, collaboration, integrations, and support your teachers need.

Effective summer strategies to accelerate learning and prevent learning loss

As you and your colleagues are refining plans for summer programming and preparing to welcome students enrolled, here are a few strategies to consider to help drive student success:

1. Get a baseline of student understanding with formative assessments

Utilizing formative assessments tied to state standards at the start of your summer program gives the teacher insight into student comprehension, knowledge, and skill levels, without the intimidation of formal tests. Continued use throughout the program allows students to control their learning path by providing immediate feedback to the student and teacher. In turn, with information on how the student interprets the material, teachers can support the student with targeted and focused instruction.

Nearpod has nine formative assessment tools and interactive activities teachers can use to get real-time insight into student understanding to prevent learning loss over the summer:

• Time to Climb
• Drag and Drop
• Draw It
• Collaborate Board
• Matching Pairs
• Open-ended Questions
• Quiz
• Polls
• Fill-in-the-blanks

2. Engage students with interactive activities, lessons, and videos across core subject areas

Summer school teachers need broad support as they prepare their classes for instruction. Remember, many summer school teachers will be teaching out of the grade level and subject area and are unsure of the academic content they will be responsible for delivering, so it’s essential to equip them with the proper materials.

Data released by NWEA focused on students in grades three through eight and compared their progress in the 2020-2021 school year to similar students from before the pandemic. Education researchers reveal data that indicates students, on average, were between three and six percentile points behind in reading skills and eight to 12 percentile points in math compared to previous years. Younger students struggled more than older students, as remote/hybrid learning proved to be a more significant challenge for young scholars.

Administrators can help teachers accelerate learning by providing access to premade standards-aligned lessons across core content areas through Nearpod. These quality lessons made by content experts are turnkey, interactive, and engaging for students. This is especially important for essential content areas and standards in Math and English Language Arts (ELA), as students are often recommended for intervention based on assessment and test scores for these two content areas.

Prevent the summer slide and use the following lesson guides to teach science, social studies, reading, and math skills to students in middle and elementary school.

3. Support students’ social emotional learning and academic development

In addition to opportunities to accelerate learning and summer learning loss prevention, educators are still supporting students to adjust to the current environment following the social and educational barriers that were in place during and after the pandemic. A vital goal of any effective summer program is to continue addressing those needs and supporting students’ development. Summer school leaders must ensure that social and emotional learning (SEL) is essential to their summer program, as it will benefit both students and teachers.

By incorporating lessons on social emotional learning activities into core instruction, educators help students access their feelings and emotions, develop healthy identities, and build positive relationships while giving them the tools they need to succeed academically. Doing so can be a simple 5-minute activity where students practice self-management by sharing some of their most helpful habits. Using activities where students can self-identify their feelings anonymously to their teacher and engage with their peers will help them navigate their reality. Having brain breaks will also be a vital element in summer programs, as students will need time to disengage from academics and explore other avenues. Working on SEL initiatives is something all teachers can do regardless of their experience level to prevent summer learning loss.

4. Provide opportunities for extracurricular activities and summer enrichment

Students missed out on more than the instructional time during distance and hybrid learning. And as such, summer programming shouldn’t be limited to academics to accelerate learning. Ideally, your district can partner with local organizations and parks and recreation departments to provide students with various opportunities to get outside of the classroom and reconnect with their peers while learning a new hobby or skill. Though if that’s not possible, don’t discount virtual reality (VR) experiences. Providing equitable, virtual reality experiences allows students from all backgrounds to travel the world, try on various careers, and more!

5. Stay organized and prepared with multiple solutions in one streamlined platform

Remember teachers’ challenges and devise innovative solutions to support them and their students during summer break. Maximizing the edtech tools your school and district can access can help, but what’s most important is choosing the right tools to set teachers for success. Nearpod’s mission is to make teaching easier with the interactive tools, resources, and content teachers need, all in one place. Whether you’re experiencing staffing shortages, onboarding new teachers, or simply trying to support your teachers and students, having a core tech toolkit is crucial. It will save teachers time in training and planning and give them more time to do what they do best: teach, connect with students, and help accelerate learning. Teachers can have the ability to create slides, embed interactive assessments, get real-time student insight, and have a library of standard-aligned resources, all in one place.

Unlock the full instructional power of Nearpod with the unlimited access, collaboration, integrations, and support your teachers need.

The post Effective summer strategies to accelerate learning and prevent learning loss appeared first on Nearpod Blog.

In June, we celebrate Pride Month. The month was chosen to honor the 1969 Stonewall Uprising. While Stonewall was not the beginning of the fight for LGBTQ+ rights, the event is often considered a tipping point that helped raise awareness and galvanize people and groups to the cause. 

For Pride Month and LGBTQ+ History Month, teachers play a pivotal role in fostering inclusive schools where all students feel safe and supported. With a commitment to LGBTQ-inclusive education, educators can help increase representation and create environments where every student can thrive. Below, we’ve curated resources you can use to celebrate LGBTQ+ history in the classroom during Pride Month and all year long.

Pride Month and LGBTQ+ history resources for teachers

Nearpod has curated free resources and Pride Month activities for students to help teachers celebrate Pride Month and LGBTQ+ history in the classroom.

New to Nearpod? Teachers can sign up for free below to access these resources, interactive activities, and engaging lessons. Administrators can schedule a call with an expert to unlock the full power of Nearpod for schools and districts.

LGBTQ+ and Pride history lessons

All of these Nearpod lessons can be found in our Pride Month resources lesson folder. We recommend teachers preview these resources, as some of the topics covered may be emotional or sensitive for some students.

Families and identities

• Different Types of Families (Grades K-2): In this lesson adapted from Learning for Justice, students explore how families all over the world have similarities and differences. They discover how diversity can help their communities and ways to celebrate diversity.

• Pronouns and Gender Identity (Grades 4-12): People use pronouns to identify themselves to others. This Nearpod Original Video provides an overview of gender identity and gender-neutral pronouns. Students will consider why it is important to recognize people’s personal pronouns.

• My Aunties: Father Figures (Grades 9-12): In this Windows & Mirrors mini-lesson, students watch a StoryCorps video about Stefan Lynch, who was raised by gay parents in the 1980s during the AIDS epidemic. Students consider how Lynch’s story can serve as a window, a mirror, or both for them. (Sensitive content)

Historical figures

• Marsha P. Johnson lessons (Grades 9-12): This Flocabulary video and the corresponding Nearpod mini-lesson introduce students to the life and activism of gay and trans rights activist Marsha P. Johnson. Students learn about Johnson’s childhood, her life in New York City, and her involvement in the gay rights movement of the 1960s and ’70s. They explore her legacy and the lack of recognition she received while she was still alive.
• In the accompanying Windows & Mirrors mini-lesson on Nearpod, students will watch the video and explore how Johnson’s story serves as a window, a mirror, or both.

• James Baldwin lessons (Grades 9-12): This Flocabulary video and the corresponding Nearpod mini-lesson introduce students to the life and work of American writer James Baldwin. Students explore Baldwin’s frank discussions of racism and discrimination in the United States and abroad and learn how Baldwin’s refusal to pigeonhole his writing, national identity, and sexual orientation made him a true iconoclast.
• In the accompanying Windows & Mirrors mini-lesson on Nearpod, students can watch the video and consider how Baldwin’s story serves as a window, a mirror, or both.  

• Harvey Milk (Grades 9-12): In this Nearpod Original one-minute video, students learn about Harvey Milk. A host describes Milk’s life and work as one of the first out gay public officials in the US, and students consider his lasting legacy.

• An Unsung Hero of the Civil Rights Movement (Grades 9-12): In this video from TED-Ed, students learn about the life of Bayard Rustin, a leader in the Civil Rights Movement, a gay rights activist, and one of Martin Luther King’s closest advisors.

Pride history

• Stonewall Riots (Grades 9-12): In this video from History, students learn how the Stonewall Inn Uprising sparked the beginning of the gay rights movement in America. They also learn how the LGBTQ community came together to protest exploitation and police harassment.  

• The history of the word “gay” (Grades 9-12): In this video from Origin of Everything, students learn about the history of the word “gay,” including the evolving meaning of the word “gay” and how it entered the mainstream vocabulary.  

• The Gay Rights Movement (Grades 9-12): In this video from Origin of Everything, students learn about the history of the word “gay,” including the evolving meaning of the word “gay” and how it entered the mainstream vocabulary.  

LGBTQ+ resources for teachers

Looking for more? Below, we’ve included additional teacher-recommended resources to celebrate Pride and honor LGBTQ identities in the classroom. Be sure to preview these materials to be sure they meet the needs of your learners, and some of the topics may be emotional or sensitive for some students.  

• Learning for Justice’s Best Practices for Serving LGBTQ Students: On this page, you’ll find a range of valuable resources for fostering LGBTQ+ inclusion in schools and classrooms. The free Teacher Resources contains an LGBTQ library of books and films, a list of historical figures, a glossary of terms, and a school checklist. 

• Queer Icons FREE Bulletin Board Set from Visionary Classroom Decor and The Superhero Teacher: The free bullet board setup comes with portraits of queer icons. Each has a QR code, which students can scan to read biographies. 

• Lindz Amer’s LGBTQ+ resources on Teachers Pay Teachers: Lindz is a GLAAD Rising Star and host of the series Queer Kid Stuff. On this page, you’ll find resources for educators, including a social justice songbook, LGBTQ+ vocab posters, and more.

Start teaching with Nearpod

From implementing Pride Month activities to incorporating LGBTQ-inclusive curriculum, there are numerous resources available to help educators champion diversity and celebrate LGBTQ pride month. By equipping themselves with these tools, teachers can better serve LGBTQ youth and ensure that all students feel respected and valued in their classrooms.

The learning doesn’t end in June! You can use any of these resources at any point in the school year. And remember, a more inclusive classroom benefits all learners, creating more room for empathy and understanding and helping all students feel engaged, valued, and heard.

Happy Pride Month!

New to Nearpod? Teachers can sign up for free below to access these resources, interactive activities, and engaging lessons. Administrators can schedule a call with an expert to unlock the full power of Nearpod for schools and districts.

The post Teacher resources for LGBTQ+ and Pride history lessons appeared first on Nearpod Blog.

While the sentiment of the traditional rhyme, “No more pencils, no more books, no more teacher’s dirty looks,” can be traced back to the late 1800s, I’m guessing that kids have been rejoicing about the end of the school year since schooling began!

Yet, it’s not a fault of “dirty looks” from the educators, but rather that this is the time of year that earmarks an opportunity for all to celebrate kids’ accomplishments, milestones, and growth over the past 10 months. What are the ways that you can earmark the occasion with end of year celebrations or activities?

10 End of year celebration ideas and activities for students

While your students may lament the end of one school year, they also eagerly anticipate the advancement to a new grade. So, how best to host an end of year celebration across your school community?

Consider recognizing individuals’ progress as well as the group’s overall progress. How can you revisit the start of the year to underscore the growth at the year’s end? Take some time to reflect back on the start of the year and the expectations and goals you set forth for the class—were those goals met?

Below are 10 ways to celebrate the end of this school year with your students, their families, and the school community.

New to Nearpod? Teachers can sign up for a free Nearpod account below to access these resources, interactive activities, and engaging lessons. Administrators can schedule a call with an expert to unlock the full power of Nearpod for schools and districts.

1. Reflect on the past school year

Does your school have a yearbook? If not, there are many free digital solutions for you to capture students’ thoughts while compiling reflections and stories from the past school year. Even if your school does have a yearbook, you can create your own fun end of year activities for your class specifically.

Use a Nearpod presentation and Open-Ended Questions to have students write their contributions and post multimedia; they can include everything from images and videos to playlists. Alternatively, engage your students in one of these end of the school year activities to share their favorite memories:

Memory wheel

Use a Memory wheel template so each student can jot down 6-8 poignant memories from the past school year. You could use the Draw It Tool to capture words and illustrations. Students can curate their own list, or you can provide prompts like special events, student activities, new friends, etc.

Skittles end of year writing activity

Give each child a fun-size bag of Skittles to sort by color. Then, ask them to write a specific number of memories or stories based on the color-coded prompts. For a drawing alternative, create a template background with the color-coded prompts and upload it to a Draw It activity. Students then respond by drawing about the memory or story. Compile these stories together to create a digital memory book and share it with students!

End of school year Jenga

Use colored Jenga (or other multi-colored) blocks to play an engaging game of swapping memories. Have kids share a memory related to a color-coded reflection prompt.

3-word summary

Use Nearpod’s Collaborate Board to give each child three descriptive words to summarize this past school year. Ask students to explain their word choice to draw out specific memories. Create columns to make different categories and have students submit their responses using text, images, videos, or GIFs.

2. Have a social emotional learning (SEL) check-in

The end of the school year can be a mix of emotions, which can be confusing for kids and adults alike. Gauge how your students are feeling and any emotions they might have as a result of school winding down. 
Support their self-awareness and self-management skills by checking in on students’ social and emotional wellness with these SEL activities:

• Share Your Mood (Grades K-2, 3-5, and 6-12): In this Collaborate Board activity, students “like” a color based on their feelings and share how they feel. They can comment on posts as well.
• *Words of Encouragement (Grades 2-12): Students practice social awareness, and more specifically empathy, by completing a Collaborate Board activity to encourage one another.
• *Share Your Worries (Grades 2-12): Students practice self-awareness, and more specifically, identifying emotions, by completing an Open-Ended Question activity to share some of their worries with an educator.
• *Thinking Positive (Grades 2-12): Students practice social awareness, and more specifically perspective-taking, by completing a Collaborate activity to identify positive events in their lives.

*This lesson is only available on Nearpod’s 21st Century Readiness Program. This program provides an easy way to integrate SEL practices like positive interactions, gratitude, and reflective moments into daily learning to help create safe, inclusive, and effective classroom environments. Schedule a call to learn more.

3. Pass out end of year awards for students

Everyone likes to be recognized, and your school may already hand out end of year awards for students. But what can you do at the classroom level that is inclusive of everyone, yet takes a personalized approach? Can you riff off of the old-school superlatives idea and laude those traits and skills that are less typically praised? Best laugh … Most inquisitive … Most resourceful … Most creative chops … Try to think of accolades your classroom and school promote beyond the more typical academic and athletic accolades.

Kick off the end of year celebration and make the voting process easy by digitizing it! Use Nearpod’s Open-Ended Questions, Collaborate Board, Polls, or a combination of these activities, to have students submit and vote for their picks for student awards. Teachers can hide voters’ names so that these end of the year activities are done anonymously.

4. Create end of year certificates

Piggybacking on the idea above, if you’re looking for the last day of school activities, use Nearpod to create a template to personalize certificates for each student. Add copy, design elements, and even a class photo. Once printed, customize each with a handwritten note and signature. While it is “just” a piece of paper, I bet you all can remember holding onto a similar piece of recognition of your own as a child!

Download these customizable Nearpod and Flocabulary certificates to celebrate the work everyone has been so resilient with the past school year!

5. Go on an end of year Virtual Reality (VR) Field Trip

While logistically, it may be hard to arrange an end of the year field trip, with Nearpod’s Virtual Reality Field Trips, you and your class can take one last memorable trip together. Use Nearpod to poll your students about which global destination they want to visit. Have them compile a list of questions they can search for answers to while “traveling.” You could even send out digital invitations and encourage the kids to dress for the big last hurrah. Then, share these virtual reality student choice boards for students to continue their “globe-trotting” over the summer break months.

6. Throw a themed party as an end of year celebration

As you look towards the last day of school, brainstorm with your students and parent volunteers to come up with a thematic end of year party. Here are a few clever ideas to help tie together the activities, decorations, and even food choices:

• This Year was a Ball, or Have a Ball This Summer!: Embrace anything round, from beach balls to balloons, for decor. Consider “round” food like a sundae bar with scoops of ice cream. You could also go all out on the beach theme, with decor and activities like Frisbee, limbo stick, cornhole, badminton, or spike ball.
• The Future is Bright!: Order a class set of sunglasses and bring out the neon decorations like glow sticks. Recommend that students come in crazy, bright attire to the party. Kids love these themes!
• That’s a Wrap!: Check with your school on your food policy, but you could choose a burrito bar, a candy bar, or individually wrapped snacks for a bit of a surprise.
• This Year was Poppin’!: Host an afternoon or after-school movie party with a backyard screen and streaming device for an end of the year party. Arrange for popcorn as an extra treat.
• What a Cool Year!: Go with a “stay cool!” theme and bring in ice cream or popsicles. Arrange for end of year class party games like pass-the-water relay races or water balloons/sponge tosses for some friendly summer fun.

7. Host a book party

Wrap up the school year with a book party as an end of year celebration. All ages can benefit from a good read-aloud of a children’s book. Choose one of the following titles to share:

• Oh, The Places You’ll Go by Dr. Seuss
• Letter From Your Teacher: On the Last Day of School by Shannon Olsen 
• When It’s the Last Day of School by Maribeth Boelts
• Our Class is a Family by Shannon Olsen
• Last Day Blues by Julie Danneberg 
• Wherever You Go by Pat Zietlow Miller 
• Thank You, Mr. Falker by Patricia Polacco
• Lizzie and the Last Day of School by Trinka Hakes Noble
• Mrs. Spitzer’s Garden by Edith Pattou

Then check out the following activities to capture your students’ hopes, dreams, and memories. You may also want to encourage your students to bring a book to the party for a book swap. Such recommended titles are a great way to encourage the start of tackling summer reading lists.

8. Say “Thank You”

While the art of letter writing isn’t as prevalent today as it used to be, writing thank-you notes is always a good skill (and habit!) to develop. Use Nearpod to create a presentation of individualized thank-you slides. Have students individually contribute by deciding who within the school community they’d like to acknowledge. The recognition may be for an office staff member, the school nurse, the lunchroom staff, or a classroom aide. Share this compilation schoolwide to encourage a culture of gratitude throughout these end of school year activities.

9. Create summer bucket lists

Summer is a time for students to continue growing in their personal development. Have students create personalized bucket lists about what they’d like to accomplish within the next two months or so. Encourage them to think about how such short-term goals can ladder up to longer-term goals and dreams. For instance, maybe they want to practice their photography skills with the hopes of becoming a journalist one day. Or perhaps they want to improve their volleyball skills with the goal of making the school team next year.

Remind students that strong goals are SMART* goals (*Specific, Measurable, Attainable, Realistic, and Time-bound). Capture these summer bucket lists so kids can reflect on their progress at summer’s end. In this Flocabulary video lesson, teachers introduce setting and reaching goals using the SMART acronym. Learn how to combine the power of Nearpod and Flocabulary with these tips.

10. Avoid the summer slide and summer slump

Research shows students can lose some ground over the summer months when it comes to academic achievement. Check out these helpful summer learning activities to prevent the summer slide during summer school. Also, consider sharing these resources with students and their families as ways to keep their minds active during the summer months.

Host an end of year celebration with Nearpod!

Don’t forget to pat yourself on the back, too, for another year of teaching and supporting students. Use the next couple of months to bask in the sun and some self-care so you can recharge and start the next school year off well. Enjoy these next few weeks and find time to have more than one end of the year celebration with your high school, middle school, and elementary students. Congratulations to all!

New to Nearpod? Teachers can sign up for a free Nearpod account below to access these resources, interactive activities, and engaging lessons. Administrators can schedule a call with an expert to unlock the full power of Nearpod for schools and districts.

The post 10 End of year celebration ideas and activities for students appeared first on Nearpod Blog.

Teaching reading comprehension strategies and writing skills through technology call for innovation and creativity; luckily, thinking on one’s feet and problem-solving come naturally to teachers. Nearpod takes much of the guesswork out of creating and teaching students quality reading and writing skills lessons. According to an ESSA Level II study, 5th and 8th-grade students who used Nearpod had higher ELA achievement compared to similar students in their grade level who did not use it. These 6 tips for teaching reading and writing in the classroom are quick and easy, but they also add quality content and student control to any ELA block. To access the activities and lessons mentioned here, sign up for free below to get started!

New to Nearpod? Teachers can sign up for free below to access these resources, interactive activities, and engaging lessons. Administrators can schedule a call with an expert to unlock the full power of Nearpod for schools and districts.

What resources can I use to teach reading comprehension using technology?

Nearpod has curated an English Language Arts (ELA) Lesson Guide for Grades K-8 so you can spend less time searching for resources and more time doing what you love: teaching. With ready-to-launch lessons, activities, and videos, these guides can help you remediate key skills, reteach concepts, and even prep for testing time.

Download lesson guide

6 Strategies and activities for teaching reading comprehension and writing skills

1. Build a foundation with phonemic awareness

The foundation of English and language arts skills is phonemic awareness, which is anything students can do in the dark. The ability to identify and manipulate individual sounds (phonemes) in spoken words is the basis for language itself. We talk before reading. If students aren’t successful in phonemic awareness, it predicts reading success or failure. That’s why it’s important for teachers to be conscientious and deliberate in teaching this reading skills and strategies. Nearpod’s many visual tools advance phonemic awareness instruction to new levels. There’s a vast array of activities teachers can create in Nearpd to teach phonemic awareness to engage and challenge students. Grounding reading instruction in background knowledge fosters deeper connections with content, making learning more meaningful.

Here are a few Nearpod ideas:

1. Use Drag and Drop for students to sort pictures based on beginning, middle, or ending sounds.
2. Use VR Field Trips where students search for items in virtual environments in lessons in an “I-Spy” manner: “I spy with my little eye something that ends with the /d/ sound.” Modify this activity to fit any phonemic awareness skill or make them more advanced as students progress.
3. Use the Draw It tool for students to upload pictures of multisyllabic and monosyllabic words, then have students segment and write how many syllables are in the word.
4. Use Matching Pairs to make pair cards to aid students in rhyming words.

2. Expand phonics skills

If the science of reading tells us anything, it’s that phonics must be systematic and explicit. Never leave students guessing. Inside the classroom, students work at various spelling levels. What teachers need most are phonics lessons that are easy to create and differentiate for all learners inside the classroom. Spending hours in front of the copier or cutting out game pieces for said activities isn’t ideal or efficient. Plus, teachers have to store all those games somewhere. Nearpod activities take so little time to create; once teachers make a lesson, it can act as a template for more differentiated activities.

Here are a few lesson ideas for phonics instruction:

1. Use Drag and Drop for students to create word sorts based on spelling patterns, prefixes and suffixes, and syllable types. For example, have students sort the three sounds of -ed, or -sion, and -tion.
2. Use Time to Climb to engage students in spelling. Answers developed vary from written to using pictures.
3. Make word chain questions to keep students on their feet with multiple spelling patterns. For example, have students start with the spelling “meat” and then have the next question be, “Would you like to ____________ after school?” It gets more complex spellers and higher-level thinking but in fun ways.
4. Create vivid slideshows that are charts for students to reference throughout the lesson. Upload R-controlled vowel charts, l-blend charts, diphthongs, and vowel teams. Students refer back to charts throughout the lesson. This is good for introducing phonics concepts or reviewing previously taught concepts.
5. Use Open-Ended Questions connecting the sound a phoneme makes with its grapheme (written form). Record a sound through Nearpod’s audio feature, and students write the spelling as their answer. Also, students can practice full dictation skills, where teachers record themselves saying a sentence, and students write what they hear.

3. Becoming fluent readers

Fluency is all about reading text like how people talk. The only way students become more fluent readers is by having multiple opportunities to read while also experiencing what fluency sounds like.

All of these activities give students much needed practice to help with accuracy, speed, and expression: 

1. Use Draw It for students to practice the “Scoop Phrases” technique. Upload graphic organizers for sentences where students have to group words together to train their eyes to read phrases instead of word by word. Students mark the sentences up, then read the phrases aloud.
2. Do audible Open-Ended Questions practice. Have students record audio of themselves reading a passage in the Open-Ended Question to you on Nearpod. To help with timed assessments, add a time limit to better prepare students for timed running records or other timed daily oral reading fluency assessments.
3. Use Nearpod’s Collaborate Board for practice with punctuation. Write a sentence without any punctuation and have students decide what punctuation would be best. The students read the sentence depending on expression – voice raised at the end for question mark (?), passion with an exclamation point (!), or even a calm tone for a period (.). This activity helps students realize that ending marks help us learn how to read with expression. 
4. Insert videos of Read Alouds into lessons for students to hear what fluent reading sounds like. Adults reading stories aloud help model expression, pace, and phrasing. You can also enable Immersive Reader on Nearpod for text-to-speech and parts of speech.
5. Use Drag and Drop to create nursery rhyme, poem, or sentence puzzles for students to put back together and read. By breaking those rhymes apart into individual words and putting them back together again, kids see how words build into sentences and stories in a natural flow.

4. Develop and improve vocabulary

Vocabulary instruction of the 21st century surpasses the days when students broke out dictionaries in class, searching through pages and transcribing definitions onto paper. At the time, that’s all classrooms really had at their disposal. Using Nearpod and its selection of activities, teachers build lessons that make words have more personal relevance. Students interact with content to make deeper connections for richer vocabularies when teaching reading strategies.

Try a few of these activities to give a boost to student vocabulary to reinforce instructional strategies for reading:

1. Use Matching Pairs to talk about ELA vocabulary. Many ELA vocabulary like explain, analyze, predict, summarize/compare & contrast, etc, are Tier 2 vocab terms that cross-curriculum. ELA is a good time to really learn and address these terms. Tier 2 vocabulary is high-frequency vocabulary on standardized tests. 
2. Use Fill In the Blank activity to build context clues awareness
3. Use Collaborate Board to create a “Graffiti Wall.” Post words in the question section and have kids add sticky notes to illustrate the term.
4. Use Draw It to make vocabulary sketch notes. Students can sketch instead of writing out definitions. Ask students to draw a sketch summarizing each word. It’s a lot more engaging and gives kids a picture for visual association and to help them remember the meanings.
5. Try Flipgrid. It’s great for vocabulary activities! Have kids record a quick video for each word, using their creativity to make it fun and meaningful.

5. Dive deep into reading comprehension

Reading comprehension all boils down to processing texts and making meaning, all while integrating these skills into what the reader already knows. Comprehension is no small feat. Students must read, re-read, mark up, and work with texts. They must practice answering questions literally and figuratively, inferring, drawing conclusions, and note-taking.

They can do all of these things using Nearpod in the following ways:

1. Pull in the texts you are reading and work on the overall comprehension skill – bring questions in from the core reading and writing curriculum to practice. Use Venn Diagrams and other templates from Nearpod’s activity banks.
2. Use Open-Ended Questions to develop their ideas and understanding of a text and practice writing or speaking independently. Responses can be typed, or voice recorded.
3. Use a Collaborate Board to share their understanding and compare/contrast their findings to their peers, or build off ideas that their peers share
4. Use a Draw It to have students explain their understanding of the text
5. Embed a PDF to model fluent reading and to have students practice close reading.
6. Do a Time to Climb with comprehension questions tied to stories students read to create friendly competition tied to literal comprehension and inferring skills

6. Make grammar interactive

Grammar is fun. Get students amped up about parts of speech and punctuation by making grammar interactive, colorful, and even humorous. These lessons are suitable for all age ranges and multiple levels. What’s also fantastic is students work with texts to help them discover voice and craft within the writing.

When exploring comprehension strategies for reading, use these grammar lessons to spark inspiration within students’ writing inside the classroom:

1. Use Drag and Drop for conjunctions. Give students phrases and conjunctions to create their own compound sentences. Create parts of speech sorts using Drag and Drop.
2. Draw It is a great way for students to practice their grammar revision skills. They can do a sentence or paragraph of the day and fix errors. It can also be used as a “Search and Find”. Find articles or stories to upload, and then challenge students to find specific grammatical examples such as prepositional phrases, adverbs, and past tense verbs, either regular or irregular. 
3. Use Draw It for the tried and true sentence diagramming. Students get a sentence and have to represent its grammatical structure pictorially. For younger students, have them color sentences by parts of speech. Coloring is proven to be calming while having them put their skills into practice. 
4. Use Fill in the Blanks to create a mad lib-like activity with parts of speech. 
5. Use Matching Pairs to match words with parts of speech, etc.
6. Make a Collaborate Board about “Why Spelling Matters.” Have students find funny or surprising pictures of misspellings, omitted punctuation, or other grammar errors from real life or the internet.

Build students’ reading comprehension using Nearpod

In the dynamic world of reading instruction, incorporating various strategies is key to helping students understand and engage with texts. From mastering letter sounds to tapping into prior knowledge, educators employ a rich toolkit to cultivate reading comprehension skills. Ultimately, these fun and multifaceted methods not only teach kids to read but also equip them with the tools to comprehend and appreciate the written word.

Methods of teaching reading and writing are fun and exciting. So many lessons can be made in Nearpod for all reading strands and writing. Once you get the hang of Nearpod’s platform, your library will be full of interactive and engaging ELA lessons. Hopefully, this list will propel you in the right direction.

New to Nearpod? Teachers can sign up for free below to access these resources, interactive activities, and engaging lessons. Administrators can schedule a call with an expert to unlock the full power of Nearpod for schools and districts.

The post 6 Fun strategies for teaching reading comprehension appeared first on Nearpod Blog.

Learning gaps are pitfalls that affect students making progress toward achieving their goals. When you say the word gap in conjunction with the word education, most likely people will cringe with worry about who doesn’t know or have access to what. More formally, learning gaps are discrepancies between a child’s performance and grade-level expectations denoting a lack of mastery. Learning gaps can be narrow or wide; children can have learning gaps in one particular subject area or across many areas. Some liken learning gaps to building blocks; you can picture how, if one of the foundational blocks is missing, the whole structure might be at risk. Often, learning gaps are described as “the way things are” versus “the way things should be.”

What are the different types of learning gaps?

Learning gaps can be defined in the five following ways:

1. Knowledge gap: A student does not know or hasn’t been exposed to particular background information, which prevents a true understanding of new content. 
2. Skills gap: A student lacks practice or mastery in a particular skill or skill set. In short, they don’t know how to apply the knowledge that they have.
3. Motivation gap: A student does not have the desire or motivation to learn. This lack of engagement may not necessarily indicate indifference, but rather could be attributed to other external factors.
4. Environmental gap: A student does not have access to a suitable and supportive learning environment. We saw many instances of this gap during COVID remote learning. 
5. Communication gap: A student lacks clear communication about particular knowledge and/or expectations. This gap may be language or culturally based, but sometimes may be due to a learning difference such as an auditory processing disorder.

Why are there student learning gaps in education?

Learning gaps can occur due to many reasons: poor instruction, lack of resources, absenteeism, moving between schools, or learning disabilities, to name a few. And sadly, learning gaps can snowball if not addressed immediately or effectively.

Achievement gaps speak to the inequities in education opportunities, while learning gaps refer to individuals’ lack of progress.

Post pandemic, there was much in the press about learning loss or unfinished learning, with McKinsey finding that K-12 students were an average of five months behind in math and four months behind in reading, and students of color were disproportionately affected. Couple the pandemic effects with the all-too-common achievement gaps, throw in increasing class sizes and the qualified teacher shortages, and we as a country are still trying to climb out of our own gaping hole.

How does Nearpod help shrink learning gaps?

Nearpod is a comprehensive solution for schools—it not only assists in identifying learning gaps through formative assessment tools but also provides access to standards-aligned lessons, activities, and real-time assessment data to help close such learning gaps. The Nearpod platform provides a cyclical process for educators and students to pick high-interest and top-quality content, engage in active learning strategies, and then reflect on timely performance data and feedback; rinse and repeat. Many other edtech tools might provide pieces of the pie, but Nearpod promises a robust solution of centralized content, transformative instruction, active learning experiences instruction, and real-time insights.

Foster a love of learning in every student with Nearpod. Teachers can sign up for free below to access and create interactive lessons. Administrators can schedule a call with an expert to unlock the full power of Nearpod for schools and districts.

How to identify and address learning gaps in education

1. Embrace a rigorous curriculum

Too often, students lose interest and motivation to learn because there is a disconnect with the real world, a disinterest in the topic at hand, an undiagnosed learning disability, or a disparity in developmental appropriateness. Curiosity and passion for lifelong learning can be stoked with a rigorous curriculum that offers variety, intrigue, and challenge. Curricula that support students’ 21st-century learning skills of communication, collaboration, creativity, and critical thinking will not only engage them but prepare them for future careers.

All students deserve to be engaged in materials that are immersive and relevant. Nearpod rises to that challenge by providing standards-aligned lessons in ways that promote authentic connections and applications to the real world. The multimedia-rich design optimizes the best of technology with features like the Virtual Reality (VR) Field Trips. With Nearpod’s interactive learning experiences, you can make learning much more participatory and engaging by adding such dynamic activities as Draw It, Drag and Drop, Collaborate Board, Time to Climb, and more.

Additionally, Nearpod’s 21st Century Readiness Program addresses vital topics such as digital citizenship, social and emotional learning, college and career readiness, and financial literacy, ensuring that students are equipped with the skills they need for success in today’s rapidly evolving world. 

2. Enhance your evidence-based instruction

To help close learning gaps, educators should lean on the lessons learned by their predecessors and rely on research-backed pedagogy. Often, decades’ worth of research with recommended methodology can help individualize and personalize instruction to best meet the needs of the individual. Schools can commit to providing quality professional development (PD) to reinforce those pedagogies that best support their mission and philosophical approach to education.

Nearpod was created for teachers by teachers. Back in 2012, the founders, Guido Kovalskys, Felipe Sommer, and Emiliano Abramzon, crafted the idea of Nearpod as part of a Stanford school design thinking fellowship. Steeped in the best educational practices and research, Nearpod promotes not only dissemination but also collaboration and active participation in learning. Nearpod has a suite of formative assessment strategies through its interactive features. As students interact, you can see the real-time data around usage and progress. These student reports are useful for identifying insights for the gap learning method. They can highlight not only students’ advances but also possible missteps and gaps in understanding.

3. Play your part in creating a data-driven school

You can be data rich yet insight poor. Teachers pull in a wealth of data on a daily basis through quantifiable assessments and qualitative observations. Teachers have their finger on the pulse of the classroom when it comes to progress monitoring, and they are consistently evaluating the group progress as well as the individual achievements.

Nearpod provides comprehensive student data reports for data-driven instruction. These real-time summaries provide snapshots of how well the students are or aren’t meeting expectations. You can take a quick glance at a group’s interaction within a lesson by activity type, as well as dive more into the depths of a single student’s every click. Marry these insights with what you’ve observed during the lesson, and schools can take a data-driven approach to extrapolating insights to guide their next steps in instruction, whether in the moment or when planning for the next day. You also can share these reports with the administrators to illustrate overall progress or share them with a student’s family to better underscore steps gained or traction lost.

4. Differentiate. Full stop.

Armed with such data, educators can then modify their instruction as needed to meet individual needs. On a daily basis, teachers often need to modify instruction by adding in extra supports or challenges. They personalize their instructional approach to promote student voice and choice to build a better sense of learner agency and purpose.

You can search by topic of interest and by state standard in Nearpod’s library of 22,000+ ready-to-teach lessons. You can pull students into small groups and share self-paced lessons for the collaborative group to tackle. These resources make learning engaging, challenging, and interactive to help deepen understanding. Differentiated instruction and personalization will help build lifelong learners.

Indeed, Nearpod’s impact on instruction is significant, with 75% of customers attesting to its effectiveness in differentiating instruction and 79% affirming its role in personalizing the learning experience.

5. Design your own lesson plans

Teachers are known for re-creating the wheel. They are renowned for being part scientists and part artists. Yet in a recent Gallup poll, only 47% of students reported being engaged in learning. Consider how your school’s approach to instructional design might address learning gaps and increase student engagement, and then work with your colleagues to weave in some best practices across the curriculum to meet your students’ needs: 

• How does the lesson connect to prior knowledge? 
• Is the instruction applicable to varied learning styles? 
• Are there multiple opportunities for group and individual practice? 
• What are the checks for understanding?
• What types of assessments do we require?

Nearpod not only provides a library of standards-based lessons from its internal team and well-respected partners like Common Sense, iCivics, Smithsonian, and many more, but it also provides authoring tools so that you can create your own lessons. Alternatively, you can start with one of Nearpod’s many lessons and then modify it based on your students’ needs. You can achieve 100% student participation and promote meaningful discussion by leveraging Nearpod’s interactive slide design, gamified activities like Time to Climb, high-order thinking features like Collaborate Board, and dynamic media like Nearpod 3D.

6. Connect home and school

Education is a team effort. It takes coordination across the district and school leadership with classroom teachers and staff and the students’ homes. No longer is learning limited to  8 a.m.-3 p.m. Advances in technology blur the lines between formal and informal learning, enabling learning to occur “on the go” and “just in time” with access to the right tools and internet connectivity. Supplemental learning tools are essential complementary elements of a robust learning program.

Nearpod promotes home-to-school connections in several ways. Teachers can share student reports with parents to better illustrate student needs on an ongoing basis instead of just at the end of a semester. Teachers can address learning gaps by providing feedback to students about their work through the Live Teacher Feedback feature. Also, you can assign Nearpod lessons to small groups or individual students via Student-Paced mode to encourage them to dive deeper and explore further topics of interest.

7. Take a MTSS approach

In addressing the whole child, most schools nowadays consider the student’s academic, social, and emotional needs. Many schools take a multi-tiered system of supports (MTSS) approach to proactively leverage data and instruction to optimize a student’s strengths. MTSS promotes three tiers of instruction to best support individuals.

Nearpod supports a MTSS approach in several ways, specifically for Tier 1 instruction. From universal instruction to targeted instruction to customized instruction, Nearpod’s vast library of content and robust feature set empowers educators and students alike to take control of the learning and make it as meaningful as possible. With such resources, Nearpod can promote inclusiveness, engagement, and effectiveness for all.

Additionally, Star Assessments now has a Nearpod connection that enables educators to seamlessly access a vast array of interactive and standards-aligned lessons that tailor instruction to students’ needs. This helps save time on planning, maintains student engagement, and provides real-time insights into student understanding.

Take the necessary steps to close students’ learning gaps

Whether you teach elementary, middle, or high school, teachers are masters of evaluation and maestros of instruction. Their hour-to-hour strategies help paint that comprehensive picture of individual and group progress toward state standards. When it comes to learning gaps, the key is to identify them early and put a plan of action into effect immediately. Collaboration will be your best tactic when trying to tackle the learning gap from all angles. All students deserve learning experiences that celebrate their growth, so that we talk about learning leaps instead of education gaps.

Foster a love of learning in every student with Nearpod. Teachers can sign up for free below to access and create interactive lessons. Administrators can schedule a call with an expert to unlock the full power of Nearpod for schools and districts.

The post How to identify and address learning gaps in education appeared first on Nearpod Blog.