According to an ESSA Level II study, CAASPP scores for math achievement demonstrated significant improvements among students who utilized Nearpod compared to those who did not, across various grade levels:

• 8th graders exhibited higher scores: 2516 compared to 2486.
• 6th graders also showed improved scores: 2501 compared to 2483.
• Additionally, 6th graders with Individualized Education Programs (IEPs) displayed enhanced scores: 2424 compared to 2393.

These findings highlight Nearpod’s positive impact on math academic outcomes across different student demographics, making it an ideal platform for a powerful supplemental math curriculum program.

Find the right supplemental resource for your instructional need

Full lesson experience

We know that half the battle in schools right now is finding top-quality resources for teaching and evaluating supplemental programs effectively. Resources need to be flexible enough for teachers to make their own, while still remaining rigorous, engaging, and differentiated to meet the needs of all students in their class. Nearpod Math allows teachers to support their instruction with a standards-based lesson, digitized in a ready-to-teach, problem-based format that keeps students at the forefront of instruction. These lessons provide warm-ups to get students thinking about the standard and topic of the day, then lead to exploration and practice through interactive activities and collaboration with classmates.

Always on the hunt for more

We also know that core instruction may not always be enough to meet the needs of all learners. Teachers likely need more for any given topic, and we’ve got them covered. Find opportunities to practice, reteach, and extend lessons, as well as videos and activities specifically aligned to the standard or topic within you’re working on. These supporting resources allow teachers to highlight a key concept by using a mini-lesson for small groups, showing a short video, or assigning additional practice opportunities in the form of a Time to Climb, Matching Pairs, Drag & Drop, Draw It, or one of our new virtual math manipulatives activities. All of these resources are conveniently organized in one place to help teachers maximize their limited time available to plan instruction.

Confidence-boosting math experiences engage every learner

The role model approach: Math is for me!

Too often, we find students unable to relate to the math classroom. Nearpod Math provides access to role models throughout the offering that look and think like typical math students across the nation. We built a character crew that grows and learns with the students across their K-8 math instruction journey. Through our Oh Now I Get It video series, these relatable characters demonstrate common misconceptions that may occur in the math classroom to clarify their understanding. These characters also walk students through relevant and authentic real-world connections through our Math in Action video series. We are excited for Sammy, Jaden, Willow, and all of their classmates to boost math experiences and engage every learner.

Building conceptual understanding

Our new virtual math manipulatives provide students with a scaffold to solve problems using Color Tiles, Base 10 Blocks, Algebra Tiles, and Fraction Tiles. Teachers are able to use our pre-made activities or make one on the spot to address a specific problem and drive conceptual understanding for students who may need additional support. Teachers can see the student solving in real-time, share student work in real-time, and allow individuals to model their thinking with the whole class. This helps peers become math role models for one another and demonstrate their understanding.

Reducing pressure and anxiety amplifies student voice

With the power of Nearpod, teachers truly have the ability to amplify student voice and hear from every student on every question. This reduces anxiety and allows students to practice without fear or judgment of being wrong. We intentionally integrated opportunities for student collaboration through interactive activities and discussions. With our Live to Student-Paced feature, teachers can release students to complete math activities at their own pace and monitor their progress in real-time. This removes the pressure that the class is waiting for “me” to finish while supporting the students who are able to move swiftly through more practice problems. Teachers decide what’s next because they know their students best.

Teachers drive the path

Flexibility is key when using supplemental resources. With Nearpod Math, teachers get access to high-quality resources that can be customized to meet their unique classroom needs. Not only can teachers edit, remove, or add to the existing Nearpod resources, but they also can create or upload their own to further support small groups, whole-class, reteaching, or enrichment opportunities!

Confident next steps after every turn 

Teaching math is complicated. Nearpod assists teachers in managing classroom behavior by facilitating engaging lessons while supporting teachers in addressing misconceptions before they start. Nearpod Math experiences are rich with real-time student insights, a live teacher dashboard, exclusive content, and on-the-fly instructional tools such as live annotation so teachers can intervene at the moment. Forget the days of teachers reviewing 150+ exit slips a day to adapt tomorrow’s instruction and start seeing where kids are so you can make adjustments in the moment.

Boost student confidence with Nearpod Math

Powered by Nearpod Premium Plus, Nearpod Math is available to schools and districts seeking to solve the “experience gap” found in other supplemental math programs. The program helps your teachers bring 21st-century skills to impact student learning each and every day.  Want to take a deeper look into the features that support boosting student confidence in math?

Pamela Villalba

Pamela Villalba is a Senior Curriculum Manager at Nearpod. She previously served as the Director of Secondary Curriculum and Instruction at a large urban school district in Central Florida where she led a team of content experts to support over 60 middle and high schools in the areas of professional development, school support, and curriculum within all core subjects. Pamela is currently in charge of supporting Nearpod in creating an innovative offering to support Math teachers across the nation.

The post 6 reasons your school’s math instruction needs Nearpod Math appeared first on Nearpod Blog.

Why use virtual field trips in the classroom?

Through VR field trips, we can take students around the world and create authentic, real-world learning experiences while boosting student engagement in learning and sparking curiosity! As we look for activities and tools to keep students engaged, it is the perfect opportunity to explore emerging technologies like augmented and virtual reality. Give students the chance to interact with the content they are studying in a more meaningful way and move them from consumers to creators with these virtual field trips for kids. This not only helps increase student engagement but also leads to higher student achievement.

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

Top 10 Virtual Reality (VR) Field Trips for Students

Explore these ten virtual reality field trips from Nearpod and take your students on an immersive learning journey! I chose these VR trips because they enable students to explore different cultures, build global awareness, and develop social emotional learning (SEL) skills in the process. We can use these VR field trips for all grade levels and content areas. As a language teacher, I love the VR field trips to Spanish-speaking countries, which enable students to explore closely on their own, ask questions, become curious, and develop a more significant global and cultural awareness. Rather than simply looking at pictures in a book, watching videos, or reading about these places and things, with Nearpod’s interactive virtual field trips, we put the learning right in our students’ hands.

Here are 10 virtual fields trips you can use for any subject and grade level! No virtual reality headsets are needed!

1. Explore shapes using the Eiffel Tower

In this lesson, students visit the Eiffel Tower to learn about two-dimensional shapes in three-dimensional objects. The VR Feature allows them to see a 360 of the Eiffel Tower and the city of Paris! Connect their VR experiences back to math instruction by having them complete a drawing assessment called Draw It and other activities.

2. Calculate interest using a castle

In this lesson, students experience VR travel by visiting a castle in the Netherlands to calculate interest payments. Pair this activity with a math unit about calculating interest. Have students explore the castle, followed by a Draw It activity where they can practice their problem-solving skills with a word problem. They can show their work and highlight their final answer within the Draw It tool. In real-time, you’ll be able to view student progress as they draw and complete the activity.

3. See evolution on Galapagos

In this lesson, students will visit several islands in the Galapagos to learn more about evolution. You can explore a variety of free virtual field trips for students in the Galapagos. Have them observe the ecosystems and make inferences through an Open-Ended Question on why these islands are considered the best place in the world to observe evolution by natural selection.

4. Discover ecosystems

Most of us go about our daily lives not thinking about the resources we use or whether those resources will ever run out. This lesson explores the carrying capacity of resources on a small scale that affects the larger scale as we explore various ecosystems. In this VR trip activity, students can select resources found on an island, estimate their longevity, and identify limits for capacity. This lesson also includes a Collaborate Board where students can discuss their survival strategy.

5. Tour the social-emotional world

Social emotional skills play a crucial role in a person’s success, both socially and academically. In this VR lesson, students will explore self-determination, communication skills, leadership, and creative problem-solving. This lesson includes various interactive Nearpod activities, as well as a video about how to feel motivated and empowered accompanying the virtual field trips.

6. World cultures and globalization

In this lesson, students will explore world cultures and cultural diffusions. They explore sites around the world, looking for similarities between these cultures and their own through a virtual tour. They will also consider the impact and role of globalization.

7. Travel through the United States

In this Nearpod VR mini-lesson on world geography and culture, students travel to the US to learn key facts about the United States and explore some American locations. Students compare and contrast the United States with their own country. If your students live in the U.S., this is a fun way to dive deeper into exploring important locations that students haven’t or have visited using VR field trips.

8. Inspect ancient empires

In this VR lesson, students learn about the world’s great empires as they explore the ancient ruins of Egypt, Greece, China, and the Inca Empire via virtual reality and make predictions about values and daily life at the time. Students can discuss and share their thoughts using the Collaborate Board and Open-Ended Questions included in the lesson.

9. Bring characters to life

In this VR trip lesson, students will learn about the role characters can play in a story and the key components of creating a relatable character. Students will craft characters of their own using inspiration from virtual field trips of animal ecosystems. They can explore different sites all around the world and write about their favorites. Assign this to students for independent work with Student-Paced Mode or synchronously with the class by launching a live lesson.

10. Wander through nature and write poetry

In this VR lesson, students will strengthen their poetry skills as they learn how authors use sensation and emotion in poems. Students will explore various scenes through virtual reality experiences as inspiration for writing their own poetry.

Use these virtual reality field trips for students

We have an opportunity to innovate and re-imagine learning as we bring new ideas into our classrooms. Using Nearpod immerses students in different learning experiences or traveling with VR trips, especially during hybrid or distance learning. Nearpod is excellent for assessing students and creating more interactive and engaging lessons that spark curiosity by bringing virtual reality into the classroom! Remember, no VR headsets are needed to use these interactive experiences. Using virtual reality travel experiences as a hook into a lesson makes a difference for students and can be a great way to promote some conversation. Get started by choosing one of the top ten VR field trips and take your students on a VR field trip today!

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

Rachelle Dene Poth

Rachelle is an edtech consultant, attorney, author, and Spanish and STEAM Emerging Technology teacher. She is an ISTE Certified Educator and former president of the ISTE Teacher Education Network. She is the author of five books available at bit.ly/pothbooks. Rachelle is passionate about education!

rdene915.com/

The post Top 10 Virtual Reality (VR) Field Trips for Students appeared first on Nearpod Blog.

Combining powerful education tech tools, like Nearpod and Flocabulary, to do more than either one can separately do is not a new concept. App smashing is “the process of developing content on multiple digital applications and then integrating or ‘smashing’ them together in order to create a richer, innovative digital product.” (Brenner & Hauser, 2015). App smashing can also increase the efficiency of using multiple edtech tools in the classroom. With an average of 42 tools used by an individual teacher in a classroom, it is more important than ever to use the tools in the most effective way possible.

What are the benefits of using Nearpod and Flocabulary together?

When you consider the platforms and the content available with Nearpod and Flocabulary, it becomes clear that each tool contributes to powerful learning in its own way.

Nearpod, at its core, is a robust, multi-purpose instructional platform that transforms instruction from direct teaching into an interactive, two-way learning experience that drives results. It has the functionality to bring most, if not all, of your instructional resources together for an efficient delivery. This can increase instruction by decreasing the time needed to move between tools, so you avoid losing students between tabs.

Flocabulary, on its own, accelerates learning and academic vocabulary of Tier 2 and Tier 3 words through rigorous and authentically engaging learning experiences centered on video-based lessons. Using a tiered word system helps teachers and students focus on the words they need to be successful in the academic space.

Dr. Laura Rigolosi, Curriculum & Literacy Specialist at the Center for Professional Education of Teachers, references Dr. Isabel Beck’s work when she describes the tiers as follows.

“Tier 1 words are basic words that students typically know, unless they are an ELL, and in that case they may need to be taught that word. Tier 1 words include: computer, sunlight, coffee, sleep, etc.

Tier 2 words are those that are often used in classrooms and extend beyond one particular subject area, including: analyze, tweak, estimate, determine—words in that academic arena.

Tier 3 words are highly specific for each content area, and are housed within a particular subject. Examples of Tier 3 words include: parabola, hypotenuse, simile, monarchy, osmosis, etc.”

Through the Flocabulary video, students have a first introduction to a set of vocabulary words in a given context. Flocabulary’s memorable and rigorous activities then allow students to have multiple exposures and practice opportunities to apply their learning.

The two platforms, Nearpod and Flocabulary, can significantly impact learning all by themselves, but have you ever wondered what might be possible if these tools were used together in creative ways?

How to add Flocabulary to Nearpod

Nearpod lessons can easily house activities from any other platform using the Web Content option. But adding a link is just the beginning. Imagine one of your favorite Flocabulary activities as part of your best Nearpod lesson, or finding an entire lesson in Nearpod that is built around a Flocabulary video. These are just a few of the ideas we consider as we explore how to bring Nearpod and Flocabulary together.

How to find Flocabulary lessons on Nearpod

Additionally, you can explore Flocabulary lessons in the Nearpod Lesson Library. Search “Flocabulary” and filter lessons by grade level, subject, and type. To view lessons only, click on “Lessons” at the top of the screen. If you have a Flocabulary account, you can access various lessons, videos, and activities. If you don’t have access to Flocabulary, check out these unlocked lessons! Keep reading to explore how Nearpod and Flocabulary can be combined to deepen the learning experience.

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

How to combine the power of Nearpod and Flocabulary

1. Topic Sparks and Literacy Across Media lessons

Prebuilt and editable lessons are always a teacher’s go-to resource when things get busy during the school year when faced with unfamiliar new content, or when the ideas are just not flowing to create something new. The stellar Nearpod and Flocabulary content creators collaborate to create two sets of lessons that strategically combine the superpowers of each platform. Each lesson includes instructional content wrapped around a high-quality hip-hop based video. These lesson series are called Topic Spark lessons and Literacy Across Media lessons.

Topic Spark lessons are 25- to 30-minute learning experiences that feature a Flocabulary video and best-loved Nearpod features, such as a Collaborate Board to continue the discussion or a Draw It to build on the creativity from the video.  These lessons are designed to introduce students to new topics, provide an opportunity for review, or be used in stations or blended learning classrooms.

Here are some of our favorite sample lessons!

• Active Listening (Grades 4-8)
• Statue of Liberty (Grades K-3)

Literacy Across Media lessons are 45- to 60-minute learning experiences that use Nearpod features in conjunction with a Flocabulary video to build content knowledge and apply literacy skills to multiple types of media. These lessons are designed to provide rigorous, grade-level differentiated instruction, encourage critical thinking, support culturally responsive learning environments, and focus on one section of a Flocabulary video for close reading and analysis.

Here are some of our favorite unlocked lessons!

• Location, Latitude, and Longitude (Grades 4-5)
• Intro to Long Division (Grades 4-5)

2. Embed Flocabulary videos

The most famous component of any Flocabulary lesson is the video, especially if you’re interested in learning how to add Flocabulary to Nearpod! The video, on its own, provides students with an opportunity for a memorable learning experience that can be used to introduce new topics and the academic vocabulary words that are key to unlocking the content.

An effective practice when using a video in a lesson, especially with Flocabulary videos, is to play it uninterrupted. The first time, allow it to play straight through to simply enjoy the media and take in some of the initial learning. Then play the video again, with either a specific purpose for watching or with embedded questions using the Nearpod Interactive Video tool to check for understanding with open-ended and multiple-choice questions.

Adding formative assessments directly in the video allows students to have a moment to pause and focus on a specific vocabulary word or part of the content to make a lasting connection in their learning. Utilizing an Open-Ended Question specifically can move beyond a check for understanding. Crafting a well-worded question will encourage students to connect the new information to previous learning or push them to consider how it might apply to future work. Another idea would be to use the Open-ended question to prompt students to create or share questions they might have instead of answering one. Asking thoughtful questions is a critical thinking skill that will raise students’ levels of thinking.

All Flocabulary videos can be added to any Nearpod lesson in two ways with access to school/district accounts on both platforms. Having these options available through the Nearpod platform makes the transition between videos efficient and requires minimal movement between tabs and platforms, limiting the loss of instruction time that can occur when there are multiple logins and passwords.

Add videos from the Nearpod library

You can find your favorite Flocabulary video in Nearpod through the Interactive Video option when building a lesson, or by searching the Nearpod library for video content from Flocabulary. Flocabulary videos from the Nearpod library have comprehension and discussion questions already embedded in the video to create a more interactive experience.

Add Flocabulary lessons as Web Content

Another method to incorporate a Flocabulary video is by directly embedding it into the Nearpod lesson as Web Content using the lesson URL. When utilizing this approach, the Flocabulary video will open within the Flocabulary platform, granting students the ability to adjust the playback speed and access the lyrics. Unlike the previous method, this video will not contain embedded questions and can be played continuously without interruptions.

3. The Flocabulary lesson sequence

Switch up the Flocabulary sequence as you bring the activities from the lesson sequence into a Nearpod lesson. Add individual activities supporting a different lesson for additional vocabulary review, a creative introduction, or a quick assessment. You can re-create these activities using Nearpod or simply embed the URL of the Flocabulary activity using the Web Content feature.

Consider adding the Flocabulary Vocab Game as a bell ringer into your lesson or drop in the link to the Read and Respond activity for additional review of related vocabulary, a learning standard, or a specific topic.

Use the attached Vocab Card template in a Draw It activity and provide students with the opportunity to create their own vocabulary cards!

4. Connect to the Lyric Lab framework

The broadest option for bringing Flocabulary into any lesson at almost any grade is to use the Lyric Lab framework. While in the Nearpod lesson, provide the prompt and words students will need to include in their scaffolded writing experience through Lyric Lab.

Use this template to create your own slide if you would like it to look similar to the Lyric Lab experience.

Then, using the Nearpod Web Content option, link to any Lyric Lab in the Flocabulary platform. An example might be the End Punctuation lesson using this link. The vocabulary words listed can be a reminder to students to use the required punctuation as they write their lyrics around the content and vocabulary of your choosing … or theirs!

The power of Lyric Lab begins by giving students the creative avenue to share what they know or have learned about a topic. This can be expanded when students have the opportunity to perform their lyrics or read their writing to an authentic audience—an audience of more than their teacher and classmates! Tap into your school’s media options such as morning announcements, in-school news channels, or upcoming family night events.

5. The independent practice (a.k.a. homework)

Homework is one of the most debated topics in education. Do you give it? Do you not? Is it fair? Is it not? Is it for a grade? Is it for practice? No matter what your opinion is, we can all likely agree that students need some time to practice new learning on their own and would prefer it to incorporate an element of fun along with the required rigor.

Provide additional practice for students by linking a complementary Flocabulary lesson at the end of your Nearpod lesson. On Flocabulary, use the search by state standards option or the key word search to find the lesson that most closely supports the topic.

When you have decided on your Flocabulary lesson, add it to your Nearpod as Web Content. Send students directly to the Flocabulary lesson following the large group instruction. This can be designated in whatever way makes the most sense in your classroom: homework, classwork, small group work, station rotation, or centers. Switch from Live to Student-Paced mode to have students complete the work at their own pace. Linking it into the Nearpod lesson makes it more efficient for students to move from one platform to another without getting distracted by other technology and tabs.

Whatever you choose to call it, we call it a memorable learning experience that students will more than likely be interested in completing. Assign all or parts of the Flocabulary lesson depending on the needs of your students. You do not have to grade it; the students’ responses are provided for you in the Flocabulary lesson report and can be used as evidence of practice or translated into a grade based on your expectations.

Start using Nearpod and Flocabulary together

Using technology in the classroom is not a quick, impromptu decision. It takes deliberate, thoughtful planning to ensure the technology is being used to provide a positive impact on student learning as well as provide evidence of the impact on the learning experience. When combining tools like Nearpod and Flocabulary, there are any number of ways you might choose to use these two platforms together. We’ve just provided a few examples. Whether you use all parts of a Flocab lesson to follow large group instruction or choose just one or two Flocabulary activities to add variety, start with the approach that will best improve learning outcomes for your students and then let the learning flow!

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

Julie Cobb

Julie Cobb is a Senior Manager on the Nearpod Professional Services team, leading high-quality implementation and training consultations for Nearpod School and District partners across the United States. She has her Bachelors in Education of the Hearing Impaired and her Masters in Educational Leadership. Passionate about education technology, she was inspired to join Nearpod because she wanted to share innovative ways to transform teaching and learning using technology in the classroom and beyond.

The post 5 Ways combine the power of Nearpod and Flocabulary appeared first on Nearpod Blog.

An introduction to Nearpod lessons

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.

Join us for Camp Engage: Back to School!

Join us for Camp Engage on July 25-27th! This FREE virtual professional development event is designed to provide educators with engaging, high-quality learning experiences, led by experts in the field. Our sessions are crafted to offer practical insights and strategies, ensuring immediate impact in the classroom.

Whether you’re new to Nearpod, a seasoned expert, or interested in learning, everyone is welcome to join!

What you need to know before creating a Nearpod lesson

As you begin creating lessons for students, it is important to understand Nearpod’s features. Interactive slides are broken down into three major categories:

Creation media

Slides, Sways, and Slideshows hold the essential content to guide your learners through the interactive lesson. The most common content media educators use is slides.

Dynamic media

Incorporate 3D objects, Simulations, and VR Field Trips to breathe life into your content, fostering a deeper understanding.

Interactive activities

Engage your students with captivating activities like Time to Climb, Draw It, Open-Ended Questions, and Collaborate Boards, which capture the pivotal moments of learning.

How to create a lesson on Nearpod

Our Lesson Builder features a user-friendly design familiar to those who have experience with tools like PowerPoint or Google Slides.

Step 1: Launch the Lesson Builder

Click on “Create” and select “Lesson” to launch the Lesson Builder.

Step 2: Choose your slides

Select “Slides” from the Activity Selector. The Slide Editor offers a variety of pre-designed templates and layout features, enabling you to curate content slides for your lessons. Unleash your creative style in text boxes, leveraging rich-text capabilities and the Nearpod Equation Editor. Layer images, GIFs, and even your own audio directly onto slides. Create your content even faster using the new quick add slide button!

Step 3: Incorporate interactive media and activities

Click “Add New” to continue adding Dynamic Media and Activities, to finish building your interactive lesson.

Include activities from the Nearpod lesson library to customize your lesson using the Activity Bank. With thousands of pre-made Time to Climb quizzes and Matching Pairs, Drag and Drop, and Draw It activities, teachers can easily customize any lesson in Nearpod with standards-aligned activities.

Step 4: Input lesson details to stay organized

Click on “Lesson Details” to give your lesson a title, provide a description for the lesson, and tag the lesson with relevant grade levels and subjects. This metadata enhances searchability, making it easier to find and share your lessons.

Step 5: Launch and observe the magic

Launch your lesson in either Live Participation or Student-Paced modes and see the impact of Nearpod in action!

Tips for creating your own Nearpod lesson

As you design interactive lessons for students, here are some tips to get you started!

Tip #1: Use the lesson library for inspiration

It can be difficult knowing where to start when building lessons for your students. Nearpod’s curriculum team comprises former educators who design lessons around the latest research into active learning strategies, such as the 5 E’s Model and Guided Inquiry. Filter the Nearpod Library by grade level, subject, or state standards to discover new ways to approach your content. You can even copy and paste library resource content directly into your lessons!

Tip #2: Use what you already have

We know you already have amazing resources in other formats. Use the Upload Slides feature to quickly upload your PowerPoints and Google Slides into Nearpod, transforming them from static presentations to lessons for your students. You can even use worksheets for Draw It or Drag and Drop activities. Learn more about how to convert your existing presentations into a Nearpod lesson.

Tip #3: Enhance your Google Slides with the Nearpod Add-On

If you prefer to “Nearpodize” your existing Google Slides while working within the familiar Slides tool set, Gold, Platinum, and School or District users can integrate Nearpod activities and dynamic media content directly with the Nearpod add-on! With the Nearpod Slides add-on, your embedded hyperlinks stay active, and Microsoft Immersive Reader will be able to read all the text on your Slides to support all learners. Learn more about integrating your Nearpod lessons in Google Slides.

Already have access to a free Nearpod account? Click below to upgrade to Gold!

Tip #4: Organize ALL of your digital resources in one space

As we incorporate technology into our classrooms, it is easy to lose students to an array of open tabs. Direct students to specific websites, district curricular resources, or collaborative learning experiences with Google or Microsoft tools quickly and easily, using Nearpod’s Web Content feature. Using Web Content, all of those links can be easily integrated directly into your interactive lessons, ensuring you and your students are always on the same page. Learn more about enhancing your lessons with Web Content.

Tip #5: Combine dynamic media and activities

When creating lessons, it is important to remember all of the magic you have available to you in Nearpod. VR Field Trips, PhET Simulations, and 3D objects help the learning come to life. But did you know that you can easily pair that dynamic media content with one of Nearpod’s activities to truly make student thinking visible?

• Combine several VR Field Trips for a compare and contrast interactive classroom activity. Students can explore the various locations and then use a Collaborate Board to discuss or even debate their findings with their peers.
• Add a blank Draw It after a Simulation for students to upload their discoveries. First, they experience the simulation and then take a screenshot of their work. They can upload their image and then annotate right on top of it to explain what they have uncovered. 
• Create a Drag & Drop activity to label the parts of a cell using a screenshot of a 3D object. Students can explore the cell in their browser and then demonstrate their understanding by correctly labeling the various parts they have seen.

Start creating lessons on Nearpod

Whether you are using pre-made lessons from the Nearpod Library, enhancing your own materials, or even working directly in Google Slides, Nearpod makes it easy to create lessons for your students’ learning needs.

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.

Nearpod Team

Nearpod’s award-winning platform is used by thousands of schools around the globe, transforming classroom engagement.

nearpod.com/

The post How to create interactive lessons for students with Nearpod appeared first on Nearpod Blog.

Nearpod helps educators make any lesson interactive, whether in the classroom or virtual. The concept is simple. A teacher can create interactive presentations that can contain Quizzes, Polls, Videos, Collaborate Boards, and more. You can access thousands of premade K-12 standards-aligned lessons or upload your existing lessons and make them interactive using Nearpod in the classroom. Nearpod makes teaching easier with the interactive tools, resources, and content teachers need, all in one place. You can sign up for a free account today and learn 5 ways to use a free Nearpod account.

The students can access a teacher’s Live Participation presentation through a code, and the teacher then moves the class through the lesson and lets students interact with the media as they go. Teachers can also opt for Student-Paced mode, where the student controls the flow of the lesson. This mode is perfect for remote learning, hybrid learning, sub days, homework assignments, or independent work. The app is web-based and works on any device with an internet connection.

New to Nearpod? Sign up for free below to create your own interactive lessons and access engaging standards-aligned resources!

Join us for Camp Engage: Back to School!

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.

Each session is crafted to provide immediate classroom impact, so you can apply what you learn at Camp Engage right from the start— just in time for back to school. Whether you’re new to Nearpod, a seasoned expert, or interested in learning, everyone is welcome to join!

10 ways to use Nearpod in the classroom

Below are just ten simple ways you can utilize this multiple-solutions-in-one tool:

1. Simple presentation delivery

At its most simple, you can use Nearpod as a substitute for other presentation tools. Instead of running a Powerpoint or Google Slides, you can utilize Nearpod and make the lesson more interactive. You can even ‘drag and drop’ your existing Google Slides, PDFs, and PowerPoints into the app for it to instantly create a Nearpod presentation. Then you can select from countless interactive activities and formative assessments. The presentations will be beamed to each student’s device in the classroom. You also do not have to rely on students being able to see the board.

2. Personalized provision and differentiation

Following on from the idea of using Nearpod as a simple presentation tool, you could isolate the use of the app to one student or a small group. It could be that you are beaming extra teaching provisions to particular pupils during a starter. This could be the missing link that provides more support for a child with visual impairments. It could provide that extra bit of help for a low attainer in your class. You can also duplicate the lesson and modify to deliver differentiated content to your students. You can edit these lessons with personalized formative assessment activities, collect feedback, and inclusive accessibility.

3. Distributing student resources

Using the app to distribute resources is another simple way of using it in the classroom. You can fill your presentation with images or worksheets and ask the students to use the Students Notes feature to save the presentation to their drive to access the information later when studying for an exam or completing homework. 

4. Live formative assessment

The app can become even more useful if you insert one of Nearpod’s many formative assessment activities into your presentation. As a teacher, you can create customized Quizzes, Polls, Open-ended Questions, Matching Pairs, Draw It activities, and more. Use these tools to view their responses and check for students’ understanding in real-time. The teacher can instantly gain insights into the classes’ overall understanding and make adjustments on the fly.

5. Interactive gamification and activities

One simple way to implement Nearpod into your daily instruction is to have students do an interactive activity. Add interest and excitement into everyday learning with Drag & Drop, Draw It, Time to Climb, Matching Pairs, and Collaborate Board. To review a unit use the gamified multiple-choice quiz, Time to Climb. With Collaborate Board, teachers can host classroom discussions with students using an interactive board to share ideas in real-time.

6. Self-assessment

It is common practice in Primary and Secondary schools for students to assess themselves and evaluate their own confidence levels. This is usually achieved through a traffic light system that children are encouraged to draw in their workbooks. Red indicates a poor confidence level, amber indicates a fair understanding and green indicates a very good understanding of any given learning topic.

Nearpod contains the option of inserting a ‘Poll’. In this situation, students’ opinions are questioned. This makes the ‘Polling’ tool a perfect feature to use when ‘traffic lighting’ in the classroom. The information is then saved in the aforementioned reports!

7. Modeling

The app also has a feature called ‘Draw It’ that can be built into your presentations. This beams an interactive whiteboard to the students’ devices. The teacher’s device will display all of the students’ ‘drawings’ and the teacher can then ‘share’ individual whiteboards with the entire class. Hitting share will cause the chosen ‘drawing’ to appear on every device. This enables teachers to share good work and model good progressions.

8. Open-ended tasks

Nearpod in the classroom allows for creative flexibility. The ‘Open-Ended Questions’ feature allows the teacher to pose a question or set up a scenario for the students to respond to. With this tool, you can facilitate creative writing tasks. As a result, the advantage of using something like Nearpod for this kind of activity is that the ‘Open-Ended’ answers are then automatically logged in the reports.

9. Setting homework

All of the above examples revolve around the idea of using Nearpod in a Live session, but students can also engage on their own time. You can provide a Student-Paced code and they can access the Nearpod lesson at home, or anywhere with an internet connection.

10. Sharing and using pre-made resources

One way of using Nearpod involves almost no work at all. Once you log on, tap on the ‘Nearpod Library’ button on the left side and it will take you to a library of pre-made Nearpod lessons. You can find interactive presentations on almost anything for K-12 made by reliable subject experts. Near down your search by using the filters on the left side, typing into the search for, or browsing around our featured content. You can search by lesson type, standards, subjects, grade levels, and keywords.

Get started using Nearpod

The customizable nature of the app means that it can be applied to any age range and teaching context. It saves you time with real-time formative assessment and session reports and helps build a connected culture in and outside of the classroom.

New to Nearpod? Sign up for free below to create your own interactive lessons and access engaging standards-aligned resources!

Interested in downloading a PDF version of this resource? Download to access at any time and share with colleagues!

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Nearpod Team

Nearpod’s award-winning platform is used by thousands of schools around the globe, transforming classroom engagement.

nearpod.com/

The post 10 ways to use Nearpod in the classroom appeared first on Nearpod Blog.

Nearpod’s lesson library is the perfect solution for those teachers who feel nervous about learning new tech but are excited to see the benefits of our interactive lesson platform. Here are three quick tips to get started using Nearpod’s pre-made standards-aligned K-12 content.

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.

3 tips for using Nearpod’s lesson library

1. Use a pre-made lesson from the lesson library

Nearpod’s growing lesson library includes 22,000+ K-12 standards-aligned lessons that provide teachers with the additional content they need to fill in curriculum gaps and make lessons interactive.

Teachers no longer need to search for supplemental content and find ways to make worksheets and downloadable files more engaging. With Nearpod, teachers get all the benefits of pre-made standards-aligned content, built right into an interactive platform. Nearpod has interactive activities for students to show what they know and engaging media embedded right into lessons.

One of the best ways to jump into using Nearpod is to experience it for yourself first, and a pre-made lesson is a great way to save time creating a lesson on your own. Focus on finding standards-aligned content through our standards filters which include standard or state, subject, grade, and strand. You can also filter and search lessons by keywords, sources, and partners. When you’re ready, launch the lesson and watch how it impacts student engagement in your classroom. During the lesson, you can also get real-time insights into student morning.

After your lesson, head to your reports to find post-session reports you can share with other colleagues via email, or download as PDF and CSV files for your grading and records. Through these reports, teachers can print and share data on how the entire class did on a lesson, or create reports on individual students.

2. Customize an existing lesson

We know teachers love to take their supplemental content to the next level. When you’re feeling ready to create some content of your own in Nearpod, an easy way to save time is to customize a pre-made lesson with your own resources or with interactive activities like Draw It, Matching Pairs, Time to Climb, and more.

Find a pre-made lesson you love and customize it in three different ways:

• After you’ve found a lesson you’re interested in using, go through the slides and activities and cull them to focus on just what you need for your classroom and students. For example, you can change the wording of formative assessment questions or math problems to be a perfect fit for what you need from your content resources in the classroom.
• After you’ve perfected your lesson to present the content exactly how you want, you can add in existing PowerPoints, PDFs, or other resources you love into a lesson.
• Finally, teachers can add quick checks for understanding using Nearpod’s activity banks. These standards-aligned activities are the perfect way to customize a lesson. Nearpod’s activity banks help create engaging and interactive lessons while saving time.

3. Create your own lesson and keep it in your library for the future

Many teachers have developed content resources to support their lessons. Use the pre-made content on Nearpod’s lesson library as a guide to create your own. Don’t recreate the wheel and use what you already have as inspiration. Teachers can upload the resources they already have into Nearpod to create interactive lessons and then organize them into folders for future use.

Whether you have worksheets you’d like to digitize, PowerPoints you’d like to make interactive, videos, PDFs, slides, or web content from other online resources, Nearpod can combine them into one engaging and interactive learning experience.

When you combine the resources you already have with Nearpod’s interactive formative assessment types and engaging media, you turbocharge your content.

Start exploring Nearpod’s lessons

Discover a plethora of free quality lessons and teaching resources available for educators to utilize and enhance their classroom experience. Whether you’re new to Nearpod or looking to enhance your lessons, these three tips provide a quick start to leveraging its interactive platform effectively. Join the Nearpod community today to access a wealth of standards-aligned content and transform your classroom experience.

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.

Nearpod Team

Nearpod’s award-winning platform is used by thousands of schools around the globe, transforming classroom engagement.

nearpod.com/

The post 3 Tips for using Nearpod’s lesson library appeared first on Nearpod Blog.

Can drawing be used as a formative assessment?

Classroom drawings assess students formatively while adding engagement and fun. The interactive nature of drawing lets students expand and reflect on their learning, and drawing gives students another way to express their knowledge and show what they know. Drawing allows students to conceptualize topics and ideas and create visual representations of their thinking (Balunuz, 2019). Formatively assessing a student’s drawing helps get a picture of their knowledge and identifies misconceptions and gaps in knowledge. Based on the drawing assessment feedback, instruction can be adjusted to meet student needs.

Nearpod’s Draw It is a digital whiteboard for students that combines formative drawing assessments with creative interactive activities. This activity enables students to make visual representations of their knowledge. You can use a premade standards-aligned lesson from the Nearpod Lesson Library, upload a background image for the students to annotate, or have the students create their own classroom drawing using a blank background. Results can be analyzed through real-time progress in a Student-Paced or Live Participation lesson or Nearpod’s post-session reports to help form data-driven instructional decisions.

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 student creativity important in the classroom?

In addition to providing formative assessment data, drawing assessments bring creativity and energy into the classroom. Drawing can create memorable learning experiences for students, which helps foster motivation and engagement in any classroom. Creativity helps students synthesize information and build new knowledge. Plus, creativity weaves fun into the classroom. Through creativity, students make new connections and form fresh approaches and solutions (Fisher et al., 2004). These new connections and approaches increase motivation while helping prepare students for future careers.

5 ways to use drawing assessments

1. Conceptualize with graphic organizers

Graphic organizers provide creative activities for students to organize knowledge and demonstrate relationships. As a result, students can express complex ideas and relationships, and teachers can formatively assess understanding while identifying areas that need remediation. Research suggests that in addition to being a tool to determine and analyze student thinking and learning, graphic organizers provide a “good alternative to longer, written assessments” (Struble, 2007).

Do you need to assess your students before a summative assessment formatively? An elementary science teacher can review the phases of matter with their students through Venn diagrams. Students can compare and contrast each phase, allowing them to determine which students need additional instruction.

Formative assessment examples can also occur at the beginning of a learning unit. A middle school civics teacher teaching the three branches of government activates students’ prior knowledge through a KWL chart. Through the KWL, teachers can identify what their students already know and address any misconceptions.

Ready to formatively assess your students with graphic organizers? Click below to preview Nearpod’s drawing templates for:

• Cause and effect
• Brainstorming
• Timelines
• KWL
• Venn Diagrams
• Pros and cons

If you already have a graphic organizer you like to use with your students, use Draw It to upload the resource as a background image, and then students can use the quick draw tools to annotate the organizer. Alternatively, adding a blank background to your Draw It slides lets students create their own graphic organizer. As an extra benefit, add the timer to the activity to help set realistic expectations for student completion.

2. Encourage collaboration and discussion among students

As a 21st-century skill, collaboration benefits students by building communication and problem-solving skills. A Harvard research study noted that students learn more when discussing ideas and elaborating on them with their peers (Shen). Through collaboration, students can assess their knowledge, and teachers can monitor student progress. Think-Pair-Share combined with Draw It’s digital whiteboards for students provides a creative formative assessment with collaboration.

To combine Think-Pair-Share with Draw It, provide students with a prompt from the Nearpod Library or upload a resource. Use the timer to allow 1-2 minutes of student reflection time. Then, have students collaborate with a partner to discuss the prompt and possible answers. After partner discussion, have students compose their individual answers on the activity slide. Finally, teachers can share the student responses from the teacher’s view to facilitate class discussion.

3. Reveal and evaluate students’ Depth of Knowledge with multipart questions

Multipart questions provide teachers with formative assessment data to reveal and evaluate a student’s Depth of Knowledge. Providing opportunities for students to respond to various question levels, from recall to extended thinking, multipart responses give teachers formative assessment data. Drawing offers an engaging way to give students multipart and multistep questions.

For example, math students solve a problem using the Draw It tools, and then they add a text box to describe how they solved the problem. Formative assessment examples can also involve students studying animal and plant cells. Students can use this tool to label an uploaded cell template and then add text boxes to explain the function of each part.

To prepare a multipart question, teachers can add a premade lesson from the Lesson Library or upload a background image of a template. Students can use this drawing tool to label the template, and then they can complete their drawing assessment by adding a text box to explain their answers.

4. Combine with dynamic learning experiences such as VR and simulation models

According to research, visual analysis can be used to formatively assess learners (Stanja et al., 2022). By providing students the opportunity to analyze and explain, teachers can formatively assess and guide instructional decisions. Pairing content and activities in Nearpod are a great way to have students make connections and formatively assess student knowledge.

For example, world history students can go on a Nearpod VR Field Trip to the Great Pyramid of Giza. While on the VR Field Trip, students must identify something they learned in class and take a screenshot of that image. On the next slide, the students will upload their screenshots to a Draw It and use the tools to explain why they chose that image. Some formative assessment examples include elementary, middle, and high school students participating in a math or science PhET Interactive Simulation. During the activity, they need to take a screenshot of a solution. On the next slide, the students will upload their screenshots to the blank drawing activity and use the drawing tools to explain how they solved the problem.

To pair content and knowledge in Nearpod, add a VR Field Trip, a PHeT simulation, or a Nearpod 3D to your lesson. During the experience, have the students visually analyze the content. Instructions could include identifying a problem they incorrectly answered during a PHeT simulation or identifying something they learned in class in the VR Field Trip or 3D simulation. On the next slide, have the students upload the screenshot to a blank Draw It and then use the drawing tools to annotate the screenshot explaining their analysis.

5. Use formative assessment examples to do periodic checks for understanding

Fisher and Frey noted it is difficult to know exactly what students are getting out of the lesson without checking for understanding. Checking for understanding also helps students become aware of how to monitor their own knowledge (Fisher & Frey, 2014). Periodic assessment checks allow students to summarize key points, review essential questions, reflect on learning, and synthesize information.

Drawing assessments can also be used for periodic checks for understanding. For example, at the end of class, exit tickets formatively assess what students learned during the lesson, what they will continue to work on, and what questions they still have. At the beginning of class, entry tickets describe what the students learned the day before. This drawing assessment activity allows exit and entry tickets to be easily added to any Nearpod lesson.

One quick way to find premade exit tickets is to search the Nearpod Library. Blank Draw It slides enable students to create their own exit and entry tickets. For in-the-moment checks for understanding, a drawing activity can be added during a Live Participation lesson by clicking the Add Activity button from the Teacher dashboard.

Don’t forget to use Nearpod,an oldie but a goodie! So simple to upload any slideshow, add a few bells and whistles, and engagement increases ten-fold! The bulletin board and draw it features were the favorites! @NISDWernli @NISDElemSS pic.twitter.com/opElNQhFgW

— Stephanie G. (@MsTexasTeacher) October 8, 2022

Get started with drawing assessments using Nearpod

This list of formative assessment examples using Draw It is just the beginning! Whether using premade standards-aligned resources from the Nearpod Library, uploading your own resources, or using a blank slide, Nearpod gives teachers a variety of engaging and fun assessment activities.

With Nearpod, you can create interactive lessons and activities in one place. You can also use our premade standards-aligned resources across all subjects and grade levels.

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.

References and Further Reading

Bulunuz, N. (2019). Introduction and assessment of a formative assessment strategy applied in middle school science classes: Annotated student drawings. International Journal of Education in Mathematics, Science and Technology (IJEMST), 7(2), 186-196. DOI:10.18404/ijemst.552460

Fisher, D., & Frey, N. (2014). Checking for understanding: Formative assessment techniques for your classroom. ASCD. 

Fisher, R., & Williams, M. (2004). Chapter 1. In Unlocking creativity: Teaching across the Curriculum. essay, David Fulton. 

Shen, D. (n.d.). Pair and share. ablconnect. Retrieved November 30, 2022, from https://ablconnect.harvard.edu/pair-and-share-research 

Stanja, J., Gritz, W., Krugel, J., Hoppe, A., & Dannemann, S. (2022). Formative assessment strategies for students’ conceptions—The potential of learning analytics. British Journal of Educational Technology, 00, 1– 18. https://doi.org/10.1111/bjet.13288

Struble, J. (2007). Using graphic organizers as formative assessment. Science Scope, 30(5), 69. https://doi.org/https://www.proquest.com/openview/cc423816f32d8ae9c93c3e26089f83f0/1?pq-origsite=gscholar&cbl=36017

Liz Pearce

Liz is a District Strategy Consultant for Nearpod. A former educator with 33 years as an elementary and middle school teacher and district technology coach. Liz loves the engaging and interactive abilities of Nearpod.

The post How to use drawing as a formative assessment tool appeared first on Nearpod Blog.

Why are games in the classroom important?

Using educational games for kids helps them learn additional skills beyond the academic concepts that are being taught. They will also build 21st-century social skills, and problem-solving skills, and build community all while learning subject material.

Games are most effective when well-planned and integrated into learning objectives. With Time to Climb, you can include an existing Nearpod lesson or use it as a quick stand-alone activity.

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.

How to use educational games in the classroom

1. Use gamified learning consistently to increase students’ skills

In the classroom, an educator hopes to teach the math, reading, writing, or science skills a student will need to succeed in the world. However, students need more skill sets beyond academics. They need to have social and emotional learning skills such as problem-solving, collaboration, behavior management, responsibility, social skills, and more to excel in the real world. These life skills get carried beyond the classroom into everyday life and can be used in nearly every setting.

When teachers bring gamification into the classroom, they provide students with the opportunity to practice these life skills as well as to see them in action from their peers. Whether students are narrowing down answer choices on a question, using logic to select the correct answer, or practicing decision-making opportunities, they’re working on those 21st-century skills.

In Nearpod’s Time to Climb, 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.

This gamified quiz helps increase memory and allows students to become responsible for their own learning while developing social skills along the way. With the ability to select multiple correct answers and use images or text, teachers can customize a gamified quiz for their needs.

Explore our premade activities with interactive games that cover topics such as math, science, social studies, writing skills, and more.

2. Create engaging learning experiences

Educational games in the classroom can bring high levels of engagement to students during the learning process. When students engage in a game, their motivation increases, leading to better participation and the ability to form connections and positive memories of learning. Student outcomes and achievement increase when students are engaged and motivated to learn.

On Time to Climb, students can select their own characters and compete with them. The competitive nature and playful themes bring even more excitement and engagement to your classroom. Teachers can also select themes such as a beach, carnival, underwater, space, or mountain. Our Valentine’s, Halloween, and Winter Holiday themes will be accessible during these holiday time frames.

3. Keep students on track with learning

Formative assessment as a daily practice in the classroom has many benefits. It can help teachers better understand where their students are on the learning continuum, collect feedback on how a lesson could be more effective, and know exactly which students may need additional support. Using learning games for kids is an effective way to assess students before, during, or after a lesson.

Time to Climb allows teachers to pause between questions and access new data as they teach. When a question is live, the teacher can collect instant data on students’ understanding of the concept. If pausing between questions is turned on, the teacher will have an opportunity to reflect quickly on that data to address any misconceptions in real time during the game. Teachers can ensure that when a student gets a question incorrect, they have an opportunity to strategize and try again.

Start using games in the classroom!

When Time to Climb is played in a live classroom environment, students of all grade levels laugh and enjoy the integrated community-building elements of their learning experience! This educational game is built with an instructional design that keeps students engaged in any learning environment. Teachers can create a gamified quiz as a Student-Paced activity or launch one in the classroom for Live Participation.

Gamified quizzes have always been a favorite for teachers and students. Some teachers use them as a pre-assessment to get a deeper understanding of what students already know before introducing a new concept. Others use them as an engaging formative assessment in the middle of a lesson, final assessment, exit ticket, or opportunity to review key concepts for test prep. No matter how you assess, a gamified assessment can help you transform quizzes into engaging instructional moments in the classroom to help students learn.

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.

Nearpod Team

Nearpod’s award-winning platform is used by thousands of schools around the globe, transforming classroom engagement.

nearpod.com/

The post How to use educational games in the classroom appeared first on Nearpod Blog.

Is Nearpod free?

Yes, Nearpod is free and always will be! Nearpod Silver is a free license that you can use to bring student engagement and excitement into the classroom. This license offers all of the basic features that you need to get started with the platform.

What’s included in a free Nearpod account?

With a Nearpod Silver account, you get: 

• All of the standard features and functionality of Nearpod, including:
  • Interactive slides, videos, and gamified activities 
  • Access to 22,000+ pre-made lessons, videos, games, and activities
  • Three different types of teaching modes 
  • Real-time insights delivered through 20+ formative assessments and dynamic media features
• Up to 100 MB of storage 
• 40 student joins per lesson
• Upload your own lessons with resources you already have in .ppt, .pdf, and Google Slides files

If you’re interested in more of Nearpod beyond the free version, explore our other offerings: Gold, Platinum, and Premium Plus for schools/districts. With a Gold or Platinum account, you get more lesson storage, larger class sizes, Sub Plans, and more. Premium Plus accounts for schools/districts have access to all that Nearpod has to offer, including unlimited storage, LMS integrations, additional engaging activities, and more.

Do students need their own device for Nearpod?

Absolutely not! Using Nearpod, students receive engaging instruction with or without a device. Keep reading to explore how to use Nearpod with and without devices.

How to use Nearpod without student devices

We know that not every classroom, school, or district has access to devices for each student, and that is okay, too! There are so many ways to expose your students to opportunities and provide engaging learning, even with limited access to devices. Bring the magic of Nearpod without 1:1 devices through these tips:

Try a whole group lesson

• Students still get to experience Nearpod, just on one large screen for instruction.
• Lessons can simply be completed together and then either shared as a printed copy or assigned for students to complete at home for continued support and practice.

Flip the classroom

• Empower students to take ownership of their learning with devices at home to review the content prior to class using Nearpod. This allows the time in-class to be spent problem-solving, completing hands-on work, and tutoring
• Learn how to flip the classroom, the Nearpod way

How to use Nearpod with devices

Whether your classroom is 1:1 with devices or students bring in their own from home, Nearpod is device agnostic, so it works on various devices. Simply put…

• Students can use their own devices (think: BYOD…Bring Your Own Device)
• Students can use school or classroom-provided devices
• Nearpod works on laptops, desktops, Chromebooks, iOS devices, and Android devices
• If your students need to share devices, that is okay, too!

5 Ways you can use a Nearpod free account

1. Make any lesson interactive

To sum it up, Nearpod makes your lessons go from boring to BOO-YA. With your free Nearpod account, you can make any lesson interactive, engaging, and exciting for students. One of the most asked questions is whether students need their own device for Nearpod. As mentioned previously, the answer is no! Whether students are sharing devices or have their own, all students in the classroom can have the ability to engage with the material. No matter how you use Nearpod, you will see increased student participation, collaboration, and excitement about the material at hand.

First, bring your lessons to life through interactive slides, videos, and gamified activities. Increase participation and engagement in everyday learning with Draw It, Matching Pairs, Time to Climb, Open-Ended Questions, and more. With so many different options to choose from, it is easy to customize lessons to fit your teaching style and needs.

And it doesn’t stop there! Nearpod’s Interactive Video transforms the student experience from passive to active. With this feature, teachers can embed formative assessment questions into any video. Allowing for real-time insights into student learning and active participation from students. Teachers can upload their favorite videos, create their own, or choose from Nearpod’s library of 10,200+ K-12, standards-aligned interactive videos from 35+ trusted educational publishers.

Looking for some inspiration on how to make your Nearpod interactive lesson? Head to our YouTube channel to watch some short videos, or click below to start creating on Nearpod.

2. Access quality, standards-aligned pre-made lessons

Undoubtedly, there are days (maybe even weeks) when you feel stretched for time and simply need an engaging lesson, video, or activity that is ready-to-go. With Nearpod, we are happy to be your solution to saving time (among many other great things) with premade lessons, videos, activities, AND gamification!

Premade lessons

You don’t have to create lessons on your own! The Nearpod library includes 22,000+ pre-made quality lessons made by reliable content experts and trusted brand partners. However, these beautiful and engaging lessons are more than just a pretty face. Not only are Nearpod’s lessons standards-aligned, but they are developed by our curriculum team. This team is comprised of former educators who have been in your shoes, alongside a vast network of educators who draw on their various expertise to design high-quality content you can trust. Search for lessons by topic, lesson type, standards, subjects, grade levels, and keywords, or simply peruse our “Featured” section. This section is updated monthly to bring you relevant resources, new partnerships, and seasonal/holiday topics.

Interactive activities and games

In addition to the quality lessons available to you, Nearpod free also offers interactive activities and games. Boosting creativity and collaboration in the classroom is made easier with our growing library of activities and games (more than 3,000!), such as Draw It, Matching Pairs, Collaborate Board, Time to Climb (a fan fave!), Quizzes, Polls, and Open-Ended Questions! Our standards-aligned activities provide diverse and inclusive opportunities for:

• Recalling prior knowledge 
• Supporting a student’s learning progression 
• Building an understanding of essential skills 
• Collecting essential assessment data

Take a look at our extensive library of ready-to-use activities or customize any of them to fit your needs and your students’.

Interactive Videos

Nearpod’s video library features 10,200+ K-12, standards-aligned, Interactive Videos from 35+ trusted educational publishers. With so many videos to choose from, it’s so easy to find rigorous and engaging pre-made videos and add them to any Nearpod lesson! Differentiate, engage, and check for understanding when you customize video questions to further meet the needs of your students…it’s a win-win.

3. Real-time insights delivered through 20+ formative assessments and dynamic media features

While the mid-lesson “give me a thumbs up if you understand ” is a teaching classic for checking student understanding, it doesn’t provide you with much insight into if students truly understand the material. With Nearpod, you can get real-time insights and student data during your lesson. Through formative assessment activities and dynamic media features, there are multiple ways that you can assess student understanding to know where your students are at every step of the way.

Allow students to demonstrate their understanding all in one place with Nearpod’s 12 different activities for formative assessment, including Matching Pairs, Collaborate Board, Multiple-Choice Questions, and more. To elevate instruction even further, choose from 12 different dynamic media features for students to experience the material in a new way. With Virtual Reality (VR) Field Trips and Nearpod 3D Objects, students are bound to be engaged in your lesson and give the real-time insights YOU need to continue teaching!

4. Launch lessons in various ways

Nearpod provides three teaching modes to support in-person, remote, and hybrid learning to meet the needs of students, teachers, and the ever-changing education landscape.

Live Participation

With Live Participation, teachers control the pace of the Nearpod lesson while students participate on any device, whether in-person or via remote learning. In addition, teachers can launch or assign lessons for students directly in their LMS, such as Google Classroom.

Student-Paced

Students move through lessons at their own pace in the Student-Paced mode, from any location, asynchronous. Personalize instruction for individual students, small group assignments, or homework to differentiate and allow students to work at their own pace.

Front of Class

Even without a device, students can engage and learn with Nearpod. Using the Front of Class mode, simply project a video or lesson for whole group instruction and stop to discuss key instructional moments using the pre-made questions.

5. Rostering & LMS integrations

Here at Nearpod, we are all about making your life easier. One way Nearpod helps with that is it fits into what you are already using in your classroom with rostering and LMS integrations. Integrating with common LMS systems such as Canvas, Schoology, Blackboard, ItsLearning, Google Classroom, and more, Nearpod fits into what you are already using for every step of the way. Working with your school or district LMS, with Nearpod, you can…

• Access the Nearpod library right in your LMS
• Easily embed and assign lessons and videos in your LMS
• Streamline learning with all assignments and communications in one place

Sign up for Nearpod today for free!

With a Nearpod Silver account, you can get real-time insights into student understanding through interactive lessons, videos, gamification, and activities – all in Nearpod and all for free. Ready to get started? Your Nearpod Silver account is just a few clicks away!

Clare Liedtke and Meghan Rossi

Clare Liedtke is a Field Marketing Coordinator at Nearpod. She has her elementary education degree along with 2 years of teaching experience. Passions include reading, dogs, and outdoor activities.

Meghan Rossi is a Field Marketing Manager at Nearpod. She previously taught as an elementary educator in Texas for eight years and believes in empowering teachers. Passions include Corgis, reading, Disney, art, and racing cars.

The post Is Nearpod free? Learn 5 ways to use a free account appeared first on Nearpod Blog.

Bringing that joy back is what drives the Nearpod team. We want you to spend less time planning and more time teaching and connecting with students. We’ve gone beyond teacher lesson plans and built a library of 22,000+ high-quality lessons, videos, and activities ready for you to teach immediately. It’s easier and faster than ever to search this library. Your next lesson is now a click away, saving you time and helping you focus on what matters most—student outcomes.

Foster a love of learning in every student with Nearpod. Teachers can sign up for free to access quality, standards-aligned lessons and create their own interactive lessons and activities. Administrators can schedule a call with an expert to unlock the full power of Nearpod for schools and districts.

What makes us “content experts” at Nearpod?

Nearpod’s curriculum team comprises of former educators who have been in your shoes. Our collective classroom experience weaves itself into every resource we create. But we don’t just rely on our small team when creating teaching resources. We work with a vast network of educators who, drawing from their varied areas of expertise, design the high-quality lessons, activities, and videos you’ll find in the Nearpod Library. So, when you use a Nearpod resource, you can trust the intention and competence of the educators who had a hand in creating it.

In addition to enlisting the help of other experienced teachers, we frame our resources around the research-based instructional models you know and use. Here are some examples:

• Explore our Nearpod Core Subject Lessons collection to see the 5E and GRR models at work
• Give Project-Based Learning a try with our Freckle collection for elementary math
• Model Guided Inquiry by using Great Question videos, such as Greek Mythology

You can also trust that you will find the instructional best practices you use daily embedded right into our resources. From objective-setting and feedback opportunities to cooperative learning and hypothesis testing, our team works to maximize the impact of everything we make through research-based instructional strategies. Additionally, all of our lessons follow our pedagogical principles and go through an extensive review process. Learn more about Nearpod’s focus on quality lesson content.

To further support creating free and valued lessons, we partner with trusted, leading education organizations, such as Next Gen Personal Finance, NASA eClips, PhET, Smithsonian, ReadWorks, Education.com, PBS Kids, iCivics, and more. Together, we work to build a library that makes it easier for you to find all the teaching lessons you need, all in one place. 

All of us hope that thanks to our work, you’ll stop scouring the internet for free teacher resources and regain some of the time you need to do the most important job in the world.

What types of free teaching resources does Nearpod have?

To keep your students engaged, you can’t teach the same way every day. Educators spend considerable time searching for high-quality lesson plans that will allow them to teach using multiple modalities. Any teacher who has spent hours watching videos or scrolling through hundreds of game ideas while preparing for a lesson knows this is easier said than done. 

Here are the varied, flexible resources you can find in the Nearpod Library:

Lesson Guides

Elevate instruction with our comprehensive Lesson Guides for grades K-9 in Math, English Language Arts, Science, and more. Whether you’re a seasoned educator or just starting out, our Lesson Guides provide the framework you need to spark curiosity, foster critical thinking, and facilitate effective instruction.

Click below to preview and download our Lesson Guides!

• Math Lesson Guide for grades K-9
• ELA Lesson Guide for grades K-9
• Social Studies Lesson Guide for grades K-8
• Science Lesson Guide for grades K-8

Interactive lessons

Finding free teacher lesson plans is great. Finding free, read-made, high-quality lessons is better. Nearpod lessons are both the lesson plan and the student experience. Nearpod has 8,500+ interactive lessons with immersive slides-based experiences that you can launch with a single click. Once you launch a lesson, you’ll seamlessly take students through direct instruction, practice, reflection, and more. 

We design every Nearpod lesson with a specific learning goal in mind. From there, we define the learning objectives and adopt the learning design model best aligned with the lesson’s purpose. Then, we take that framework to build a learning sequence that contains:

• Engaging, clear, and effective instructional experiences
• Rich multimedia, such as video, articles, and Virtual Reality (VR) Field Trips, reinforce new concepts and make real-world connections
• Metacognitive reflections and polls to promote self-awareness, monitor prior knowledge, and spark discussion
• Frequent, interactive checks for understanding invite your students to write, record themselves, draw, sort, match, collaborate, fill in the blanks, answer multiple-choice questions, and more. Seeing your students’ performance on these tasks in real-time allows you to quickly identify learning needs and adjust your teaching on the fly.

And if you find that our lesson doesn’t exactly match your teaching and learning goals or needs a sprinkling of your personality, remember that all of our lessons are modifiable. You can add or delete slides and modify student activities to make our lessons just what you need.

We’re always busy expanding our library of high-quality lessons! Here are just a few of the collections you should explore:

• Our ever-growing collection of 500+ Nearpod Core-Subject Lessons, including team favorites such as Seven Wonders of the Ancient World and Introduction to Edgar Allan Poe.
• Our Nearpod & Lalilo collection teaches phonics and word families
• Our Nearpod & Freckle series shows students that math matters with project-based learning
• Our new Teaching With Infographics series was developed in partnership with iCivics
• Our constantly updating Current Events collection

Games and activities

Whether you’re a beginner looking to ease into teaching with Nearpod or simply searching for activities to use for your lesson plans, interactive activities are perfectly bite-sized practice opportunities designed to be versatile.

Here are some ways you can use our activities:

• Use them as hooks, checks for understanding, asynchronous practice, or even assessments
• Use them on their own or add them to lesson using our integrated activity bank, accessible right from where you create your lessons
• Use several activities at once for small groups or differentiated instruction

Whereas full lessons contain multiple slides, activities use a single, interactive slide to pack in all the learning action. 

Here are some of the types of Nearpod activities you’ll find in our library:

• Matching Pairs to foster vocabulary acquisition using text or images. When your students are done, share results with them in real time for feedback and reflection! 
• Draw It to make the learning experience hands-on by drawing, highlighting, typing, or adding images to text, charts, graphic organizers, graphs, tables, and more.
• Time to Climb to make a game of concept and skill review! Watch your students answer questions and compete to make it to the podium!
• Drag and Drop learning activities, in which students sort words, phrases, numbers, or images to practice concepts and skills from word problems to the writing process. 
• Collaborate Board: to help you break the ice, encourage classroom discussions, and foster student voice in the classroom. 

Interactive videos

Using multimedia such as video is ideal for memorable student learning. Still, the time it takes to find just the right resources can make this feel unrealistic. To save you time sifting through endless video search results, Nearpod has 10,200+ educational Interactive Videos you can use for your high-quality lesson plans. Find videos from names you trust, such as Crash Course, SciShow Kids, Smithsonian, TED-Ed, and more. We’ve even embedded interactive questions into every video you’ll find on Nearpod, allowing you to monitor your students’ understanding in real time. We are also proud of our growing collection of Nearpod Original videos—best-in-class, free instructional videos written and produced by our own video team.

 Here are some of our favorite Nearpod Originals: 

• What Is Poetry?
• Types of Rocks
• The Solar System
• Perimeter
• What Led to the Chinese Exclusion Act?

Just like activities, Interactive Videos give you the flexibility you need:

• Add or remove interactive questions right inside the video to tailor the experience to your students’ needs.
• Use videos on their own or add them to an existing Nearpod lesson or activity.
• Watch together in front-of-class mode or send to your students’ devices for synchronous or asynchronous instruction.

How to find free high-quality lesson plans

Interested in sharing or saving the tips on this blog post? We’ve rounded up all of these teacher resources into a downloadable PDF. Print it out to share with colleagues, send it digitally, or save it in your files for reference!

Enhanced Search Bar

Find the resources you need with just a few clicks with our enhanced search:

• Use a single search bar and a keyword to search for lessons anywhere on the platform. You can find all the resources on the Nearpod Library or Nearpod programs. You can even find all those amazing lessons you forgot about in your own library.
• Search faster with real-time suggestions that appear in the search bar right as you type!
• Looking for something specific? You can now filter according to content type, subject, grade level, and standards.
• You’ll always know how to find your way home with a Nearpod menu that always stays the same on the left side of your screen.

Curated Collections

Featured in the Library

Sometimes, you might just be in the mood to browse! You can explore our curated content collections right from the Nearpod Library. Every month, we update our “Featured” section to bring you seasonal topics, relevant holiday resources, and new partnerships. We also give you easy access to our latest must-haves in the rotating carousel at the top.

Your school or district library

Teaching is a collaborative effort. We know you work hard with your department, school, or district to curate resources that are just right for your community of students. If you use a school or district Nearpod license, you can find content recommended by your colleagues in the school library. And suppose you want to expand your search to our library of 22,000+ free resources for teachers. In that case, the enhanced search bar will always be right at the top, ready for you to explore everything in one place.

What can you do with Nearpod content?

Teach it as-is or customize it

All of the free teaching resources and high-quality lessons in the Nearpod Library are customizable. You can save any resource to your library and edit it. You can divide it into two or more lessons by duplicating the lesson: add or remove slides, change activity directions, add your own visuals and supports as reference media, swap one activity for another, or anything else you know your students will benefit from. 

Here are some ways you can customize your effective lesson:

• Have students who will benefit from the option to draw and write? Swap in a Draw It for an Open Ended Question and allow them to do both!
• Want to engage your students with a bit of competition? Replace a Quiz with a Time To Climb activity.
• Need your students to submit audio instead of written responses? Turn on the “audio response” feature on an Open-Ended Question.
• Want to add even more real-world connections? Add a Virtual Reality (VR) Field Trip to your lesson.

Organize your lessons in My Library

When you’ve found the perfect lesson or modified one to make it right for your students, it’s easy to store it in your library.

Pro tip: Rename the lesson and add descriptors in settings so it’s easier to find later! For example, you might rename the lesson “Entering the Cold War” to “Cold War Unit Opener” and add things like “5th period,” “pre-assessment,” or other relevant terms in the lesson settings. 

Drag and drop your favorite content into folders you can name, rename, and color-code. Organize your resources by subject, class period, month, unit, or whichever system best serves your needs! And with the search bar, remember that every time you enter something, you’ll see results from the Nearpod library and your own library of tried-and-true resources—everything is now just a click away.

Start saving and creating lessons

Nearpod’s expertly curated and easily searchable library of free teaching resources is there for you, regardless of the type of Nearpod license you have. Additionally, schools and districts can put even more resources at their teachers’ fingertips, thanks to Nearpod Programs. No matter how you use the Nearpod library, we hope our growing library will help you spend less time searching and more time focusing on what you love.

Foster a love of learning in every student with Nearpod. Teachers can sign up for free to access quality, standards-aligned lessons and create their own interactive lessons and activities. Administrators can schedule a call with an expert to unlock the full power of Nearpod for schools and districts.

Caroline Grider

Caroline is a former French, Spanish, and EL teacher who followed up ten years in the classroom with a gig as a content writer for Nearpod, and has been on the Nearpod Content Team ever since. She loves to think about how to use Nearpod content to make teaching easier.

The post How to find free high-quality lessons and teaching resources appeared first on Nearpod Blog.