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.

Nearpod Team

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

nearpod.com/

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

Shane Saeed

Shane is a Learning Coach for St. Vrain Valley School District. She partners with educators and administrators to integrate high-leverage practices into the classroom. She enjoys sharing her professional learning on Instagram (@fantasticallyfourth) and presenting nationally at teaching conferences.

The post How to make interactive professional development activities for teachers 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.

nearpod

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">

Load More… Follow on Instagram

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.

Carol Chinea

Carol Chinea is a Marketing Associate at Nearpod.

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.

Nearpod Team

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

nearpod.com/

The post Effective summer strategies to accelerate learning and prevent learning loss 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.

What is the great debate around the Science of Reading?

Let’s start with the basics: what is literacy? Literacy is the ability to read, write, speak, and listen. Over the decades, schools have shifted to adopt new theories and philosophies. Phonics, whole language, or balanced literacy are all monikers for how educators can teach students how to read. The Science of Reading (or SOR) is not a program. It’s the culmination of decades of research supporting a return to a highly structured set of approaches rooted in decoding skills and language comprehension. It is grounded in efficacy-based research, deconstructing how and why particular models of instruction work.

Balanced Literacy Vs. Science of Reading

For years, balanced literacy sought to find a middle ground between the pendulum extremes of phonics-first and whole-language advocates. Teachers shared their toolbox of strategies with students, from decoding to “three-cueing” to leveled readers. Yet such programs have been hard to evaluate in terms of efficacy. SOR education practices shies away from the popular guided-reading approach touted by Lucy Calkins and Jan Richardson in favor of an explicit focus on decoding and language comprehension.

Research shows that reading, unlike talking, is not a natural process for children. It takes more intentional instruction to achieve desired results and goals. Proponents of the Balanced Literacy vs Science of Reading point to the recent decline in reading scores as evidence that the prevalent methods of reading instruction over the past decade have failed. The Science of Reading emphasizes the importance of mastering foundational skills through a structured literacy approach to ensure effective strategies for learning to read.

Why is the Science of Reading important right now?

It’s hard to argue that we’re not in a reading crisis. Reading skills have declined in districts and states nationwide to historic lows. The learning loss during the COVID-19 pandemic widened reading and math achievement gaps. It spotlighted the increasing discrepancy for Black, Hispanic, and other students impacted by educational inequalities. EdWeek reported that student results from the 2022 National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) showcased that a third of 4th and 8th graders can’t read at the “basic” achievement level, which is the lowest. 70% of teachers of those 4th-grade students reported using remedial measures a couple of times a week. According to the results, even top readers have made little progress over the past three years. This lack of growth and widening gaps have turned educators and parents’ attention to what can be done differently regarding the SOR.

This map shows students from grade 4 scoring below basic in reading, by state:

What is the Science of Reading?

Many states have now adopted a much more rigorous approach to reading. The SOR approach zeros in on developing five core skill sets for emergent and beginner readers: fluency, phonemic awareness, vocabulary, phonics, and comprehension. It harkens back to 1986’s The Simple View of Reading research by Philip Gough and William Tunmer, which underscores the importance of two components: decoding and language comprehension. Think of it as an equation—reading comprehension is a product of decoding and language comprehension:

The algorithm’s simplicity belies the intricate and sophisticated sensemaking of letter sounds, words, and sentences. Dr. Hollis Scarborough’s 2021 Scarborough’s Rope Reading further details how the two intertwine, scaffolding skills and building toward automaticity.

With the SOR, instruction involves dedicated time and a systematic and intentional method of seeking out teachable moments for literacy across the curriculum. This evidence-based approach encourages educators to lean on what matters and what works. Turning research into practice, however, is not without time, effort, and money.

Here are the 10 components of the SOR:

• Print concepts
• Phonological awareness
• Phonemic awareness
• Phonics
• Spelling
• Fluency
• Vocabulary
• Oral language skills
• Reading comprehension skills
•  Background knowledge

To better understand Science of Reading strategies, look at this downloadable to refresh your understanding of key concepts and terms. Remember, there is no specific curriculum or program, so you’ll want to work with your school community to determine how to fold in these demonstrated methods.

How are states implementing the SOR?

States are falling victim to the age-old problem of education stumbling over change management. Many are pushing this newer school of thought with little explanation. Such harried rollouts breed confusion, suspicion, and defensiveness. Teachers are told to change their “best” practices and beliefs without time to make connections to the new methodologies. Timelines, incentives, and compensation are not being offered equitably. This push-and-pull pits educators against one another, and against change in general.

Tennessee, Florida, North Carolina, Colorado, and Mississippi have passed laws requiring a SOR approach. Others are going in with intensive training and Science of Reading professional development, overwhelming an already taxed and deflated teacher population. North Carolina is spending $54 million on a two-year training (LETRS) for all K-5 teachers. A common refrain is, “When you know better, you do better.” Many other states, such as Utah and Virginia, are leveraging ESSER funds to adopt such practices via instruction and training. However, the integration and implementation nationwide are uneven at best.

What are the benefits of the Science of Reading?

Time will tell; the benefits are to be seen. On the positive side, such a common and structured approach based on research should be easier to track and see results. According to a study by Amplify, many students in 43 states are seeing an uptick in the number of students on track to read at grade level by the end of the year.

The Science of Reading curriculum takes a scaffolded approach, promotes reading across the curriculum, and supports English language learners. While school leaders need to think systematically around benchmark assessments, resource allocation, and professional development, they also need to remember that teaching is both a science and an art.

Edtech implementation

Nearpod

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. This makes it an ideal tool when implementing SOR strategies. To explore some related Nearpod Science of Reading activities and lessons, visit the Nearpod library and search by standard. You can zero in on the English Language Arts (ELA) strands of Conventions of Standard English, Vocabulary Acquisition and Use, Knowledge of Language, Phonics, Word Recognition, Fluency, Key Ideas and Details, Craft and Structure, Integration of Knowledge and Ideas, or Range of Reading and Level of Text Complexity to start. Consider duplicating a lesson and making modifications to meet the reading needs of your students. 

You can also create your own lesson or activity to target any of the 10 components of SOR instruction. Interactive activities such as Drag and Drop, Matching Pairs, Draw It, Immersive Reader, and audio responses can be used to teach your students fluency, phonemic awareness, vocabulary, phonics, and comprehension.

Here are some examples of lessons teachers can use:

Early Elementary Lessons (K-2)

• CVC Words (K-1): In this lesson on CVC words, students will learn to idenifty the beginning, middle and ending sounds of CVC words.
• Nonfiction Text Features (1-2): In this lesson on nonfiction text features, students will learn about features that help readers make sense of what they are reading.
• Retelling Key Details (1-2): In this lesson on retelling key details, students learn to identify and retell key details in a fiction story.

Grades 3-5

• Parts of Speech (3): In this lesson on parts of speech, students will identify nouns, verbs, adverbs and adjectives.
• Complex Sentences (3-4): In this lesson on complex sentences, the students will review simple and compound sentences and learn about complex sentences.
• Eight Parts of Speech (5-6): In this lesson on the eight parts of speech, students will define, identify, and use nouns, pronouns, verbs, adverbs, adjectives, prepositions, conjunctions, and articles.

Grade 8-12

• Summarizing Texts (6-8): In this lesson on summarizing texts, students how to write a summary by identifying the main idea and key details.
• Annotation and Close Reading Strategies (11-12): In this English lesson, students learn annotation and close reading strategies. By the end of this lesson, students will be able to explain tips and tricks for effective close reading, and will practice annotating excerpts.
• The Paragraph: Concrete Details & Textual Evidence (9-10): In this lesson, students will explore the components of a good paragraph. They will learn to identify appropriate concrete details and practice using them with common transitions to strengthen an argument in a logical way.

Flocabulary

Flocabulary accelerates student learning by building academic vocabulary and comprehension through rigorous and authentically engaging instructional experiences. These K-12 standard-aligned video-based lessons and activities leverage the power of hip-hop, storytelling, and emotional connections to cultivate literacy across the curriculum.

Academic vocabulary is a leading indicator of student comprehension. Flocabulary strategically uses hip-hop as the foundational medium to teach vocabulary and provide the necessary in-context word exposure. While it starts in the video, Flocabulary infuses aspects of hip-hop throughout the lesson sequence. For example, students unlock components of a hip-hop beat while completing the Vocab Game and are tasked with writing a rhyme of their own in Lyric Lab.

The Art & Science of Reading

While we continue to research and seek improved methods for teaching SOR reading strategies — and all subjects—we also need to remember that educators are tasked with molding lifelong learners. In part, when it comes to literacy instruction, they need to promote a love of reading, extol the beauty of wordplay, and develop an appreciation for storytelling in children. We know that one size does not fit all in education. So we need to rely on quantitative and qualitative data and make time for continuous feedback and reflection inside and outside the classrooms to create skilled readers and masterful literacy educators.

Nearpod believes teaching is the most important job in the world. That’s why we’ve created a platform to help teachers engage every student. Nearpod offers 22,000+ rigorous lessons, videos, and activities used by 75% of school districts in the United States alone. If you’re ready to unlock the full instructional power of Nearpod at your school or district, we’re ready to talk!

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.

Darri Stephens

Darri Stephens is a dedicated LX (learning experience) designer, passionate about creating quality content and programs for kids, families, and educators. With MAs in Education from both Harvard and Stanford, and work experience at best-in-class ed tech organizations including Wonder Workshop, Nickelodeon, and Common Sense Education, she is steeped in the design thinking process and committed to agile and iterative project management, which has resulted in multi-award-winning programs and products.

The post How to decode the Science of Reading appeared first on Nearpod Blog.

Digital wellness for students refers to how media and technology affect their mental, physical, social, and emotional health. Multimedia is an ever-present part of students’ and our own daily lives, whether we are consuming or creating it. In today’s digital landscape, there’s a firehose of information presented via audio, text, images, and videos from different channels, platforms, and technologies. Still, we can be creators and sharers of such sticky content day in and day out. Such engagement can have a toll on our well-being, physically (e.g., eye strain and impacts on sleep) or socially and emotionally (e.g., social comparison).

The many nuances of our always-on world require us to be vigilant about understanding the opportunities as well as the pitfalls of such technology use and digital interactions. This past winter, the CDC released a report that shared startling statistics for teen girls, stating that nearly 3 in 5 teen girls (57%) said they felt “persistently sad or hopeless”‚—double that of boys. For years, many studies have looked at how social media, in particular, has affected the confidence and overall health of our youth.

On March 30, 2023, Common Sense released their research on Teens and Mental Health: How Girls Really Feel About Social Media, which included the following key finding:

“Among all girls surveyed, nearly four in 10 (38%) report symptoms of depression, and among these girls, social media has an outsize impact—for better and for worse.”

Digital wellness requires adults and kids alike to consider how to use technology to support their overall health. Developmentally, many kids are not ready to handle the barrage of information and interactions, so schools and homes need to work together to teach kids digital citizenship and media literacy skills so that they develop healthy habits of mind they can lean on. Woven throughout all disciplines is the need for social and emotional skills in order to succeed not only in school but in life. Digital health and wellness and SEL go hand in hand, so kids learn to use critical thinking skills when interacting online.

New to Nearpod? Sign up for free to access these digital citizenship lessons!

Teachers can sign up for free below to access and create interactive lessons. Administrators can schedule a call with an expert to explore Nearpod’s 21st Century Readiness Program and unlock the full power of Nearpod for schools and districts.

Why should we infuse SEL skills with the use of technology?

It might be common for teachers and schools to teach either SEL or digital citizenship. Yet the two complement each other in addressing digital health and wellness. While digital citizenship and SEL aren’t interchangeable, infusing digital citizenship into social emotional learning instruction can help you be more responsive to the demands and opportunities that technology brings into your students’ lives on a daily basis.

Nearpod and Common Sense Education’s SEL in Digital Life collection brings both of these content areas together to highlight the specific SEL skills that students will need to navigate the challenges of digital life while building skills in SEL competencies such as self-awareness, self-management, responsible decision making, relationship skills, and social awareness. By combining SEL and digital citizenship, young people will have concrete ways to apply the skills to scenarios in their everyday lives.

Nearpod and Common Sense’s SEL in Digital Life lesson collection

SEL in Digital Life is a collection of educational resources developed by Common Sense Education and included in Nearpod’s 21st Century Readiness Program. The lesson collection is designed to address the unique ways in which technology impacts the social and emotional well-being of students. Common Sense Education is the leading nonprofit that helps kids, families, and educators thrive in a digital age. Their trusted name in education speaks to the quality of materials designed for teachers, students, and their families. Common Sense Education is a long-time partner of Nearpod and offers a Digital Citizenship and Social Emotional Learning Curriculum in Nearpod’s 21st Century Readiness Program for elementary, middle school, and high school.

This collaborative collection of 20 lessons in social emotional learning and digital literacy curriculum highlights how to build essential digital and tech habits and skills in a developmentally-appropriate manner to nurture lifelong learning. Such conversations must happen early and often, even before kids are on personal devices participating in our connected world. And then, the examples should reflect real-world, authentic dilemmas. These are quick and short activities and can be embedded into your existing lesson plans or used during homeroom, advisory, etc. The activities are rooted in digital life dilemmas to encourage discussion about and reflection on character strength, including communication, compassion, courage, empathy, gratitude, humility, perseverance, self-control, and teamwork.

Nearpod’s 21st Century Readiness Program focuses on non-core academic subjects critical for student success in and beyond the classroom. Get these interactive resources to embed digital citizenship, social-emotional learning, financial literacy, and college and career readiness into any classroom.

Why should a teacher use these lessons?

Regardless of how much or how little media and tech might play a role in your classroom, they do play a prominent role in our children’s lives. From television to streaming to texting to the internet to apps, kids are consuming and creating. And their tech habits outside of the classroom can affect what happens (or doesn’t happen) in your classroom.

We understand teachers are strapped for time and are constantly tasked with “one more thing” to do in the classroom. These lessons are quick and easy to implement and will help build student engagement and create a stronger classroom culture. The SEL in Digital Life activities will help establish a positive learning environment that supports students academically, socially, and emotionally.

We know technology enhances student learning. Still, if students are not prepared to use it safely and responsibly through digital citizenship behaviors, it could negatively impact their learning environment. Our lessons help you proactively address some of the factors that contribute negatively to your classroom, which include digital distractions, responsible use, and digital drama.

View all of Common Sense Education’s SEL in Digital Life materials below!

What is covered in these lessons?

CASEL framework

The SEL in Digital Life collection follows the CASEL framework for social-emotional learning. Each SEL in Digital Life lesson was designed to focus on one of the five competencies outlined in this framework:

• Self-Awareness: Focus on helping students reflect on their relationship with media and technology
• Self-Management: Focus on developing students’ executive functioning skills to manage their use of technology
• Responsible Decision-Making: Focus on how students should evaluate the opportunities and potential risks of using technology
• Relationship Skills: Focus on helping students develop prosocial behaviors that are conducive to positive online experiences
• Social Awareness: Focus on helping students identify varying degrees of online meanness and strategies to de-escalate online conflicts

Lessons organized by grade levels

The collection is organized by grade bands, so each lesson addresses an SEL competency at a developmentally appropriate level. The activities range from whole group, small group, and individual, all through a real-world lens.

Here are some examples of lessons we recommend exploring:

• Use Your Heart When You’re Online for grades K-2 focuses on relationship skills. Students relate to one of the animated characters in the song Pause & Think Online to explore further the ways in which they can be kind and respectful when communicating online.

• My Feeling When Using Technology for grades K-2 ties to self-awareness and digital wellbeing. Students learn to define their feelings and emotions as a way to illustrate the many ups and downs of technology use.

• How Can You Be an Online Superhero for grades 3-5 ties to responsible decision-making. Students evaluate a series of scenarios to determine which are ways to be a super digital citizen. Such concrete examples support students when they face their own quandaries.

• My Media Balance for grades 3-5 has students practice self-management when it comes to the many choices they make daily around the media they watch and use.

• Dealing with Digital Drama for grades 6-8 is timely and highlights social awareness. Students react to digital drama scenarios by trying to empathize with the various players and their perspectives.

• Who Are You on Social Media? for grades 9-12 also ties self-awareness. This lesson explores how we present different sides of ourselves online through our curated posts. Students reflect on the benefits and drawbacks of such curation and how they can share the most positive online presence.

Start using the SEL in Digital Life lesson collection

Like salt and pepper, SEL and digital citizenship — affectionately known as #digcit — work together to make sure that kids are prepared to handle the challenges they will face in the digital world. These healthy habits of mind will serve students well in school, in future jobs, and in life. Such digital well-being is a cornerstone to successfully navigating our digital world in a proactive and positive manner. We all want our kids to be balanced, happy, and confident, so do dive into Nearpod’s SEL in Digital Life collection to find more quality and engaging resources for your classroom.

Teachers can sign up for free below to access and create interactive lessons. Administrators can schedule a call with an expert to explore Nearpod’s 21st Century Readiness Program and unlock the full power of Nearpod for schools and districts.

Darri Stephens

Darri Stephens is a dedicated LX (learning experience) designer, passionate about creating quality content and programs for kids, families, and educators. With MAs in Education from both Harvard and Stanford, and work experience at best-in-class ed tech organizations including Wonder Workshop, Nickelodeon, and Common Sense Education, she is steeped in the design thinking process and committed to agile and iterative project management, which has resulted in multi-award-winning programs and products.

The post Social emotional learning lessons for students’ digital wellness appeared first on Nearpod Blog.

Student engagement refers to when students actively participate, contribute, question, personalize, and take ownership of their learning. There are usually some telltale hints, such as hands waving in the air, students jumping in their seats, and eyes literally sparkling. Student engagement strategies make a teacher’s job easier and fulfill their goal of developing students into lifelong learners.

Classrooms have changed and will continue to change as times evolve. Methodologies and pedagogies should shift as new philosophies, research, and technology come into play. Gone are the days of a “sage on a stage” preaching to rows of children.

Nearpod’s instructional platform supports both teachers and students in individualizing the learning process so growth and progress are optimized over time. Explore strategies to increase student engagement in your classroom with Nearpod’s support.

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.

6 Strategies to elevate student engagement in the classroom

1. Leverage real-time insights

Formative assessment is the process through which teachers gather real-time feedback and evidence of learning to guide the next steps of their instruction. For instance, let’s say a teacher delivers a math lesson on finding the lowest common denominator. During a quick check for understanding, only half the class can accurately answer a question and correctly find the lowest common denominator. The teacher uses that evidence and most likely reteaches the concept before moving on. Such real-time insights are key to a teacher addressing not only the learning objectives and standards but also ensuring every student’s learning needs are being met, which will support classroom student engagement.

Nearpod was designed to give teachers these powerful real-time insights! Teachers have access to in-the-moment student responses. They can use this evidence of learning to share them with the whole class, address misconceptions in the moment, and modify instruction to support learning through these student engagement strategies. The intuitive Nearpod dashboard provides quantifiable data in a visual format, making it easier for a teacher to determine the next steps with a quick glance and a bit of instructional ingenuity. And it’s not just in-the-moment data: after completing a Nearpod session, teachers can review the post-session reports to inform their data-driven instruction further.

2. Active learning

Active learning quite simply means that the child is physically and mentally engaged in the learning at hand. Teachers use all sorts of traditional and innovative engagement strategies to promote such participation. From hands on heads to think-pair-share, teachers aim to invite each student to make personal or real-world connections to their learning. Teachers want each and every student to know they have a role and a responsibility as they enter the classroom.

When schools reopened for in-person learning after the COVID shutdowns, we saw endearing social media posts of teachers welcoming kids back into the classroom actively, where the kids chose the greeting—such a simple activity can help involve kids in their learning process.

Technology can also foster active learning. When using Nearpod for active engagement strategies, students are more actively involved in their own learning, with features and interactive activities that support many of the principles James Paul Gee highlighted in his 16 Principles of Good Video Game-Based Learning. Students are challenged cognitively and socially; many of Nearpod’s activities act as springboards for meaningful in-person conversations. Nearpod encourages students to have a sense of agency and be the drivers of their own learning.

3. Focus on student motivation

In a world of constant beeps, chirps, and buzzes, it can be hard for students to avoid distractions, stay focused, and be motivated to succeed and learn. Sure, we can use extrinsic motivators to give students a carrot or a brass ring to reach for. But ideally, our tactics lead them to find the internal motivation to accomplish a task at hand and take the next steps without much prodding.

Nearpod’s educational game, Time to Climb, provides friendly competition to incentivize engagement. As they make progress (moving or “climbing” up the mountain), their own intrinsic motivation grows, and their confidence and enjoyment build as they learn. Teachers can create their own version of this gamified multiple-choice quiz on any topic or use one of the hundreds of pre-made Time to Climbs available in Nearpod. These student-centered games motivate students and foster classroom engagement.

4. Student voice

Often, you may hear educators talk about “student voice and choice.” Student voice is when kids are empowered to share their stories, their opinions, and their perspectives. Not only does such dialog promote community, but it helps hone children’s developing sense of self, independence, and individuality. To do so, teachers seek to challenge students’ high-order thinking skills, like evaluating, problem-solving, and creating. Creativity is just one of the “4Cs” for 21st-century education: Communication, Collaboration, Critical Thinking, and Creativity (Battelle for Kids). Regardless of age, all children need to hold on to their sense of wonder, feed their bubbling curiosity, and bolster their questioning attitude. In doing so, they refine their voices to continue contributing and engaging in the classroom.

Using Nearpod strategies for student engagement encourages all kids to employ high-order thinking skills, especially through interactive activities like Draw It and Collaborate Board. With Draw It, students use a drawing assessment tool to explore new concepts through visually rich approach and hands-on student engagement activities. And as a picture says a thousand words, they also can express themselves creatively in yet another manner. The Collaborate Board invites all students to the virtual table to exchange ideas. Students write their thoughts and ideas into a virtual bulletin board using text or rich media for everyone to see. This activity promotes the best of peer-to-peer learning as well.

5. Student choice

Now, onto the second part of that phrase: student choice. As part of their burgeoning independence, students are more actively engaged in their learning environment when they have a choice in what they are learning, how they are learning, and when they are learning. Such successful child-led learning opportunities help students develop in a safe environment. Student engagement will be at an all-time high as they explore, interact, inquire, and progress toward mastery. Maria Montessori wrote about the importance of this sense of agency and ownership in the 1800s.

The greatest sign of success for a teacher … is to be able to say, ‘The children are now working as if I did not exist

Maria Montessori

Nearpod’s thousands of pre-lessons allow teachers to tap into students’ various interests, as they can share various resources with different kids. A student can take a deeper dive into a topic by embarking on a Virtual Reality (VR) Field Trip or engaging in an Interactive Video. With their eyes on the real-time data, teachers can support students to work independently in the moment and progress at their own pace. This academic and emotional engagement will encourage them to be proud of their independent growth resulting in student success.

6. Differentiation

As part of a teacher’s quest to personalize and individualize instruction for students, they often showcase their artistry by modifying a lesson to meet the various needs within their classroom. Teachers can differentiate instruction through lessons by modifying the steps, amassing a variety of supporting resources, and appealing to various learning styles. Such differentiation will help increase student engagement by hooking their interest and appealing to their strengths in various ways.

With Nearpod, teachers can distribute a variety of resources to various children throughout a lesson. They can encourage students to personalize their Student Notes to help reframe a concept or further illustrate it. Teachers can also take an existing lesson, duplicate it, and modify it in several different ways, thus ending up with a variety of student engagement activities or lessons that take different paths to achieving similar learning objectives. Use Student-Paced mode to have students do independent or small group work.

Boost student engagement with Nearpod

Capturing students’ attention is paramount across all types of engagement strategies. Educators forever grapple with how to increase student engagement—it can be a daily pursuit if not a challenge. Those beloved teachers are often revered because they took the time to invest in students individually. They showed respect to their students by figuring out how to address their learning needs best and make them engaged in their own learning. A teacher’s craft truly is part science and part artistry!

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.

Darri Stephens

Darri Stephens is a dedicated LX (learning experience) designer, passionate about creating quality content and programs for kids, families, and educators. With MAs in Education from both Harvard and Stanford, and work experience at best-in-class ed tech organizations including Wonder Workshop, Nickelodeon, and Common Sense Education, she is steeped in the design thinking process and committed to agile and iterative project management, which has resulted in multi-award-winning programs and products.

The post 6 Strategies to elevate student engagement in the classroom appeared first on Nearpod Blog.

When the early reports post COVID sounded the alarm on the lack of student progress, The Los Angeles Times highlighted that the disparity was greatest among disadvantaged populations. And while the recent news is less promising than hoped for, there are shining examples of learning tools that are making a difference—Nearpod being one of them.

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.

Research reveals Nearpod’s positive impact on math and ELA performance

LearnPlatform by Instructure, a third-party edtech efficacy research company, first partnered with Nearpod in 2023 to successfully conduct an ESSA Level III study. LearnPlatform just released a second independent study highlighting that Nearpod has earned an ESSA Evidence Level II rating designating “Moderate Evidence” for impacting student outcomes as shown in the California Assessment of Student Performance and Progress (CAASPP) spring tests. The team looked at a sample of 6,087 students from 25 schools in one California K-12 district during the 2022-2023 school year to determine the impact of Nearpod on student performance. 89% of the students were from low-income backgrounds, 20% were English language learners (ELLs), and 13% had Individualized Education Plans (IEPs).

What is ESSA Level II Evidence?

ESSA, the Every Student Succeeds Act signed by President Obama in 2015, is a commitment to equal opportunity for all students. It emphasizes the importance of evidenced-based investment in products proven to make a difference by publishing rigorous research on their efficacy.

The study performed by LearnPlatform satisfied all of the ESSA evidence requirements for Level II: Proper design and implementation, including: 

• Valid and reliable outcome measure that is not overaligned with the intervention 
• Baseline equivalence for treatment and comparison groups 
• Statistical controls through covariates 
• At least 350 students in the analysis sample 
• Representative, multi-site study
• At least one statistically significant, positive finding

Nearpod’s designation as meeting Level II requirements means that the researchers were confident that the increased scores observed during the study were due to an intervention using Nearpod.

The research questions focused on the following:

• What was the impact of Nearpod on students’ ELA and math 2022-2023 summative outcomes? 
• What was the impact of Nearpod on ELA and math 2022-2023 summative outcomes for English language learners? 
• What was the impact of Nearpod on ELA and math 2022-2023 summative outcomes for students on an IEP?

Nearpod’s ESSA Level II Evidence

Zeroing in on grades 4-8, the quasi-experimental study aimed to better understand the impact of Nearpod on the students’ learning outcomes. Worth noting is that this sample of students was 85% Hispanic and 14% Black or African American—representative of student populations most at risk. The study found that with 83% of the students interacting with Nearpod-created content for an average of just 7.2 weeks (which amounted to an average of 16 sessions launched), there was a statistically significant impact on student learning overall and for those with IEPS.

Key Results: English Language Arts (ELA)

Looking at adjusted CAASPP scale scores for English language arts (ELA) achievement, those who used Nearpod compared to students in similar grades who did not use Nearpod had higher scores in the following grades:

• 8th graders had higher scores: 2558 v. 2534
• 8th graders with IEPs had higher scores: 2469 v 2430
• 5th graders with IEPs had higher scores: 2428 v 2404

Key Results: Math

Looking at adjusted CAASPP scores for math achievement, those who used Nearpod compared to students in similar grades who did not use Nearpod had higher scores in the following grades:

• 8th graders had higher scores: 2516 v. 2486
• 6th graders had higher scores: 2501 v. 2483
• 6th graders with IEPs had higher scores: 2424 v 2393

Impact student learning with Nearpod

Nearpod continues to be a “fan favorite” since its introduction more than 10 years ago, due to its rigorous approach to engaging students in active learning. Classroom teachers and school administrators rely on Nearpod’s vast library of expert-created content, intuitive interactive learning activities, and real-time data reports, which have a proven track record of leading to better instructional strategies and better student outcomes.

Educators can tailor their approach to engage students in high-quality, research-backed interactive lessons, whether for the whole class, small groups, or 1:1 instruction. At a time when math and reading scores continue to sound alarms, this impact study and ESSA Level II recognition will continue to bolster educators’ confidence in leveraging Nearpod across the curriculum. Nearpod is dedicated to improving the instructional experience for all kids by making sure that they can make real-world, relevant connections through culturally responsive pedagogy. And these outcomes don’t just address short-term needs—they also enable schools to build positive cultures by looking long-term when it comes to leaning on data-driven methodology to increase motivation, engagement, and retention. Along with better outcomes, such efforts can promote a deeper sense of belonging and dedication to 21st-century skills for students, plus progression growth and job satisfaction for teachers.

Start using Nearpod

Despite the dismal data about reading and math achievement scores nationwide following the COVID shutdown, we are beginning to see a few glimmering examples of schools helping students make strides forward. Early on, Nearpod doubled down on its commitment to help schools modify their instructional plans in order to reengage students into hybrid and in-person instruction. And this most recent recognition of earning the second-highest ranking, ESSA Level II, showcases how Nearpod can be part of a school’s comprehensive solution to helping all students reach higher and achieve more.

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.

Darri Stephens

Darri Stephens is a dedicated LX (learning experience) designer, passionate about creating quality content and programs for kids, families, and educators. With MAs in Education from both Harvard and Stanford, and work experience at best-in-class ed tech organizations including Wonder Workshop, Nickelodeon, and Common Sense Education, she is steeped in the design thinking process and committed to agile and iterative project management, which has resulted in multi-award-winning programs and products.

The post Research reveals Nearpod’s positive impact on Math and ELA performance appeared first on Nearpod Blog.

What is the role of data in schools?

When we speak of data, we refer to both quantitative and qualitative data, and in education, there is a happy medium in relying on both. Teachers gather qualitative data throughout any given school day—for example, how is a child acting and what are their responses (verbal and nonverbal)? As an administrator, you may look for such open-ended feedback about school culture and climate from all of your constituents: staff, students, and families. Then, both administrators and classroom teachers lean on quantitative methods such as attendance, test scores, or survey results, which are measurable, to identify patterns and trends to better inform overall operations, daily instruction, and student outcomes.

What are the benefits of having a data-driven culture in schools?

There are many! When data-driven instruction becomes the “norm” or routine, timely reflection by all will promote equity and student performance. With such school data analysis, teachers can change their strategies accordingly and employ targeted interventions as needed to be more effective. When your students witness their own progress toward goals, they become more engaged and motivated. Such evidence-based instruction then leads to better student outcomes.

Plus, as a data-driven school leaning on both qualitative and quantitative data, you will have more input and intel to support your decision-making processes. Additionally, you will have more evidence to support your recommendations and choices, leading to more buy-in and ownership from others. Data-driven decisions aren’t driven by one opinion or one point of view, so you can bolster more consensus and collaboration across your stakeholders in moving forward with next steps within an action plan. Such responsive measures will help you create a positive school climate where all are on board with the school’s mission and your leadership style.

Why is data-driven decision making in schools important?

As a school leader, you may gather quantitative and qualitative data from additional stakeholders such as parents and family members, as well as certified and classified staff members. There are many stakeholders involved in developing a positive school culture. As we know, a school’s culture is just as important as its test scores or ranking. While you may have personal beliefs, intuitions, and assumptions, make it a habit to check those against what the data is telling you, so that you refine, redesign, and react in the most supportive manner. With data-driven decisions, you will have a better understanding of your audiences, a better grasp of the quality of the learning experiences your school offers, and a better sense of control when it comes to the direction of your school. So, in addition to efficiency, you can better promote efficacy. You can model how to implement data-driven practices and decision making for students, teachers, staff, and families, instead of just relying on “how it’s always been done.” In doing so, you will model how active participation can lead to continuous school improvement.

The power of Nearpod for data-driven schools

Nearpod is a popular platform for schools to use with students when it comes to instruction and assessment. The flexibility and interactivity make it an engaging learning tool for students, and educators receive real-time data and robust analytics at the individual and group level with each interaction. 86% of customers say Nearpod helps evaluate student performance. Nearpod transforms passive lessons into active and participatory learning experiences, and educators collect valuable learning data that helps them make more informed instructional decisions when it comes to differentiation and individualization.

As an administrator, you can review students’ post-session reports from Live or Student-Paced sessions and even download them in PDF or CSV format. Together, you and your educators can look at specific lessons for data patterns and trends not only for individuals but across groups over time, which may help with horizontal as well as vertical planning. Additionally, you can use Nearpod to create surveys to gather feedback. Consider how you might use Nearpod’s multimedia presentations to share results and insights in a visually rich and digestive manner. Simply upload existing PowerPoint presentations, Google Slides, PDFs, images, videos, or other resources to a new lesson. You could share it with individual stakeholders or use it in Group Presentation mode with a larger group.

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.

A guide to creating data-driven schools

1. Be flexible

There is the old adage that teachers write their planbooks in pencil—and whether they use an eraser or a delete button, all educators must remain nimble and ready to iterate, as the formative data they receive throughout a day might change the instruction for the next day or even the next block! Such is the catch-22 of data-driven instruction. While data is truly helpful for planning, those plans most likely will remain in flux if one is constantly referring to that data.

As the administrator, you, too, need a similar flexible mindset, as school data can lead you down surprising or uncharted paths. Be sure to share your strategy for building a data-driven school with staff and families. Then, you all will have trust in any deviations from the “norm,” knowing that such changes or shifts are warranted to best serve students. A focus on analyzing school data will lead to more personalized learning. Students will benefit from real-time, immediate feedback, teachers can clear up misconceptions or plan to reteach concepts in the moment, and whole classrooms can progress toward meeting standards without any “surprises” at end-of-unit or end-of-semester testing.

“Nearpod is one of the best tools to measure student progress and attainment in each lesson. It’s truly a data-driven classroom when you have Nearpod enhanced student engagement.”

Teacher, Alabama

2. Ask “good” questions

It sounds elementary enough, but be thoughtful in how you frame questions to your stakeholders, so that you can get targeted responses while ensuring that they remain as unbiased as possible. What makes a good question? While it will depend on your intended audience, strategic questions should be clear and focused, authentic and relevant, and applicable and attainable (aka, able to be answered). Whether it is a student, a staff member, or a family member, we want to invite them in to share what they know and believe. The wording of questions and even the order of questions can affect input, especially when you are trying to determine change or progress over time.

When gathering feedback through surveys, such as when evaluating school climate, consider survey biases as well. Try to wear a designer’s hat at times, and try A/B testing or split testing—where you separate your audience into two random groups and share two different versions of content (e.g., copy, quiz, lesson) at the same time to figure out which performs better. As American author Ursula K. Le Guin said, “There are no right answers to wrong questions.”

With Nearpod, you and your teachers can create surveys and assessments using the Quizzes and Open-Ended Questions. You can even ask for feedback in graphic form via the Draw It tool (especially helpful for ELLs). You can create one-slide presentations or multi-slide presentations, which will allow you to consider how to design for the reading levels of your audience. Last but not least, Nearpod’s Immersive Reader will enable those with special needs or language support needs to partake and participate.

3. Look for patterns

Let’s start with the quantitative data—the raw numbers that schools compile in spades. This data can be demographic breakdowns, survey data, LMS activity, and test scores, just to name a few. It is often helpful to start with summaries of such data in a visual format to begin looking for patterns and trends. What is important is not to jump to conclusions but to gather all stakeholders’ questions about what they are seeing, so you can then dive deeper. Adopt a researcher’s mindset and cross-reference your data sets. Filter and segment your data to better understand how different populations are affected. Finally, determine how best to extrapolate and summarize key findings to share with your main audiences.

Within Nearpod, your teachers can use activities like multiple-choice Quiz questions, Drag & Drop, Fill in The Blanks, Matching Pairs, or Time to Climb to gather data that provides indicators about a student’s comprehension and proficiency when it comes to a particular topic or skill. These activities can be used prior to teaching, providing a baseline of diagnostic data. They can be used during a lesson to provide practice and illustrate progress. Or they could be used for summative assessment to gauge mastery. These results can be seen in real time via the students’ post-session reports. The flexibility that Nearpod provides through its lesson design tools means that teachers can take a customized approach to what their students need most.

4. Actively listen to the data

Listen might sound like a funny word choice when we’re talking about data, but in analyzing qualitative data, we often need to employ our Spidey senses to actively “listen” to nonverbal cues. Listen to the data—follow those breadcrumbs. For instance, within a classroom setting, how are kids acting, where is their attention focused, and what does their body language say about their readiness to learn or level of engagement? When it comes to surveys or assessments, what do the open-ended questions and responses hint at? Take a close look and pay attention to word choice and tone. Consider how you can take a design thinking approach, and follow up the first round of feedback by asking five “WHY?” questions to drill down a bit more on specific needs. Questions with little feedback warrant as much scrutiny as those with a lot of feedback.

Remember that Nearpod has many activities that allow for student expression that falls more in the qualitative realm. There are several interactive activities such as Open-Ended Questions, Draw It, Audio Recordings, and the ever-popular Collaborate Board, where you can gather more candid and authentic responses. And don’t forget just how easy it is to add reference media—such as an image, photograph, video, website, or audio recording—to a lesson as you create your questions and prompts. These features could benefit other stakeholders as well, such as colleagues and families, if you were to use them in surveys to elicit more comprehensive feedback.

5. Tailor your feedback

An important part of integrating data-driven instruction in schools is providing targeted and immediate feedback. After asking questions (assessment), gathering intel (analysis), and leaning into findings (actions), you should tailor your feedback to the individual. This tip applies regardless of the audience, young or old. One way to make feedback valuable and helpful is to remember the acronym SUGAR, which stands for:

• SMALL: Feedback is small so that it can be addressed and acted upon quickly. 
• URGENT: Urgent feedback prioritizes and addresses the most pressing concerns first.
• GENERALIZE: Generalized feedback focuses on a pattern of errors versus just one.
• ACTIONABLE: This feedback has actionable, clear, and observable next steps.
• RETURN: Remember to return or follow up with the individual to keep the conversation going.

As Mary Poppins sang, “A spoonful of sugar helps the medicine go down …” so keep those points in mind when personalizing and delivering feedback as part of your data-driven decision making in education.

For teachers, Nearpod’s Live Teacher Feedback can help provide a continuous feedback cycle for students in the classes. They can add stickers or annotations to students’ work. Screenshots of their feedback will appear in each student’s report, giving students a real-time response and providing them with a running record of exchanges. Your educators can share these reports containing the feedback with their students’ homes, too, so that families can continue to support their kids continuously alongside the school.

6. Empower others

Ultimately, student data can help empower the end users—the students! Data can paint powerful pictures for students so they can see how they are moving toward their goals. Students can monitor their own progress and identify where they might need more support. By sharing such data with students, you’ll help them become more independent, confident, and responsible. They may feel more motivated to engage in self-exploration and self-expression, all of which can lead to better student outcomes.

In taking a whole-child approach to education, consider how the 21st Century Readiness Program can be woven throughout the grades. CASEL’s social and emotional learning (SEL) wheel highlights five competencies: self-awareness, self-management, social awareness, relationship skills, and responsible decision making. Research indicates that SEL leads to improvements in classroom management, academic achievement, healthy relationships, career preparedness, and mental health. Equip your students with essential life and social emotional learning skills that will help them inside and outside of your school’s four walls.

Today we used @nearpod for a digital citizenship conversation about selfies and our digital footprint! #AllenOlympics @allenelem @MrMcDaniel13 @ms_broker @McGee_IC pic.twitter.com/7FIdeGJsHN

— Kelsey Storm (@MrsStormsSquad) March 20, 2024

Administrators can schedule a call with an expert to explore Nearpod’s 21st Century Readiness Program and unlock the full power of Nearpod for schools and districts.

7. And remember, data isn’t absolute

Educators know this better than most, but nothing happens in a vacuum. So, while data is super valuable and helpful, educators still need to stitch together the various types of data, informal and formal, when forming opinions and making decisions. Remember to think outside of the box and put your ear to the ground when gathering insights and drawing conclusions. Question! If you haven’t yet read Glenn Doyle’s essay, Share This With All the Schools Please, do so to illustrate how one teacher gathered data but used the results in an unexpected way.

“The art and science of asking questions is the source of all knowledge.”

Thomas Berger, American novelist

Take the next steps for a data-driven school

Data-driven schools have the potential to leverage strategic decision making to ensure a more collaborative and community-based approach to school improvement. Data can take the “I” out of top-down edicts and help rally the troops when it comes to bolstering school morale and energizing all stakeholders. You can be a model of data-driven leadership in schools by remembering that when it comes to data and tech in general, we need to acknowledge that while numbers are directives, we as humans hold the power of empathy. We need to take an active approach to seeing the whole picture in education. By doing so, we will ensure that we keep using such a lens when we assess, evaluate, and look forward, all while humanizing education.

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.

Darri Stephens

Darri Stephens is a dedicated LX (learning experience) designer, passionate about creating quality content and programs for kids, families, and educators. With MAs in Education from both Harvard and Stanford, and work experience at best-in-class ed tech organizations including Wonder Workshop, Nickelodeon, and Common Sense Education, she is steeped in the design thinking process and committed to agile and iterative project management, which has resulted in multi-award-winning programs and products.

The post A guide to creating data-driven schools appeared first on Nearpod Blog.

As a school leader, providing feedback for teachers that is effective and supportive is crucial for maximizing their impact on student learning. As a teacher, it can be intimidating to have your administrator walk into your classroom, especially if it is not a common practice. Anxiety can be driven even higher when they begin to write notes. Thoughts can go racing through a teacher’s mind which can cause them to lose focus on the most important task in front of you, teaching your students. As a veteran teacher and now school administrator, my message is clear: Teachers should not have to fear you coming into their room.

Being watched or evaluated is certainly something that can drive nerves, especially for teachers who have had negative experiences, are new to the profession, or experience anxiety or stress. But as school leaders, it is our responsibility to create an atmosphere that supports growth and learning from one another, no matter who is in the room. This often comes in the form of coaching but is rooted in a culture of trust and credibility. By offering good feedback, school leaders can empower their team members to refine their teaching methods and support student success.

5 Strategies to provide effective feedback for teachers from an administrator

I have worked hard across the schools I have been a leader in to build this trust and credibility with my teachers so that my presence in the classroom is not seen as punitive or a distraction but rather an opportunity to receive feedback and ideas for their classroom. The following are suggestions for school leaders and aspiring school leaders to build into their teacher-coaching models.

New to Nearpod? Administrators can schedule a call to learn about the full instructional power of Nearpod for your schools and districts. Teachers can sign up for free below to access and create interactive lessons.

1. Be visible to teachers and students daily

It can be downright hard sometimes to get out of your office as an administrator. Phone calls, emails, meetings, and paperwork fill your agenda; before you know it, it’s almost time for dismissal. Visibility matters. Being present inside classrooms and in the hallways helps inform you about what is happening across the school. To combat the difficulty of breaking free of the office, I used to block off 30-90 minutes each day in my calendar solely dedicated to classrooms. That does not mean I could not spend more time with them, but I knew that if it was scheduled into my calendar, nothing else would get put on my schedule at that time.

The key was doing this daily. It was not a once-a-month or quarter surprise. Students and teachers became accustomed to seeing me, and I made it clear that if I’m in the room, feel free to use me to help with whatever is going on. Constructive feedback, incorporated into regular performance reviews and visits, fosters a culture of continuous improvement within the school community.

When I went into classrooms, I didn’t necessarily have an agenda. I sought ways to help a struggling student, or sometimes I would just enjoy the lesson and participate. The kids especially loved it when I would join them in a round of Time to Climb or an interactive trivia slide. As a new administrator in a building, it’s a great way to get to know the students and teachers.

2. Model teaching in the classroom

Credibility matters. People want to know that you’re not asking them to do something you’re unwilling to do yourself. One of the most important tenets of my leadership philosophy is never forgetting where the magic happens – in the classroom. The best way I can support that is to model how the magic should be created. As a principal, I taught at least one lesson weekly in a classroom. Sometimes it was a full lesson. Other times it was just a quick read-aloud. But the idea was that I wanted to model the engagement, rigor, questioning, and instructional strategies that I was asking my teachers to perform. 

I am not an expert in every grade level across every subject. This is where having a technology tool like Nearpod can be helpful. Suppose the classroom teacher creates a Nearpod lesson, and it’s not an area I am comfortable with. In that case, I can facilitate the learning through Nearpod and model classroom management and strategies versus trying to master the content.

When discussing modeling lessons, I often get asked, “How did you get your teachers to let you teach?” I started by offering it to anyone interested. I had a few takers. From there, word got around that it was a fun experience and a chance to watch someone else teach. After a while, I had more requests roll in, and then there were some classrooms where I called them to have a model lesson in their room so a specific strategy could be demonstrated. Eventually, it simply became part of the school’s culture.

3. How to use F.A.C.T.S. for coaching teachers

Building credibility and visibility across the building gave me a leg up on eventually offering feedback to teachers on the instruction I observed. When coaching is specific, actionable, fair, consistent, and timely (or rearranged as Fair, Actionable, Consistent, Timely, Specific = F.A.C.T.S), teachers see this feedback as opportunities for growth. Teachers were accustomed to having me in the classroom, and many had seen me teach at this point. As a school leader, I needed to make sure that I was providing feedback for teachers now to improve the instruction across the building.

When coaching is specific, actionable, fair, consistent, and timely, teachers see this feedback as opportunities for growth, not “gotcha” moments. Building a culture encompassing these principles allows for transparency and open discourse around best practices, which can yield improved achievement and outcomes. This can also be helpful tips for student feedback.

Here are five pillars for providing your coaching feedback using F.A.C.T.S.:

Fair

Of course, the actionable items and feedback need to be fair. Unreasonable goals or timelines set people up for failure and frustration and push culture back steps. Again, using the previous example, if a statement like “You need to get rid of your desk and chair by lunchtime” was stated in response to better engagement, there would likely be resentment in that type of demand.

Actionable

Effective feedback for teachers should be actionable. Putting timelines or expectations behind those comments will lead to quicker action. For example, “Please see me before school tomorrow so we can come up with the plan for sharpening pencils so you can introduce it at the start of the day” gives specific times and expectations for making the change. Some things will require longer, but actionable feedback and steps help people make the task attainable.

Consistent

Returning to the previous commentary on credibility, feedback should be consistent. Popping in once a quarter or twice a school year for mandatory classroom observations does not provide an adequate look into what is truly happening in the building. If you are going to give principal feedback to teachers about instruction, you need several data points to make an objective evaluation. Consistency in your feedback will show trends and opportunities for improvement over time. Additionally, providing positive feedback for teachers consistently is important. Using the aforementioned calendar approach is a helpful way to do that.

Timely

Timely feedback is essential. If you went up to a student and told them that you were disappointed in their behavior from last week, they might act confused or disconnected from the comments since they happened days ago. The same goes for our coaching. Feedback for teachers should be offered ideally within 24 hours so it is still fresh in the minds of the teacher and administrator. This helps teachers improve their instructional practices and directly influences how students achieve academically.

Specific

When providing feedback, it needs to be specific. Vague comments like “More engagement is needed” or “Stronger classroom management” are unproductive toward improvement. Adjusting those comments to “Moving out from behind your desk will help allow you to move about the classroom” or “Let’s work together with coming up with a pencil sharpening routine, so everyone is not standing in line” are more specific attempts at improvement.

4. Deliver the feedback seamlessly

Providing coaching feedback can come in several forms. I prefer less paper, so I have created walk-through forms using Google Forms, which automatically and immediately send my comments to the teacher upon pressing submit.

Within the form, I always leave a space for open responses so I can narrate my thoughts and observations beyond just a checkbox or radial button. I was always frustrated when I got teacher observation feedback that was marked simply as “Exceeds,” “Meets,” or “Does not meet” on a question. It doesn’t give context around what you actually witnessed, so I aim to be descriptive and qualitative in my feedback in order to provide concrete commentary back to the teacher.

Occasionally, there are moments when a face-to-face meeting is necessary to go more in-depth with coaching. In those situations, I utilize a few strategies to make the meetings productive and positive for both parties. Sorry, no acronym for this one!

How to properly address feedback to coach teachers in person

When the situation calls for a face-to-face meeting, I typically hold it in their classroom. This allows the teacher to feel more comfortable since it is “their turf.” It also allows me to do the next thing: model and recreate situations. If I am referencing a specific moment in the class from my observation, it is easier to point to a desk or stand in the spot where it actually happened. Materials are also more readily available inside the teacher’s classroom, which will help when planning for a future lesson or reviewing what was done that day. This can also be helpful for teacher to teacher feedback.

When approaching conversations where feedback is given, my goal is to ask more questions than give answers. This reflective practice is what leads to self-discovery, which is far more powerful than simply telling a teacher what needs to be fixed. For example, if during a remediation lesson, I saw a teacher give every student in the class the same worksheet to practice, I would be concerned because there’s a chance that there were students in the class who were already proficient on the content based on the assessment results.

Instead of simply explaining this, I may ask questions like “What trends did you notice based on the summative assessment?” or “Based on your data, what led you to use this worksheet for a review for all students?” Perhaps there was a good reason. Maybe the teacher did think this through and questioning instead of telling opens the door for the teacher to explain their thinking. From there, we can have a conversation stemming from the teacher’s response.

3. Before finishing any coaching meeting, I have two important practices that I employ:

• In the first practice, I work with the teacher on a realistic plan of action. Going back to the F.A.C.T.S. model, actionable items help facilitate progress. Establishing an agreed-upon action and timeline provides accountability and focus moving forward. From the example above, if the teacher reflected and believed that their worksheet was not differentiated based on the data, we might come up with an action item that said that tomorrow’s remediation materials would be differentiated based on the specific needs of the student. It gives a specific action (i.e. differentiated materials) and a timeline (i.e. tomorrow’s lesson).

• The second practice I end any coaching meeting with is with one simple phrase: What can I do to help you? This phrase is impactful because it shows that we are in this together. If we want our students to be successful, we need to make sure teachers feel and are fully supported. In asking this question over the years, I have had answers ranging from “I’m good” to supply requests to follow-up meetings to help from specialists in the building. Who knows what you need better than you? Now, am I one hundred percent of the time able to fulfill the requests? No. But if I am not, I will work with my teacher on finding alternative ways to get what they need to be successful.

5. Follow up and check-in

Just because a meeting is complete, it does not mean sudden change. Just because you devise a plan of action, it does not mean it will be implemented. That is why following up and checking in with the teacher is so important. The coaching shouldn’t end. This can be part of the actionable steps before a meeting is complete. Establishing a follow-up meeting date, a scheduled observation, peer observation, or a model lesson are good ways to put accountability on all parties to do the things they said they would do.

Start sharing effective feedback using Nearpod

As an administrator, my goal is to build relationships and trust with my staff so that even if my teacher does get a faster heartbeat when I walk in, it is not a fear of consequence or punishment that overcomes them. I hope that coaching, in my teachers’ eyes, is seen as an opportunity for reflection, conversation, and growth.

New to Nearpod? Administrators can schedule a call to learn about the full instructional power of Nearpod for your schools and districts. Teachers can sign up for free below to access and create interactive lessons.

Adam Dovico

Adam Dovico has served as a teacher, curriculum facilitator, principal, and college professor. He has traveled around the world conducting professional development for tens of thousands of educators. He is the author of three books: Inside the Trenches, The Limitless School, and When Kids Lead.

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