January 22

Looking for a way to increase student engagement with students?

Nearpod is the answer!

Nearpod is an interactive tool to turn class lessons into timely assessments using polls, collaboration boards, and game-based quizzes. It also allows you to integrate VR experiences, Flipgrid questions, 3D Objects, and videos. It will work on any laptop or mobile device.

Whether you use an already created Google Slides lesson, find something in the Nearpod library or create one from scratch, there are many options to make your lesson more engaging and interactive for students.

Here are some of my favorite things about Nearpod:

Immersive Reader is built in so students can have text read to them.
Slide decks can be teacher-led (controlling the pace of the questions) or student let (when you need them to work independently without you- or think of your quarantined students).
This is a great way to incorporate VR tours since Google Expeditions left.
When embedding a video you can stop and add questions or key points to the video.
You can allow students to record a voice response instead of typing.
It integrates directly into Google Classroom for students to join your presentation.
The reports are an amazing way to get instant feedback from student engagement and knowledge from your lesson of the day.

To learn more about this amazing tool, watch this fantastic master class (from the New EdTech CLassroom), or tune in to the segment you want to watch from the list below.

00:00 Introduction

00:37 Free vs Paid

01:42 Nearpod Library

03:47 Editing Pre-Created Lessons

05:07 Optimize Settings

06:40 Live Participation Lessons

08:37 Live to Student-paced

09:58 Student-Paced Lessons

10:38 Make Custom Lessons

11:47 Sketch Responses with Draw It

12:34 Interactive Video

13:30 Matching Pairs & Fill in the Blank

14:34 Webpage & Open Ended Question

15:05 3D Images & Collaborate Board

15:53 Phet Simulation

16:51 Poll & Quiz Questions

17:37 Slideshow, Audio, & PDF

18:08 Interactive PDFs & Images with Draw It

19:02 Flipgrid

19:34 Time to Climb

20:00 Flocabulary & Desmos

21:54 Reports

Quarantined Student Tips and Tricks

With the number of quarantined students on the rise, it is a good time for a refresher on tips and tricks for making this work in your classroom. With these systems in place, students (whether you have 1 or 5 kids out in your class at a time) will be able to fluidly move between quarantine at home and learning in class as the need arises.

The best thing you can do is to have an established communication system with your students and their parents.
- Seesaw or Google Classroom- Whatever method you have been using up until now, keep it going so that students and parents know where to check.

Next, have procedures or routines in place for students to check in the event they are absent.
- In Seesaw, set up a landing page of links (handout links, resources, tech help page, etc). Post to the Seesaw Journal and use the 3 dots to “Pin to Top”. Get template here.
- In Classroom, make sure students know how to access materials, how assignments will be organized, where materials can be found, and how to turn things in.
Know your tools for virtual collaboration.
- Jamboard- a collaborative whiteboard where you and students can add sticky notes, writing, text, drawings and links (up to 20 pages in a Jamboard). Jamboard Master Class.
- Nearpod- This free tool allows you to make Google Slides interactive by having students join your Nearpod session and answer questions embedded in the slidedeck to give you live feedback (whether they are in the room or at home). Nearpod Master Class.
- Screencastify- Use Screencastify for recording your screen or yourself to record lessons or tutorials. Now you can also use the advanced features of Screencastify to interject questions into your video for students to answer. Learn how!

Originality Reports in Docs AND Slides

Exciting news from Google! If you loved the originality reports in Docs, now it is available in Slides as well! For those of you who are unfamiliar with OR, it is a way to check for plagiarism against billions of sources on the web as well as past student work in the district. It also allows students to check their work with this tool before turning it in as a teaching tool and last step check. This exciting resource now offers the same level of academic integrity in Slides. It is utilized when students turn in work through Classroom Assignments.

Google Blog

Teachers: Visit the Help Center to learn more about how to turn on originality reports in Classroom.

Students: Visit the Help Center to learn more about running an originality report on your work in Classroom or Assignments.