What Is Pear Deck?
Pear Deck is an interactive presentation tool used to actively engage students in individual and social learning. Teachers create presentations using an add in on their Google Drive Slides app and then present the slide deck to students, either in real time or as a link for students to use on demand. It's a great tool to use for formative assessment.
Watch this quick video to get a sense of how Pear Deck works!
You and your students are going to love it!
Pear Deck Website
Pear Deck is a paid Google add-on for all Carroll County Public School teachers and can be accessed in several ways.
This video describes how you can go to peardeck.com and login using your CCPS email and password to access the Pear Deck online features and functions.
From Google Slides
Click on the Add-ons menu
Select Pear Deck for Google Slides Add-on
IF this is your first time accessing Pear Deck, follow the on screen prompts to login to your Pear Deck account using your CCPS email and password
Afterwards, click on Open Pear Deck Add-on. Once you have added the Add-on, you may see the Pear Deck icon in your menu bar and can launch Pear Deck from it.
You should also add the Pear Deck Power-Up Extension so your embedded videos, animations and gifs will play properly.
The Sidebar for Creating Your Deck
Once you launch Pear Deck, a sidebar will appear on your slide that offers you many options for creating interactive and engaging content.
The sidebar also includes Featured Content from Pear Deck near the bottom of the sidebar and a handy link to Pear Deck how-to-videos from YouTube.
The Slide Library
View the video to get a quick overview of how you can use the templates in the Slide Library to quickly add and customize interactive elements to your slides.
Use Pear Deck with an Existing Slide Deck or from PowerPoint
Do you have slide decks that are already developed but may benefit from Pear Deck interactivity?
This short video will demonstrate how easy it is to accomplish!
Don't Delete!
Once you have added a Pear Deck element to your slide, do not move or delete the Pear Deck footer that will appear above the Notes area. Doing so will remove the interactivity of that slide.
You can edit any other portion of the slide, including any text, images, animations, etc.
Presenting Your Pear Deck
Now that your slide deck is ready and your students are ready to engage in the exciting, interactive content, view this short video to learn how to launch your presentation!
Note: This information is to deliver a synchronous learning experience. Keep reading for how to set up Pear Deck for asynchronous instruction.
Asynchronous Learning
Pear Deck can also be used by students in a self-paced mode. Watch the video for using this feature!
As a CCPS instructor, you have the Premium license which allows you to use all of the premium features of the tool.
Creating a Google Classroom Assignment
Click through the images below to see how to save a Pear Deck Presentation as a Student Self-Paced Activity.
First you will need to Start the Lesson from the Pear Deck navigation window in your slide deck.
Add Audio to Pear Deck Slides
Use with Google Meet
Give Feedback to Your Students in Pear Deck
Use Synchronous and Student-Paced Modes During the Same Session
Pear Deck Online
Login
For more options, go to https://peardeck.com and login to your Pear Deck account as a Teacher using your CCPS email and current password. You should see your CCPS account info in the upper right hand portion of the window.
Once logged in, the Pear Deck Home page contains lots of resources and guides to help you learn Pear Deck.
Notice the Sessions and Help menu items on the top left of the window.
My Sessions
The Sessions page gives you a list of all active sessions and their status. You can see the current status of your sessions, view the date and time the sessions were made live or student-paced. You can also launch sessions from this site. You can also view sessions that you archived by clicking on the Archive tab.
Open Session Options
Click on 3 dots
You have these options for open sessions.
Closed Session Options
Click on 3 dots
You have these options for closed sessions.
My Account
For additional settings that apply to all of your Pear Deck presentations, click the arrow to the right of your email address to open your Account Information. Click My Account, then click Settings.
Settings
You can adjust the Pear Deck settings by clicking the On or Off toggle button for each option.
If you want to remove the initial 'Feelings' slide from your Pear Deck sessions, toggle it Off in the Classroom Climate section. This only impacts new Pear Deck sessions, it will not remove the slide from existing Pear Deck sessions.
Click the Learn more link under each setting for detailed information about each setting.
Shared Teacher Dashboard
PearDeck released the shared teacher dashboard which allows a teacher to share their Pear deck dashboard to other adult teaching staff or subs who will be granted the same controls as the host teacher to manage the lesson, including:
reviewing student responses in real time
switching from Instructor-Paced or Student-Paced Mode
adding slide timers and locks
other controls.
To learn more, visit the site Introducing the Pear Deck Shared Teacher Dashboard!
Student Video Tutorials
Video tutorials that help students use Pear Deck
Join a pear Deck Lesson
Answering Pear Deck Prompts on Any Device
How to Navigate in Student-Paced Mode
Teacher Feedback in Student-Paced Mode
More Resources
This Pear Deck Choice Board includes information on many advanced Pear Deck features. Check it out!
Visit the Pear Deck Knowledge Base website for more help and answers to questions: https://help.peardeck.com/
Follow Pear Deck on Twitter. https://twitter.com/PearDeck
