Nearpod

What is Nearpod?

Nearpod is a great way to engage your students... whether lessons are online or in-person.
Offers both teacher directed learning (whole class) or can be used independently at the student's own pace.
Lessons can include videos, web pages, PDFs, drawing pages, images, polls, multiple choice, open ended questions, etc.
Students can actively participate in the lesson while teachers get valuable feedback on student learning.
Nearpod works really well with iPads... all you need is the Nearpod app installed.
All of K-4 teachers have access to our paid Nearpod account.

http://nearpod.com

👇 Watch the video below for a quick intro to Nearpod:

STEP #1

👉 Setup your Nearpod account

Sign up with your Mt. Sinai Google username and password.
Contact T. Davidson if you are not connected to our school account.

👉 Nearpod Dashboard / Homepage

Once you login, you will be brought to the Nearpod dashboard.

On the left side, you will see:

MY LESSONS/LIBRARY- holds the Nearpod lessons that you created/saved
SCHOOL LIBRARY - share your lessons with other Mt. Sinai teachers
NEARPOD LIBRARY - choose from over 7500 standard aligned lessons. You can search by standard, subject, grade level, etc.

STEP #2

👉 Search for Lessons

Click on the 'Nearpod Library'
Search the pre-made lessons
Click 'Add to My Lessons' for ones that you want to save
You can then customize the lesson to fit your needs

🎬 Watch the video to learn more

👉 Create Your Own Lessons

Click on 'My Lessons'
Click on 'Create' and choose 'Lesson'
Type in your new title where it says 'Untitled Lesson'
Next click the + to add your content and activities
Continue to add as many as you need

🎬 Watch the video to learn more

💡💡💡 Nearpod Content / Activities Explained 💡💡💡

Want to learn more about each element that you can bring into Nearpod? Click the link below to view an interactive website that explains each tool that you can use.

Click this link to explore Nearpod's Content & Activities

HERE ARE MORE VIDEOS ON CREATING LESSONS 👇

STEP #3

👉 Launch a Lesson

Once you have your lesson ready to go, you have three options on how you are going to use it with your students:

Live Participation - The teacher controls the lesson and decides when they will move to the next slide. This works well for in-class use, but could also be used remotely if the teacher 'shares' their screen during a live session. Click here to learn more.
Student Paced - Students complete the lesson on their own. This works well for homework assignments or remote learning. Click here to learn more.
Front of Class (videos only) - Teacher projects a video on SmartBoard; students do not use devices. Pause the video at key moments for discussion and exploration.

🎬 Watch the video to learn more

STEP #4

👉 How Do Students Access the Nearpod Lesson?

The instructions for students are slightly different depending on if they are on a desktop computer or an iPad. See below for more details.

Option #1: Students Use iPads and Nearpod App

Students open the Nearpod app and enter the Nearpod lesson code to begin.

🎬 Watch the video to learn more

Option #2: Google Classroom Assignments

Students can use Google Classroom to open the Nearpod lesson.

Both the 'Live Participation' and 'Student Paced' lessons will allow you to share the lesson in Google Classroom. Students do not need a code when using this method.

🎬 Watch the video to see how teachers add a Nearpod lesson to Google Classroom

🎬 Watch the video see how students access a Nearpod lesson from a Google Classroom assignment

* OPTIONAL *

If using Google Classroom, students should mark the assignment as 'Complete' in Google Classroom

After students complete a Nearpod lesson, they should exit the lesson, go back to Google Classroom, and then choose 'Mark as done'.

* This is optional... K-2 teachers especially may want to skip this step. However the 'Mark as done' step is useful so that both you and the student can keep track of which assignments have been completed in Google Classroom. It is good practice for them to do this since it will be more important as they get into the older grades.

STEP #5

👉 View Student Responses

When running a 'Student Paced' lesson, you can view student progress at any time.

🎬 Watch the video to learn more

👉 Detailed Reports

Go to 'Reports' to get a detailed lesson report.

🎬 Watch the video to learn more

WANT TO LEARN MORE?

Check out the videos below: 👇

Share lessons to the School Library

Once you create a lesson, you can easily add it to the School library to share it with your colleagues.

🎬 Watch the video to learn more

Adding a PDF Worksheet for Students to Annotate

🎬 Watch the video to learn more

How to Add Audio to your Lessons

You can add audio files or record your own audio and add it to your lessons.
If you are recording yourself, be sure that you are on a device that has a microphone (such as a laptop or tablet). You could also attach a mic, use airpods, or headphones with a mic (like the ones that come with an iPhone).
After recording, you can trim the beginning and end of the audio clip
There is no time limit, but you can only have one recording per slide.

🎬 Watch the video to learn more

Student Audio Responses

You can set up your Nearpod lesson to have students submit an audio response.

Students will also need to be on a device that has a microphone to record their audio (such as a laptop or tablet). You could also attach a mic, use airpods, or headphones with a mic (like the ones that come with an iPhone).

🎬 Watch the video to learn more