The 2020 school year has been challenging for myself as we started it with great uncertainty, a later start date , an abundance of absolutely necessary changes for safety, and adjusting to an abnormal school year. My district decided to keep majority of teachers in school, whether teaching in-person or virtually. This meant all teachers were to report to school in-person, and I began the first quarter with a traditional class in the morning and a virtual class in the afternoon.
What an adjustment! This of course not even being the most difficult of situations, as I knew teachers with plenty more classes. It was a learning experience for us all. I currently teach 100% virtually from my classroom, which again, has been a learning experience. Even so, I am grateful to have learned a new platform which I now enjoy! This bring us to my newfound love of NEARPOD!!
I have learned a few tips and tricks for using Nearpod effectively virtually. I also had a brief time using it the traditional classroom setting (it was actually created to be used with in-person classes). Below are three reasons why I think Nearpod is so great for either class:
1. Students can participate simultaneously! This can easily lead to 100% participation at the SAME TIME!
2. Teachers can embed engaging content throughout the lesson (videos, virtual reality experiences, & competitive quizzes)
3. Teachers can easily grade formative assessments/quizzes by using the generated reports.
Something to know is Nearpod and Google Slides are best friends. You can add the Nearpod Google "Add-On" to make this marriage official. They work together, so if you or your school are familiar with Google Slides, the transition to Nearpod might be a bit easier. I have been using Google Slides to create lessons for quite a few years now, so I quickly began creating my own lessons and "turning" them into Nearpod lessons using the add-on. My district uses Microsoft 365 and purchased Nearpod, so I already had access to it through my teacher Microsoft 365 account, but it is also linked to my personal Google account. This may not be the case if your district is already using Google along with Nearpod. You may just get by with using your teacher credentials and account. Below is how you can access the Nearpod Add-on For Google Slides:
Tip #1
Since Nearpod requires the students to login for access, they have to navigate themselves on the internet to see your Nearpod lesson. This can lead to the problem of students not getting to where they need to be in a timely manner, and precious instructional time being wasted just waiting for students to get to where they need to go.
Solution: I display the following Google Slide for my students with the directions on where to go AND a three minute timer.
(I praise students during the timer who HAVE made it to motivate the others. For any student(s) who did not make it, I send them a message afterwards simply stating I noticed they were not there and look forward to seeing them on the next one. I don't "yell" in the message because there is no need. Often times, they simply say sorry and usually do go the next time just for holding them accountable.)
Tip #2
I create Nearpod reading lessons to use in real time with my virtual classes. To best utilize my time with my students, I include the text/illustrations on the slide using the snipping tool, the questions I plan to ask them, and any anchor charts they need to refer to.
No matter what subject you teach, I suggest displaying the support students need along with the question(s) right in the slide. This way, all students get what they need, and they don't have to "remember" something you may have discussed on a previous slide.
For any questions asked during the lesson, I usually have students participate in Microsoft Teams, where we meet for live lessons (you may Zoom as your platform). This requires them to raise their hand and only a few students participate at a time. So how does this require 100% participation??? That leads me into tip # 3!
Tip # 3
I display and verbally say l when a Nearpod feature is coming up on the next slide that requires ALL students to participate. This keeps students aware of where we are in the lesson and in anticipation of when they should really be paying attention. Of course they should always be paying attention, but even in the physical classroom, students can zone out, and the teacher still has to identify critical content (how's that for Marzano ha!)
For those shy kids who don't feel comfortable unmuting or raising their hand, you still get to see their progress through the quizzes, discussion boards, and open-ended questions you include. For the students who always participate and can't press their hand-raising button soon enough, they still have the opportunity to speak, but are also still required to complete the activity.
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