After reading Alice Keeler’s tweet (see image below) about digital tools that provided our students with immediate feedback, I was inspired to try out one of her suggestions with my students.
The following day, I gave Nearpod a shot and it did not disappoint! For 4th grade social studies, we use a curriculum called TCI that is AMAZING! Incredibly hands-on, user friendly, and definitely created with the student in mind. But, like every curriculum, there are some features that I wish they would improve upon or adjust. With each chapter comes a pre-made power point presentation that does not allow you to download. Because I cannot download the presentation, I cannot upload the presentation to websites like Pear Deck that would allow me to make the presentation interactive. When I gave Nearpod a shot, I took screenshots of my lesson and used those images when I created my Nearpod lesson. That way, I did not have to 100% create a presentation from scratch.
What is Nearpod?
- an interactive presentation and assessment tool
- presentations can contain:
- polls
- videos
- images
- quizzes
- drawing-boards
- web content
Why did I love Nearpod?
- super easy to create lessons
- it’s free
- students’ screens mimic teacher’s screen and is teacher paced
- every student participates and is involved in the conversation and not just your all-star students
- students are given immediate feedback
- students do not have to have a login (simply use the class code that you project on screen)
- energy in the room was much higher and interactive than normal
- students were engaged in the conversation and we ended the lesson with students begging me to use Nearpod again
- took a simple lesson to the next level of engagement
Your student can access Nearpod as an app or it is also web-based. As the students open their app or web, they will want to insert the class code.