Social and emotional learning (SEL) is at the core of learning and development. Research suggests teaching social emotional learning activities to develop life skills significantly improves behavior, attitudes, employment, classroom management, and academic achievement. Consistent SEL practice results in productive habits that positively shape academic performance and student’s mental health. From early childhood to middle school to high school, it’s important to make time in the school day to teach students SEL skills such as positive self-talk, active listening, practicing mindfulness, and more.

Foster a love of learning in every student with Nearpod. Teachers can sign up for free below to access activities or social emotional development and create interactive lessons!

Nearpod’s 21st Century Readiness Curriculum Program

The benefits of SEL development can be applied to any grade and subject, but not every teacher is an SEL expert or has time to become one. Nearpod’s 21st Century Readiness Program includes over 400 SEL lessons, activities, and videos built on CASEL’s five core competencies: self-awareness, self-management, social awareness, relationship skills, and responsible decision-making. Each resource helps develop knowledge and skills related to one of the CASEL competencies, pushing students to learn, apply, and reflect during the learning experience. This supplemental SEL program includes lifelong learning strategies for goal setting, time management, and growth mindset lessons for persisting, thinking flexibly, and more.

Nearpod’s 21st Century Readiness Program provides an easy way to integrate SEL practices like positive interactions, gratitude, and reflective moments into daily learning to help create safe, inclusive, and effective classroom environments.

Administrators can schedule a call with an expert to explore Nearpod’s 21st Century Readiness Program and unlock the full power of Nearpod for schools and districts.

7 Social Emotional Learning (SEL) activities to use in your classroom

1. Facilitate positive classroom interactions

Collaborate Board activities bring limitless possibilities to instruction. The interactive discussion board facilitates positive interactions among classmates by increasing student engagement, crowdsourcing ideas, and delivering formative feedback. Bringing an interactive discussion board to your Nearpod lessons fosters the development of social emotional learning skills and builds on core competencies such as self-awareness, social awareness, and relationship skills. These are easy SEL activities you can integrate into your daily instruction.

Students truly feel part of the conversation with Collaborate Board, which helps teachers foster classroom culture. A classroom culture of respect, happiness, security, and challenge is foundational to engaging and effective learning. Students need to feel open to honest communication about their progress for improved teaching and learning. As students participate in various SEL activities, such as Collaborate Boards that are focused on fostering open communication, teachers intentionally build effective classroom culture. Students can feel comfortable sharing thoughts and challenges and see hurdles as opportunities to learn.

Check out some of our ready-made Collaborate Board activities developed specifically for building classroom culture:

• Scattergories: Letter S
• If You Could Fly
• Find Something: All About You

You can check in on how students are feeling by creating a Nearpod activity. Check-ins drive opportunities to build routines and create a comfortable learning environment. This can help teachers guide a rich dialogue among classmates. Students build an increased capacity to interact with others in a way that shows compassion and understanding.

2. Encourage self-reflection through drawing

Using drawing activities for self-portraits, scribble art, or providing a journaling opportunity for students to express their feelings supports self-reflection for students. Have students practice responsible decision-making, specifically analyzing situations, by completing a Draw It activity on Nearpod to share a challenge they are facing. Reflective Draw It activities help students understand their strengths and areas for growth.

Creating art is a practice of communication and empathy, a growth mindset, and self-reflection. The SEL Through Art series, part of Nearpod’s 21st Century Readiness Program, explores the connection between art and SEL skills. This powerful medium elicits social and emotional learning experiences by helping students explore more about themselves and their life experiences.

3. Create moments of gratitude

Use Nearpod’s Drag & Drop interactive feature in your lessons to engage and connect students with social emotional learning in the classroom. Match feeling words, descriptions, and corresponding facial expressions to talk about resolving conflict and identifying different emotions. Students can discuss the importance of recognizing the good in their lives and expressing gratitude regularly. For instance, Nearpod’s interactive features, such as Collaborate Board, Open-Ended Question, and Poll, are the perfect way to start or end your day with an expression and acknowledgment of gratitude. Use Drag & Drop to create easy SEL activities for your lesson plans, like this one!

4. Collect meaningful student feedback

Creating opportunities for student voice in the classroom is key to building a positive school culture and gathering meaningful student feedback. To increase student talk, provide ample opportunities for engaging interaction through activities like Think-Pair-Share questions and Open-Ended Questions. When using Nearpod’s Open-Ended Question feature, make sure audio recording is enabled to give students multiple ways to engage in student voice. Nearpod’s formative assessment features, like Polls, empower educators to provide multiple ways for students to share valuable information personally. Include a Poll at the beginning or end of your lesson to gather student feedback, collect a formative assessment of emotions, or provide a reflective moment.

Additionally, utilize the Collaborate Board feature for a quick check-in at the beginning of class, asking simple questions to engage student thinking, build background knowledge, or gauge the overall mood of the classroom. Use what you’ve learned from gathering student feedback to help inform future classroom procedures or learning changes.

5. Brain Breaks!

Exclusive to Nearpod’s 21st Century Readiness Program, Brain Breaks videos regulate the energy and focus of your classroom. Research suggests providing a quick break helps refresh the mind and makes it easier for students to focus on important tasks. Our videos help students break the patterns of fatigue, frustration, and lack of focus, and we made it easy for teachers to launch a video at any time throughout the day.

Choose between Calming or Energizing videos depending on the needs of your classroom at any moment. Use calming Brain Breaks as social and emotional learning activities to help students relax, settle their minds, and become refocused on the task.

Use energizing Brain Breaks to provide needed movement and increase the blood flow to the brain. An energizing activity helps reduce stress and anxiety and improves students’ ability to focus.

6. Choose from Nearpod’s premade activities

Choose from over 100 premade SEL activities using Nearpod’s interactive features like Draw It, Time to Climb, and Drag & Drop to incorporate into lessons, or as a bell ringer, an exit ticket, for extra practice, or homework. Nearpod’s social-emotional learning activities are built on the five core competencies: self-awareness, self-management, responsible decision-making, relationship skills, and social awareness. Students use information from their own experiences and values to guide their thinking and learn from others. These are easy SEL activities you can integrate into your daily instruction.

7. Collecting real-time insights

Real-time insight into students’ learning is vital for developing SEL. This immediate feedback allows educators to address emotional and social challenges as they arise, helping students to better manage their emotions. By closely monitoring progress and providing timely support, teachers can foster a nurturing environment where students feel understood and supported.

With Nearpod, real-time insights into student thinking allow teachers to adapt their instruction. Add an Open-Ended Question, Draw It, or Collaborate Board to a lesson on the fly with Quick Launch when you see an opportunity to engage in SEL-integrated instruction intentionally.

These engagement tools ensure students have low-stakes ways to share their thinking. As a result, this simple way to gather real-time insight gives students a voice in the moment while providing you with important feedback.

Teach SEL with Nearpod

Nearpod’s social emotional learning curriculum provides instruction, reflection, and practice opportunities around CASEL-aligned social and emotional learning competencies: self-awareness, self-management, responsible decision-making, relationship skills, and social awareness.

By implementing SEL programs, educators can show students how to manage their emotions effectively through social and emotional skills. For young children, developing these skills enhances their abilities to understand and interact with others. It’s essential that schools prioritize SEL to ensure children learn the necessary competencies for overall well-being and success.

When SEL curriculum practices are thoughtfully selected and used authentically, they have greater power to be effective. View your role as an educator through the lens of the five core competencies of SEL to enhance your teaching and enrich your classroom environment. Nearpod’s 21st Century Readiness Program easily incorporates SEL in the classroom, helping educators meet students’ social and emotional learning needs.

New to Nearpod? Make sure you’re signed up to access these lessons and activities!

Teachers can sign up for free below to access and create interactive lessons. Administrators can schedule a call with an expert to explore Nearpod’s 21st Century Readiness Program and unlock the full power of Nearpod for schools and districts.

Click here to learn more about Nearpod’s 21st Century Readiness Curriculum Program

References

CASEL.org. Social Emotional Learning competencies. (2022).

Durlak, J. A., Weissberg, R. P., Dymnicki, A. B., Taylor, R. D. & Schellinger, K. B. (2011). The impact of enhancing students’ social and emotional learning: A meta-analysis of school-based universal interventions. Child Development, 82(1): 405–432.

Immordino-Yang, Mary Helen, et al. “Rest Is Not Idleness: Implications of the Brain’s Default Mode for Human Development and Education.” Perspectives on Psychological Science, vol. 7, no. 4, July 2012, pp. 352–64. DOI.org (Crossref), https://doi.org/10.1177/1745691612447308.

Jessica Clarke

Jessica Clarke is the Curriculum Manager at Nearpod.

The post 7 Social Emotional Learning (SEL) activities to use in the classroom appeared first on Nearpod Blog.

Teaching math can feel like an uphill battle, with students often coming into the classroom believing that math is dry, hard, or simply not their strong suit. However, math instruction can be a rich experience full of questioning, exploration, and discovery. Despite this potential, math performance across the US remains a growing concern. The 2022 National Assessment of Educational Progress reported the largest declines in math scores for grades 4 and 8 since 1990. Often, resources are too focused on standards coverage and content, lacking intentionality about the instructional experience.

Lessons and math tools for teachers

With Nearpod, you can use interactive videos, interactive slide-based lessons, and gamified activities for an engaging instructional experience. This guide will show a few ways to capture that energy and bring it into your math classroom using interactive tools.

According to an ESSA Level II study, CAASPP scores for math achievement demonstrated significant improvements among students who utilized Nearpod. These findings highlight Nearpod’s positive impact on math academic outcomes across different student demographics:

• 8th graders exhibited higher scores
• 6th graders also showed improved scores
• 6th graders with Individualized Education Programs (IEPs) displayed enhanced scores

Foster a love of learning in every student with Nearpod. Teachers can sign up for free below to access these resources, interactive activities, and engaging lessons.

Nearpod Math Program

Nearpod Math, our K-8 supplemental curriculum, helps teachers enhance instruction with intentionally organized content and tools to create engaging math learning experiences for every student. With this program, educators can supplement any math skill or standard and build collaborative, active math classrooms.

Administrators can schedule a call with an expert to explore Nearpod Math and unlock the full power of Nearpod for schools and districts.

Math lesson guide

Nearpod has curated a Math Lesson Guide for Grades K-8 so you can spend less time searching for resources and more time doing what you love: teaching. With ready-to-launch lessons, activities, and videos, these guides can help you remediate key skills, reteach concepts, and even prep for testing time.

Download lesson guide

8 Engaging strategies and lessons for teaching math in any classroom

1. Write about math using Open-Ended Questions

To take math instruction off the page, ask students to explore what their work means. Calculating the solution to a problem is only one aspect of doing math; students also grow as mathematicians by discussing their work. With writing, you can ask your students to access deeper meaning within their work – by analyzing a story question, setting a goal, writing a plan before they solve a problem, discussing the steps they took to solve it, or justifying their answer.

According to McREL, writing can improve students’ grasp of mathematical reasoning and problem-solving, use of evidence and logical processing, and ability to communicate their findings more clearly and effectively. Simply put, writing expands student’s ability to be analytical problem-solvers.

When previewing a challenging question, you can ask students to pause and write a goal or a plan for the question before they begin. You can also use this to bring more dialogue into your classroom. Students need opportunities to share their thinking about math in a safe environment. This strategy allows students who may not want to share out loud to have their voices heard.

After solving a problem, use Nearpod’s interactive Open-Ended Question to prompt students to defend their answer; you may ask them to justify each step or focus on one part of the question to dissect. With the “Share” tool, you can anonymously broadcast any student’s answer and use it to open up a discussion with your students: Do they agree with this student? How was this answer strong, or how could it be improved?

Instead of having to circulate around the room to check each student’s work during math instruction, their plans will arrive on your screen in real time, and you can focus on the students who need you most. You can also attach Reference Media to Nearpod activities such as Draw It, Open-Ended Questions, or Polls to foster independent thinking.

2. Do a warm-up activity using a number talk

Number talks are perfect warm-ups and can be tailored to any grade level. It’s a great strategy to build numeracy and number sense with your students when teaching math. Number talks are short (10-ish minutes) question-based discussions that complement your regular instruction. They can become high-leverage learning moments in your classroom because you ask students to generate solutions and evaluate strategies. You may ask students to find a rule, solve a problem, or analyze a pattern in a number talk. The key is that students independently design and describe their pathways to solve the problem and then collaboratively share and critique their ideas.

To do a number talk with your students, present the class with a problem and ask them to solve the problem mentally, but don’t share their answer. When students have found a solution, they’ll signal to you that they’ve solved it, and if they can find more than one way to solve the problem, they signal that, too.

The “talk” portion of a Number Talk is the most essential: this is where students share out their solutions and evaluate them. It can feel energizing to hear active minds at work, but recording your students’ ideas as they share them aloud can be overwhelming. Nearpod can lean in on numerous ways during Number Talks.

How to conduct Number Talks

Nearpod allows students to share their strategy, whereas, in a traditional number talk, only a handful of students can share their thinking. Also, students can try the problem with low risk while giving the teacher formative data about the strategies. For example, a teacher might use 5 x 25 as the number talk. Then, students can share their strategy to solve the problem using Draw It slides or an Open-Ended activity. The teacher can then showcase strategies and have students explain their thinking orally to the class.

When students want to signal that they’ve found a solution, using a public signal, like raising their hand, can be overwhelming or discouraging to surrounding students. Try giving your students a Poll question on Nearpod asking: “How many solutions can you find to this problem?” You’ll receive instant data about which students have solutions and can pull ideas from across your classroom, even if they have put their hand down.

For the “talk” portion, ask your students to explain their ideas on a Collaborate Board. Collaborate Boards create a public space for all your students to respond to a question, and each student’s response shows up as a virtual post-it note. As the teacher, you can see who wrote which response, but the responses can be set as anonymous for student view. Your students can practice explaining their ideas in writing, have a clean and organized view of everyone’s ideas, and vote for their favorite responses by clicking the heart icon on the post-its they agree with most.

3. Use interactive drawing assessments to teach graphs

Analyzing data is one of the most powerful and important elements of teaching math. Graphs and tables are common in everyday life, and teaching your students to become “fluent” in graphs and tables empowers them to excel in class and make more sense of the world around them. Taking data and turning it into a graph is no small feat, though — and interpreting data from a graph can be even more challenging for students. You can use technology to breathe life into graphing and graph analysis in your classroom using Nearpod’s interactive drawing assessment tool, Draw It.

There are many steps to constructing a graph, and more likely than not, your students come into class with different levels of mastery: some of your students may be ready to plot, while others are still grappling to discern the x-axis from the y-axis. Using the Nearpod Draw It tool, you can quickly monitor each student’s progress. Each student’s work is displayed in your teacher view, and it updates in real-time to show you their work as they progress through a problem. With this data, you can narrate common misconceptions for the whole class and visit individual students for targeted support. With the “share” feature, you can also show-call student work — Nearpod will broadcast an individual student’s graph anonymously to every student’s screen, and your class can discuss (or admire!) their work.

The Draw It tool can also help you deepen how your students analyze data. You can upload any graph as a “background” that students can then draw upon. Ask students to annotate a graph to find the peak, individual data points, or outliers. You may want to show your students a graph missing certain data, like axis labels or a scale, and ask them to fill in the missing information. If your students are learning to construct their own graphs, a popular student activity is to “grade the graph,” create a graph riddled with errors, then ask your students to mark (and correct) as many mistakes as they can find!

4. Model the steps for problem-solving

If you have ever given students a problem to solve on a specific template, it’s important to model the steps to solve the problem. This will help support your students when it’s their turn to problem-solve.

One way to model for students is through Nearpod’s Draw It tool. Make the template or equation into a Draw It slide and have them use the drawing and writing tools to solve the question. You’ll get insight into their responses in real time. Teachers can review the responses on their screens and share them anonymously on students’ devices to discuss the strategies they used. To model examples, use the Live Teacher Annotation* and draw on the slide. Your drawings will show up on students’ screens immediately so they can see and discuss a strategy that might have been missing from your students’ examples.

*Live Teacher Annotation feature is only available for School & District licenses.

5. Teach math vocabulary with Matching Pairs

It’s no secret that math has its own language. Whether your students are learning to find partial products and how many quarts fit inside a gallon or to calculate continuous functions and find derivatives, students are engaging in decoding and internalizing new vocabulary. It can be challenging for students, especially our students who read below grade level or are learning English, and these challenges can compound over time, leaving struggling students behind.

It might feel tedious to dedicate a whole lesson to vocabulary or to ask your students to devote class time to making flashcards when teaching math. The good news is, you don’t have to. Integrate a Matching Paris activity into your lessons instead. Nearpod’s Matching Pairs tool is an interactive and attention-grabbing way to practice math terms. In a Matching Pairs moment, students’ screens fill with tiles that disappear as they correctly match each term with its definition. Students have as many chances as they need until they match each term with its correct definition.

This activity can be meaningful in your classroom in many ways because it’s flexible. You curate the terms and definitions that fit your content. You can cover many terms during a review lesson or only a few keywords for a quick check for understanding. With instant data, you can create targeted support groups and tier your instruction to match your students’ diverse needs.

6. Start (or end) a lesson unit with an educational game

Start the lesson by gathering data about what students remember about the concept to differentiate the instruction for the day. Starting the lesson with an engaging activity will help keep the energy level high throughout the lesson. Using educational games for math instruction helps students learn what’s being taught, builds problem-solving skills, and builds community while learning the lesson’s material.

Students love Nearpod’s educational game, Time to Climb, where students race to see which character gets to the top of a mountain first by answering a series of questions both correctly and quickly to increase their own points to become one of the top three winners of the game. You can also use an educational game to end a lesson unit to see what students have learned.

Drag & Drop is another Nearpod gamification tool teachers can add at the beginning or end of a lesson. Students can categorize, label, and sequence items or images with this activity.

7. Collect data in real-time to assess students throughout the entire lesson

Formative assessment is a valuable tool for teachers. It allows teachers to see what students know and what misconceptions they may have about addressing them immediately. Nearpod collects real-time data efficiently through various activities where the teacher can view all the student responses on one screen. For example, suppose students are creating a multiplication model on a Draw It slide. In that case, the teacher can see what strategies students are using and address any errors a student or group of students might have before moving on. You can also use the Collaborate Board to share student work, which allows students to review, discuss, and critique their peers’ responses.

8. Find premade content that is standards-aligned, engaging, and interactive

Finding reliable and quality resources to use for teaching math can be challenging. It’s important to use standards-aligned resources created by experts while engaging and flexible for students (and teachers!). Nearpod’s Lesson Library has the perfect blend of lesson resources you need. You can explore quality interactive lessons, activities, and videos made by content experts and partners. Teachers can explore the library, download lessons, and modify them, all for free! Use the search bar or filters to find resources that fit your classroom’s needs.

Traditionally, you might think about using Nearpod as a presentation tool. However, you can assign these lessons as student-paced for independent work to provide additional practice opportunities and games and gather formative assessment data. With Live to Student-Paced mode, teachers can toggle between Live and Student-Paced mode for flexible instruction to support differentiating for student needs. This engaging independent activity can allow students to get immediate feedback on activities.

Start teaching math with Nearpod

Digital interactives are a fun way to make your math instruction more dynamic. With these strategies, you can bring energy to your classroom and enhance your student’s mastery of mathematics while gathering meaningful, real-time data. Nearpod is a great tool to increase engagement, discourse, and achievement in your math class. It is easy to take your existing presentations, upload them to Nearpod, and make minor tweaks that allow instant access to your students’ mathematical thinking.

New to Nearpod? Teachers can sign up for free below to access these resources, interactive activities, and engaging lessons. Administrators can schedule a call with an expert to unlock the full power of Nearpod for schools and districts.

Click here to learn more about Nearpod Math!

Kate Roscioli

Kate is a Title I Math Specialist in Northern Virginia. She loves supporting teachers in integrating technology in lessons to allow students to authentically engage in mathematics content.

The post 8 Engaging strategies for teaching math in any classroom appeared first on Nearpod Blog.

Why are classroom procedures and routines important?

Establishing classroom routines lets students know what is expected, allowing them to complete daily tasks quickly and efficiently. Also, classroom routines create a comfortable and predictable learning environment for students. This can help build students’ confidence and reduce their anxiety.

Routines and procedures for classroom management are important for all students in any grade level. Although it’s helpful to establish basic classroom rules for instructional time to run smoothly, it’s also significant when teaching a unit and providing assignments throughout the school day.

Here are a few ways to incorporate fun and academic classroom routines into your daily teaching with Nearpod’s interactive activities.

New to Nearpod? Teachers can sign up for free below to access these resources, interactive activities, and engaging lessons. Administrators can schedule a call with an expert to unlock the full power of Nearpod for schools and districts.

Easy classroom routines and procedures to engage students

1. Start off with an engaging bell ringer

When students enter the classroom or begin a new unit, have a bell ringer or bell work ready for them to complete. The bell ringer should be a fun activity that’ll excite students for what’s to come, such as a gamified learning activity. This way, you can focus on getting all your students where they need to be, and the rest of the class gets a little game-based reward for punctuality.

Place a Matching Pairs activity at the very beginning of your lesson to establish a classroom routine. It’ll be the first thing your students see when they join the lesson, giving them something to work on immediately. Nearpod has hundreds of free Matching Pairs lessons perfect for any classroom! Search by subjects, standards, and grade level to find an activity fit for your classroom.

Use a Matching Pairs bell ringer to review prior knowledge, preview new content, or just as a fun reward for transitioning quickly. You can customize the cards to match text with text, text with pictures, or pictures with pictures. This is perfect for teaching classroom routines!

2. Check in on students’ social and emotional well-being

To cultivate a positive classroom community, it’s important to put students’ social and emotional health first. Collaborative classroom discussions should be at the forefront of learning. Embed moments into your instruction to check in on how students are feeling emotionally.

Collaborate Board is the perfect tool to use to jumpstart the discussion. This feature gives all students a voice to share how they’re feeling. Collaborate Board is a digital bulletin board where students can respond to a prompt or question using images, text, GIFs, or audio. All students can see the responses from the class and can ‘like’ their favorites. Teachers can decide whether they want to make the board anonymous or public by turning off or on student names.

Collaborating on @nearpod. Students share their favorite places in nature to practice #mindfulness! #sayvillestrides #sayvillestrong #SEL #mschat pic.twitter.com/JxVcIHw7P7

— Kimberly Pacia (@MsPaciaEDU) June 1, 2020

Host a Collaborate Board during any moment to ask students how they’re feeling, spread gratitude, or simply share their ideas. Turn off names to have anonymous responses, so students feel more comfortable being open.

3. Do a competitive review mid-lesson

Up the competition in your classroom procedures and routines by adding a timer for an activity mid-lesson. Students can race against themselves to beat their best time, but they also love to challenge each other! A little friendly competition motivates them to practice and keeps them focused for the rest of the lesson. It’s a great way to help students review content mid-lesson, mid-unit, or even on their own before a big test.

Use a Draw It or Drag & Drop activity as a review. Add these activities to the middle of your Nearpod lesson and enable the timer for friendly competition! Up the stakes by giving the winner a small reward such as a night off homework. Additionally, encourage them to use Student Reactions to increase participation and engagement while gauging their understanding. This is a classroom routine students will appreciate!

Draw It is a teacher favorite! Students can use this activity to demonstrate what they know by responding to a question or prompt by drawing and using text and images on top of whatever background the teacher uploads. The possibilities are endless when using this as a competitive review!

Drag & Drop activities have the power to add interest and excitement to everyday classroom learning. Use this activity to have students sort, order, sequence, or label using categories, charts, diagrams, and images. Customize your own activity or choose from our premade Drag & Drop lessons.

4. Get students excited with a gamified ticket

Exit Tickets and formative assessments provide valuable info on student learning, but too often, my sticky note supply runs low; and printing/cutting out paper slips can be a pain. With a digital formative assessment tool, little prep is required from you to check in students before they’re out the door.

Time to Climb is the perfect solution to reinvigorating this routine, and it takes just a few minutes to set up. To play the game, each student chooses a character to be their climber. They then race against the clock to answer each question as it pops up on the screen. The faster they pick a correct answer, the more points they get and the higher they climb. You can also pick different themes with cool settings, music, and characters.

The gamified environment is so engaging that your students won’t even realize they’re being assessed! Here’s a time-saving tip: Convert your Nearpod Quizzes to Time to Climb activities! No need to recreate anything you already made. Nearpod also has premade Time to Climb assessments for different subjects and grade levels for you to choose from.

5. Incorporate current events in your lessons

To help students become informed adults, they must have the opportunity to learn about community affairs and the steps they can take to become more civically engaged. Using current events in the classroom creates opportunities for students to be engaged and aware. Use The Week in Rap and follow it up with Nearpod’s Current Events lesson collection to dive deeper into discussions.

The Week in Rap is a weekly lesson video that’s released every Friday, covering the week’s news through rap! The Week in Rap is for grades 6 to 12, and the Week in Rap Junior is for grades 3 to 5.

Start implementing these classroom routines

With this collection of engaging, pertinent, and innovative procedures for the classroom, there’s no way both you and your students won’t love them! We’re so excited to see you put these routines into action.

New to Nearpod? Teachers can sign up for free below to access these resources, interactive activities, and engaging lessons. Administrators can schedule a call with an expert to unlock the full power of Nearpod for schools and districts.

Engaging routines are at the of every successful classroom. Check out these easy & creative classroom routines to engage your students!Click To Tweet

Nearpod Team

Nearpod’s award-winning platform is used by thousands of schools around the globe, transforming classroom engagement.

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In the Structured Literacy model, both content and instruction are systematic and intentional, and there is a clear focus on phonemic awareness as the foundation for written language comprehension. While Structured Literacy is an approach to reading originally designed for students with dyslexia, the growing body of research in the Science of Reading suggests that it is highly effective for the general student body.

Structured Literacy vs. Balanced Literacy

Balanced Literacy promises to foster a love of reading through read-alouds, shared reading, guided reading, independent reading, and word study. While word study includes phonics instruction, it is often approached without explicit or systematic instruction. In contrast, Structured Literacy is explicit, systematic, and sequential. It focuses on phonological awareness, phonics, decoding, and spelling, providing a clear, step-by-step method to build foundational reading skills.

As a young teacher of English Learners in Brooklyn in 2007, I faced a daunting task: My 10th grade students, reading at a 2nd–4th grade level, were expected to tackle 8th grade texts. I was incredibly frustrated but was advised to use shared reading, leveled texts, and compensatory strategies, essentially implementing Balanced Literacy.

In desperation, I pleaded with our department head, “But how do we teach them how to reeeeaaaaad the book?” Unknowingly, I emphasized the need for phonemic awareness and Structured Literacy methods.

This experience underscored a critical gap in our teaching approach. While Balanced Literacy has its merits, it became clear that for our students to truly succeed, they needed explicit instruction in the sounds of language and their letter correspondences. Structured Literacy ensures that every student has the foundational skills necessary to become proficient readers.

Is structured literacy part of the Science of Reading?

The Structured Literacy approach fits perfectly with the growing body of evidence supporting the Science of Reading, as it provides a clear, methodical framework for teaching essential reading components. The Science of Reading is a comprehensive, evidence-based approach to reading instruction emphasizing the importance of explicit, systematic teaching of phonics, vocabulary, and comprehension skills. Structured Literacy instruction strives for all students, especially those with learning differences, to become proficient readers. There is no debate for Structured Literacy vs. Science of Reading given the overwhelming evidence supporting the effectiveness of both in improving literacy outcomes for diverse learners.

Implement Structured Literacy in schools with Nearpod’s support

When implementing a theoretical approach to learning, teachers must receive the resources to make that approach a reality. Without the tools to support Structured Literacy instruction in the classroom, implementing the Science of Reading remains a fantasy. Nearpod can be one of the tools that teachers use when it’s time to put plans into action. With Nearpod’s instructional features and supporting content, teachers can confidently provide research-based instruction and move towards a more Structured Literacy approach.

New to Nearpod? Teachers can sign up for free below to access these resources, interactive activities, and engaging lessons. Administrators can schedule a call with an expert to unlock the full power of Nearpod for schools and districts.

5 Ways to implement Structured Literacy instructional methods

1. Choose a scope and sequence backed by the research in the Science of Reading

A scope and sequence outlines the specific skills and knowledge that students need to learn, as well as the order in which they should be taught. Choose a scope and sequence that is systematic and sequential. This ensures instruction follows a logical progression, from basic to complex concepts. 

Look for scope and sequence-explicit instruction where skills are clearly modeled and explained. Ensure the learning is cumulative, building on previous knowledge with continuous reinforcement. The program should be diagnostic and adaptive, allowing for ongoing assessment and adjustments based on student progress. 

A scope and sequence should comprehensively cover all essential reading components, including phonemic awareness, phonics, fluency, vocabulary, and comprehension. By following a structured roadmap, educators can provide targeted instruction that builds on prior knowledge, ensuring there are no gaps in learning. 

If your district isn’t providing a scope and sequence, advocate! Then search for the Nearpod lessons and activities that correspond with the content. Any Nearpod resource can be customized to fit the specific needs of the classroom and allow for plenty of creativity. You can get started with our English Language Arts (ELA) Lesson Guide.

2. Provide explicit instruction in phonemic awareness

Phonemic awareness is the ability to hear, identify, and manipulate individual sounds in spoken words. Instruction can include rhyming games where children match words that sound alike. Sound scavenger hunts are a fantastic strategy for engagement—kids find objects that start with a specific sound. Clap and tap activities help them break down words into individual sounds. Read-alouds should be rich in alliteration and rhyme. Singing songs and playing with tongue twisters create a fun and joyful classroom dynamic. These activities foster a love for language along with phonemic skills to use for Structured Literacy examples. 

On Nearpod, you can create your own interactive lessons using your existing material and classroom ideas (like the ones listed above!). Also, Nearpod offers a variety of interactive lessons and activities for learning and practice. Teachers can use these pre-made activities to engage students and reinforce skills in identifying rhyming words, counting syllables, and practicing recitation of a variety of texts.

3. Focus on decoding and sound-symbol recognition

Decoding involves translating written words into their spoken equivalents by recognizing the relationship between letters and sounds. It might sound dry, but it can be so much fun in the classroom! Start with letter-sound matching games in puzzles or flashcards. Flashcards with pictures and words help reinforce recognition. Interactive storybooks where children can click on words to hear them read aloud makes learning dynamic. Phonics songs and chants turn decoding practice into a musical adventure, stimulating multiple areas of the brain. These activities not only enhance decoding skills but also make reading a positive experience.  

Nearpod activities such as Matching Pairs, Drag and Drop, and Draw It provide opportunities for students to match letters to sounds, blend sounds to form words, and segment words into individual sounds. Enable Immersive Reader to make all texts interactive. Nearpod resources help kids crack the code of letters and sounds, making it easier for them to read new words like pros! The activities, videos, and full lessons all support the decoding instruction and practice required in the Structured Literacy methodology.

4. Give students time to play with root words, prefixes, and suffixes

Incorporate word sorts, scavenger hunts, and color coding into your classroom to make learning about root words, prefixes, and suffixes hands-on and meaningful. Start with word sorts, where students categorize words based on their components. Then, organize a scavenger hunt, encouraging students to find words with prefixes and suffixes in their books or around the classroom. Use color coding to highlight prefixes, root words, and suffixes in different colors within a text. These activities not only make learning fun but also help students visually and contextually understand word structures.

A hands-on approach helps deepen students’ morphological awareness, meaning students build their understanding of the structure of words and how their parts contribute to their meanings. Nearpod has plenty of ready-to-go activities for independent practice. Teachers can create or use pre-made Nearpod activities that encourage students to build new words and understand how word parts change meanings.

5. Support language comprehension

Going beyond word recognition in the classroom is essential when understanding, as an educator what is Structured Literacy. Instruction in language comprehension helps students understand context, infer meaning, and engage deeply with texts.

Vocabulary and background knowledge are key components of comprehension. Enhance vocabulary with word maps, where students define words, use them in sentences, and draw representations. Category sorting helps students understand word relationships by grouping similar words. Analogies and comparisons connect new vocabulary to known concepts, deepening understanding. These activities foster a richer vocabulary and stronger comprehension skills. Build background knowledge with multimedia resources to provide context for new words.

Nearpod offers multimedia features to create a context for learning language and content. Virtual Reality (VR) field trips, 3D Models, and PhET simulations build schema. Students can engage in interactive word work with Matching Pairs, Drag and Drop, and Draw It activities.

Start implementing Structured Literacy in your classroom

Structured Literacy, grounded in the principles of the Science of Reading, provides a systematic and effective approach to teaching reading that benefits all students. By incorporating the principles of Structured Literacy, educators can ensure that their instruction is explicit, systematic, and evidence-based. With Nearpod’s interactive tools and resources, teachers can bring these principles to life in the classroom, making reading instruction engaging and effective. With Nearpod’s support, Structured Literacy will help every student become a confident and proficient reader.

New to Nearpod? Teachers can sign up for free below to access these resources, interactive activities, and engaging lessons. Administrators can schedule a call with an expert to unlock the full power of Nearpod for schools and districts.

Erika Tepler

Erika is an education consultant and a language acquisition expert. Having spent years abroad and around the US working with learners from all over the world, she is passionate about intercultural communication, multilingualism and instructional excellence.

The post 5 Ways to implement Structured Literacy instructional methods appeared first on Nearpod Blog.

What are the benefits of small group instruction?

Small group instruction supports classroom management, builds community, and, most importantly, supports individual students’ needs. With small groups in the classroom, teachers can better tailor their instruction to students’ learning goals and provide meaningful feedback in the moment. The targeted skill development provides students with more instances of practice in an environment that encourages higher levels of participation and engagement. As a result, students are more likely to stay focused, ask questions, and share their ideas.

What is small group teaching?

Small group instruction is a student-centered teaching method in which the teacher still provides the instruction but to a smaller cohort of students. The group size can range from two to many; most teachers appreciate the valuable interaction time and keep the group size to under five or six students. Often, while small group instruction is happening, the other students are engaging in similar small group work.

Small group teaching with Nearpod’s support

Nearpod embraces more innovative teaching strategies by turning what may be passive learning experiences into more active learning experiences. Nearpod’s platform can transform student engagement with content that is visually rich, activities that promote active learning, and data-rich reporting to better inform instruction. And the beauty of Nearpod’s design is the flexibility it offers and that educators require.

Teachers can assign the whole group one lesson, activity, or task via Nearpod Student-Paced mode, and then work directly with a smaller group of students using a Live Participation lesson targeting a particular skill or topic. In both instances, the teacher can leverage real-time data via the Teacher Dashboard to inform small group instruction and also monitor the rest of the class’s focus and progress.

Foster a love of learning in every student with Nearpod. Teachers can sign up for free below to access and create interactive lessons. Administrators can schedule a call with an expert to unlock the full power of Nearpod for schools and districts.

7 Tips for successful small group instruction

1. Target your instruction

It’s a given that students have varied and individual needs. Yet, teachers often lament that there is not enough time in the day to address each student as much as they’d like (required instructional time varies from state to state). Whether you teach elementary, middle, or high school, small groups can be particularly effective when grouped based on students’ individual needs and abilities. With small group instruction, you will have the opportunity to rotate around the classroom and differentiate instruction as needed. Small group instruction examples meet Tier II of the MTSS framework. You may want to move between clusters of desks or pull students to an area of the classroom where you can host mini-conferences to review work or further support skill development in a more targeted manner.

You can rely on Nearpod’s Teacher Dashboard during a Live Participation Lesson to provide real-time formative assessment data to help inform your next steps and differentiate instruction. In the Post-Session Reports, you can look for patterns across your classroom of students to help you design small groups to optimize instructional time. Also, for a data-informed approach to instruction during a lesson, use Nearpod’s real-time insights to keep a finger on the pulse of the classroom at all times. With Nearpod’s formative assessment activities, you can make data-informed decisions when it comes to individualizing and personalizing instruction. Even with Student-Paced lessons, educators can monitor students’ learning while they complete their assignments.

2. Add your secret sauce

You know your students best. You are with them day in and out and are constantly observing behaviors and evaluating student progress. With small group instruction, you can intervene in the moment or through planned activities in many different ways as suggested by RTI (Response to Intervention). But even within group work, you can tailor content to address different learning styles or accessibility needs. Consider the ways you can differentiate and enhance the content and the pedagogy to make sure you reach all kids.

Nearpod acknowledges the artists that teachers are. With a simple click, you can duplicate any Nearpod lesson planning and then make edits to adjust the content and flow to meet your entire class’s or a small group’s needs. You can add multimedia content to enrich the presentation of new material through videos, audio files, images, articles, or PDFs. You can turn on Immersive Reader to make the content more accessible, especially for small group reading instruction. You can merge, delete, or reorder slides with content and activities as necessary. Nearpod capitalizes on the best of technology to drive student achievement through high-quality instructional experiences.

3. Build student confidence

With the varied student learning styles you are bound to have in one classroom, small group instruction can help to build student confidence. Many students may be reticent to ask questions or ask for clarification during a whole-group lesson. Small group teaching can give students the extra boost of confidence and motivation to speak up and participate more readily. They can bolster their communication skills by expressing their thoughts and taking risks. For instance, when a student reads a complex text, the teacher can facilitate discussions in smaller groups to ensure that all students understand the material thoroughly.

Nearpod’s suite of nine interactive activities speaks to students’ diverse learning styles, encouraging them to express their ideas in a variety of ways. Within a small group, you may want to leverage the activities depending on learning objectives or learning styles. One student might grasp onto the visual cues of Matching Pairs, while another may enjoy the creative expression of Draw It.

4. Gradually release responsibility

Many of you may already rely on the Gradual Release of Responsibility model, often referred to as “I do, we do, you do.” In this model, the teacher begins with direction instruction and modeling, before shifting to a small group setting and then to independent practice. Whether you are working with 30 students or three, you can still apply this same strategy to provide students with optimal support and allow them to take ownership of (and risks in) their own learning journeys.

Within Nearpod, you may want to start small group activities in Live Participation mode. You can tee up the lesson, set clear expectations, and begin some guided exploration. Yet, small group instruction time can be all too brief—in which case you can switch from Live Participation to Student Paced mode to enable the students to complete the rest of the lesson on their own. You won’t have to launch another code or have them start over. Instead, you can optimize the instructional time by streamlining instruction with Nearpod.

5. Promote peer-to-peer learning

While you are working with small groups in the classroom, you can promote peer-to-peer learning with the rest of the class. Peer-to-peer learning is a collaborative learning activity where students teach and learn from one another—they support and challenge one another to hone critical thinking skills. Peer-to-peer learning promotes effective communication skills, from providing constructive feedback to asking thoughtful questions to resolving conflicts. One of the strongest undercurrents of a successful classroom is a strong sense of community. This classroom culture can make or break a student’s experience. By creating a safe and comfortable learning environment, peer-to-peer learning promotes the sharing of opinions, the diversity of ideas, and respect for one another.

Within Nearpod, the Collaborate Board celebrates such an exchange of ideas. Students’ thoughts can be visualized, shared, heard, and further developed. With the Collaborate Board, students have more methods and means to share their thinking and participate in the conversation without feeling like they’re in the spotlight. They learn how to respectfully disagree or even how to change opinions based on someone else’s contributions. One popular design thinking method is for kids to build off of one another’s ideas by stating, “Yes, and …” first. “Yes, and …” is a way to brainstorm, positively acknowledge, support, and collaborate; no one’s contributions are shot down! 

6. Build positive teacher-student relationships

Part of a teacher’s skill set is building and nurturing relationships with students. One of the great benefits of small group instruction is that you can get to know your students even better by diving into their individual passions and interests. You can peel back the layers of their personality and find authentic connections to develop greater trust and understanding. Such positive relationships result in an increased desire to learn, which can lead to overall academic improvement. Plus, students will feel a deeper sense of belonging and community with such teacher-student bonding.

Nearpod offers more than 22,000 quality lessons, so you can easily find content and activities that not only meet your classroom learning goals but also speak to individual students’ interests. Lean on the standards-aligned library of content to find activities that spark engagement and speak to kids’ innate curiosity. And remember that you can take Nearpod lessons and duplicate them, in order to edit and make modifications with specific students in mind.

Start using Nearpod today

Small group instruction has countless benefits that empower students to achieve all they can. Small group teaching also enables you to wield your teaching skills to best meet your students where they are, all while encouraging confidence and community within your classroom walls. Nearpod not only showcases but also facilitates ways to stay innovative when it comes to teaching and learning. By listening to the needs of teachers and leaning on the research behind how students learn best, Nearpod is able to encourage best practices when it comes to crafting optimal learning experiences for all ages across all subjects.

Foster a love of learning in every student with Nearpod. Teachers can sign up for free below to access and create interactive lessons. Administrators can schedule a call with an expert to unlock the full power of Nearpod for schools and districts.

Darri Stephens

Darri Stephens is a dedicated LX (learning experience) designer, passionate about creating quality content and programs for kids, families, and educators. With MAs in Education from both Harvard and Stanford, and work experience at best-in-class ed tech organizations including Wonder Workshop, Nickelodeon, and Common Sense Education, she is steeped in the design thinking process and committed to agile and iterative project management, which has resulted in multi-award-winning programs and products.

The post 6 Tips for successful small group instruction appeared first on Nearpod Blog.

Harry Wong, coauthor of The First Days of School: How to be an Effective Teacher, writes, “The most important day of a person’s education is the first day of school, not Graduation Day.” And while Mr. Wong most likely spoke of that first big day of kindergarten, students get a gift of a new beginning, a new first day, each and every school year. It is an opportunity to reset, realign, and reimagine the upcoming school experience. Students and teachers must forge new relationships to come together and work toward success through the beginning of the school year activities.

Take a moment to check out these turnkey and fun activities you can employ during the first week of school to build your classroom culture. All the while, you and your schools can become more familiar with the offerings and features of Nearpod.

New to Nearpod? Teachers can sign up for free below to access these resources, interactive activities, and engaging lessons. Administrators can schedule a call with an expert to unlock the full power of Nearpod for schools and districts.

Back to School icebreakers and first week of school activities with Nearpod

1. Ready, set, and prep for the new school year!

Lesson subject guides

Are you looking to save prep time and boost learning this school year? With ready-to-launch lessons, activities, and videos, these guides can help you remediate key skills, reteach concepts, and even prep for testing time. Find lessons for ELA, math, social studies, and science, all organized by grade level and topic, making it easy to select just what you need.

Whether you’re new to Nearpod, a seasoned Nearpod pro, or even new to the classroom – these guides were curated so you can spend less time searching for resources and more time doing what you love: teaching.

• Download Social Studies Lesson Guide 
• Download Science Lesson Guide
• Download Math Lesson Guide
• Download ELA Lesson Guide

Live and on-demand webinar trainings

In anticipation of the start of a new school year, districts often kick off teachers’ returns with a couple of in-service days. Yet this allotted time is rarely enough to get up to speed on the latest and greatest tools and resources. So teachers often seek out their own professional growth opportunities. 

Consider registering for Nearpod’s one-hour, free live webinars over the next month. From basics to best practices, learn some tricks of the trade for using Nearpod effectively in your classroom. Choose a webinar topic and click on the drop-down menu to see all date/time options! You can also scroll through our calendar to find a time that works for you.

Or, scroll through Nearpod’s live webinar calendar and filter via the monthly, weekly, or daily view to find a topic and time best for you.

2. Get to know each other with digital icebreaker activities

During the first week, most teachers try to establish a sense of classroom culture to build camaraderie, respect, and teamwork — a solid foundation for the rest of the year. Each year, I was eager to get to know my students — firstly, to remember their names, and secondly, to learn those nuanced likes/dislikes, personality traits, and hopes and dreams that make each student an individual learner. It is often a fast and furious meeting, so teachers tend to try to dive deep to get to know their students. Don’t underestimate the value of icebreaker activities for students.

Here is a daily suggestion for the beginning of the school year activities to build classroom community:

• Introduce your students to several of Nearpod’s interactive features while asking them to reveal a bit more about themselves to one another.
  • Back to School Ice Breakers K-5
  • Back to School Ice Breakers 6-12
• In small groups of four, use this activity to guide students to find commonalities and unique traits about one another.
  • Icebreaker: Getting to Know You: K-5 
  • Icebreaker: Unique & Common: 6-12
• Put students into pairs and invite them to use only drawings to tell a story about a recent event or adventure.
  • Icebreaker: Storytelling: K-5
  • Icebreaker: Mystery Event: 6-12
• Invite students to draw two objects that reveal something unique about themselves to another.
  • Icebreaker: Two Things About Me: K-5
  • Icebreaker: Two Objects: 6-12
• Set the tone and help build relationships by having each student reveal more about themselves by sharing fun facts.
  • Template: All About Me: K-5
  • Getting to Know Me: 6-12

Ready for some more? Find an entire library of icebreaker activities that you can filter by grade and subject, all within Nearpod.

3. Use interactive activities to help establish a classroom routine

Children thrive with classroom routines to help them mentally and physically prepare for the tasks. In addition to getting to know one another, try establishing a sense of routine as quickly as possible. A regular and predictable schedule can help students feel safe by lowering anxiety and heightening their sense of agency. With consistency and stability comes a sense of comfort as well as a sense of anticipation. Established routines can help develop constructive habits and allow students to flex their sense of independence and autonomy around their learning pursuits. Skip the pieces of paper and index cards and instead try one of these anticipatory sets, called “bell ringers” or “bellwork” activities, to start each day off well.

• Use a Collaborate Board to kick off the day with a personal touch to explore one of the suggested check-in topics.
• Take a daily social and emotional temperature check to gauge your students’ learning readiness. Plus, it supports their self-awareness and self-regulation skills.
  • Social Emotional Temperature Check: Elementary
  • Social Emotional Temperature Check: Secondary

• Get creative and pose a morning activity or puzzle for students to answer the questions via one of Nearpod’s interactive features. Such a sponge activity will help center students’ attention and start the school day with some critical and creative thinking. Here are some ideas to get started:
  • Matching Pairs
  • Draw It
  • Time to Climb

• Launch into the day with a real-world connection by discussing Current Events or listening to a Week in Rap
  • Current Events lesson folder is updated every month
  • New Week in Rap every week

• Discover a plethora of resources with Nearpod’s 21st Century Readiness Program. This holistic program includes ready-to-teach interactive lessons, videos, and activities for social and emotional learning (SEL), digital citizenship, financial literacy, and college, and career readiness. With this program, you can access premade Brain Breaks to establish throughout the school day that recharge and redirect students’ focus.

4. Introduce new tech tools to students

In addition to familiarizing students with the materials they will need this school year — supply lists, room organization, and classroom resources — you will want to get students up and running with any new tools or programs as quickly as possible. This includes learning how to teach your students to use Nearpod. It is best to immerse them and “learn by doing.” With Nearpod, some of the most engaging features are effective for both teaching techniques and learning strategies. Immerse yourself alongside your students to try out these tools. Even if you’re not an early adopter of technology, you can still model being an eager adopter! Lifelong learning at its best.

• Nearpod Orientation K-2
• Nearpod Orientation 3-5
• Nearpod Orientation 6-12

5. Evaluate students’ prior knowledge

All students have varied levels of prior knowledge, real-world experiences, and quality schooling that they bring with them into the classroom. Each new year brings a classroom full of diverse needs. Find ways to continually evaluate students’ prior knowledge as well as progress through formative assessment techniques. Students love educational games such as Time to Climb!

Consider these interactive activities and assessments:

• Polls 
• Time to Climb 
• Quizzes
• Open-ended Questions
• Drag & Drop
• Draw It
• Fill in the Blanks
• Matching Pairs

Use Nearpod to deliver effective instruction

Teachers know to write their plan books in pencil since the best-laid plans can quickly go awry. Still, it is a good idea to overplan a bit for the first week so that you can be responsive to the classroom full of new students. Options are helpful for the first day of school activities! Mix and match the activities to gauge which engages your students the most. Have a collaborative mindset as you embark on this yearlong journey with your pint-sized partners (or not-so-pint-sized …). Enjoy this exciting time of the school year, and know that you have a community of Nearpod educators ready to support you!

New to Nearpod? Teachers can sign up for free below to access these resources, interactive activities, and engaging lessons. Administrators can schedule a call with an expert to unlock the full power of Nearpod for schools and districts.

Darri Stephens

Darri Stephens is a dedicated LX (learning experience) designer, passionate about creating quality content and programs for kids, families, and educators. With MAs in Education from both Harvard and Stanford, and work experience at best-in-class ed tech organizations including Wonder Workshop, Nickelodeon, and Common Sense Education, she is steeped in the design thinking process and committed to agile and iterative project management, which has resulted in multi-award-winning programs and products.

The post Back to school icebreakers and first week of school activities with Nearpod appeared first on Nearpod Blog.

New to Nearpod? Teachers can sign up for free below to access these resources, interactive activities, and engaging lessons. Administrators can schedule a call with an expert to unlock the full power of Nearpod for schools and districts.

3 Efficient ways to lesson plan for back to school with Nearpod

1. Revisit and revise previous Nearpod lessons

You’ve already created amazing Nearpod lessons, now is the time to revisit and revise these lesson plans for the new school year! Access your library and choose a lesson to view. Hover over the lesson tile and select “Edit” to update your lesson. From this screen, you can easily reorder or delete slides in your lesson to meet the needs of your learners.

Don’t forget to embed activities and content into your existing lessons to enhance your content! My students love the Virtual Reality, 3D images, Draw It, and Time to Climb activities on Nearpod. When students first experience Nearpod activities, they’re immediately happy to see the lesson on their individual screens and love that they don’t have to strain to see the board at the front of the classroom.

2. Find premade standards-aligned content

As teachers, we put our creative, innovative minds to work on a daily basis to provide our students with the best possible education. That’s just who we are! The existing lessons in Nearpod’s library provide teachers with amazing, premade activities that are sure to fit the needs of your students. To access Nearpod’s lesson library, log in to your account and select “Nearpod Library” on the left of your screen. On the next screen, you’ll be able to filter your search by activity type, content area, and grade level. Watch this tutorial to learn how to search and filter through lessons in the library.

As you look ahead at the standards you’ll address and begin lesson planning, be sure to take advantage of the standards search feature in the Nearpod library. After you’ve added the lesson to your library, you’ll be able to quickly rearrange activities and add content and resources to best fit the needs of your students. You can even adjust the lesson sequencing of your own existing lessons or pre-made Nearpod ones. Don’t forget to take advantage of the growing number of lessons from Nearpod’s dozens of well-known partners, including ABC Mouse, History, Khan Academy, PBS, TED-Ed, and more! Teachers can customize these lessons, too!

3. Launch a quick Nearpod activity

Have you tried launching a Nearpod activity without a lesson? If not, you’ll definitely want to add this to your back-to-school prep list!

From your lesson library, select the “Quick Launch” icon in the top right corner of your screen. Launch an activity timer, Open-Ended Question, or Collaborate Board that your students will join with a code, just as they would join a traditional Nearpod lesson. In addition to Quick Launch options, teachers can also launch a quick activity by selecting “Create” and selecting the “Activity” option from the dropdown menu. Also, don’t forget to use the search feature in the Nearpod library to find an activity to fit the standard you’re teaching. Explore our premade classroom culture-building activities that you can easily embed into your lesson plans.

Start using these tips to lesson plan for back to school

It’s time to get excited for the back-to-school season and lesson preparation that comes with it! By using Nearpod’s existing lessons, Nearpodizing content you’ve already created, and quickly launching fun and effective activities, back-to-school lesson preparation is sure to be a fun experience!

New to Nearpod? Teachers can sign up for free below to access these resources, interactive activities, and engaging lessons. Administrators can schedule a call with an expert to unlock the full power of Nearpod for schools and districts.

Bethany Petty

Bethany Petty is a mommy, wife, award-winning Social Studies teacher, Educational Technology professor, blogger, published author, runner, & reader! She loves using educational technology to enhance the learning environment, increase student engagement, & make learning memorable for her students!

The post 3 Efficient ways to lesson plan for back to school with Nearpod appeared first on Nearpod Blog.

As educators strive to enhance classroom engagement and learning outcomes, Nearpod continues to stand out as the ultimate Tier 1 instructional platform that equips teachers to support, challenge, and see every student. With its comprehensive suite of interactive tools and real-time insights, Nearpod enables educators to deliver personalized learning experiences that are both engaging and effective.

What is Tier 1 instruction?

Tier 1 instruction is the first level of the Multi-Tiered System of Supports (MTSS), which is a comprehensive framework designed to provide targeted support to students at varying levels of need. It integrates data-driven decision-making and evidence-based practices to ensure that every student receives the appropriate level of instruction and intervention. Within this framework, Tier 1 intervention is the first level of teaching provided to all students, aimed at ensuring high-quality instruction that meets the core academic standards. This foundational layer is crucial, as it determines the general pace and quality of learning, requiring strategies that address diverse learning needs within the general classroom setting.

Tier 1 intervention tool: Nearpod

Nearpod stands out in the educational technology landscape by consolidating numerous digital tools into a single platform, making it an excellent choice for Tier 1 instruction. Nearpod enhances classroom engagement and creates active learning experiences through interactive lessons with real-time insights from formative assessments, offering a seamless integration that supports both teachers and students effectively.

New to Nearpod? Teachers can sign up for free below to access these resources, interactive activities, and engaging lessons. Administrators can schedule a call with an expert to unlock the full power of Nearpod for schools and districts.

5 Effective strategies for Tier 1 instruction

1. Incorporate interactive content

Tier 1 interactive learning, which focuses on core instruction for all students, plays a crucial role. Tier 1 MTSS aims to provide high-quality, evidence-based instruction that meets the needs of the majority of students. By incorporating interactive elements, educators can address diverse learning preferences and ensure that all students are actively participating and comprehending the material.

Interactive learning supports the universal design for learning (UDL) principles by offering multiple opportunities for engagement, representation, and expression. This approach helps to remove barriers to learning and enables students to demonstrate their understanding in various ways. For example, Nearpod’s interactive activities such as Quizzes, Polls, and Collaborate Boards encourage student interaction and provide immediate feedback, which is essential for maintaining engagement and ensuring that all students are on track.

Utilizing Nearpod’s extensive library of interactive lessons and videos can transform traditional teaching methods. This not only engages students in Tier 1 but also caters to various learning styles within a single classroom, making learning inclusive and effective.

2. Leverage real-time data for immediate feedback

In the context of exploring Tier 1 instruction within the MTSS framework, real-time insights are particularly crucial. Traditional methods of gaining insight, such as end-of-unit tests or sporadic quizzes, often provide feedback too late to address learning gaps effectively. By the time these assessments are graded and analyzed, students may have already moved on to new content, leaving those gaps unaddressed.

Real-time insights enable teachers to identify and respond to misunderstandings or difficulties as they occur, allowing for immediate intervention. This is essential for Tier 1 intervention examples, where the goal is to deliver high-quality instruction to all students. By continuously leveraging student progress monitoring, teachers can adjust their instruction to meet the needs of the entire class, ensuring that no student falls behind.

Nearpod’s capability to provide instant feedback through formative assessments enables teachers to gauge student understanding on the fly. This immediate insight helps them adjust teaching strategies in real time, ensuring that all students are keeping up with the lesson. Additionally, Nearpod’s real-time data can highlight trends across the class, such as common misconceptions or areas where many students need more support. This information is invaluable for making informed decisions about when to slow down, revisit previous material, or introduce more challenging content, ensuring that core instruction for effective Tier 1 intervention is responsive to the needs of all students.

Nearpod’s instructional platform also helps facilitate differentiated instruction by enabling teachers to provide targeted support or enrichment based on real-time data. Students who demonstrate a strong understanding can be given more challenging tasks, while those needing extra help can receive immediate, tailored interventions, creating an inclusive learning environment where all students have the opportunity to succeed.

3. Foster collaborative learning environments

Collaboration is key in MTSS Tier 1 education settings, where high-quality core instruction is essential for all students. Collaborative learning enhances student engagement, promotes critical thinking, and develops communication skills, which can also encourage positive behavior. Nearpod simplifies the facilitation of group activities, which can be challenging without the right tools. Traditional methods often require extensive planning and coordination, making it difficult to ensure all students are equally engaged.

Nearpod’s Collaborate Board feature makes collaboration easy and effective. Students can share ideas and resources in real time, allowing for interactive and inclusive group work. This tool helps teachers spark classroom conversations and discussions. From collaborative projects and brainstorming to peer reviews and exit slips, Nearpod’s Collaborate Boards create endless opportunities for collaboration and more. Nearpod transforms classrooms into dynamic learning environments, saving teachers time and enhancing the overall educational experience.

4. Utilize customizable content to meet standards

Every classroom is unique, and Nearpod’s customizable lessons ensure that content can be tailored to meet specific educational standards and student needs, supporting teachers in delivering high-quality, standards-aligned education. Customized content is particularly important for Tier 1 instructional strategies of the MTSS framework, where the objective is to provide core instruction that effectively reaches all students.

Moreover, the ability to customize lessons means teachers can address varying proficiency levels within their classroom. For example, a lesson on fractions can be adjusted to include more visual aids for students who struggle with mathematical concepts, while providing advanced problems for those who excel. This differentiation ensures that all students receive the appropriate level of challenge and support through problem solving skills.

By using Nearpod, teachers can adapt lessons to fit their specific curriculum requirements and diverse learning styles. Nearpod’s extensive library of quality standards-aligned content offers a wealth of resources that teachers can modify to suit their instructional goals. This flexibility enables educators to integrate interactive elements, such as quizzes, polls, and collaborative activities, which enhance student engagement and participation. Interactive content not only makes learning more enjoyable but also helps students better grasp complex concepts through active involvement.

5. Integrate technology seamlessly

When using technology for instruction, a streamlined approach that minimizes disruptions and reduces transition time between different tools is ideal so all resources are housed in one place. This enables teachers to focus on delivering engaging and interactive lessons without the hassle of switching between multiple applications. By consolidating tech tools and digital resources, educators can ensure that students remain focused and engaged, reducing the cognitive load associated with navigating various platforms. This unified approach facilitates easier tracking of student progress and provides a cohesive learning experience, ultimately enhancing the effectiveness of Tier 1 interventions in the classroom. Additionally, utilizing a single comprehensive platform can save schools money by reducing the need for multiple software licenses and decreasing the costs associated with training staff on various systems.

With Nearpod, integrating technology seamlessly during core instruction becomes straightforward and effective. Thanks to centralized tools, 80% of customers report that Nearpod saves them time when sourcing resources. Additionally, 74% of customers say Nearpod reduces the number of tech tools needed to facilitate learning. Nearpod’s comprehensive solution enhances the overall learning experience by keeping students focused and engaged. Classroom management can be done efficiently using Nearpod’s features to deliver interactive lessons, formative assessments, and multimedia content seamlessly. This efficient integration supports the delivery of high-quality, standards-aligned Tier 1 instruction best practices, ensuring that all students benefit from a cohesive and uninterrupted learning experience.

Start using Nearpod for Tier 1 instruction

Adopting Nearpod for these Tier 1 instruction examples for all grade levels not only simplifies the educational process but also amplifies its effectiveness. By integrating these strategies, educators can ensure that their instruction is rigorous, engaging, and inclusive, setting all students on a path to success. As we continue to navigate the complexities of modern education, embracing such transformative tools will be pivotal in shaping future-ready learners.

Additionally, the Renaissance ecosystem offers comprehensive solutions for deeper Tier 2 and Tier 3 interventions. Resources such as Flocabulary—which combines educational content with engaging hip-hop videos—and other Renaissance tools support differentiated learning and targeted interventions. This cohesive approach ensures that all students receive the appropriate level of support and challenge, enhancing their overall educational experience and success.

New to Nearpod? Teachers can sign up for free below to access these resources, interactive activities, and engaging lessons. Administrators can schedule a call with an expert to unlock the full power of Nearpod for schools and districts.

Bridget McKnight

Bridget McKnight is a Product Marketing Manager at Nearpod.

The post 5 Effective strategies for Tier 1 instruction appeared first on Nearpod Blog.

Nearpod offers a range of engaging activities and content that will keep your students focused, learning, and having fun during the break. Whether you’re teaching in-person, online, or hybrid, these resources can be used in your classroom to support and prevent summer learning loss.

New to Nearpod? Teachers can sign up for free below to access these resources, interactive activities, and engaging lessons. Administrators can schedule a call with an expert to unlock the full power of Nearpod for schools and districts.

Why is summer learning important?

Summer learning provides students an opportunity to review academic content and ensure that previously learned material is not forgotten. Learning loss, or unfinished learning, continues to be a focus for teachers and administrators as we’re two years out from the pandemic and still assessing the impact it had on students and learning. We know educators are coming off another incredibly challenging year where they’ve had to face burnout and tech fatigue. Summer school helps prevent the summer slide, and we have the resources and tools to make the process for you and your students as seamless as possible.

How can I keep students learning in the summer?

It’s crucial to meet students where they’re at during summer learning. After the challenging past few years, now more than ever, we should be prioritizing student and teacher wellness, so summer break should be a time to unwind and relax. This can be accomplished by using appealing lessons for both you and your students. Set realistic expectations for yourself and your class by creating a mix of lesson plans that are relevant, engaging, and meaningful. It’s crucial to find a balance between creating a learning environment where students can focus on what they’re being taught while also giving them opportunities to enjoy their time off. Implement student-driven engagement summer activities and instruction to create a space where students are looking forward to attending.

Summer learning activities to prevent the summer slide

1. Use vetted and quality lessons for summer school programs or to send home

Nearpod has high quality premade lessons and resources to combat the summer slide in targeted subject areas. There’s also a guide to assist with navigating and launching activities with your students for any learning environment. Keep reading to explore these reliable lessons and engaging features you and your students can enjoy during summer break! Sift through this lesson folder, which includes a collection of core-subject lessons, fun summer learning activities, and videos applicable to meet your classroom needs.

Additionally, we handpicked Nearpod lessons that students can use to practice core topics and strengthen their learning for the following school year. This ready-to-use guide provides a 6-week schedule you can use for your summer learning plans. These lessons and activities are perfect for independent work or live front-of-class teaching. Click to add the Nearpod lesson to your library, then share out with students using the lesson code or through your learning management system (LMS), such as Google Classroom.

2. Target social and emotional learning (SEL), math, and English language arts (ELA)

Subject areas where students tend to struggle the most during the summer months are social emotional learning (SEL), math, and English language arts (ELA). Explore Nearpod’s lesson library by using the search bar and filtering by grade level, subjects, activity types, and standards.

Here are a few summer SEL activities and lessons you can use to address these topics:

• Drawing assessments: Students can practice self-awareness and social emotional skills to identify their emotions by completing a Draw It activity to assess their mood.

• ELA: Nouns & Verbs (K-3): Students will identify whether a word is a noun or a verb by completing a Drag & Drop activity to assess their mood.

• Math: Converting Decimals to Fractions (5-6): Students can learn various math skills to express decimals, such as expanded form and converting decimals to fractions.

3. Create a flexible learning environment to meet students’ needs

You can launch a Nearpod lesson by selecting one of three delivery modes and sharing the Nearpod through a code, link, or LMS. Leverage Nearpod codes to promote student choice and support differentiated learning. For example, use our Virtual Reality Student Paced Code Template! Add student-paced codes, set the expiration date to the end of summer, and share the code with students.

Additionally, there are multiple ways you can launch a Nearpod lesson – all to fit your classroom needs:

• Live Participation: This mode allows you to control the pace of the lesson while students participate and follow on their devices. You can view real-time progress and results as you teach.
• Student-Paced: Share asynchronous lessons with students so they can move through lessons at their own pace, any time, from anywhere. You can view progress in real-time to monitor student understanding.
• Front of Class: Project a video when students aren’t joining from their devices. The premade questions in the Interactive Video can be used as discussion prompts, or you can have students record their answers.

Select the launch mode that suits your instruction and share the code or link with students so they can follow along on their devices or complete it at home as individual work.

4. Incorporate educational games to check for student understanding

When teachers bring gamification into the classroom, they provide students with the opportunity to practice life skills and see them in action from their peers. Summer is the perfect time to use educational games!

Time to Climb is an educational game that teachers and students love! Here’s a breakdown explaining why to include in your summer school ideas:

• How it works: Students compete to see who gets to the top of a mountain first by answering a series of questions both correctly and quickly to increase their own points to become one of the top three winners of the game.
• Build social skills: When playing in a live classroom environment, students of all ages can laugh and enjoy the integrated community-building elements of their summer school and learning experience. 
• Gain insight into student learning: View how students understand concepts in real-time and pause between questions to reflect and address misconceptions quickly.
• Students love it: Students can choose their own Time to Climb characters to play along with. There are also tons of themes to choose from, including a beach theme which is perfect for getting into the summer spirit!

4. Use interactive formative assessment activities

Students should feel inspired to show up and persist for summer school to be effective. Since students are in a summer break mindset, it’s important to weave in exciting learning opportunities and make sure they’re enjoying themselves.

Summer reading programs are a fantastic way to maintain literacy skills, while a well-rounded summer program can include various hands-on activities that make learning fun and effective. Pair reading assignments with these engaging activities to include in your summer instruction:

• Drag & Drop allows students to sort or order images and text sequentially or in groups. Add a background of a diagram or graphic organizer for students to fill in.
• Collaborate Board is an interactive discussion board that allows students to post text and images to a shared class board. It’s a great way to spark class discussion and brainstorming.
• Draw It gives students the opportunity to demonstrate what they’ve learned by having them respond to prompts by drawing and adding text or images on top of a background.

In addition to the above activities, you can use traditional assessment tools, such as Open-Ended Questions, Quizzes, and Polls.

Make summer learning simpler with Nearpod

Summer learning programs can be a daunting process to plan and execute, especially after the past challenging years. National Summer Learning initiatives emphasize the importance of keeping young minds engaged through hands-on activities and interactive lessons. Using tech tools, such as Nearpod, will help reduce the stress of summer planning and give you more time to focus on teaching while impacting student growth.

If you’re looking to create your own Nearpod lesson, here are some quick tips you can use to get started:

• Work with what you got: Use an existing resource, such as a worksheet, video, or Google Slides, and upload directly into  Nearpod. Add activities to boost engagement. For example, upload a PDF image onto a Draw It to have students write, draw, and annotate.
• Keep all links in one place: It can be challenging to organize links for your students if you’re teaching virtually. Using the Google Slides Add-On, you can hyperlink text on your Nearpod slides for students to click through.
• Get real-time insight: Immediately see how students are responding and address misconceptions at the moment to prevent the summer slide by leveraging the power of the Teacher Dashboard, which gives you real-time student insights.
• Transform your presentation: Summer vacation is the perfect opportunity for professional development and preparing student learning for the upcoming school year. Whether presenting to teachers or students, make the experience engaging. Explore 5 ideas for summer teacher professional development.

New to Nearpod? Teachers can sign up for free below to access these resources, interactive activities, and engaging lessons. Administrators can schedule a call with an expert to unlock the full power of Nearpod for schools and districts.

Carol Chinea

Carol Chinea is a Marketing Associate at Nearpod.

The post Summer learning activities to prevent the summer slide appeared first on Nearpod Blog.

Nearpod’s PD team: Professional Services

At Nearpod, I lead the work done by an amazing team called Professional Services. We are responsible for creating and delivering the professional development opportunities that educators at all levels have access to, so they can more effectively use the instructional tools and supplemental content from Nearpod and Flocabulary.

The Professional Services team is an impressive group of educators who combine their valuable knowledge and expertise to help support schools and districts worldwide. Our team members have diverse educational backgrounds, including expertise in elementary education, special education, leadership, technology, and more.

Before we create a slide, handout, catchy title, or description, we make sure that whatever learning and work we are asking teachers to do will positively impact and support the important work they are already doing.

There are multiple ways for all types and levels of educators to engage in these learning opportunities, especially when considering how to get professional development hours for teaching. From free to paid, from beginner to advanced, we have professional development you can access that will impact the teaching and learning happening in your classroom, school, and district.

Nearpod PD: How to get professional development hours for teachers

Earning professional development hours should not be complicated when you are spending time learning new skills and ideas to support your students. At Nearpod, we diligently strive to make all our professional development offerings easy to join, relevant to your instructional needs, designed for you as an adult learner, and of course sharing documentation for you to submit for professional development hours. And of course, our webinars are usually hosted through the Nearpod platform, making it an interactive PD experience for all participants. Any webinar, course, or session that you join will model the best uses of Nearpod as a learning and instruction platform, it will be engaging, and—dare we say—you might even have a bit of fun along the way. So, what are all the options for you to earn professional development hours with Nearpod?

Foster a love of learning in every student with Nearpod. Teachers can sign up for free below to access and create interactive lessons. Administrators can schedule a call with an expert to unlock the full power of Nearpod for schools and districts.

Free professional development with year-round public webinars

Let’s start with something free, because who doesn’t love some free learning? For all users of Nearpod and Flocabulary, we offer free public webinars year-round. These webinars are typically 60 minutes in length and support primarily the basics of each of the two platforms. For each session that is attended live, you will receive a certificate of attendance that can be used to support your professional development requirements in your district.

For Nearpod, we regularly offer the following webinars:

• Nearpod for Beginners
• Plan, Create, and Edit a Nearpod Lesson
• Using Nearpod with Google
• Using Nearpod with Microsoft
• Nearpod for Corporate Training
• Nearpod in Higher Education

For Flocabulary, we regularly offer the Beginner’s Guide to Flocabulary.

The calendar of available webinars can be viewed at Nearpod.com/Resources. Find the session that supports your learning needs and register!

• Sessions are presented using GoToWebinar.
• Recordings are provided for all who register.
• Certificates of attendance are automatically sent to those who attend the live webinar; these can be submitted to your school or district to clock hours for professional development.

Summer sessions: PD by the Pool

And for the summer, we add a little more fun and learning! Each summer from mid-June until the end of August, we offer PD by the Pool. 

These opportunities include our regularly scheduled webinars but also include new learning opportunities. Explore more Summer PD learning opportunities.

This summer, we are including sessions such as:

• Creating & Launching Choice Boards with Nearpod 
• Enhancing Vocabulary and Comprehension: Using Nearpod to Support the Science of Reading for All Grade Levels
• Achieving Balance: On-Screen and Off-Screen Teaching with Technology 
• Using AI to Generate Text to Differentiate for Students 
• Enhancing Academic Vocabulary and Comprehension: Using Word Up in Flocabulary to Support the Science of Reading for All Grade Levels
• Back to School with Nearpod 

A certificate of attendance will be provided for each session that a teacher attends live so they can gain free PD hours. This certificate can be shared with your school or district as evidence of professional development hours. 

If a live webinar doesn’t work within your schedule or your time zone, Nearpod and Flocabulary offer several options for learning the basics asynchronously. Although these options are designed specifically for those who have a paid school or district Nearpod or Flocabulary account, they are available for free. 

Getting to Know Nearpod

This course is meant to introduce Nearpod and support educators in learning the Nearpod platform to support daily instruction and formative assessment. Participants will learn about navigating the platform, finding and editing lessons from the Nearpod library, creating lessons using their own resources, launching lessons to students in two modes, and reviewing evidence of student learning in reports.

Getting to Know Flocabulary

This course is meant to introduce Flocabulary and support educators in learning the Flocabulary platform so they can continue to support learning academic vocabulary in the classroom. Participants will learn about navigating the platform, understanding the lesson sequence, creating classes and assignments, and reviewing evidence of student learning in reports.

Contact your Nearpod or Flocabulary school or district account manager for more details!

Camp Engage

Two times per year, Nearpod hosts an event unlike any other: It is called Camp Engage! This is an online, multi-day, free conference for anyone who wants to learn about Nearpod and Flocabulary or anyone who already uses these platforms and wants to level up their skills. This is a perfect way for teachers to earn PD hours!

Camp Engage is designed to provide quality professional development led by experts in Nearpod and Flocabulary. You will learn from educators who have been or are currently in the field using these tools every day! Attending any of our main learning sessions during a Camp Engage event includes the option of earning free professional development hours for teachers. These can be shared with your school or district as evidence of your professional growth. It is also an opportunity to build your community of fellow educators to learn and laugh with during this conference.

Save your spot now for Camp Engage: Back to School, July 25-27, to help you make the most of the upcoming school year and find creative ways to engage your students!

Personalized professional development for your school and district

When a district or an individual school purchases Nearpod or Flocabulary platforms, there is the option to access professional development designed to meet the learning needs specific to that district or school.

The Professional Services team aims to help schools and districts just like yours to cultivate an environment that encourages digital learning and interactivity, helping teachers utilize technology in the most effective way possible. Each session begins with essential questions and learning objectives that are connected to the ISTE Standards for Educators and Coaches. Sessions are delivered virtually or on-site and are always designed using adult learning strategies, best instructional practices, and of course a little element of fun!

These learning opportunities are designed for a personalized approach with custom-tailored sessions to help educators seamlessly integrate Nearpod’s tools to address their unique needs. Professional development can include an introduction to the latest methodologies and strategies for technology integration as well as equipping educators with tools for digital learning success in their classroom or school.

In the ever-evolving landscape of digital education, we’re here to be your guide, your mentor, and your partner. Let us support you as you take your district or school to new heights.

Check out the professional development currently offered, to encourage transformative instruction with Nearpod, with the purchase of professional development for Nearpod and/or Flocabulary. 
Contact nearpodcoach@nearpod.com if you’re interested in this PD opportunity!

Start exploring Nearpod’s PD

Most teachers are in the education profession because they enjoyed or excelled at being a students; at some point, they enjoyed the process of learning, challenging the status quo, and working to make something better. Sadly, for the last few years that love of learning may have waned a bit. This could be from a lack of resources, ever-changing expectations, or just sheer exhaustion!

At Nearpod and Flocabulary, we hear and see you! Our goal has been, and continues to be, to offer professional development that prioritizes learning relevant ideas and skills you can immediately implement in your classroom or your school. We strive to do this through an engaging platform, using adult learning strategies, all while providing you with the evidence needed to meet accountability demands.

Foster a love of learning in every student with Nearpod. Teachers can sign up for free below to access and create interactive lessons. Administrators can schedule a call with an expert to unlock the full power of Nearpod for schools and districts.

Julie Cobb

Julie Cobb is a Director of Professional Services at Nearpod, leading high-quality implementation and training consultations for Nearpod School and District partners across the United States. She has her Bachelors in Education of the Hearing Impaired and her Masters in Educational Leadership. Passionate about education technology, she was inspired to join Nearpod because she wanted to share innovative ways to transform teaching and learning using technology in the classroom and beyond.

The post Extend your professional development learning and earn Nearpod PD hours for teachers appeared first on Nearpod Blog.