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.

According to an ESSA Level II study, CAASPP scores for math achievement demonstrated significant improvements among students who utilized Nearpod compared to those who did not, across various grade levels:

• 8th graders exhibited higher scores: 2516 compared to 2486.
• 6th graders also showed improved scores: 2501 compared to 2483.
• Additionally, 6th graders with Individualized Education Programs (IEPs) displayed enhanced scores: 2424 compared to 2393.

These findings highlight Nearpod’s positive impact on math academic outcomes across different student demographics, making it an ideal platform for a powerful supplemental math curriculum program.

Find the right supplemental resource for your instructional need

Full lesson experience

We know that half the battle in schools right now is finding top-quality resources for teaching and evaluating supplemental programs effectively. Resources need to be flexible enough for teachers to make their own, while still remaining rigorous, engaging, and differentiated to meet the needs of all students in their class. Nearpod Math allows teachers to support their instruction with a standards-based lesson, digitized in a ready-to-teach, problem-based format that keeps students at the forefront of instruction. These lessons provide warm-ups to get students thinking about the standard and topic of the day, then lead to exploration and practice through interactive activities and collaboration with classmates.

Always on the hunt for more

We also know that core instruction may not always be enough to meet the needs of all learners. Teachers likely need more for any given topic, and we’ve got them covered. Find opportunities to practice, reteach, and extend lessons, as well as videos and activities specifically aligned to the standard or topic within you’re working on. These supporting resources allow teachers to highlight a key concept by using a mini-lesson for small groups, showing a short video, or assigning additional practice opportunities in the form of a Time to Climb, Matching Pairs, Drag & Drop, Draw It, or one of our new virtual math manipulatives activities. All of these resources are conveniently organized in one place to help teachers maximize their limited time available to plan instruction.

Confidence-boosting math experiences engage every learner

The role model approach: Math is for me!

Too often, we find students unable to relate to the math classroom. Nearpod Math provides access to role models throughout the offering that look and think like typical math students across the nation. We built a character crew that grows and learns with the students across their K-8 math instruction journey. Through our Oh Now I Get It video series, these relatable characters demonstrate common misconceptions that may occur in the math classroom to clarify their understanding. These characters also walk students through relevant and authentic real-world connections through our Math in Action video series. We are excited for Sammy, Jaden, Willow, and all of their classmates to boost math experiences and engage every learner.

Building conceptual understanding

Our new virtual math manipulatives provide students with a scaffold to solve problems using Color Tiles, Base 10 Blocks, Algebra Tiles, and Fraction Tiles. Teachers are able to use our pre-made activities or make one on the spot to address a specific problem and drive conceptual understanding for students who may need additional support. Teachers can see the student solving in real-time, share student work in real-time, and allow individuals to model their thinking with the whole class. This helps peers become math role models for one another and demonstrate their understanding.

Reducing pressure and anxiety amplifies student voice

With the power of Nearpod, teachers truly have the ability to amplify student voice and hear from every student on every question. This reduces anxiety and allows students to practice without fear or judgment of being wrong. We intentionally integrated opportunities for student collaboration through interactive activities and discussions. With our Live to Student-Paced feature, teachers can release students to complete math activities at their own pace and monitor their progress in real-time. This removes the pressure that the class is waiting for “me” to finish while supporting the students who are able to move swiftly through more practice problems. Teachers decide what’s next because they know their students best.

Teachers drive the path

Flexibility is key when using supplemental resources. With Nearpod Math, teachers get access to high-quality resources that can be customized to meet their unique classroom needs. Not only can teachers edit, remove, or add to the existing Nearpod resources, but they also can create or upload their own to further support small groups, whole-class, reteaching, or enrichment opportunities!

Confident next steps after every turn 

Teaching math is complicated. Nearpod assists teachers in managing classroom behavior by facilitating engaging lessons while supporting teachers in addressing misconceptions before they start. Nearpod Math experiences are rich with real-time student insights, a live teacher dashboard, exclusive content, and on-the-fly instructional tools such as live annotation so teachers can intervene at the moment. Forget the days of teachers reviewing 150+ exit slips a day to adapt tomorrow’s instruction and start seeing where kids are so you can make adjustments in the moment.

Boost student confidence with Nearpod Math

Powered by Nearpod Premium Plus, Nearpod Math is available to schools and districts seeking to solve the “experience gap” found in other supplemental math programs. The program helps your teachers bring 21st-century skills to impact student learning each and every day.  Want to take a deeper look into the features that support boosting student confidence in math?

Pamela Villalba

Pamela Villalba is a Senior Curriculum Manager at Nearpod. She previously served as the Director of Secondary Curriculum and Instruction at a large urban school district in Central Florida where she led a team of content experts to support over 60 middle and high schools in the areas of professional development, school support, and curriculum within all core subjects. Pamela is currently in charge of supporting Nearpod in creating an innovative offering to support Math teachers across the nation.

The post 6 reasons your school’s math instruction needs Nearpod Math appeared first on Nearpod Blog.

When the early reports post COVID sounded the alarm on the lack of student progress, The Los Angeles Times highlighted that the disparity was greatest among disadvantaged populations. And while the recent news is less promising than hoped for, there are shining examples of learning tools that are making a difference—Nearpod being one of them.

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.

Research reveals Nearpod’s positive impact on math and ELA performance

LearnPlatform by Instructure, a third-party edtech efficacy research company, first partnered with Nearpod in 2023 to successfully conduct an ESSA Level III study. LearnPlatform just released a second independent study highlighting that Nearpod has earned an ESSA Evidence Level II rating designating “Moderate Evidence” for impacting student outcomes as shown in the California Assessment of Student Performance and Progress (CAASPP) spring tests. The team looked at a sample of 6,087 students from 25 schools in one California K-12 district during the 2022-2023 school year to determine the impact of Nearpod on student performance. 89% of the students were from low-income backgrounds, 20% were English language learners (ELLs), and 13% had Individualized Education Plans (IEPs).

What is ESSA Level II Evidence?

ESSA, the Every Student Succeeds Act signed by President Obama in 2015, is a commitment to equal opportunity for all students. It emphasizes the importance of evidenced-based investment in products proven to make a difference by publishing rigorous research on their efficacy.

The study performed by LearnPlatform satisfied all of the ESSA evidence requirements for Level II: Proper design and implementation, including: 

• Valid and reliable outcome measure that is not overaligned with the intervention 
• Baseline equivalence for treatment and comparison groups 
• Statistical controls through covariates 
• At least 350 students in the analysis sample 
• Representative, multi-site study
• At least one statistically significant, positive finding

Nearpod’s designation as meeting Level II requirements means that the researchers were confident that the increased scores observed during the study were due to an intervention using Nearpod.

The research questions focused on the following:

• What was the impact of Nearpod on students’ ELA and math 2022-2023 summative outcomes? 
• What was the impact of Nearpod on ELA and math 2022-2023 summative outcomes for English language learners? 
• What was the impact of Nearpod on ELA and math 2022-2023 summative outcomes for students on an IEP?

Nearpod’s ESSA Level II Evidence

Zeroing in on grades 4-8, the quasi-experimental study aimed to better understand the impact of Nearpod on the students’ learning outcomes. Worth noting is that this sample of students was 85% Hispanic and 14% Black or African American—representative of student populations most at risk. The study found that with 83% of the students interacting with Nearpod-created content for an average of just 7.2 weeks (which amounted to an average of 16 sessions launched), there was a statistically significant impact on student learning overall and for those with IEPS.

Key Results: English Language Arts (ELA)

Looking at adjusted CAASPP scale scores for English language arts (ELA) achievement, those who used Nearpod compared to students in similar grades who did not use Nearpod had higher scores in the following grades:

• 8th graders had higher scores: 2558 v. 2534
• 8th graders with IEPs had higher scores: 2469 v 2430
• 5th graders with IEPs had higher scores: 2428 v 2404

Key Results: Math

Looking at adjusted CAASPP scores for math achievement, those who used Nearpod compared to students in similar grades who did not use Nearpod had higher scores in the following grades:

• 8th graders had higher scores: 2516 v. 2486
• 6th graders had higher scores: 2501 v. 2483
• 6th graders with IEPs had higher scores: 2424 v 2393

Impact student learning with Nearpod

Nearpod continues to be a “fan favorite” since its introduction more than 10 years ago, due to its rigorous approach to engaging students in active learning. Classroom teachers and school administrators rely on Nearpod’s vast library of expert-created content, intuitive interactive learning activities, and real-time data reports, which have a proven track record of leading to better instructional strategies and better student outcomes.

Educators can tailor their approach to engage students in high-quality, research-backed interactive lessons, whether for the whole class, small groups, or 1:1 instruction. At a time when math and reading scores continue to sound alarms, this impact study and ESSA Level II recognition will continue to bolster educators’ confidence in leveraging Nearpod across the curriculum. Nearpod is dedicated to improving the instructional experience for all kids by making sure that they can make real-world, relevant connections through culturally responsive pedagogy. And these outcomes don’t just address short-term needs—they also enable schools to build positive cultures by looking long-term when it comes to leaning on data-driven methodology to increase motivation, engagement, and retention. Along with better outcomes, such efforts can promote a deeper sense of belonging and dedication to 21st-century skills for students, plus progression growth and job satisfaction for teachers.

Start using Nearpod

Despite the dismal data about reading and math achievement scores nationwide following the COVID shutdown, we are beginning to see a few glimmering examples of schools helping students make strides forward. Early on, Nearpod doubled down on its commitment to help schools modify their instructional plans in order to reengage students into hybrid and in-person instruction. And this most recent recognition of earning the second-highest ranking, ESSA Level II, showcases how Nearpod can be part of a school’s comprehensive solution to helping all students reach higher and achieve more.

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 Research reveals Nearpod’s positive impact on Math and ELA performance appeared first on Nearpod Blog.

STEAM education, which evolves from STEM, cultivates essential skills such as creativity, collaboration, critical thinking, problem-solving, and communication. By integrating Science, Technology, Engineering, Arts, and Mathematics (hence the acronym), it empowers students to tackle complex problems, embrace diverse perspectives, and prepares them for their future careers.

However, STEAM extends far beyond an art-focused science fair project. STEAM education is intricate, resembling a captivating puzzle rather than a mere science-themed arts and crafts activity. Each piece of this educational puzzle is indispensable, contributing to the final picture that emerges. To facilitate the creation of engaging and transdisciplinary units of STEAM in the classroom for any grade level, teachers can leverage powerful tools like Nearpod and Flocabulary.

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 unlock the full power of Nearpod and the 21st Century Readiness Program for schools and districts.

7 STEAM education examples using Nearpod and Flocabulary

1. Problem-based projects

The first puzzle piece in creating an amazing STEAM unit is to select a problem for students to solve. A problem-based project creates a setting for processing skills, such as collaboration, analyzing, and modeling, to take place. This can also help create a context for students’ learning experiences.

Examples of project-based learning (PBL) STEAM scenarios:

• For Elementary Students: How can we create an outdoor “green” MakerSpace that will connect to our existing playground and be able to withstand our city’s year-round weather conditions?
• For Middle and High School Students: How can we raise awareness about the dangers of vaping for young people, and how can we help stop teens from vaping?

2. Incorporate STEAM content into projects

Try to incorporate the five components of STEAM: science, technology, engineering, art, and math, when creating a project. STEAM education examples begin with a problem and weeds in the five content areas asking, “What is the most useful way to solve the problem?”

Nearpod’s Lesson Library has 22,000+ ready-to-run, editable lessons that provide the foundational material students need to help solve these problem-based projects. Regardless of the subject matter, teachers can add a pre-made Nearpod lesson or activity to their Library. Teachers can ‘Add Content’ or an activity such as PhET simulations or Draw It to create a transdisciplinary lesson. Transdisciplinary teaching foregrounds the problem to be solved, not the content area.

3. Tie back to real-world issues

The problem-based STEAM unit should be about a current event or real-world issue involving student interests. It should be selected from a local, community-based problem. However, that does not mean that you can’t select a problem that is a global issue, particularly if it is a current hot topic amongst your students.

Under Flocabulary’s Life Skills lessons, you can find authentic global topics. These topics include bullying, diversity, activism, nutrition, and internet safety. For example, in the Nearpod and Flocabulary lesson on Culture, students learn about how culture impacts various aspects of our lives. This can start a conversation on how to solve some of the cultural issues in their own community.

Additionally, Flocabulary’s Week in Rap is a weekly, rapped recap of important headlines and student news used for teaching current events. Two new videos are released each week: The Week in Rap for grades 6 to 12 and The Week in Rap Junior for grades 3 to 5. Watch these lesson videos with your students to keep them up to date on real-world events and issues which can be tied back to your STEAM education resources and examples.

4. Create inquiry-rich opportunities

To create an inquiry-rich STEAM education unit, students should be able to choose from multiple pathways to solve the problem and practice critical thinking skills. By the end of the unit, students should feel led toward further inquiry. Teachers can include a question at the end of each day’s lesson (i.e., Exit Ticket) by using Nearpod’s Collaborate Boards, Open-Ended Questions, or Polls.

5. Encourage student choice

When students have a choice, they feel more ownership over the tasks, which increases student engagement! Students will typically choose something they are good at. This helps them demonstrate their strengths and engages different ability types. Additionally, student choice encourages multiple ways to solve a problem. Nearpod gives teachers the tools to create engaging lessons where students can be STEAM puzzle builders.

6. Technology integration

App smashing is a great way to integrate technology into your STEAM teaching unit. Student-paced Nearpod lessons introduce and connect students to tech tools they can use to solve their problem-based scenarios. Teachers can use Flocabulary, which includes hip-hop videos and creativity assessment tools that give teachers a new way to captivate students while engaging them in academically rigorous content. This tool supports content knowledge and visual arts integration in the classroom and even allows students to create their own raps using vocabulary words in Lyric Lab. They can also use Google Slides for group collaboration or Nearpod’s Time to Climb for a gamified formative assessment.

7. Provide feedback in real-time

As teachers become the facilitators of the lesson, students are provided opportunities to receive individual feedback and are able to take multiple pathways of inquiry. The outcome is that every group’s final project will look different from one another. With Nearpod’s Teacher Dashboard, you can access real-time insights into student learning. You’ll be able to see individual student responses and class scores.

Teach STEAM with Nearpod

These seven pieces come together to create a powerful STEAM education unit to transform students into creative and collaborative problem solvers. Nearpod is the puzzle box that stores all these puzzle pieces together.

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 unlock the full power of Nearpod, Flocabulary, and the 21st Century Readiness Program for schools and districts.

Christina Blanco

The post 7 STEAM education examples using Nearpod and Flocabulary appeared first on Nearpod Blog.

STEM education in Australia has gained significant momentum over the years, emerging as a cornerstone of the country’s educational landscape.

Based on information gathered by the Department of Education¹, Australia faces pressing concerns regarding its STEM landscape and the implications for its future trajectory. The percentage of secondary school students opting for STEM courses in later stages (Years 11 and 12) has stagnated at around 10% or lower.

There’s concerning news about how Australian students are doing in science and math. They’re either not getting better or just staying the same, while other countries are improving. While four countries or economies outperformed Australia in PISA mathematics back in 2003, this number surged to 23 by 2018.

In 2015, all Australian education ministers endorsed the National STEM School Education Strategy 2016–2026. The strategy emphasizes foundational skills, mathematical and scientific literacy, digital literacy, problem-solving, critical analysis, and creative thinking skills. It aims to coordinate and enhance STEM education activities across the country.

Sharon Raj, a primary school teacher (STEM RFF) at Dee Why Public School, Australia, is aware of all these challenges and is determined to make the subject really exciting for her students.

She tackles the task of overcoming the hurdles in providing STEM education to a diverse range of students spanning from kindergarten to grade 6. Her solution?

She uses Nearpod to differentiate learning, create active learning experiences, and connect with her students.

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.

Navigating STEM Challenges in Australia: A Teacher’s Insight on Transforming Education with Nearpod

Sharon’s initial introduction to Nearpod came through New South Wales’ Technology for Learning program, commonly known as STEM T4L. Reflecting on her experience, she exclaims, “Dealing with the diverse needs of each student in a classroom can be quite challenging. Fortunately, Nearpod has been a lifesaver!”

We interviewed Sharon to dive deeper into the valuable insights gained from her journey with Nearpod.

What are the main challenges of STEM education in Australia?

“STEM is not a traditional classroom subject. It involves project-based learning, problem-solving, and using technology. Students bring diverse experience levels into the classroom based on their exposure and access to technology at home. Some students may have spent time being creative using building blocks. Some others may not have had the opportunity. STEM education, therefore, must cater to this diversity in students.

The second challenge is that since STEM is not a traditional subject, students find it uncomfortable. Learning involves trial and error, and, most importantly, failing but then trying again. The idea of failing can be uncomfortable for many students. It is hard to change their mindset about this. To engage and motivate them, I introduce them to game-based learning to get them used to the idea of experimenting.”

Did you always want to be a teacher? When did your love for teaching start?

“I did not start my career as a teacher. I am trained in the sciences. I stumbled upon teaching when I helped at my children’s school during my early motherhood years. I loved being around children so much that I decided to train as a primary school teacher.

When the school decided to pay attention to STEM education, they needed someone to teach the digital technology curriculum. So, I stepped up. I could use these technology kits, including robots, in my lessons. It has been a rewarding journey because I get to discover and grow with the students.”

Tell us about your Nearpod experience. Are there any special instances that you would like to share?

“I remember when I first got training on Nearpod, especially the [Virtual Reality] Field Trip feature. Seeing the students light up at the 360-degree beach view was amazing – they were so excited! I found all these tools really helpful to keep them engaged.

I was curious to try out the other stuff in Nearpod, like gamification and the Draw It feature. But what really surprised me was the instant feedback I could get. When I asked the students questions, their responses blew me away. I never knew they had such thoughts. And the cool part was even the quiet students who usually keep to themselves joined in. Their answers really convinced me of how powerful Nearpod is.

As a STEM teacher, I come across many apps, but not many excite me. But with Nearpod, I was genuinely thrilled about the possibilities it offered.”

What are the benefits of using Nearpod in classroom teaching?

“Nearpod activities are especially useful when I need to explain complex concepts. When I simply talk about these concepts, students find it boring to listen. With Nearpod, every student has a screen, so they already feel as though they are interacting.

I also use Nearpod to wrap up a project after introducing the concepts. When I ask them to respond, every student can respond at the same time, even those who are typically nervous about speaking in front of their friends, or students for whom English is not a first language. With this feature, I know exactly what each student is thinking. It is an amazing personalization tool for a teacher.

In the STEM classroom, there is a lot of project work and hands-on work. It is difficult to gauge where a student is. Using Nearpod as a quick, low-stakes assessment tool without scaring the students too much has been fantastic! It has saved a lot of time in being able to reuse/reconfigure a lesson. It has revolutionized the way I teach!”

Please share an example of when you used Nearpod for good results.

“Recently, I played a video for a class about the use of technology in sustainable agriculture. After the video, I asked them questions. I was shocked by the students’ limited ability to retain information from the video. I had to play the video again and point out the details for them to learn better.

When I use Nearpod, even if I play a short video, I can highlight key points, and insert open-ended questions that make the students pause and think. So, getting students to engage and interact with videos has been great with Nearpod.”

What are your top tips for maximizing the use of Nearpod in STEM education?

There are a few things to keep in mind when planning your lessons to ensure that your students will have the best learning experience. A good STEM lesson should:

• Be hands-on: The best STEM lessons involve practical activities where students can use their hands, whether they’re designing a concept or creating and building something themselves. Nearpod can facilitate this by enabling you to incorporate virtual labs, simulations, and interactive activities into your lessons. This way, students can explore concepts in a controlled yet engaging environment, enhancing their understanding and retention.
• Incorporate the Collaborate Board during classroom sessions to foster interactivity. This feature allows students to share their ideas in a collaborative space, providing insight into their thought processes and encouraging meaningful discussions.
• Take advantage of Draw It’s utility. Often, a quick sketch can significantly enhance understanding. This drawing feature enables students to visually communicate their ideas, facilitating comprehension and exploration. Importantly, using this tool on an iPad offers a less intimidating platform compared to traditional pencil-and-paper drawing, allowing students to explore concepts without hesitation.
• Mimic real-life scenarios: This is another reason why hands-on learning is so essential. One of the most important things about STEM is that it helps students learn skills that will be immediately useful in the outside world. Nearpod’s ability to simulate real-world scenarios through interactive presentations and simulations allows students to apply their theoretical knowledge to practical situations, preparing them for the challenges they may face beyond the classroom.
• Utilize the Open-Ended Questions tool to create a safe and encouraging environment for students to freely express themselves. By ensuring that only the teacher can view their responses, students can confidently share their thoughts, opinions, and ideas without the pressure of public scrutiny.

Start using Nearpod for STEM education

Ever since incorporating Nearpod, students at Dee Why Public School have been freely expressing themselves without any hesitations. They’re approaching classroom learning with heightened curiosity, particularly when it comes to interactive screen engagement and virtual excursions.

One of the most significant achievements attributed to Nearpod is its role in enabling me to connect with every single student in the classroom.

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.

Nearpod Team

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

nearpod.com/

The post Educator Spotlight: Elevating STEM education in Australia with Nearpod appeared first on Nearpod Blog.

Adopting supplemental math curriculum materials is one of the most impactful decisions administrators, and curriculum coordinators make. Instructional materials influence student engagement, assessment practices, lesson delivery methods, and teachers’ underlying pedagogical practices and efficacy.

Using the five steps and evaluation rubric below, administrators can thoughtfully evaluate supplemental curriculum programs and ultimately invest in the resource that best supports both teaching and learning.

5 Steps to Evaluating Supplemental Math Curriculum Programs

Step 1: Rank evaluation criteria

Amongst a landscape of hundreds of supplemental math teaching resources, the only way to carve the path forward is to get clear on what is important to your teachers and best for your students from the start. Create a team of decision-makers representing diverse and well-balanced perspectives, including administrators, teachers, and instructional coaches. The evaluation team should rank the following categories from most to least important: program organization, content/pedagogy, reporting, lesson delivery, and training/support. 

If it is tough, and it may be, ask tough questions:  

• Is it more important that teachers can navigate through the program’s organizational structure with ease or that there are professional development and teacher support resources? 
• Are the standards alignment and mathematics pedagogy more critical than the program’s assessment capacity? 
• Do teachers most value a program that assists with engaging lesson delivery and differentiation? 

Not all categories of evaluation criteria will hold equal weight for your district, so it is important that team members discuss and establish shared priorities from the onset of curriculum evaluation. 

Step 2: Define what teachers and students need

To get a clear picture of the “best fit” supplemental math curriculum resource, the evaluation team should identify specific “look-fors” to define observable targets and indicators that embody and align with district priorities. The more specific the “look-fors”, the easier it will be to gauge how potential supplemental math programs measure up. We advise developing 3-6 “look-fors” for each evaluation criteria category outlined in step one. No “look for” is more or less correct or incorrect. They depend on the many different factors that comprise your district.

Program’s organization in terms of a supplemental curriculum program’s organization, what are the “look-fors” that best capture your teachers’ priorities?

• Is the content logically organized so they can easily search and access supplemental resources? 
• Do teachers give precedence to programs that incorporate accessibility for English Language Learners and students with disabilities? 

Even if this category ranks low on your list of priorities from step one, it is still important to collaboratively develop these indicators as it may be the differentiating factor between two contending supplemental programs.

Program’s organization

Regarding a supplemental math curriculum program’s organization, what are the “look-fors” that best capture your teachers’ priorities?

• Is the content logically organized so they can easily search and access supplemental resources?
• Do teachers give precedence to programs that incorporate accessibility for English Language Learners and students with disabilities?

Even if this category ranks low on your list of priorities from step one, it is still important to collaboratively develop these indicators as it may be the differentiating factor between two contending supplemental programs.

Content and Pedagogical Offerings

What priorities concern a potential supplemental curriculum resource’s content and pedagogical offerings? This category is often a critical component of math educators. They want to ensure that supplemental resources align with their standards, personal mathematical teaching philosophies, and district initiatives around mathematics education. What “look fors” best describes teachers’ pedagogical priorities in a supplemental resource?

• Does the resource build conceptual understanding and procedural fluency, emphasizing strengthening students’ mathematical habits of mind?
• Are there real-world connections and explicit problem-solving instruction?
• To address the unfinished learning caused by the pandemic, does the resource provide plentiful lessons and activities designed for differentiation at all student readiness levels?

Reporting

With data-driven instruction continuing to inform many districts’ strategic plans, it is critical to examine how potential supplemental curriculum resources can assist teachers and administrators with reporting. The “look fors” in this category can depend on the core curriculum that has already been adopted, the age range of students, district grading initiatives, and many more variables. 

• Does the resource include adequate opportunities to assess and report student progress in real-time and after a lesson?
• Are there built-in opportunities for teachers to gather information to support meaningful differentiation?
• Can administrators view and actively use data?

The team should define indicators that paint the “ideal” picture, being cautious not to undermine their vision during this evaluation phase.

Lesson Delivery

A potentially differentiating factor for supplemental math curriculum adoption centers around a program’s lesson delivery methodology. This component will arguably most directly impact teachers on a day-to-day basis. It is important to make teachers’ voices predominate in these “look fors.” 

• Is it critical that your supplemental resource has the ability to deliver synchronous and asynchronous lessons seamlessly? 
• Is it a priority that the program offer resources suited for various instructional formats, including whole and small group instruction, independent practice, and collaborative group work? 
• Do teachers value multimedia, including videos, games, songs, math manipulatives, etc.?

Hone in on what most closely addresses both teacher and student needs in your district.

To develop “look fors” in step two, use our evaluation checklist and rubric. This resource was specifically made for supplemental math curriculum adoption but can be used as a starting point or template for other subject areas. The evaluation checklist and rubric can be used throughout evaluating supplemental curriculum programs by providing the clarity needed to support meaningful evaluation, dialogue, and analysis.

Step 3: Implement a strategic evaluation

The real test of the quality of instructional materials is the learning they support in the classroom. Thus, it is recommended that curricular resources be evaluated by teachers when possible. Evaluation processes should be clearly outlined for all stakeholders.  It is recommended that the process, on the whole, be developed and shared with participating teachers and staff in detail. Developing a folder on Google Drive or a HyperDoc to house information on the evaluation process will help teachers feel more comfortable and prepared.

To get started, decide how the curricular resource will be introduced; ideally, targeted training sessions will be held before and during the evaluation. Next, you will need to set the evaluation duration and expectations for how often teachers should use the tool during the evaluation. If your district has support staff such as instructional coaches, it is a good idea that they hold at least one observation of the teacher implementing the curricular program.

We recommend evaluating teachers to complete our evaluation checklist and rubric to reflect uniformly on the program’s strengths and weaknesses.  By ranking each criterion using numerical indicators and measuring the resource’s performance across many categories, decision-makers can have meaningful dialogue. The final aspect to consider is how to solicit student input. We find student input is invaluable in evaluating curriculum programs. In addition to the teacher evaluation tool,  you should also develop a way by which students can share their thoughts. 

Step 4: Analyze evaluation results

During the analysis phase, the decision-making team and evaluating teachers should discuss the supplemental curriculum resource’s affordances and limitations. The strength of using a checklist and rubric is that it provides qualitative analysis of different criteria and promotes guided discussion around critical evaluation categories. Ultimately, the decision-makers and administrators can gather each teacher’s rubric, compile the data in a central location, and, using student input and instructional coach observations, make a collective decision on whether to adopt the supplemental curriculum resource. 

Step 5: Refine implementation

If the evaluation went well and your team decided to adopt the curriculum, your job is not quite over! Teachers implementing the supplemental math curriculum program will need additional training and opportunities to check in with their peers. We recommend scheduling at least one additional training and/or Q&A session and meetings where teachers can share their tips/tricks with one another and reflect on implementation. If your district has instructional coaches, we recommend that these staff members receive additional professional learning to provide the expertise and support needed to teachers who may benefit from more personalized assistance with implementation.

It is a good practice to re-evaluate supplemental curriculum programs regularly. Has the supplemental program led to improved student engagement? Has adoption helped teachers with instructional planning? Have student mathematics scores changed since implementation? What is the district implementation rate, and how can administrators work with coaches to ensure more fidelity? Re-evaluating the curriculum is not just about determining whether this curriculum continues to align with district needs. It is also about discovering if you can provide additional support to teachers to ensure the curriculum is implemented with fidelity. 

The importance of implementation

What if your team did not implement the supplemental program after the evaluation? This is possible if the feedback from the evaluation was predominantly negative and/or it was discovered that the supplemental math program had unworkable deviations from district expectations. Suppose teacher evaluation in step four was done with consistency. In that case, the next steps will involve getting clear on the pain points students and teachers experienced with the supplemental curriculum program and identifying additional supplemental programs to evaluate that address these pain points.

Suppose your team of decision-makers believes that the negative feedback is not substantial enough to move to another potential program. In that case, the next steps might include more professional development around the resource and subsequent rounds of evaluation. Either way, it is important not to get down if the feedback is less than ideal. Rather, it is a unique opportunity to continue to find ways to support your teachers best.

Find a math curriculum that’s right for your school

Adopting supplemental math curriculum resources is an impactful decision for administrators, teachers, and students. The process should be carefully planned from start to finish. You can make an informed, measured decision by giving teachers and students a voice and ensuring diversity of perspective on your decision-making team. Using our evaluation checklist and rubric is a great way to get a “head start” and ensure curriculum evaluation and adoption are data-driven and consistent. Charter your path forward with a simple goal: to help your teachers take on the most important job in the world.

Interested in reading more about this topic? Learn about Nearpod Math, a supplemental K-8 math program that provides the content, tools, and organization teachers need to create daily, engaging math learning experiences that maximize outcomes for all learners. Featuring:

• 5,000+ new standards-aligned lessons, videos, and practice activities
• Exclusive virtual manipulatives
• Enhanced course navigation and reporting

References:

[1] https://www.nctm.org/News-and-Calendar/Messages-from-the-President/Archive/Diane-Briars/Curriculum-Materials-Matter_-Evaluating-the-Evaluation-Process/

[2] https://www.researchgate.net/publication/260392089_How_to_evaluate_the_quality_of_digital_learning_resources

[3]  https://storage.googleapis.com/edreports-206618.appspot.com/resources/8270005/files/k-8-math-rubric-082019-v1.pdf

[4] https://www2.ed.gov/about/offices/list/oese/sst/evaluationmatters.pdf]

Brittany Granquist

Brittany is a former math educator who brings her love of mathematics education and passion for instructional technology to her role as a Nearpod Math product specialist.

The post 5 Steps to Evaluating Supplemental Math Curriculum Programs appeared first on Nearpod Blog.

We know that summer for teachers is anything but a three-month, stress-free vacation. The sun shines, the beach tempts, and educators are often found at a desk, hard at work planning for the return of the school year. No matter how many hours you devote to planning, however, it’s challenging to ever feel fully prepared for the new year.

There’s no magical genie who can grant teachers a purely restful summer break, but Nearpod Essentials comes close. Nearpod Essentials is an interactive series of lessons that are ready to teach on Day 1. There are three types of Essentials bundles: Core Skill Units (new this year!), Curated Collections, and Survival Kits, each targeting a different component of your units. The lessons, warm-ups, assessments and activities can be used to supplement your existing curriculum materials, or can act as the foundation for units. Lessons can be fluidly customized to meet the needs of your classroom, ensuring your students receive the best interactive learning experience possible.

Why Nearpod Essentials?

At Nearpod, we know the demanding time pressures placed on educators. We also know that you only want to put the best, most effective lessons in front of your students. Using Nearpod Essentials helps you prep your units by providing a series of scaffolded lessons and activities you can use as-is or flexibly work into your own lesson sequence.

Leveraging Nearpod Essentials’ standards-aligned bundles isn’t just about saving you time as a teacher. Lessons are developed to maximize your targeted learning outcomes, and build critical thinking and collaboration skills using time-tested instructional strategies.

What are Nearpod Essentials?

Core Skills – New this year, our Core Skills bundles are designed to attack the foundational skills that students need to begin a unit. Each bundle is comprised of four mini-units and a formative assessment, combining to provide students the foundational skills that they need to excel in your content area.

Curated Collections – These bundles take the best of what’s already in the Nearpod store and package them together in a carefully curated set of lessons and activities. Developed by our best publishers and authors and loved by teachers, these lessons are packaged and sequenced to give you everything you need.

Survival Kits – Survival Kits are similar to our Curated Collections, but broken into smaller pieces that you can integrate even more flexibly into your units. If you’ve got a unit that just needs a little boost to really feel complete, Survival Kits are a great place to start.

As the days start to grow shorter and summer approaches its inevitable end, Nearpod Essentials can help give you some well-earned beach time back. Even once the middle of the semester hits, you can rest easier knowing you can easily find engaging, data-driven curriculum materials packaged up and ready to run with Nearpod Essentials. Download your Essentials today!

Nearpod Team

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

nearpod.com/

The post Hit the Ground Running in September with Nearpod Essentials appeared first on Nearpod Blog.

This blog post was written by Cathy Yenca (@mathycathy) and originally posted on her blog.

Folks often ask questions about how various apps and tools can be used “for math”. I’ve always felt that, to some extent, math as a content area can be a tricky fit for apps, tools, strategies, P.D. etc. etc. when compared to other K-12 content areas. To me, the most effective tech tools focus on making student thinking visible and easy to share from student to teacher, AND from student to student… which means, such tools have the potential to be effective in numerous content areas. NCTM addresses the idea of effectively using “content-neutral” technologies in their Strategic Use of Technology in Teaching and Learning Mathematics position paper:

“…Strategic use applies to both content-specific and content-neutral technological tools and in both synchronous and asynchronous settings…

Effectively applied content-neutral technologies increase students’ access to information and ideas and enhance student– student and student–teacher interactions to support and enrich sense making…”

It’s been several years since I posted about Nearpod “Best Practices” for Math, and in light of NCTM’s mention of “synchronous and asynchronous settings” I bring to you this post, version 2.0, to consider some additional ways Nearpod can enhance learning and communicating mathematics in our classrooms.

Student-Paced Pre-Assessments and Nearpod Reports

Class time is SO valuable. I often try to maximize the time I have with my students by assigning a student-paced (asynchronous) Nearpod that addresses prerequisite material ahead of time. Launching a student-paced Nearpod is easy – just choose “student paced” when launching a lesson from your Nearpod library. The resulting student-paced code is valid for 30 days.

For example, I might assign a Nearpod lesson on solving 1-step or 2-step equations for homework before I plan to address solving equations with variables on both sides of the equals sign in class. Providing “Draw It” slides in a pre-assessment gives me work samples from every student. While sipping my morning coffee the next day, I download the Nearpod Report to check out my students’ work from the night before. I’ll know what I’m in for in class, because I can see exactly what my students can do.

Whether one assigns an elaborate, comprehensive student-paced Nearpod lesson, or several simple “Draw It” slides asking students to do a problem or two, the value here is being able to see what students are up to before they walk into class. To read more, check out this post.

Create a New Nearpod Lesson Using Student Work-Samples and “Draw It”

Let’s say you’ve assigned a student-paced pre-assessment lesson, and as you examine the “report” you find some interesting student work samples (to me, “interesting” often means “incorrect”). While this student work can be very valuable in helping a teacher with instructional next-steps, there’s value in sharing this work with students too!

Several months ago, I started taking screenshots from such reports. I use these “interesting” work samples as “Draw It” background images, creating a new Nearpod experience. Launching this Nearpod work-sample showcase as a “warm-up” the next day, I ask students to “grade” the work they see by providing written, constructive feedback. Not only do we have “interesting” authentic and anonymous work samples, we have students’ thoughts and feedback ABOUT these work samples to talk about. As I share in this post…

It’s one thing to feature anonymous errors on the screen at the front of the class and talk about them, and how to fix them, together.

Through this experience, I learned it’s another thing entirely to ask *each* student to analyze the work and take a stand on its correctness or incorrectness.

I don’t want to give the impression that this Nearpod strategy creates a silent classroom where every student is staring at a screen.  Seeing “real” student work, in and of itself, brings an emotional, invested atmosphere.  Students are always wondering if the next work-sample will be their own… and quite often, when that happens, students CAN’T HELP THEMSELVES… they yell out, “That’s MINE!  And I KNOW what I did (incorrectly) now!!!”  When I showcase the “graded” work samples, it’s quite shocking how many students hastily write “Great Job!” when work is clearly wrong!  The work samples and subsequent written student feedback serve as fuel to classroom discussion and healthy math arguments.

Nearpod “Draw It” iOS Includes a Camera Option!

With 1:1 iPads, the camera feature available in Nearpod “Draw It” has become an invaluable tool.  At any point in any lesson, I can launch a Nearpod “Quick Check” (<– steal and edit my template here) and in less than a minute, we have a gallery of student work to consider.  I often use this strategy to “spot check” homework.  Since students, in theory, already have the problems worked out, I start class by saying, “As I take attendance, will you go to Nearpod and send me a photo of Problem #4 from last night’s homework?”  By the time I enter attendance, I already have a work sample from every student.

At the front of the class, I scroll through every photo/problem.  Depending on each class period’s Nearpod culture, we leave student names visible, or we anonymize names.  (Note: 2 of my classes this year have been A-OK having their names attached to their work… and the other 3 classes, even now in March, prefer anonymous work – be sensitive to your own students here.) The first “lap” is a no-judgment lap.  Our goal is to look for trends (which can be correct OR incorrect).  Then we start talking about what we saw, and hone in on specific work samples.  I call this a “safety net” because we catch many misconceptions before students have a test or quiz.  We celebrate the mistakes because we’ve identified and fixed them in a timely way.  To read more, check out this post.

How are you showcasing student work for students to analyze and discuss?

What does error analysis look like in your classroom?

If you haven’t used Nearpod to examine student work, would you try it, in light of these classroom examples?

To further help math teachers enhance their teaching and engage their students, Nearpod launched a new set of math symbols to include in assessment activities. Check out our newest math symbols by signing in to your Nearpod account.

Nearpod Team

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

nearpod.com/

The post Nearpod “Best Practices” For Math Class v2.0 appeared first on Nearpod Blog.

“I teach a 4th & 5th self-contained special education class. My students have a variety of abilities and need much practice to learn and master new skills. I am blessed that my school is both an arts integrated school and a tech 1:1 school with iPads. I love creating my own lessons, especially in math. Here’s one of my favorites! 

Before Nearpod, I primarily used my Smartboard to show my lessons and students participated by using mini-dry erase boards. While this is an effective teaching practice, it slowed us down because it takes some of my students a long time to copy the problems from the board, and it was hard for me to check their progress. I would run around the room to help struggling students copy the problem while encouraging others to solve the problem.

With Nearpod, I love that students can follow along on their iPad as I present information on my Smartboard. They have the same information on their iPad as I have projected on the board. Since students love using technology, they will solve several problems on Nearpod in the same time it took to solve one problem with the whiteboards. I also like that I can embed websites that allow students to watch a video clip or play a game for a few minutes to practice the skill we are working on. Since the students already have their iPad, there’s no down time to transition between activities or trying to type in the website. Everything is right at their fingertips. My students also love finishing a lesson with a multiple choice quiz.

Here’s a blog post I wrote about using Nearpod in my classroom: http://www.oneroomschoolhouse.net/2016/01/using-nearpod-to-increase-participation.html.”

To find math lessons like the one Karla created, check out Nearpod’s customizable, ready-to-teach math lessons here.

Nearpod Team

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

nearpod.com/

The post Using Nearpod Math Lessons in a Special Education Classroom appeared first on Nearpod Blog.

In our quest to bring high quality, engaging, and interactive content to teachers, we’re proud to present Nearpod Essentials! Each of these 22 bundles are a curated set of the best Nearpod resources for your grade or subject area. They contain a range of warm-ups, full lessons, skill builders, assessments, and VR experiences you can use all year long!

To help you get the most out of Nearpod Essentials, we wanted to give you some tips for each of the resources you’ll find in the Essentials bundle, so you can have the best experience possible!

Full Lessons – Nearpod lessons are great for beginning a new unit, introducing a new topic within your current unit, or diving deeper into learning a particular skill.

• Lessons are “ready-to-teach”— you just need to spend a few minutes to review and there’s no need to worry about photocopies!
• All lessons are interactive and leverage multi-media assets like videos, web simulations, and Virtual Reality (VR), so students will  stay engaged and enjoy learning.
• These lessons  are a great way to review what students learned at the end of a unit . Recap with a lesson by itself or easily edit the lesson to add more higher order thinking questions.
• Going to be out for a day? Leave a student-paced PIN for a substitute in place of a regular sub plan!
• Have a specific need and want to change a lesson? Now you can with our new editability functionality.

VR – Use Virtual Reality to immerse students in experiential learning and generate excitement around the topic or skill.

• A picture is worth a thousand words. Give students the opportunity to not only see, but explore the places you’re talking about via Nearpod’s Virtual Field Trips.
• Use VR lessons as a hook for your unit to generate students’ interest while providing real-world context for what you’re teaching. Plus, you can reference this visual, experiential foundation throughout the unit.
• NOTE: The VR lessons can be be viewed on any device and no special hardware or viewing kits are needed.

Skill builders – Practice makes perfect! Give students differentiated opportunities to practice key skills with these engaging skill builders.

• Skill builders are great resource for students who finish in-class assignments early, for students who need extra support, or for in-class practice or stations!
• Absent for a day? Have students practice key skills by providing the substitute teacher with the student-paced PINs for students to complete independently.
• Skill builders are great when you want to give homework, but don’t want to have to worry about grading it!
• Skill builders can also be used for differentiated learning. Duplicate the lesson to create different versions for diverse student needs and tailor the questions and activities to challenge all students.

Assessments – Gauge how well students are grasping the concepts you’re teaching them.

• The multiple choice assessments are great as exit tickets at the end of a class – especially if you don’t want to collect any papers!
• Use these assessments to check students’ understanding of concepts.
• Assign Nearpod assessments as homework for students who need additional practice.
• Use the open-ended assessments as ways to gauge deeper comprehension or to give students opportunities to demonstrate their learning in a variety of ways!
• Assessments can be edited for differentiation – or you can just change up the questions and reuse them over and over.

Warm-ups – Get students activated and ready for class!

• Use warm-ups as a quick way to introduce Nearpod to a new class.
• Warm-ups are a great way to build community and class culture! Check out the ice breakers and first day of school lessons!
• Engage students in a new topic or skill with a quick warm-up!
• Warm-ups are great for activating or assessing prior knowledge before you start a new lesson or unit.
• You can also use these warm-ups as reviews or give them out as homework for students who need some extra practice.

Pro-Tip

If you haven’t been able to try it out for yourself, Nearpod lessons are now editable! So after you’ve used your warm-ups, skill builders and assessments once, you can create a copy, change the questions (and answers) up, and re-use them. Your students will already be familiar with the format, and you’ll be helping them reinforce their skills!

Nearpod Team

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

nearpod.com/

The post Nearpod Essentials – Teaching Tips appeared first on Nearpod Blog.