standards-aligned Archives - Nearpod Blog https://nearpod.com/blog/tag/standards-aligned/ Latest news on Nearpod Thu, 04 Apr 2024 23:39:35 +0000 en-US hourly 1 https://wordpress.org/?v=5.9.1 3 Tips for using Nearpod’s lesson library https://nearpod.com/blog/3-tips-for-using-nearpods-lesson-library/ Thu, 04 Apr 2024 23:20:00 +0000 https://nearpod.com/blog/?p=13671 Explore tips for Nearpod's lesson library, which includes 22,000+ quality, standards-aligned lessons for all subjects and grade levels.

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We know teachers want supplemental resources for their core curriculum. With Nearpod’s lesson library, teachers don’t have to leave the platform to find what they need or make additional purchases elsewhere to fill curriculum gaps. Educators trust Nearpod’s content because it’s meticulously crafted with a focus on quality and pedagogical principles.

Nearpod’s lesson library is the perfect solution for those teachers who feel nervous about learning new tech but are excited to see the benefits of our interactive lesson platform. Here are three quick tips to get started using Nearpod’s pre-made standards-aligned K-12 content.

New to Nearpod? Teachers can sign up for a free Nearpod account 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 tips for using Nearpod’s lesson library

1. Use a pre-made lesson from the lesson library

Nearpod’s growing lesson library includes 22,000+ K-12 standards-aligned lessons that provide teachers with the additional content they need to fill in curriculum gaps and make lessons interactive.

Teachers no longer need to search for supplemental content and find ways to make worksheets and downloadable files more engaging. With Nearpod, teachers get all the benefits of pre-made standards-aligned content, built right into an interactive platform. Nearpod has interactive activities for students to show what they know and engaging media embedded right into lessons.

Nearpod's lesson library

One of the best ways to jump into using Nearpod is to experience it for yourself first, and a pre-made lesson is a great way to save time creating a lesson on your own. Focus on finding standards-aligned content through our standards filters which include standard or state, subject, grade, and strand. You can also filter and search lessons by keywords, sources, and partners. When you’re ready, launch the lesson and watch how it impacts student engagement in your classroom. During the lesson, you can also get real-time insights into student morning.

Lesson library filters on Nearpod

After your lesson, head to your reports to find post-session reports you can share with other colleagues via email, or download as PDF and CSV files for your grading and records. Through these reports, teachers can print and share data on how the entire class did on a lesson, or create reports on individual students.

2. Customize an existing lesson

We know teachers love to take their supplemental content to the next level. When you’re feeling ready to create some content of your own in Nearpod, an easy way to save time is to customize a pre-made lesson with your own resources or with interactive activities like Draw It, Matching Pairs, Time to Climb, and more.

Find a pre-made lesson you love and customize it in three different ways:

  • After you’ve found a lesson you’re interested in using, go through the slides and activities and cull them to focus on just what you need for your classroom and students. For example, you can change the wording of formative assessment questions or math problems to be a perfect fit for what you need from your content resources in the classroom.
  • After you’ve perfected your lesson to present the content exactly how you want, you can add in existing PowerPoints, PDFs, or other resources you love into a lesson.
  • Finally, teachers can add quick checks for understanding using Nearpod’s activity banks. These standards-aligned activities are the perfect way to customize a lesson. Nearpod’s activity banks help create engaging and interactive lessons while saving time.
Nearpod activity banks

3. Create your own lesson and keep it in your library for the future

Many teachers have developed content resources to support their lessons. Use the pre-made content on Nearpod’s lesson library as a guide to create your own. Don’t recreate the wheel and use what you already have as inspiration. Teachers can upload the resources they already have into Nearpod to create interactive lessons and then organize them into folders for future use.

Whether you have worksheets you’d like to digitize, PowerPoints you’d like to make interactive, videos, PDFs, slides, or web content from other online resources, Nearpod can combine them into one engaging and interactive learning experience.

When you combine the resources you already have with Nearpod’s interactive formative assessment types and engaging media, you turbocharge your content.

Nearpod Draw It team building activity 3 things in common, 4 unique things

Start exploring Nearpod’s lessons

Discover a plethora of free quality lessons and teaching resources available for educators to utilize and enhance their classroom experience. Whether you’re new to Nearpod or looking to enhance your lessons, these three tips provide a quick start to leveraging its interactive platform effectively. Join the Nearpod community today to access a wealth of standards-aligned content and transform your classroom experience.

New to Nearpod? Teachers can sign up for a free Nearpod account 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.

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How to find free high-quality lessons and teaching resources https://nearpod.com/blog/quality-lessons-teaching-resources/ Fri, 15 Mar 2024 18:20:00 +0000 https://nearpod.com/blog/?p=22177 Finding free teaching resources you can trust is hard. Explore teaching high quality lessons to teach all subjects and grade levels.

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At Nearpod, we know that finding free teaching resources whose quality you can trust is hard. And we know that, more often than not, teachers end up making their own content. Teachers also use their own money to buy pre-made lessons or lesson plans, which they often have to modify or build upon. Doing all that work while juggling other priorities—like tracking students’ progress and supporting their development—can feel impossible and even take the joy out of teaching.

Bringing that joy back is what drives the Nearpod team. We want you to spend less time planning and more time teaching and connecting with students. We’ve gone beyond teacher lesson plans and built a library of 22,000+ high-quality lessons, videos, and activities ready for you to teach immediately. It’s easier and faster than ever to search this library. Your next lesson is now a click away, saving you time and helping you focus on what matters most—student outcomes.

Foster a love of learning in every student with Nearpod. Teachers can sign up for free to access quality, standards-aligned lessons and create their own interactive lessons and activities. Administrators can schedule a call with an expert to unlock the full power of Nearpod for schools and districts.

What makes us “content experts” at Nearpod?

Nearpod’s curriculum team comprises of former educators who have been in your shoes. Our collective classroom experience weaves itself into every resource we create. But we don’t just rely on our small team when creating teaching resources. We work with a vast network of educators who, drawing from their varied areas of expertise, design the high-quality lessons, activities, and videos you’ll find in the Nearpod Library. So, when you use a Nearpod resource, you can trust the intention and competence of the educators who had a hand in creating it.

In addition to enlisting the help of other experienced teachers, we frame our resources around the research-based instructional models you know and use. Here are some examples:

Quality teaching resources on the Lesson Library

You can also trust that you will find the instructional best practices you use daily embedded right into our resources. From objective-setting and feedback opportunities to cooperative learning and hypothesis testing, our team works to maximize the impact of everything we make through research-based instructional strategies. Additionally, all of our lessons follow our pedagogical principles and go through an extensive review process. Learn more about Nearpod’s focus on quality lesson content.

To further support creating free and valued lessons, we partner with trusted, leading education organizations, such as Next Gen Personal Finance, NASA eClips, PhET, Smithsonian, ReadWorks, Education.com, PBS Kids, iCivics, and more. Together, we work to build a library that makes it easier for you to find all the teaching lessons you need, all in one place. 

All of us hope that thanks to our work, you’ll stop scouring the internet for free teacher resources and regain some of the time you need to do the most important job in the world.

What types of free teaching resources does Nearpod have?

To keep your students engaged, you can’t teach the same way every day. Educators spend considerable time searching for high-quality lesson plans that will allow them to teach using multiple modalities. Any teacher who has spent hours watching videos or scrolling through hundreds of game ideas while preparing for a lesson knows this is easier said than done. 

Here are the varied, flexible resources you can find in the Nearpod Library:

Math Lesson Guide for grades K-9

Lesson Guides

Elevate instruction with our comprehensive Lesson Guides for grades K-9 in Math, English Language Arts, Science, and more. Whether you’re a seasoned educator or just starting out, our Lesson Guides provide the framework you need to spark curiosity, foster critical thinking, and facilitate effective instruction.

Click below to preview and download our Lesson Guides!

Interactive lessons

Finding free teacher lesson plans is great. Finding free, read-made, high-quality lessons is better. Nearpod lessons are both the lesson plan and the student experience. Nearpod has 8,500+ interactive lessons with immersive slides-based experiences that you can launch with a single click. Once you launch a lesson, you’ll seamlessly take students through direct instruction, practice, reflection, and more. 

We design every Nearpod lesson with a specific learning goal in mind. From there, we define the learning objectives and adopt the learning design model best aligned with the lesson’s purpose. Then, we take that framework to build a learning sequence that contains:

  • Engaging, clear, and effective instructional experiences
  • Rich multimedia, such as video, articles, and Virtual Reality (VR) Field Trips, reinforce new concepts and make real-world connections
  • Metacognitive reflections and polls to promote self-awareness, monitor prior knowledge, and spark discussion
  • Frequent, interactive checks for understanding invite your students to write, record themselves, draw, sort, match, collaborate, fill in the blanks, answer multiple-choice questions, and more. Seeing your students’ performance on these tasks in real-time allows you to quickly identify learning needs and adjust your teaching on the fly.

And if you find that our lesson doesn’t exactly match your teaching and learning goals or needs a sprinkling of your personality, remember that all of our lessons are modifiable. You can add or delete slides and modify student activities to make our lessons just what you need.

We’re always busy expanding our library of high-quality lessons! Here are just a few of the collections you should explore:

Nearpod core-subjects teaching lessons folder

Games and activities

Whether you’re a beginner looking to ease into teaching with Nearpod or simply searching for activities to use for your lesson plans, interactive activities are perfectly bite-sized practice opportunities designed to be versatile.

Here are some ways you can use our activities:

  • Use them as hooks, checks for understanding, asynchronous practice, or even assessments
  • Use them on their own or add them to lesson using our integrated activity bank, accessible right from where you create your lessons
  • Use several activities at once for small groups or differentiated instruction

Whereas full lessons contain multiple slides, activities use a single, interactive slide to pack in all the learning action. 

Here are some of the types of Nearpod activities you’ll find in our library:

  • Matching Pairs to foster vocabulary acquisition using text or images. When your students are done, share results with them in real time for feedback and reflection! 
  • Draw It to make the learning experience hands-on by drawing, highlighting, typing, or adding images to text, charts, graphic organizers, graphs, tables, and more.
  • Time to Climb to make a game of concept and skill review! Watch your students answer questions and compete to make it to the podium!
  • Drag and Drop learning activities, in which students sort words, phrases, numbers, or images to practice concepts and skills from word problems to the writing process. 
  • Collaborate Board: to help you break the ice, encourage classroom discussions, and foster student voice in the classroom. 
Students playing Time to Climb on their devices while the educational game is on the projector

Interactive videos

Using multimedia such as video is ideal for memorable student learning. Still, the time it takes to find just the right resources can make this feel unrealistic. To save you time sifting through endless video search results, Nearpod has 10,200+ educational Interactive Videos you can use for your high-quality lesson plans. Find videos from names you trust, such as Crash Course, SciShow Kids, Smithsonian, TED-Ed, and more. We’ve even embedded interactive questions into every video you’ll find on Nearpod, allowing you to monitor your students’ understanding in real time. We are also proud of our growing collection of Nearpod Original videos—best-in-class, free instructional videos written and produced by our own video team.

 Here are some of our favorite Nearpod Originals: 

Just like activities, Interactive Videos give you the flexibility you need:

  • Add or remove interactive questions right inside the video to tailor the experience to your students’ needs.
  • Use videos on their own or add them to an existing Nearpod lesson or activity.
  • Watch together in front-of-class mode or send to your students’ devices for synchronous or asynchronous instruction.
Nearpod Lesson Library One-Pager

How to find free high-quality lesson plans

Interested in sharing or saving the tips on this blog post? We’ve rounded up all of these teacher resources into a downloadable PDF. Print it out to share with colleagues, send it digitally, or save it in your files for reference!

Find the resources you need with just a few clicks with our enhanced search:

  • Use a single search bar and a keyword to search for lessons anywhere on the platform. You can find all the resources on the Nearpod Library or Nearpod programs. You can even find all those amazing lessons you forgot about in your own library.
  • Search faster with real-time suggestions that appear in the search bar right as you type!
  • Looking for something specific? You can now filter according to content type, subject, grade level, and standards.
  • You’ll always know how to find your way home with a Nearpod menu that always stays the same on the left side of your screen.
Filters to find quality, free teaching resources

Curated Collections

Sometimes, you might just be in the mood to browse! You can explore our curated content collections right from the Nearpod Library. Every month, we update our “Featured” section to bring you seasonal topics, relevant holiday resources, and new partnerships. We also give you easy access to our latest must-haves in the rotating carousel at the top.

Nearpod teaching resources on the Lesson Library

Your school or district library

Teaching is a collaborative effort. We know you work hard with your department, school, or district to curate resources that are just right for your community of students. If you use a school or district Nearpod license, you can find content recommended by your colleagues in the school library. And suppose you want to expand your search to our library of 22,000+ free resources for teachers. In that case, the enhanced search bar will always be right at the top, ready for you to explore everything in one place.

What can you do with Nearpod content?

Teach it as-is or customize it

All of the free teaching resources and high-quality lessons in the Nearpod Library are customizable. You can save any resource to your library and edit it. You can divide it into two or more lessons by duplicating the lesson: add or remove slides, change activity directions, add your own visuals and supports as reference media, swap one activity for another, or anything else you know your students will benefit from. 

Here are some ways you can customize your effective lesson:

  • Have students who will benefit from the option to draw and write? Swap in a Draw It for an Open Ended Question and allow them to do both!
  • Want to engage your students with a bit of competition? Replace a Quiz with a Time To Climb activity.
  • Need your students to submit audio instead of written responses? Turn on the “audio response” feature on an Open-Ended Question.
  • Want to add even more real-world connections? Add a Virtual Reality (VR) Field Trip to your lesson.

Organize your lessons in My Library

When you’ve found the perfect lesson or modified one to make it right for your students, it’s easy to store it in your library.

Pro tip: Rename the lesson and add descriptors in settings so it’s easier to find later! For example, you might rename the lesson “Entering the Cold War” to “Cold War Unit Opener” and add things like “5th period,” “pre-assessment,” or other relevant terms in the lesson settings. 

Nearpod Lesson Library folder organizing options

Drag and drop your favorite content into folders you can name, rename, and color-code. Organize your resources by subject, class period, month, unit, or whichever system best serves your needs! And with the search bar, remember that every time you enter something, you’ll see results from the Nearpod library and your own library of tried-and-true resources—everything is now just a click away.

Start saving and creating lessons

Nearpod’s expertly curated and easily searchable library of free teaching resources is there for you, regardless of the type of Nearpod license you have. Additionally, schools and districts can put even more resources at their teachers’ fingertips, thanks to Nearpod Programs. No matter how you use the Nearpod library, we hope our growing library will help you spend less time searching and more time focusing on what you love.

Foster a love of learning in every student with Nearpod. Teachers can sign up for free to access quality, standards-aligned lessons and create their own interactive lessons and activities. Administrators can schedule a call with an expert to unlock the full power of Nearpod for schools and districts.

The post How to find free high-quality lessons and teaching resources appeared first on Nearpod Blog.

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Taking the digital fluency leap with Nearpod: Adirondack Central School District’s story https://nearpod.com/blog/adirondack-success-story/ Tue, 07 Nov 2023 17:08:54 +0000 https://nearpod.com/blog/?p=32090 Discover how Adirondack Central School District is using the power of Nearpod to implement New York State's Computer Science and Digital Fluency Standards.

The post Taking the digital fluency leap with Nearpod: Adirondack Central School District’s story appeared first on Nearpod Blog.

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In a digital age where technological literacy is paramount, the integration of computer science and digital fluency into K-12 education is a top priority for school districts. For students today to become the confident, competitive professionals of tomorrow, they must be prepared for contexts that shift in a click. With this in mind, in 2020, New York State (NYS) introduced Computer Science and Digital Fluency Learning Standards, mandating all K-12 schools to fully incorporate them into their classrooms by the end of 2024. The standards are categorized into five topics: Impacts of Computing, Computational Thinking, Networks and System Design, Cybersecurity, and Digital Literacy.

A significant step for students is a giant leap for educators. Determined to support and not swamp teachers, the Adirondack Central School District in upstate New York is leveraging its long-term partnership with Nearpod to prepare its staff for the standards—and the assessments that will inevitably follow. Together, the district, educators, and Nearpod specialists devised a pioneering plan to align ready-to-teach lessons from Nearpod’s 21st Century Readiness Program with these standards so that by the time they come into force, everyone knows what they’re doing, how they’re doing it, and why.

New to 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’s 21st Century Readiness Program for schools and districts.

Main challenge: Navigating digital literacy standards with purpose

How could an ambitious rural public school district prepare all its teachers and students for incoming digital literacy standards without ramping up the pressure and workloads? 

Determined teachers across the Adirondack Central School District were aware of the criteria set out by the New York State Education Department. For Michael Faustino, the district’s director of curriculum, instruction, and technology, the only way to successfully implement the standards was to transform educators’ apprehension into intention and purpose. 

“The easy way out would be to explain the standards and ask teachers to just do their best. That’s not our philosophy. When you have new standards, there’s going to be an assessment of some sort and there must be an accountability measure,” he explains.

Three students with laptop, one raising her hand

Michael knew the district needed to support all teachers with a solid, structured plan so they didn’t feel overwhelmed or underequipped.

“Anytime you have mandates come down, the tendency is to put more on teachers’ plates without taking anything away. We realized that we can’t put students first if we put teachers last,” he adds.

For Nick Palczak, the district’s STEAM coordinator, it would be crucial to support teachers in leveraging the existing lessons and resources their students enjoyed and engaged with.

“Our educators are already meeting many of the standards—sometimes without even knowing it. So, the question was simple: How do we incorporate these lessons into their classes?” he asks.

The answer was Nearpod. The Adirondack Central School District has been an active Nearpod partner since January 2019. The incoming standards present a prime opportunity to take the partnership to the next level and use Nearpod to align what is being done with what needs to be done. As Michael asserts:

“Our goal for this academic year is to familiarize all our teachers with the alignment documents we are creating. If we roll out the alignment by September 2024, we won’t need implementation. We will just be fine-tuning.”

Nearpod’s 21st Century Readiness Program sets path to meet NYS Computer Science and Digital Fluency Learning Standards

Nearpod’s 21st Century Readiness Program is a powerful tool that equips teachers with a singular solution to infuse 21st-century learning into their daily lessons. This program is designed to bridge the gap, ensuring that students not only excel academically but also develop vital life skills.

Adirondack recognized the transformative potential of this program for educators who aspire to ready their students for the complexities of the 21st century while meeting the stringent requirements of the New York State Computer Science and Digital Fluency Learning Standards.

To support the district in the demanding task of aligning its curriculum with the new standards, the Nearpod team helped build alignment documents using lessons from the 21st Century Readiness Program, specifically customized for these incoming standards. These documents encompass comprehensive, user-friendly, and adaptable resources.

The district’s forward-thinking approach to education is evident in creating curriculum maps that meticulously identify Nearpod lessons aligning with the New York State Computer Science and Digital Fluency Standards across various grade levels. Significantly, most of these curriculum resources are sourced from the 21st Century Readiness Program. This strategic integration ensures that students are exposed to high-quality, standards-aligned content and underscores the district’s commitment to nurturing digital fluency and 21st-century skills among its learners. By leveraging these curriculum maps, educators can effectively use them to pinpoint which of their lessons fulfill the criteria of any given standard and track their progress toward ticking all the boxes.

So that’s what Adirondack did, and the results were rewarding—and relieving—as Michael explains: 

“We knew we didn’t want a system that provided standard-aligned lessons but was complex to navigate. Nearpod is so easy to use and works so well. Kids love it. Our students’ mental health is one of our primary concerns, so the platform was a win-win.” 

Nick concurs: “It’s not hard to introduce Nearpod to a set of students by day two. They can run lessons at their own pace. Teachers, even those who are tech-wary, lose their fear because they still use tools they’re familiar with, like Google Docs, with Nearpod.”

Teaching with, not at

In anticipation of the 2024 deadline, Michael and Nick are collaborating closely with Nearpod to plan and execute a comprehensive districtwide rollout meticulously. The first step will be training administrators to become instructional leaders who build capacity through workshops and ongoing support from turnkey trainers. They aim to help teachers explore the standards and connect the dots to what they’re already teaching.

Quote from Michael Faustino, Director of Curriculum, Instruction, and Technology

“We’re not going to teach at them,” Michael insists. “The beauty of the Nearpod alignment documents is that teachers can see the standards broken down into subjects and the timeline and then link to the lessons they can use in the classroom.”

New York State’s learning standards work by bands. Nick has taken each band and broken it down by grade for K-12. He is progressively feeding the alignment documents in which the standards are listed, with an explanation of the standard, examples of the standard that the state provided, and lessons that align with that standard to give to teachers, encouraging them to add their own lessons to the document.

The aim is for teachers to recognize what they’re doing in class and understand how the district and Nearpod can help them fill in the gaps or try something new. Nick gives an example:

“Part of the digital fluency standards is creating a digital artifact. Every teacher who creates a slide in Google Slides is creating digital artifacts. How can we make that more intentional? Why did you pick Google instead of something else? What are the features of it? How do you save it? Do you have folders? Is it stored in the Cloud? What does that mean? Great. Now you can deliver a lesson on digital citizenship.” 

Here are some examples of the lessons* Adirondack used for instruction: 

Visualizing Data Drag and Drop activity for Grades 3-5
  • Computer Vocabulary (Grades 2-3): In this 3-5 Nearpod Digital Citizenship and Literacy lesson, students investigate how technology can be used to make their lives simpler, more productive, and more expansive. Students learn the uses of different computer hardware devices.
  • Visualizing Data (Grades 4-6): In this 3-5 Digital Citizenship and Technology Drag & Drop activity, students will demonstrate an understanding of how to read various simple data sets.
Who's looking at your digital footprint? Nearpod Common Sense lesson preview
  • Lesson 5: In the Loop (Grades 7-8): In this 3-8 Coding lesson, students will be able to define what a loop is and explain its importance as it relates to writing code. Students will practice their new skills by completing a selection of CodeMonkey challenges.
  • Who’s Looking at Your Digital Footprint? (Grades 9-12): In this Common Sense Education lesson on Digital Citizenship, students learn how any information they post online can affect their future. They create a vignette that shows how a positive digital footprint can help take advantage of opportunities.

*These lessons are only available on Nearpod’s 21st Century Readiness Program.

From vision to action

For Adirondack, the key to successfully implementing the standards is to know which skills to teach and how. Even if students nor teachers know what the future holds in store, as Nick concludes: 

“We want our kids to leave Adirondack ready for high tech colleges and high tech jobs. I had a student who graduated last year. He’s now at the Rochester Institute of Technology (RIT). He’s trying to decide which robotics club he is going to join so he can compete in robotics programs. He’s so excited to go to a technical college when he grew up in a town of 100 people. I want more and more students to be able to leave our school to do those kinds of things.”  

Michael believes that educators must understand what is being measured and the outcomes:

“It’s not enough for us to have a vision statement that says we want our students to be college and career ready. We’re preparing them for jobs that don’t even exist right now. We can’t just give them taglines; we need to give them avenues, and the only way is by building professional learning without overwhelming teachers. That’s where Nearpod makes all the difference.”

It seems like the difference is already being made in the district. Far from dreading the incoming standards, Nick is confident they will help Adirondack achieve its goals: 

“In 2024, we want to intentionally meet these standards because we know why they are in place. We want to ensure our staff knows why these standards are in place. What jobs are available in 20 years? I have no idea. What skills do you need to be ready for those jobs? Adirondack’s goal is to have kids college and career ready. These standards are really going to help us to meet that goal.

To learn about the Adirondack Central School district’s actions, watch the webinar “Preparing for Digital Fluency with Nearpod” where they explain how they’ve been using Nearpod resources!

Take the digital fluency leap with Nearpod

Nearpod created New York State-centric alignment documents to demonstrate to teachers how their existing lessons correspond with incoming standards and help the district implement a strategic plan to meet them well before the 2024 deadline. Adirondack squared up to the challenge and developed curriculum maps, which clearly outlined the standards for each grade level and identified relevant Nearpod lessons that taught the necessary skills for students in each grade band.

By offering comprehensive, standards-aligned lesson plans, interactive activities, and assessment tools, the program simplified the process for educators and ensured that students receive a dynamic and engaging learning experience. It sets a blueprint to help schools across and beyond the state take bold strides and implement new educational standards with confidence, calm, and care.

Ready to learn more about how to prepare every student for success with Nearpod’s 21st Century Readiness Program? Schedule a call with one of our experts and learn how you can empower educators with unlimited access to everything they need to engage learners.

About the district

About Adirondack Central School District in Boonville, NY

The Adirondack Central School District in Boonville, NY, is a rural public school district encompassing four schools—two elementary, a middle school, and a high school. The district strives to create a safe, respectful, and accepting environment, and to provide students with the mental and emotional support to thrive and excel. By prioritizing open and transparent communication, and fostering a positive school spirit, Adirondack is committed to uniting the community while nurturing academic growth and achievement. Firmly focused on developing STEAM capacity, the district has invested greatly in building facilities and capacity to prepare students for whatever might await them. Its administrators and educators work for and with students to raise graduation rates, enhance state exam performance, minimize the need for academic intervention services, and increase enrollment in advanced courses to prepare students for their chosen—and changing—life endeavors.

About the educators

Michael Faustino, with three decades of experience in education, including 17 years as a kindergarten teacher before becoming a principal, now serves as the director of curriculum, instruction, and technology for the Adirondack Central School District. He leads the district’s mission to prepare all students for college and career success by emphasizing the importance of curricula and data. Michael collaborates closely with educators throughout the district to ensure they are well prepared to implement the New York State Computer Science and Digital Fluency Learning Standards in 2024, guiding teachers and students through every step of the transition, aligning with and even surpassing the timeline.

Nick Palczak, a seasoned physics teacher at Adirondack Central School since 1996, also serves as the district’s STEAM coordinator. He collaborates closely with the tech director to oversee K-12 STEAM programs, while also teaching STEAM courses at middle and high schools. In 2021, Nick played a pivotal role in establishing the Adirondack STEAM program, including setting up a new laboratory post COVID-19. In the past two-plus years, the Adirondack STEAM program has won several robotics competitions and has received numerous recognitions for its work with students. Alongside district coordinator Michael Faustino, Nick readies students and educators for upcoming standards while integrating STEAM into the curriculum. With a family legacy in education, Nick is passionate about preparing students and their teachers for 21st-century careers.

The post Taking the digital fluency leap with Nearpod: Adirondack Central School District’s story appeared first on Nearpod Blog.

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