Nearpod for Teachers

Today in class we learned about the app Nearpod. Even before this presentation, I LOVED Nearpod. Nearpod is a way to engage all of your students on devices when you the teacher has all of the control. Something that I learned today was that Nearpod can take you and your students on VIRTUAL FIELD TRIPS!!! Seriously SO cool! Nearpod can connect any class in so many ways. Actually, Nearpod can be used in pre-k-college classes. It’s super easy to create and use! Nearpod will allow you to ensure that every student is engaged because you can receive real time answering from your students. With Nearpod, only you see the answers from the students. If a student clicked on the wrong answer, only you and that student would know. I really believe that this helps with the confidence of our students. Also with this your classroom communication will rise because they are so engaged with one another. In my opinion, classroom engagement is a big thing. I know how easy it is to “tune out” while sitting in a class at any level. With Nearpod you can have hands-on engagement the entire time. With this, Nearpod can be accessed through an ipad, a phone, or even a desktop computer. 

 

Check out this video of Nearpod! 

 

I hope to use Nearpod in a classroom of my own someday. I love this idea for 21st century teaching and learning. It is a great way to have an engaged classroom while getting immediate feedback from your students! 

  

Nearpod also has premade lessons. This goes along with the virtual field trips that I mentioned earlier. Today we logged in and saw the pyramids in Egypt! Other options include things like underwater, landmarks, mars  There are free premade lessons as well as lessons that you can buy to use in your classroom. In the ones that you create, you can use short answer, drawings, multiple choice, and fill in the blank. It will immediately let you know what each student put in any of these! I feel like a big push these days is immediate feedback. Our students are used to getting things at the touch of a button so they expect everything that way. With Nearpod it can be that way!

Another great thing that was mentioned about Nearpod today was that class can be taken outside of the classroom. If you have a student who is sick at home, but can’t stand to miss work. All they need is the class Nearpod login and it’s like they are there! Nearpod is changing classrooms is a great way. The options are so great in how you can use this in a classroom of your own. While reading articles online like this one, I read that teachers were using Nearpod to have class when their students were snowed in! The students may not have like that too much, but the teacher was determined that class would indeed go on.. thanks to Nearpod that is.

“Nothing in school matters as much as the quality of teaching our students receive.” – United States Secretary of Education, Arne Duncan