Nearpod: Enhancing Your Teaching Toolbox for MPS K-12 Educators!

Nearpod. I know what you might be thinking – “Isn’t that just something used for distance learning?” I promise you that Nearpod is a game changer for in person learning as well!

First off – What is Nearpod? A quick answer is that it’s a way to create and share interactive presentations (ex: Google Slides or Powerpoint). You can create your own presentations, enhance Slides you already have, or find and use premade lessons from the expansive library of lessons and activities.

Let’s take a look at the top 5 reasons that Nearpod is an amazing tool for MPS K-12 teachers.

Boost student comprehension

We know that students learn more when they are engaged in learning. Rather than using a one-way presentation using PowerPoint or Google Slides, Nearpod enhances the presentation by making it more interactive. You can easily import your existing Google Slides, PDFs, and PowerPoint files into the platform, instantly transforming them into engaging Nearpod presentations. Then you can select from a wide variety of interactive activities to include in your presentation. If you’ve never tried Nearpod before, give this example activity a try to experience some of the types of activities you can include in your Nearpod presentations.

Gain insight into student understanding

Formative assessment data can be a powerful tool for learning about what students understand so that we can plan and respond in our teaching. Nearpod features many formative assessment activities you can use in your presentations. You can create customized Quizzes, Polls, Open-ended Questions, Matching Pairs, Draw It activities, and more. Use these tools to view student responses and check for understanding in real time. Use this data to instantly gain insights into student understanding and make adjustments on the fly or plan for reteaching.

Student Collaboration

As Premium Plus District Subscribers, MPS users have access to a feature called Collaborate Board that can really enhance your lesson presentations. Collaborate Board is an interactive discussion board that allows students to post text and images to a shared class board. If you’ve ever used Padlet, you will recognize this feature. It’s a great way to spark class discussion, brainstorm, or check in on how students are feeling.

Sub Plans

We all know the stress of needing to plan for a substitute teacher. Sometimes it almost feels easier to teach when we don’t feel well versus planning for a sub. Nearpod has a sub plan feature that can help with that. You can prepare new, existing, or premade lessons into your sub plan in advance, and it automatically generates a Student-Paced code.

Once you’ve created your sub plan, simply add in the email address of the sub, or an admin, to automatically send your plan and instructions. Even better, student responses will be saved in your account and stored with the rest of your Nearpod Reports.

Simulations and Virtual Reality

Nearpod has many virtual lab simulations that make math and science lessons come to life! While teaching summer school this year, I used a lab I found in Nearpod’s Skate Park Lesson and during my lesson, students were so engaged and gaining so many insights through their exploration that I had to cut the rest of the lesson short as they did not want to stop working!

You can also give your students a more immersive experience by using Nearpod’s Virtual Field Trips (no special glasses required). Students can explore museums, national monuments, cities, world heritage sites, landmarks, etc. They can even take virtual college tours! Want to take a quick trip to Mount Zion? Let’s go! Give this sample VR lesson a try! (Do not select “Enter VR” if you are not using special glasses)

Still not sure about Nearpod? Many teachers in MPS are using Nearpod to enhance teaching and learning in their classrooms. Here is what one of your MPS colleagues has to say about using Nearpod:

“ I used it regularly because the layout was user-friendly for my students regardless of their academic level. I was able to modify some of the content to meet the needs of all my students. I like the fact that it has both the student pace and in-class participation, which means that I can teach from the slides and assess students’ understanding/feedback. Students can log in at any time to catch up on missing work or if they are absent. Nearpod is something I would encourage teachers to try.” – Grace Mobosi-Enwesi