How to create interactive goal setting activities for students

Any activity or lesson can be made interactive with Nearpod for free. For example, you can select activities and lessons from our Goal Setting lesson folder. Filter by grade level, subject, or standards to find an activity fit for you and your students. If you’re searching for New Year resolution templates, you can search the lesson folder for an activity that aligns with your students’ grade level. Additionally, you can create your own interactive activities to make any Nearpod lesson fun and engaging for students. With Nearpod, you can access interactive formative assessments that include gamification, drag and drop, drawing, matching, and collaborative discussion, which will enhance classroom learning for all students.

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.

5 Engaging goal setting activities for any classroom

1. Establish resolutions and reflections

January is the perfect time of year for students to reflect on the first half of the school year and set specific goals for the new year. These activities and lessons are perfect for teaching your students about setting SMART goals. Do this as a class activity or in Student-Paced mode for independent reflection.

Use these goals setting activities for resolutions and reflections:

• Reflections and Resolutions (Activity: Grades K-12): In this SEL activity, students practice self-management by reflecting on past experiences to create SMART resolutions for the new school year. This lesson can be used to infuse social and emotional learning into classroom schedules easily. There are 3 versions of this activity for the following set of grade levels: Grades K-2, 3-5, and 6-12.

• Goal Setting (Activity: Grades 3-8): In this life skills activity, students will review their understanding of goal setting using Nearpod’s interactive quiz game, Time to Climb. There are 2 versions of this activity for the following set of grade levels: Grades 3-5 and 6-8.

• Smart Goals (Video: Grades 3-6): In this fun and educational video from Lynn Hefele, students learn how to create SMART goals using specific, measurable, attainable, realistic, and timely language.

• SEL: Growth Mindset (Activity: Grades 6-8): In this life skills activity, students will review their understanding of growth mindset using Nearpod’s interactive quiz game, Time to Climb.

• New Year’s Resolutions for Students (Video: Grades 9-12, Higher Ed): In this video from Socratica, students learn how to make achievable new year’s resolutions and complete them.

2. Practice a growth mindset

There is no successful goal setting without a growth mindset. Encourage students to adopt a growth mindset for the new school year to motivate themselves to accomplish their personal and academic goals. You can also use these activities during different times of the year when they need a little extra courage. Use these effective goal setting activities for the new year, test prep season, or before they go on holiday or summer break to reinforce these teachings.

Motivate students with these growth mindset lessons and activities:

• Growth Mindset (Lesson: Grade 3-8): In this Life Skills lesson, students will learn about the opportunity to learn from failure. Your students will be able to acknowledge failure as a positive process and learning opportunity.

• Growth Mindset (Video: Grades 4-12): What if we thought of failure as an opportunity for growth? In this video, students learn about growth mindset. A host explains how a growth mindset reframes mistakes as a sign of potential. Students consider how this can impact their own lives.

• SEL: Growth Mindset (Activity: Grades 6-8): In this 6-8 life skills activity, students will review their understanding of growth mindset using Nearpod’s interactive quiz game, Time to Climb.

• Survey: Growth Mindset (Activity: Grades 6-12): Want to learn more about your students? Use this survey to get to know your students and learn more about how they feel about your subject area!

3. Inspire students with social and emotional habits

Are your students not sure what type of goals they want to set for themselves? Give them some realistic goals they can accomplish in the new year. Whether it’s reading more, exercising frequently, managing their time better, or cultivating healthy social and emotional habits, you can provide your students with the resources they need to kick off a new goal they’re passionate about.

Before kicking off goal setting activities, share some of these lessons with your students to inspire them:

• Mantras (Video: Grades 3-8): Want to feel calmer or more confident? In this one-minute video, students will learn about mantras. A host will explain how mantras can help you focus and manage stress, and students will consider how they can use mantras in their own lives.

• Let’s Breathe Out (Lesson: Grades 6-8): In this Social Emotional Learning lesson, middle school students students will learn about the concept of mindfulness and how to cultivate it within themselves.

• Exercise and Fitness (Lesson: Grades 6-8): In this CCP Life Skills lesson, students will learn how to maintain an active and healthy lifestyle. They will examine how to calculate BMI, calorie intake, and the physical benefits of exercise.

• Daily Routines and Time Management (Lesson: Grades 6-12): Students learn to organize their daily schedules and manage their time to achieve their goals, specifically long term and short term goals.

• How to Love Reading (Video: Grades 9-12, Higher Ed): In this interactive video from Socratica, high school students learn about how to love reading.

4. Encourage healthy technology and media habits

Now more than ever, it’s important to empower students to think critically and participate responsibly in the digital world through digital citizenship skills. Use the beginning of the year to reinforce digital literacy skills students use daily. These habits can also serve as goal setting ideas they can use in the new year. For example, they can set a goal not to check social media in the first 15 minutes they wake up or to shut off their phones one hour before they go to sleep.

Use these lessons to encourage healthy digital citizenship habits in the new year:

• Digital Citizenship & Responsibility (Activity: Grades 6-8): In this 6-8 activity, students will review what it means to be a good digital citizen and how to take responsibility on social media with Nearpod’s interactive quiz game, Time to Climb.

• Social Media Addiction (Video: Grades 6-12): Is social media designed to be addicting? In this one-minute video, students learn about social media addiction. A host explains how social media is designed to be addicting, and students consider whether social media should be regulated.

• Social Media Behaviors and Cyber Bullying (Lesson: Grades 6-12): Students learn the importance of responsible use of online platforms and how to spot and stop cyberbullying.

5. Celebrate with themed slide templates for your lessons!

This January, use one of our two seasonal templates for Google Slides! With a Nearpod Gold, Platinum, or School account, you can access our Google-Slides Add On to embed interactive Nearpod slides and activities within Google Slides. Perfect for creating January or back to school activities for your classroom!

Learn more about our Google Slides integration here. However, please note these slide templates can still be accessed for free.

Uploading PowerPoint or Google Slides into Nearpod to create your lessons? Download the slide templates as a .ppt, make a copy in Google Slides, and upload your festive lesson to Nearpod.

Click the links below to download your favorite New Year template! If you’re interested in slides for back to school, explore all of our slide templates here.

Start using these interactive activities and lessons

These goal setting activities will help you and your students ring in the year smoothly and confidently! You can reinforce the skills taught in these activities year-round with your students. If you’re new to Nearpod, ensure you’re signed up for a free account. You can access all of the lessons, activities, and videos in this blog post by clicking below to sign up!

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.

Carol Chinea

Carol Chinea is a Marketing Associate at Nearpod.

The post 5 Engaging goal setting activities for any classroom appeared first on Nearpod Blog.

How to make your own interactive Drag and Drop activity

Nearpod’s Drag and Drop activity allows students to sort, order, or label images or text sequentially or in groups. Educators can choose from an ever-growing collection of premade activities or create customized activities to meet specific classroom needs. To create your own, you can add a content background image and customize draggable items for the activity. When paired with all of Nearpod’s interactive slides-based lessons, interactive videos, and other gamification and activities, this feature gives teachers many tools to meet the needs of diverse learners.

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

5 Ways to use Drag and Drop activity maker in the classroom

1. Label diagrams, images, and maps

With seemingly unlimited possibilities, these activities provide a visual and interactive learning opportunity, increase student engagement, and encourage retention. Start off by labeling diagrams, images, maps, patterns, and cycles. Here are some examples you can use in your classroom:

• Geography: Label the continents, oceans, and state flags
• Science: Label the parts of a plant, the parts of the brain, or the parts of an animal cell
• English Language Arts (ELA): Label the parts of speech in a sentence.

Here are some premade activities you can use:

• Locating & Identifying States: Northwestern States (Grades 3-5): In this activity, students identify the location of and label five northwestern states.
• Labeling the Parts of a Plant (Grade 4): Students can practice reading about and identifying the different parts of a plant.
• Labeling Parts of the Brain (Grades 9-12): Have students showcase their understanding of the brain by dragging labels to their correct positions.

2. Sequence events and information

Use a Drag and Drop activity maker to sequence events, steps, procedures, and information. Here are some examples you can use in your classroom:

• Social studies: Sequence the events leading up to the American Revolution
• English Language Arts (ELA): Sequence the order of events in a story: the beginning, middle, and end.
• Math: Sequence a collection of fractions on a number line

Here are some premade activities you can use:

• Representing the Numbers 14, 15, 16 (Grades K-1): In this Math activity, students will engage in practicing various methods of representing numbers using draggable objects.
• A Key Events Timeline: The Formation of the Union (Grades 6-8): Students show their understanding of crucial events that paved the way for the union’s establishment.
• Story Elements (Grades 6-8): Students will read a passage and identify the story elements.

3. Sort concepts and categories

Here are some examples you can use in your classroom to sort concepts, characteristics, properties, and categories:

• Science: Sort animals into groups, the five senses, and elements of the Periodic Table.
• Social studies: Sort the causes and effects of WWII and the powers of the three branches of government.
• Social emotional learning: Sort the steps for goal setting, categorizing emotions, and examples of empathetic and non-empathetic statements.

Here are some premade activities you can use:

• Local, State & National Government (Grades 3-5): Students explore the roles and selection processes of government officials at the local, state, and national levels and identify their services.
• Identifying Congruent Triangles (Grades 9-12): Students can sort triangles based on their characteristics
• Recognizing Emotions (Grades 6-8)*: Students identify how different situations can induce different emotions by ranking how they may feel in different scenarios.

*This lesson is only available on Nearpod’s 21st Century Readiness Program.

4. Gather student responses to assess knowledge and gauge understanding

Providing students with timely feedback and support based on formative assessments is a highly effective way to enhance and improve a student’s learning. When teachers can create opportunities for feedback on a consistent basis, learning can reach a whole new level. Consider gathering feedback beyond the traditional assessment methods.

Create Drag and Drop game as an end-of-lesson or mid-lesson metacognitive check-in, gauge how students feel about learning a specific topic, or check in about the difficulty level of a homework assignment. These activities can aid students in indicating stress or focus levels or whether they find a lesson interesting or challenging.

5. Set expectations for learning and establish routines and procedures

Imagine having a tool that actively engages your students in understanding and establishing routines and procedures to allow your students to participate in building the classroom community. This will help create opportunities for students to become active participants in the classroom. Use interactive activities to sequence classroom procedures, gauge student understanding of classroom rules and policies, and take a snapshot of the level of excitement for a particular topic in the daily class agenda.

Use Nearpod’s interactive activities

As students physically engage with concepts through Drag and Drop elearning games, learning will be transformed into an immersive experience. These activities will prove to be a powerful EdTech tool in the classroom, enhancing learning and building stronger connections between teachers and learners and among classmates. Be sure to make these activities an integral part of instruction this school year and take advantage of our ready-to-launch standards-aligned activities, growing into the hundreds throughout this fall.

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.

Jessica Clarke

Jessica Clarke is the Curriculum Manager at Nearpod.

The post 5 Ways to use Drag and Drop activity maker in the classroom appeared first on Nearpod Blog.

Oh, how quickly I realized the ever-dynamic aspect of classroom teaching. A couple of decades later, I’m still not convinced that any stellar teacher prep program can do the field of education justice. The sheer amount of variables that a classroom of unique individuals brings with them makes for an awe-inspiring journey, year over year. Explore essential tips and invaluable advice for new teachers embarking on their exciting journey in education!

Nearpod can support you in creating interactive lessons, accessing standards-aligned lessons, keeping students engaged, and tracking real-time insights into student learning. Sign up for Nearpod below for free!

However, I think true educators embrace this challenge. They revel in the variety. That’s when their artistry truly shines within the classroom’s four walls. But I do wish I had had a “cheat sheet” of tips for first year teachers — just a list of gentle reminders and teacher-inspired hacks to help the days go a bit more smoothly and to help me maintain my own sanity. As a first year teacher, I found myself the neediest student in my classroom! Boy, was I eager to learn.

I had come armed with lofty goals of asking for help, watching others teach, and aspiring to over plan… but I never had the time as a new teacher. From when the door first opened on that initial day of school until the end of the school year, I was in go-mode. What I wish I had known were all those more practical advice for new teachers that I did amass over time with experience.

Advice for new teachers: 22 First year teacher tips

I’ve listed twenty such tips of my own to get this valuable cheat sheet started for first year teachers:

1. Set clear expectations with students

Set clear expectations first thing and reinforce them often during the first month of school. Emphasize processes and routines, and follow through on expectations and consequences consistently. Remember, it’s easier to pull back and be less strict than it is to become more strict when it comes to classroom management.

What’s your signal to get your students’ attention? I use the doorbell. Practice the routines and procedures all year long, not just at the beginning of the year. Teach your students ways to find a solution to their problems… I teach the students that there are kid problems and kid solutions and grownup problems and grownup solutions.

Elizabeth Torres Maldonado, PioNear

2. Write and create your planbook digitally

So many unexpected hiccups can derail your best-laid plans, so design with flexibility top of your mind and an eraser in hand. Writing plans on mini sticky notes is also helpful.

Consider making your planbook digital as well, so it’s always easy to organize, edit, sort, and search for the resources you need.

3. Make #besties

Establish strong relationships early on with the front office assistants and the custodians, as you will need them in your court countless times week in and week out (if not daily). They have eyes and ears on all aspects of the school community, and they will be your go-to ally in many instances, promise.

Give yourself the gift of not having to know everything. Don’t be afraid ask ask ask questions of veteran teachers you trust. PLUS, the office manager and the custodian can save you, make friends with them!

James Staton, PioNear

4. Google (image) it

Search online for “teacher hacks” when it comes to classroom organization and advice for new teachers and then click on the Images tab. You’ll be surprised at the ingenious ways teachers use shoe bags for craft supplies and dish racks to organize technology.

5. Keep your space clean

A dustbuster, a Mr. Clean Eraser, and a fragrant plug-in will keep your classroom in tip-top shape on a day-to-day basis. However, please keep allergens in mind when it comes to fragrances! Remember to check school policies before introducing any scented products.

6. Ask questions!

Best PD might be right down the hallway. Don’t be afraid to ask your fellow teachers for feedback or help when you need it or when you feel overwhelmed. They won’t think less of you! And, all the teachers I’ve worked with have always bent over backward to help if I asked for it.

Brittanie Payne, PioNear

There are no stupid questions, only answers. No matter who asks, the teacher or the student.

Martina Matejas, PioNear

7. Get organized digitally and traditionally

Organize one master copy of your printed materials — lessons, worksheets, and resources — in plastic sleeves. Put those sleeves in sequential order, pair them with lesson plans and notes, and group them thematically in labeled binders that can be on a shelf within reach.

Better yet, get digitally organized, and get rid of the paper clutter by compiling you files into folders. That way you can always easily edit your resources and search where to find them. You can also organize your digital Nearpod lessons by creating lesson folders and organizing them by name and color codes.

8. Paper, please!

Consider ways to cut back on paper use and save that tree by using digital alternatives on Nearpod such as Draw It, Drag and Drop, and more to support classroom activities and collaboration.

You can also seek out local companies to donate, put in requests with DonorsChoose.org, or ask your classroom families to contribute, but you will go through a lot of paper in any given school year, and the worst is having plans but then running out of paper for copies.

9. Color counts

Regardless of your students’ ages, go all out in decorating and covering classroom walls with colorful learning resources and rotating student work. You all spend hours in your room, so treat it like a second home that you all want to take care of.

10. Don’t pick at it

A staple remover will save your fingers and fingernails! This handy dandy little plastic contraption will be your new best friend. Invest in more than one sense those little guys can easily be misplaced or lost.

11. Remember to hang tough

Invest in several rolls of blue or green painter’s tape instead of masking tape to adhere student work to the walls. Regularly change out so kids can see their hard work appreciated. However, when true staying power is needed, especially on those concrete classroom walls, turn to ever-impressive duct tape.

12. Don’t go red

Vary the colors of the pens you use when reviewing work so that kids don’t associate being wrong with color. Create a robust feedback loop by considering other ways to provide feedback besides with a pen, like video feedback or a face-to-face conference. Cultivate the mindset of “failing forward,” and remember that a sticker (for all ages) goes a long way when it comes to recognition!

13. Try out different ways to channel students’ attention

Research ways to help channel children’s attention — put a strip of velcro under desks for some tactile stimulation, add a red card to the corner of desks for focus, use exercise balls instead of chairs, and practice group breathing exercises to help kids embrace mindfulness.

14. Play music

Discover what kinds of music your students like as background noise, which can help drown out other distracting classroom noises while everyone works. Look for playlists on Spotify, Pandora, Amazon Prime Music, or other streaming sources, or simply make your own and play from any digital device. Music can help calm anxiety, soothe feelings, and lift moods. Consider using Flocabulary videos as well between transitioning to different activities and units.

15. Build meaningful relationships with students

Sounds simple enough, but do find the time to get to know your students on a personal level. Have them fill out a questionnaire, conduct mini-conferences, and reach out to their families continuously throughout the year to establish an authentic relationship. You can use Nearpod’s Polls or Collaborate Board to conduct questionnaires and collect feedback. Weave in social and emotional learning (SEL) moments with your students in your daily instruction to reinforce relationship building. 

Relationships matter! Get to know the ins and outs of your students and their families! Making those connections from the start will make for a successful school year and carry you through the thick and thin! It’s as simple as knowing your student’s favorite sports team or what they enjoy doing on the weekend. Those little things go a long way!

Caitlin Arakawa, PioNear

16. Stick to a routine

Your students will thrive with it, your families will appreciate it, your administration will expect it, and don’t worry — there’s enough good daily drama within classrooms that your day will never be boring!

17. Plan for the unexpected

Have a sub folder ready to go with the practical notes about your students and their schedules, plus a host of turnkey activities that a substitute teacher can use in your absence; especially for those unplanned ones.

We’ve compiled a list of tips to make sub teacher plans a smoother experience for classroom teachers, substitute teachers, and students.

18. Leave it behind

Don’t bring (too much) work home with you. Teachers’ prep and grading work is never done, so do try to set strict limits so that you have a balanced work-home life.

19. Design your own PD

In this day and age, seek out recommended ways to hone your craft. Consider reading the Wong’s tried-and-true handbook, The First Days of School: How to Be An Effective Teacher. Discover the many free options such as listening to educator podcasts, subscribing to blogs, registering for webinars, or taking an online course.

Friendly reminder to register for Camp Engage, Nearpod’s free virtual professional development for educators! Camp Engage happens several times a year – around February, July, and November.

20. Provide alternative ways to communicate

Giving out your phone number may be a controversial tip, but I relied on my phone both as a way for students to reach me so that they were never left with unanswered questions and so that I could simply connect with their caregivers to share a good story.

You can also use a parent communication app like Remind or ClassDojo. You can also create a Google Phone number that you can discontinue at any time.

I would suggest seeing if there’s one that is commonly used in your building that the parents are used to, in addition to seeing which platform offers the best options that you’d like it to do.

Jennifer Wentworth, PioNear

21. Give yourself bathroom breaks

Another good tip would be “never give up an opportunity to go to the bathroom!” I can’t tell you how helpful that has been.

Jennifer Wentworth, PioNear

22. Don’t reinvent the wheel

Share your great ideas so your colleagues will be willing to too, but remember what a treasure trove Pinterest is — so much inspiration can be found for creative activities in a single photo. You can also explore Nearpod tips and ideas from teachers all over the world by joining our Educator Facebook Group and following us on Instagram, Pinterest, and Twitter.

And breathe!

Accept that you will make mistakes, veteran teachers do too. Learn from them and move on.

Anne Ruifrok Walker, PioNear

Start using Nearpod in your classroom

Take care of yourself and have patience as you learn and grow as a professional. I learned as much, if not more, in Year 2 than in Year 1, so stay open to being that lifelong learner that we’re all trying to inspire in our students. Now, we’re looking to you all to help this school year’s cadre of first year teachers maintain their optimism, face challenges head-on, and rise to the ranks of “veteran teacher” (not sure I’ve made it yet!).

Nearpod can support you in creating interactive lessons, accessing standards-aligned lessons, keeping students engaged, and tracking real-time insights into student learning. Sign up for Nearpod below for free!

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 22 Tips I wish I’d known as a first year teacher appeared first on Nearpod Blog.

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.

New to Nearpod? Sign up for free below to access quality, standards-aligned lessons and create your own interactive lessons and activities!

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:

• Explore our Nearpod Core Subject Lessons collection to see the 5E and GRR models at work
• Give Project-Based Learning a try with our Freckle collection for elementary math
• Model Guided Inquiry by using Great Question videos, such as Greek Mythology

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. 

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 teaching 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 teaching lessons 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:

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!

• Math Lesson Guide for grades K-9
• ELA Lesson Guide for grades K-9
• Social Studies Lesson Guide for grades K-8
• Science Lesson Guide for grades K-8

Interactive lessons

Finding free teacher lesson plans is great. Finding free, high-quality, ready-made 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 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 lessons! Here are just a few of the collections you should explore:

• Our ever-growing collection of 500+ Nearpod Core-Subject Lessons, including team favorites such as Seven Wonders of the Ancient World and Introduction to Edgar Allan Poe.
• Our Nearpod & Lalilo collection teaches phonics and word families
• Our Nearpod & Freckle series shows students that math matters with project-based learning
• Our new Teaching With Infographics series was developed in partnership with iCivics
• Our constantly updating Current Events collection

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. 

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 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: 

• What Is Poetry?
• Types of Rocks
• The Solar System
• Perimeter
• What Led to the Chinese Exclusion Act?

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.

How to find free quality lesson plans

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

Enhanced Search Bar

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.

Curated Collections

Featured in the Library

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.

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 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 lessons: 

• 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. 

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.

New to Nearpod? Sign up for free below to access quality, standards-aligned lessons and create your own interactive lessons and activities!

Caroline Grider

Caroline is a former French, Spanish, and EL teacher who followed up ten years in the classroom with a gig as a content writer for Nearpod, and has been on the Nearpod Content Team ever since. She loves to think about how to use Nearpod content to make teaching easier.

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

New to Nearpod? Sign up below for free to create interactive lessons, access engaging activities, and explore our lesson library!

Back to school free lessons and activities to build classroom community

Build community and culture (K-12) 

Relationships first; everything else second. Help your students build community and culture around the school and within the classroom by giving them the power to shape their learning environment.  

Classroom Icebreakers (K-12)

Help students warm up to each other as they answer questions about themselves. Use these fun and engaging activities to help build a positive classroom culture in the first weeks of class.

Surveys (K-12)

The lines at the copy machine can be longer than the DMV. Save paper and time while learning more about your classroom with the click of a button. Use these digital surveys to get to know your students’ interests and goals inside and outside the classroom. Perfect activities to kick-start the new school year!

First week of school activities

Nearpod has a ton of interactive activities, such as Time to Climb, Collaborate Board, Draw It, and more, that can be easily integrated into your back to school plans. Keep students engaged and interested by creating a memorable first week of school moments with these ideas and premade activities.

Use Nearpod for your back to school lessons

In the realm of education, one undeniable truth emerges: relationships form the foundation of a vibrant learning environment. Through Nearpod’s dynamic tools, students gain the power to shape their own educational landscape, fostering both a strong classroom community and a culture of growth. As we embark on a new school year, it’s important to prioritize relationships to unlock the gateway to meaningful learning experiences.

New to Nearpod? Sign up below for free to create interactive lessons, access engaging activities, and explore our lesson library!

Nearpod Team

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

nearpod.com/

The post Back to school free lessons and activities to build classroom community appeared first on Nearpod Blog.

New to Nearpod? Sign up below for free to create interactive lessons, access engaging activities, and explore our lesson library!

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

1. Revisit and revise previous Nearpod lessons

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

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

2. Find premade standards-aligned content

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

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

3. Launch a quick Nearpod activity

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

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

Start using these tips to lesson plan for back to school

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

New to Nearpod? Sign up below for free to create interactive lessons, access engaging activities, and explore our lesson library!

Bethany Petty

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

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

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

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

New to Nearpod? Sign up below for free to create interactive lessons, access engaging activities, and explore our lesson library!

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

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

Lesson subject guides

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

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

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

Live and on-demand webinar trainings

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

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

• Using Nearpod with Google
• Summer PD by the Pool with Nearpod – Open your Back to School Open House with Engagement
• Nearpod for Beginners
• Crear Lecciones con Nearpod: Actividades Interactivas (conceptos de nivel intermedio)
• Plan, Create, and Edit a Nearpod Lesson

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

2. Get to know each other with digital icebreaker activities

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

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

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

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

3. Use interactive activities to help establish a classroom routine

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

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

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

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

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

4. Introduce new tech tools to students

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

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

5. Evaluate students’ prior knowledge

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

Consider these interactive activities and assessments:

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

Use Nearpod to deliver effective instruction

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

New to Nearpod? Sign up below for free to create interactive lessons, access engaging activities, and explore our lesson library!

Darri Stephens

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

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

Our latest product updates for the upcoming back to school season meet the needs of educators and equip them with the necessary tools to deliver effective instruction and facilitate engaging learning experiences!

Teachers and administrators can log in below to start using these updates. If you’re new to Nearpod, sign up for free or schedule a call with an expert.

What’s new with Nearpod: Back to School 2023

Discover Nearpod’s latest product updates for Back to School 2023! This PDF highlights the introduction of live teacher-to-student feedback, a simplified Lesson Builder, Search Enhancements for easier lesson planning, and more. With over 22,000 high-quality lessons, videos, and activities in the extensive standards-aligned library, Nearpod equips educators with the tools to support every student’s unique needs and foster a love for learning. Teachers and administrators can log in or sign up to access these new features. Don’t miss out on these exciting updates—download the PDF now and get ready for a successful back to school season!

Visualize and support student understanding with real-time feedback and insights

We are so excited to introduce Nearpod’s live teacher-to-student feedback feature, just in time for back to school (a TOP requested feature—we mean it when we say your feedback matters and we listen)! With this new feature, teachers can provide LIVE feedback on students’ work, allowing them to intervene in the moment. Teachers can quickly identify common misconceptions or provide additional help when students need it the most, ultimately boosting student engagement and achievement.

What can you expect with live teacher-to-student feedback?

• Direct feedback on individual students’ work in drawable activities, such as Draw It, Drag & Drop, and Math Manipulatives* (math manipulatives are exclusive to the Nearpod Math Program)
• Access to a wealth of real-time insights and adjust your instruction on the spot to better support each student’s unique needs

Create engaging lessons right in Nearpod with a new, simplified Lesson Builder

In addition to live feedback, we’re debuting our NEW Lesson Builder experience. We believe teachers are the architects behind creating engaging and interactive lessons that support student learning; to better support this, we’ve completely overhauled our Lesson Builder, making it easier for teachers to create captivating and personalized lessons. With our intuitive interface, teachers can craft dynamic lessons catering to their students’ needs and learning styles.

Additionally, our extensive standards-aligned content library offers a plethora of easy-to-customize, pre-existing materials. Whether teachers prefer to start from scratch or modify existing content, Nearpod’s Lesson Builder provides the tools to create captivating lessons that captivate and inspire students.

What can you expect with the new Lesson Builder? 

• Create and build lessons with a streamlined, familiar experience 
• Quicker and easier lesson creation functionality—build, edit, and reorder slides and activities

More exciting updates!

Focus on teaching, not just searching for supplemental resources in the Nearpod library with Global Search Enhancements: 

• New search filter to easily find lessons created by specific publishers 
• New lesson counters 
• Related search term suggestions to better refine search results

The beginning of the school year is the perfect time to dive into Nearpod’s extensive standards-aligned library. Our goal is to minimize your planning time so that you can focus on teaching and engaging with your students. With over 22,000 high-quality lessons, videos, and activities, the Nearpod library is packed with ready-to-use resources.

Curious to learn more about our exceptional content and trusted partners? Discover how to find free quality lessons and teaching resources.

Seamless and secure integration with the new implementation of LTI 1.3.

• LTI 1.3 provides an optimized learning journey that combines streamlined processes, advanced security features, and enhanced user authentication

Start using these Nearpod updates now!

We hope you are as excited about these new product updates as we are. After all – your feedback fueled them! Teachers are at the center of everything we do, we’re determined to provide you the tools and resources you need so you can focus on doing more of what you love – delivering impactful instruction and positive student outcomes.

Here’s to a great back to school season — you’ve got this, and we’ve got you!

Teachers and administrators can log in below to start using these updates. If you’re new to Nearpod, sign up for free or schedule a call with an expert.

Nearpod Team

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

nearpod.com/

The post What’s new with Nearpod: Back to school 2023 appeared first on Nearpod Blog.

Why are classroom procedures and routines important?

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

Routines and procedures are important for all students in any grade level. Although it’s helpful to establish basic classroom rules, it’s also significant to create routines when teaching a unit and providing assignments for classroom management.

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

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

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.

Easy classroom routines and procedures to engage students

1. Start off with an engaging bell ringer

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

— Kimberly Pacia (@MsPaciaEDU) June 1, 2020

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

3. Do a competitive review mid-lesson

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

Use a Draw It or Drag & Drop activity as a review. Add these activities to the middle of your Nearpod lesson and enable the timer for friendly competition! Up the stakes by giving the winner a small reward such as a night off homework. This is a classroom routine and procedure students will appreciate!

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

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

4. Get students excited with a gamified ticket

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

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

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

5. Incorporate current events in your lessons

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

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

Start implementing these classroom routines

With a collection of so many engaging, pertinent and innovative classroom procedures and routines to run, there’s no way both you and your students won’t love them! We’re so excited to see you put these routines into action. If you’re interested in accessing the activities and features shared, sign up for Nearpod for free!

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

Nearpod Team

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

nearpod.com/

The post Easy classroom procedures and routines to engage students appeared first on Nearpod Blog.

When teachers start using Nearpod, they are often thrilled with all of the accessibility features and the breadth of both content and activities. We all want to incorporate as much as possible to make our lessons dynamic, novel, and exciting while reaching every student through multiple modalities. But we can’t get ahead of ourselves and overcomplicate lessons for our learners. To ensure that our students are truly able to engage as independent learners, we need to provide step-by-step instructions on how to use Nearpod, just like we would for any other content-area-specific assignment.

Don’t have a Nearpod account? Sign up below for free to start using these tips!

How can I teach my students to use Nearpod?

1. Use Student View to explain procedures

Each feature can be explained simply and clearly with both an oral explanation and a demonstration. For instance, when we want our students to add images to a Collaborate Board, we can explain the procedure while showing them through a student view. Project Nearpod on your screen and have students follow along. Make sure to have an engaging question ready! 

Here’s how to change to Student View from your Teacher View in just one click:

2. Teach students to use Immersive Reader independently

Immersive Reader is a fantastic accessibility feature that allows emerging readers to have text read to them and provides embedded translation and a picture dictionary for multilingual learners. It’s important to clearly indicate to students which icon and tab they need to click in order to access this rich technology

Students need plenty of time to practice their Nearpod skills. After direct instruction on how to use a Collaborate Board and Immersive Reader, students need multiple opportunities to engage with the activity independently. Co-teachers and paraprofessionals can become wonderful allies in this process. 

3. Use our pre-made Nearpod Orientation lessons

Creating Nearpod lessons about Nearpod might seem like a burden, but fortunately, the Nearpod team has done all the work for you. The Lesson Library has a variety of lessons designed to give both teachers and students help using Nearpod. These engaging lessons introduce both staff and students to how to use Nearpod and all its features properly.

4. Use our video tutorials (Tip: Upload to Nearpod to make it interactive)

Nearpod also offers video tutorials which are great for visual learners. Video tutorials are bite-sized video clips that show how to use Nearpod’s various features. They can be incorporated into your lessons or shared with students whenever necessary. You can also embed these videos as reference materials into an activity. Teachers can turn any video into a customized, interactive experience by uploading it to Nearpod and embedding questions that are relevant to the students right in front of them. You can find videos on Nearpod’s YouTube or Teacher Resources page.

Watch the tutorial below to see for yourself!

5. Making Nearpod a part of your class routine

Once students have been taught a new feature and have had time to practice, they’ll need plenty of repetition. Incorporating Nearpod into classroom routines is simple, easy, and rewarding.

Here are five easy ways to make Nearpod a habit:

• Incorporate VR as a lesson hook. Have students explore another city, park, or underwater environment that grounds the lesson in the real world. Allow students time to explore and see something new, activating background knowledge and building schema. 
• Use the Collaborate Board for your bell ringer. Ask an open-ended question and give students time to respond and react to their classmates. Start with a turn-and-talk to bring in face-to-face interaction! 
• Make a Poll or Draw It exit ticket. Use Polls or drawing assessments like Draw It to get a general sense of student understanding and see student thinking.
• Check-in on students. Explore social and emotional learning activities related to mindfulness and emotions. These are great activities for starting the day, right after lunch/recess, or when there’s an interruption in the daily routine (think fire drills!).
• Review units and lessons with educational games. Nearpod has an enormous library of pre-made, editable activities, but creating your own is fun and easy as well. Gamify Friday afternoon and Monday mornings with Time to Climb!

6. Student accounts

Student Accounts is an optional feature that you can enable for your school or district. Available as part of the Premium Plus license, student accounts provide valuable benefits to teachers and students at your school or district. With Student Accounts, students can enjoy seamless access to lessons, change devices, take breaks, or finish lessons later without losing their progress or submissions. Also, students can create and deliver their own Nearpod presentations. Learn more about Student Accounts here.

Start using Nearpod with your students

We hope you’ll be using these resources with your students! Learning new tech tools takes time and practice, so Nearpod is here to support you and your students every step of the way.

Don’t have a Nearpod account? Sign up below for free to start using these tips!

Erika Tepler

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

The post How to teach your students to use Nearpod appeared first on Nearpod Blog.