Nearpod for Teachers: Everything You Need to Know in 20 Minutes | Tech Tips for Teachers

TeacherFYI
15 Dec 202120:30

TLDRIn this educational video, Mackenzie, a fifth-grade teacher, introduces Nearpod, an online tool for creating engaging lessons. She outlines the platform's features, including interactive slides, open-ended questions, and collaborative boards. The video guides viewers through setting up a Nearpod account, customizing lessons, launching sessions, and utilizing student reports. Mackenzie also shares tips on leveraging the tool for both in-class and online teaching, emphasizing its versatility and effectiveness in enhancing student engagement.

Takeaways

  • 😀 Nearpod is an online tool for creating engaging lessons with interactive features like open-ended questions and collaborative boards.
  • 🎓 There are two versions of Nearpod: a free version and a paid version, with the video focusing on the free version's features.
  • 🔧 Teachers can customize their Nearpod account settings to adjust features like student names auto-fill and immersive reader.
  • 📚 Nearpod offers a library of pre-made lessons that can be searched, previewed, and edited to fit specific teaching needs.
  • 📈 The tool includes various interactive elements such as videos, web content, 3D models, simulations, and virtual reality field trips.
  • 🎮 Games and activities like 'Time to Climb' and 'Matching Pairs' are available to reinforce student learning.
  • 🖌️ The 'Draw It' feature allows students to draw directly on images or PDFs, which is useful for labeling diagrams or highlighting text.
  • 🗣️ 'Collaborative Boards' facilitate class discussions by allowing students to post responses that classmates can view and interact with.
  • 📊 Teachers can launch a Nearpod session in 'Live Participation' mode for real-time class interaction or 'Student Pace' mode for independent work.
  • 📊 After a session, teachers can access detailed student reports, which include participation data and responses to all interactive elements in the lesson.

Q & A

  • What is Nearpod and how does it benefit teachers?

    -Nearpod is an online tool that allows teachers to create interactive lessons with features like open-ended questions, collaborative boards, and various activities. It's beneficial for both classroom and online teaching, making lessons engaging for students.

  • What are the two versions of Nearpod available for teachers?

    -There is a free version and a paid version of Nearpod. The video focuses on showcasing the features available in the free version.

  • How can teachers customize their Nearpod lessons?

    -Teachers can customize their lessons by adjusting settings, choosing from a library of pre-made lessons, editing existing ones, or creating their own from scratch within Nearpod.

  • What interactive features can be added to a Nearpod lesson?

    -Interactive features include open-ended questions, collaborative boards, draw it, time to climb games, quizzes, and more. These features help make lessons engaging and allow for student participation.

  • How does the immersive reader feature in Nearpod assist students?

    -The immersive reader feature reads the text on slides aloud to students, which is helpful for those working independently on student-paced lessons.

  • What is the difference between 'Live Participation' and 'Student Pace' modes in Nearpod?

    -In 'Live Participation' mode, the teacher controls the lesson in real-time with the class, while 'Student Pace' allows students to complete the lesson independently at their own pace.

  • How can teachers access and use the Nearpod library?

    -Teachers can access the Nearpod library to find and use pre-made lessons by searching for topics, filtering by standards, subject, and grade level, and then previewing or adding them to their library.

  • What is the role of the 'Collaborative Board' feature in Nearpod?

    -The 'Collaborative Board' feature allows students to respond to questions by posting on a virtual board that classmates can see and interact with, fostering class discussions.

  • How can teachers give feedback or assess student work in Nearpod?

    -Teachers can view and assess student responses in real-time during a live session and access detailed reports after the lesson to evaluate student understanding and participation.

  • What are the steps to launch a Nearpod session for students?

    -To launch a session, teachers select a lesson, choose between 'Live Participation' or 'Student Pace', start a new session, and share the code or link with students who join via join.neuropod.com or the Nearpod app.

Outlines

00:00

📚 Introduction to Nearpod for Engaging Lessons

Mackenzie, a fifth-grade teacher from California, introduces Nearpod as her favorite online tool for creating engaging lessons. She outlines the features of Nearpod, which includes creating slide decks with interactive elements like open-ended questions, collaborative boards, and drawing activities. Mackenzie highlights the two versions of Nearpod: free and paid, and plans to demonstrate the free version's capabilities in the video. The video is organized into five sections: Nearpod setup, customizing content, games and activities, launching a session, and student reports. She encourages viewers to subscribe and like the video to support her channel and help other teachers discover her content.

05:02

🔧 Setting Up Nearpod and Customizing Lessons

The video explains how to set up a Nearpod account and customize lesson settings. Mackenzie walks through the process of signing up for a free teacher account, adjusting settings like enabling student names, immersive reader, student notes, and collaborative board features. She also discusses the options for planning lessons, such as choosing from a library of pre-made lessons, editing existing ones, or creating new lessons from scratch. The library is explored as a time-saving resource, and the process of adding interactive elements to slides is detailed.

10:02

🎓 Adding Interactive Content to Nearpod Lessons

Mackenzie demonstrates how to add various types of content to Nearpod lessons, including slides, videos, web content, 3D models, simulations, virtual reality field trips, and more. She explains how to integrate these elements to enhance student engagement and understanding. The video also covers how to add interactive activities like Time to Climb games, open-ended questions, matching pairs, quizzes, and Flip Grid assignments. Each feature is designed to promote active learning and provide opportunities for formative assessment.

15:03

🏫 Launching Nearpod Sessions and Teaching Live

The section discusses how to launch a Nearpod session and teach using the platform. Mackenzie explains the difference between live participation and student-paced modes, with live participation being suitable for real-time classroom instruction and student-paced for independent work or homework. She shows how to start a session, share the session code with students, and control the lesson进度. The video also covers the use of teacher tools during a session, such as an interactive whiteboard, adding activity slides on the fly, and switching to student view for projection.

20:03

📊 Analyzing Student Reports and Concluding the Video

Mackenzie talks about the importance of reviewing student reports after a Nearpod session to assess student understanding and participation. She shows how to access and download session reports, which include detailed responses to interactive features used during the lesson. The video concludes with a reminder to like and subscribe for more teacher tips and concludes with a sign-off until the next video.

Mindmap

Keywords

💡Nearpod

Nearpod is an online educational tool that allows teachers to create interactive lessons with various features like slides, quizzes, and collaborative boards. In the context of the video, Nearpod is the central theme, with the speaker discussing how to use it effectively in a teaching environment, both in-class and online.

💡Interactive Features

Interactive features refer to the various elements within Nearpod that engage students, such as open-ended questions, collaborative boards, and drawing tools. These features are integral to making lessons dynamic and promoting student participation, as highlighted in the script where the speaker explains how to incorporate them into lessons.

💡Student Pace

Student pace in Nearpod refers to the option that allows students to complete lessons at their own speed, independently of the teacher's guidance. This is mentioned in the script as a useful feature for assigning homework or for use in a flipped classroom scenario, where students can work through materials outside of direct instruction.

💡Immersive Reader

The Immersive Reader is a feature within Nearpod that reads text aloud to students, which can be particularly helpful for those who benefit from auditory learning or for those working independently. The video script mentions enabling this feature in the settings to support different learning needs.

💡Collaborative Boards

Collaborative boards in Nearpod are a tool that allows students to work together on a shared digital space, posting responses or ideas that can be seen by the whole class. The script describes using these boards for whole-class discussions, fostering a collaborative learning environment.

💡Flip Grid

Flip Grid is a video response tool that can be integrated with Nearpod, allowing students to record and share short videos as part of their learning activities. The video script explains how to set up a Flip Grid assignment within a Nearpod lesson, enhancing student engagement through multimedia.

💡Live Participation

Live participation mode in Nearpod is used for teacher-led, real-time lessons where the teacher controls the pace of the presentation and can interact with students' responses immediately. The script describes this mode as suitable for in-class or online synchronous teaching.

💡Formative Assessments

Formative assessments are ongoing evaluations designed to provide feedback and support student learning. In the context of the video, the speaker mentions using Nearpod's reporting features to collect data from student interactions, which can be used as formative assessments to inform teaching practices.

💡Memory Test

The Memory Test is a game-like feature in Nearpod that helps students review material by matching pairs of images or text. The script describes setting up a memory test as a fun and interactive way for students to reinforce their learning at the end of a lesson.

💡Draw It

Draw It is a feature within Nearpod that allows students to draw or write directly on images or documents, which can be used for labeling diagrams, annotating texts, or responding to prompts. The video script provides examples of how Draw It can be used creatively in lessons to enhance understanding.

Highlights

Nearpod is a favorite online tool for creating engaging lessons.

It allows teachers to create slide decks with interactive features like open-ended questions and collaborative boards.

Nearpod is suitable for both classroom and online teaching environments.

The platform offers a free version with extensive features for teachers.

Teachers can customize their Nearpod account settings to fit their class needs.

Nearpod's library provides thousands of pre-made lessons that can be edited to suit specific teaching goals.

Creating a lesson in Nearpod involves adding content slides, videos, web content, and interactive elements.

Teachers can add multiple-choice and open-ended questions throughout videos to check student understanding.

Nearpod 3D and PHET simulations offer immersive experiences for subjects like science and history.

The platform includes a variety of interactive activities such as Time to Climb, Open-Ended Questions, and Matching Pairs.

Flip Grid integration allows students to record videos directly within a Nearpod lesson.

The Draw It feature enables students to draw or label diagrams directly on provided images or PDFs.

Collaborative boards facilitate whole-class discussions and idea sharing.

The Pull feature polls students and displays their responses, fostering class discussions.

Fill in the Blanks activity helps with vocabulary and academic language practice.

Memory Test game reinforces learning through a fun matching pairs challenge.

Teachers can launch a Nearpod session in live participation mode for real-time class interaction.

Student pace mode is ideal for independent work or homework, allowing students to complete lessons at their own pace.

During live sessions, teachers can use an interactive whiteboard, add activity slides, and view student responses.

Student reports can be generated and downloaded after a session to assess student performance and understanding.