Nearpod!

Nearpod! I cannot say enough about Nearpod! This classroom tool is one that cannot be understated. Nearpod is used for lesson presentation, quizzes, engaged learning, and literally anything else a teacher could dream up. There are pre-made lessons, virtual reality opportunities, and the ability to create a custom presentation of your own. This tool has endless opportunities and is conductive of the engaged classroom environment.

Nearpod is conductive of critical thinking because the teacher is in charge of asking the questions. She can make them create something with the drawing tool in assessment, answer with words and tell exactly what their thinking is, or even make something of their own. The options are endless with Nearpod. Critical thinking doesn’t stop at answers, the students are given links to research, and opportunities to expand their thinking and think deeper about their answers before giving them. Students are given time and opportunity to dive deep into their cognitive depths to individually say what they need. The teacher can assess each student individually as well as comprehensively.

Communication is vital to Nearpod! The students communicate with the teacher during the lesson at designated checkpoints. They are given questions and opportunities to show their learning. The teacher can give the students a multiple choice question, short answer, drawing, or even a quiz in the middle of her lesson. The students work through these questions individually, but they are communicated to the teacher collectively. She can see what percentage of the class answered the question correctly, if it’s a multiple choice, and even see what each student answered individually. This is an amazing tool for the teacher. She can also share answers back with the students. She can pick one answer out of the entire class that is exemplar and share it. With this, the can also individually communicate with the students when she sees misconceptions. She is able to step in and correct the mistakes individually and work with students who need it most.

The students can be as creative with their answers as they want to be! They are given the opportunity to share their exact thinking with the teacher and in many modes of communication. They can draw her a picture to demonstrate their answer, they can write a paragraph, or they can just give her a flat out answer. They must be creative in how they show their understanding. The teacher is also able to be creative in her use of this tool in the classroom. She can connect these Nearpod lessons to any aspect of the curriculum or allow them to stand alone. She has full reign of creativity!

Collaboration is possible in Nearpod because all of the students are going through it at the same time. Each student is at the same pace as the teacher (if she chooses) so they are able to collaborate about what they are seeing and learning in real time. This is helpful because it allows the students to connect their ideas to one another as they learn, making it easier to answer the questions asked of them during the lesson.