How I'm Using Nearpod to Teach EVERY LESSON

hello there and welcome back to my channel if you are new here my name is michelle faray and i am a fourth grade teacher in maryland for anyone who doesn't know i am teaching my students virtually until further notice one of the best decisions i have made thus far with virtual teaching is using nearpod to teach all of my lessons if you haven't used nearpod it's essentially an interactive slideshow students will join in either using a link or a code and then you as the teacher can control the pace of the lesson so every time you advance to the next slide it also changes on the student's devices then you can add in interactive elements where maybe they have to type or maybe they draw on the screen or they play a game or they watch a video and for me that has really helped keep my students engaged while i'm teaching and it's helped my lessons flow a lot smoother so in today's video i'm going to show you how i create a nearpod lesson from start to finish now i just want to start by saying this is not a full in-depth near pod tutorial i'm really just showing you all how i am utilizing it there are definitely more features that you can explore within your pod but hopefully this at least will get you started i actually begin my near pod lessons within google slides so currently i just have a pre-made set of slides that i had used for a science lesson what i'm going to do is show you how to add those interactive near pod elements to slides that i've already created within my slides in order to open up nearpod i'm going to go to add-ons and then near pod if you do not already have near pod installed you're going to come down to get add-ons in the search box you will type in nearpod go ahead and select it and then choose install it's going to ask for permission just click continue you can go ahead and select your google account click allow and then it will just take a few seconds to actually install i'm going to click done and close out of there so now i'm going to go back to add-ons go to nearpod and choose open your pod this is going to open up a little sidebar on the right hand side and this is going to allow me to add those interactive near pod elements so i'm going to kind of go through my lesson and just talk through how i decide what elements to add so first i have my essential question and my i can statement i don't really need to add anything for that next i'm going over some vocabulary and i really like to utilize matching activities with vocabulary so after this slide i'm going to go ahead and add in a matching pairs activity so i'm just going to click matching pairs and it's going to pop up and ask me to type in any instructions so i'm just going to say match the vocabulary word to the correct definition then i'm going to go ahead and start adding in my pairs so i'm going to add the word on one side and the definition on the other my first word was structure and i can say a part of something click add another pair then i had function what something does or its purpose add another pair diagram a picture with labels that makes something easier to understand then i had internal which was the inside part and external which was the outside part then i'll go ahead and click done i'm going to just check over make sure everything's spelled correctly and i have everything i need it looks pretty good then i have the option to add a timer maybe i want my students to have two minutes to complete this i can click add that way it will automatically stop students after two minutes i really like that feature because sometimes if you wait too long you end up getting behind in your lesson and i feel like the timer really keeps me on track so i'm going to click save and this is now going to add itself as an additional slide within my slideshow it will initially show up as white but after a few seconds it will load and you'll be able to see those different matching pairs that you added in perfect so now i'm going to come down to my next slide what do we wonder so this is where i kind of want to gauge what are my students already wondering about today's lesson so for this i might do a collaborate board this is like online sticky notes it's kind of like google jamboard but students can add in their thoughts so i might say what are you wondering about flower structures and functions okay um i ran out of space to put a question mark so i'm going to change that to a question or to an inside and then add the question mark you can choose the style i really like the cork board i tend to always go with that you can add in an image if you want but for now i feel like that's not really necessary so i'm just gonna click save and then it's going to pop it in again as an additional slide it will show up as white but it will then load and put in what it will actually look like all right so now i'm just going to continue that process i then have some questions that i am going to ask my students maybe this go around instead of a collaborate board which allows students to see the responses of their classmates i'm just going to make it an open-ended question i'm going to make it something that they will just submit a response for and then i can see their responses and share them out if needed so i'm going to add open-ended question and for this i might say what do you notice about the flowers oh but i would really like to have a picture of the flowers so i'm going to actually cancel out of here yes i want to cancel and i'm going to take a screenshot of the flower images that i already added into this slide so i'm just going to screenshot this little area which on a macbook it's command shift 4 and then you can just click and drag the area but on a pc you can use the snippet tool and again you can just draw out that area so now i'm going to go back to open ended question and i'm going to type it what do you notice about the flowers and i will also add a timer for this maybe i'll give them two and a half minutes this go around click add and i'm gonna come over to add media choose image and i want to upload so i'm gonna find that little screenshot that i took and click open this way students will be able to click on that picture and it will open it up full screen so they can look at it really close up and if i want to i can enable student audio recording so they could record their response instead of just typing it and i will click save and again this is going to add itself as an additional slide now in order to save time i would continue doing this for these other questions so then what questions do you have about the flowers what parts do you think flowers have but for now i'm just gonna keep going because you all get the point next i say we're gonna explore a diagram of a flower pay close attention to the different parts i already put that image in there so that looks pretty good okay let's watch a video so i did not insert the video in i want to insert the video through nearpod because that will allow me to push it out onto student devices and i can even add interactive questions so let me show you how that works i'm going to come down to video and nearpod actually already has a selection of videos so i can start by just searching that so i'm going to search flowers and see what comes up okay oh parts of a plant okay that might work let me go ahead and open this and view it there are lots of different plants what do they all have in common okay this video actually looks pretty decent for what i need it for and as you can see there are already these interactive elements added in so there are these questions and what do you notice uh multiple choice why are they brightly colored perfect because we want to really focus on the petals um the seeds and the fruit okay so this one looks pretty good as is if i wanted to add an additional question i just click wherever i want the video to stop i click add activity and i can choose an open-ended question or multiple choice but what i already have looks pretty good so i'm just going to click save and again this is going to add itself as an additional slide when i actually push this out to students if i choose for them to play it on their own device it will only play that segment of the video and then once my students have finished i usually tell them just to give me a thumbs up i can then push out that question whether it's something they're going to type or multiple choice they'll all answer it i can see their responses and then i'll have them continue playing the video so once again i am in control as the teacher okay so i added that video then i maybe want to know what my students have learned so i can add in this would be a fun chance to have a little game so i really like time to climb it's an interactive game they can see each other like moving up the hill it's really really cute all you have to do is type in your question so i'm just gonna add like two as an example so why do flowers have brightly colored petals and i can say to produce food for the flower to attract insects and let's maybe say to transport water through the flower okay so i'm going to go ahead and select the correct choice which is to attract insects i can add a reference image if i want i also can change the time but i feel like 30 seconds is pretty good so i'm gonna leave that as is then i can add another question what is the function of the leaves so to produce food for the flower and that's the correct answer to pollinate the flower or to transport water okay that's good enough i'm gonna go ahead and click save so this is going to look like an interactive game but you won't actually see all of the questions until you run the game with your students that's looking pretty good then i might go ahead and add in a poll maybe figure out how my students are feeling so i'm gonna go to poll and i'm going to choose how do you feel about flower structures and their functions i'm a pro i need more practice or what's a structure and then i'll go ahead and add a timer so once again just 30 seconds for them to answer and click save again that's going to add itself as an additional slide then i would have the little blurb about their independent practice and i always tell them they can then close out of nearpod so as you can see there are a lot more options that i didn't even go over i can add in audio clips i can have a draw it i do kind of want to show you all how that works though so let me come up to this slide with the flower diagram let's say for some reason i wanted my students to actually draw on this slide i can actually click convert to draw it it's going to take this exact slide and it's going to allow students to either draw on the screen add text boxes add other images and it's a really interactive way for them to get their thoughts out and i love that it's differentiated because they can choose drawing or they can choose typing obviously for this lesson i might not necessarily need them to do that but i like to use it a lot for math i'll actually put a problem on the screen and i'll convert it to a draw it so that my students can solve it directly on the screen you'll notice this created an additional slide so i don't really need that initial slide anymore unless i want to leave it there so i can kind of explain to students like hey on the next slide you're going to be able to draw and here's what i want you to do i'll just go ahead and leave it in there then for directions you know functions but there's other things like a virtual field trip i can do fill in the blank different 3d options maybe i'm going to search and see is there a flower that my students could look at as a 3d there might not be um let's see there's a plant cell but otherwise i'm not really seeing a flower so just double check and see some of those elements might go well with your lesson um you can have them do a simulation you can have them view pdfs like there are so many other options that i'm not even showing you i just kind of wanted to show you some of the features once i am done adding all of those interactive near pot elements i'm going to click save and go to near pot this is going to automatically open up near pod in a new tab and it's going to save that set of slides to my library and it will take a minute or two depending on how many slides you actually have so now it has fully loaded in your pod i can see a little preview of it one suggestion i will give you as you start adding lessons it's going to fill up your library and it can be kind of difficult to find what you need so i actually come up to new and i choose folder i've actually created a different folder for each subject area so this one would be science click create and now if i go back to my lessons i'll have that science folder i can actually click and drag and put it into my science folder so it's easier to use now when it comes to actually running this lesson with my students all you're going to do is click teach and then i choose live participation i would love to do live plus zoom but we use google meet so i choose live participation once it starts running it will open up near pod in a new tab and it's going to automatically pop up with a code you can have your students go to join.nerpod and type in the code but personally i end up coming down to link and then i just copy and paste that link directly into the chat and my students click on it and they join in when they join in it's going to prompt them to give their name and i always tell my students it's fine if you want to put a nickname but your name needs to be part of it so i know who you are and then there's usually an other box and i tell them just to leave that blank they don't need to put anything there as your students join in you will see their names popping up on the screen once you're ready to go ahead and proceed with the lesson just click your slide will pop up it will automatically pop up on all of their screens and as you go through the lesson and you change the slides it will show up on their screens as well i do want to quickly show you some of the interactive elements so for example this matching activity i can quickly give the directions to students but they will not be able to actually complete the activity until i click start activity on my screen once i click start activity it will count down on their screen and they will be able to complete that matching activity i'll be able to see how many matches they've gotten correct and how many tries it has taken them so i can see if they got them all in the first try or if they had to click several times and i can use that data in order to drive my instruction then i can continue going on for the collaborate board it's going to ask me if i want to approve student responses before they go up and i always always always choose that because sometimes my students just put ridiculous things on there because they're kids so i always click yes and if i have multiple collaborate boards i do go ahead and click apply for the rest of the session so once i click yes as students start submitting their responses i will see them appear right here under pending posts and if i want to approve it i'll just click the check and if i don't want to approve it because it's not on task i click the x and it will not show up as the responses start popping up on the screen they can hard each other's and you can choose to organize it by the time it's posted or by the number of likes so if a post gets more likes it will move up to the top then as i continue going on here's what the individual open-ended question will look like again you can explain it before you actually start it once you start it they will have that time limit to go ahead and submit their responses and you will see a list of student answers as they submit them then you have the ability to actually share those out which means if you share it it will show up on every student's screen so you can share out responses and talk about them as a class you can choose to have student names appear with them or to hide student names which is what i always choose and i'll just say hey this student said and that way sometimes i can use responses that maybe needed more detail and we can use that as a discussion point but that student doesn't feel embarrassed i'm going to keep clicking through just so you can see some of the other slides so the diagram okay i said i was going to give directions about this and then for draw it you will actually be able to see in real time what students are working on but you can't share them out unless a student has actually submitted so i always remind my students please submit when you're done that way miss spray can share it out with the class but same thing if i do share it out it will pop up on every student's screen so it makes it really great for holding those discussions then for the video you will get the option to either have it play on all devices or this device only i always choose all devices since i'm teaching my students remotely if you choose this device only it's going to pop up on student screens and tell them to look at your screen but obviously if you if you're not in person with them you're not going to be able to actually play the video if you're sharing your screen through google me you could certainly play it through there but i know personally videos have been very laggy on google me so that's not my favorite i'm going to choose all devices and once i actually start playing it students will have the ability to start playing it on their device once it gets to this activity let me just show you a little box is gonna pop up and it's gonna ask you when you're ready to start the activity so i tell my students give me a thumbs up when you've watched that part i wait until i have like almost all the students with their thumbs up and then i will click start activity and that will push out the question to their devices after they've all answered i will go ahead and hit the play button in order to continue to the next section and it will pop up on their screens to continue as well so here's what time decline looks like on my screen i can choose which theme i want so the himalayas space or underwater and i kind of mix it up you can choose if you want them to have sound or if you want it to randomize the answers and then click continue on their screen they're gonna be able to choose their character so they have different like animals and things that they can choose from once they choose it and they click submit or start or something i don't know it's a little bar down at the bottom their characters will start popping up on the screen and it will tell you how many are connected so you want to make sure you don't start the activity until all of your students have connected once you're ready to start you will just click the start button down at the bottom for the poll again they won't be able to do it until you click start it will start counting down on their screen and after students have all answered it you will be able to share out the results over here so it will put a pie graph on everyone's screen and they'll be able to see how other students voted at least like the percentages not the actual students if that makes sense and then finally i always end with a slide that tells them what we're doing next which is typically something on google classroom and i tell them that they can close out of nearpod now when i'm done running this session i will come up to the top i will choose end session and if i click yes if students haven't left the near pod it's going to pop up on their screen and say your teacher has now ended the session they click ok and it kicks them out of it what i love is you can then look at the reports afterwards so you can still see all of those student responses even after you end the session so that's it that's how i've been using near pi i did share in last week's vlog how i actually join into nearpod i use my personal laptop in order to run the near pod and then i join in as a student on my ipad and i share that screen to google me so that my students will see what it looks like on my end i will say sometimes there are technical difficulties and my students will say oh near pi kicked me out or oh the video wasn't working and when that happens i just tell my students to look on google me because i'm sharing the student version so that way they can still participate and see what's going on even though they're having technical difficulties that's just what's worked for me but i would love to hear from you all if you are using nearpod do you have any tips or tricks or if you haven't used it yet how are you thinking about using it personally i'm using it to teach math science and social studies and i love it if this video was helpful for you please give it a thumbs up share it out with your teacher friends if you think they would also enjoy it go ahead and hit that subscribe button and the notification bell so you don't miss any future videos as always thank you for watching i love you all so much don't forget to put your positive pants on and i will catch you in the next one

Channel: Pocketful of Primary

Views: 475,547

Rating: 4.9419603 out of 5

Keywords: teacher, classroom, vlog, 4th grade, pocketful of primary, tips for new teachers, tips for teachers, new teacher tips, teacher tips, classroom vlog, vlogger, teacher vlog, teacher vlogger, a day in the life of a teacher, a week in the life of a teacher, online teaching, virtual teaching, distance teaching, online learning, virtual learning, distance learning, michelle ferre, nearpod, tutorial, edtech made easy, engaging, engagement

Id: BDfmsnq9Qg0

Length: 21min 16sec (1276 seconds)

Published: Sun Oct 11 2020