My school has a district license for Nearpod. I first saw it in action in a Social Studies classroom (@ashleypowers10) in 2014. At first glance, it seemed like a way to make a lesson more interactive, i.e. you have a presentation, and the students can movie thru it: A. at your pace or B. at a student’s individual pace. Imagine a Smartboard, Google or Powerpoint lesson, BUT you can embed videos, questions, activities etc with live responses.

  • The real treat in this application is that you can embed a variety of resources to your presentation, NOT just slides. For example, my lesson today had: Youtube video clips, a virtual field trip (brings you, essentially, to 360 links), but the resources are endless: BBC News, 3D exploration of a cell, etc.). On my first attempt, I was leading the show, but this is the PERFECT application to develop a personalized learning experience. I hope to design some and share in a part 2!

You can add in activities – for my first near pod I used:

 

  • open-ended questions ¿cuál es tu película favorita?
  • matching – basic matching of more difficult vocabulary with pictures
  • quiz – a.b.c. choices – I showed short web-based authentic clips of the news, telenovelas, etc. and students had to decided which type of program it was, in Spanish.
  • Draw it – this was the best! I put a vocabulary word up, and students had to draw and label in Spanish, one word was PALOMITAS (popcorn). You can also upload a picture and have students circle and label the words you are targeting, or fruits, meats, etc. –>

  • This says “draw and label LA ENTRADA y LAS PALOMITAS”

 

  1. Go to a training if you can – I tried to create lessons alone first, with the help of youtubers, but the short training I did really got me going
  2. Accept that accents are difficult to insert to your presentation
  3. Start with a few things you are comfortable with, you will get better and better! I hope to move from beginner to intermediate by the end of the year!