Nearpod Revisited

Nearpod is an online platform used to build interactive presentations designed to incite optimal student engagement. Nearpod can be used in a live classroom environment, or alternatively, presentations can be assigned for independent, self-paced work.

The Nearpod platform offers access to a comprehensive library of pre-made content. The presentations are fully editable and can be tailored to match virtually any lesson plan. Nearpod has been available to Barrington 220 teachers for several years, however; the recent updates coupled with newly enabled content packs offer a great opportunity to take another look.

Our Barrington 220 Nearpod representative has kindly opened up a trial of three new content packs for the remainder of this school year (summaries provided by Colin Kiely at Nearpod):

• SEL (Social Emotional Learning) - These lessons are for all grade levels and discuss various topics or concepts that affect how students feel, navigating social media, or respecting your peers. All lessons are customizable, and I recommend adding additional resources or content that connects directly with Barrington 220 district initiatives. These lessons help discuss "what it means to be a good person" with young students, and "how to be a responsible young adult" moving forward in grades.
• Flocabulary Lessons - These are premade Nearpod lessons built specifically around various Flocabulary videos. Each video offers educational content full of vocabulary and concepts spanning across all subject areas set as lyrics to hip-hop songs. These lessons offer an abstract view on topics you already teach on a daily basis, presented in a new way to help different learners.
• Historical Perspectives in Literacy (HS only) - This pack is meant for Social Studies educators, Grades 6–12. These lessons are more robust discussions of people and events that are usually not covered in most history books. Each lesson uses multiple secondary sources (curated by the Nearpod content team) to use evidence-based learning within each assessment. Lessons typically address individuals and events focusing on different perspectives of events in both American and world history.

Check out the newest feature updates in Nearpod:

• Google Slides Add-on
• Time to Climb "Gamified" Activities
• New PhET Simulations
• Google Chrome Extension for Google Classroom

Learn about these updates and more from the Nearpod Update Blog.

Nearpod is fully integrated with Schoology and easy to use from the Nearpod website or within Schoology. If you have an existing Nearpod account, please login with Google to check out the new features and content.

Excited to give it a try? Contact sshelton@barrington220.org to get signed up for a new account.