Nearpod

“Nearpod is an instructional platform that merges formative assessment and dynamic media for collaborative learning experiences.” Nearpod is an innovative tool that can be used across all content areas and grade levels. This resource promotes 21^st teaching and learning skills such as creativity, collaboration, and communication. Nearpod engages students in lessons while improving their digital citizenship. It also improves students’ reading comprehension, focus, and independence.

            Nearpod offers teachers an abundance of pre-designed lesson plans to choose from. Teachers have the option to search the lesson plans by standard, subject, or grade level. Once they have selected a subject, the teacher has the ability to select a single focus, such as, reading comprehension, phonics, vocabulary, etc. The lessons are categorized by lexile levels that break down the steps that students will be working through in the lesson. Student friendly learning objectives are also provided so that students can connect what they are doing to a goal. Nearpod also allows teachers to imbed other online tools such as Flocabulary to increase student engagement and comprehension.

            My personal favorite Nearpod feature is virtual field trips. This aspect allows students to “travel the world” without ever leaving the classroom. This allows students to see places and things that would have never got the chance to see before. Nearpod offers over 400 virtual fieldtrip lessons and I cannot wait to use them in my classroom one day! Nearpod can also be used as a formative assessment tool. Another one of my favorite Nearpod features is that it allows teachers to create a personalized learning experience for their students. Teachers can give students a variety of options on how to respond such as, illustrating, participating in polls, collaborating with peers, or using open ended quizzes.

           The one downfall to Nearpod is that to achieve full access you must pay a fee. Access to Nearpod can cost anywhere from free-$350. I truly believe that Nearpod is such an innovative and flexible tool that any classroom teacher would be able to pitch to the principle a reason to spend the money on it so that the entire school could have access. Nearpod offers such a cutting-edge educational experience that all students would benefit from access to the program.