Up Up and Away! 1st Grade T Creates Her Own Nearpod!

One of the teachers that I work with told me that she wants to get really good at creating Nearpods for her and her students! If you havent created one before it can be kind of intimidating! Usually you can create them in Power Point or GSlides, but if one wants to use an "activity slide" they will have to export them as .Jpg files. Needless to say, there are quite a few steps to making them. Earlier this week the teacher walked into my room and said "Hey Chavez! I created my own ELA Nearpod!" I was so excited that she did it all on her own!!  Immediately I went over to check out this awesomeness and couldn't believe what I saw!! I asked her if she needed help converting certain slides to .Jpgs so that she could add them as "activity slides." She was like, "Nah! I got this!"

When she told me that she was going to run it on Friday, I was really excited, yet nervous because tons of stuff could have gone wrong! I went in early and got them all on the Nearpod app for her and she did the rest! It went well for the most part, however the internet kept dropping cause the hotspot in her room was dead. Needless to say, she saved the template and will be using them in the future! So proud of her!!

Real Life Application with Angles

Every so often I have the chance to work with teachers who do not use technology in their classrooms on a regular basis. Today was one of those days! This particular teacher is extremely passionate about her students as well as their learning environment. This particular lesson was previously done in a different classroom but the teacher was still covering the same unit. Students were learning about measuring and identifying angles. For this activity, the teacher was presenting her lesson via a Nearpod. Students had to try and figure out what the measurement of the angle was by using a protractor. (Side note- protractor and iPads really dont play nicely together, but we made it work!) Long story short, I showed this teacher the basics of how Nearpod worked and she did the rest! She loved having "absolute control" over the other iPads! The students worked in partners and were really engaged. I was so proud of her and her class for taking a risk!

Nearpodding it Up in 1st Grade!

At our campus, First Grade has been learning about "equal shares"and  "equal parts." Teachers have been using various tools and resources to help their students understand this concept. One First Grade teacher wanted to use Nearpod to help enhance the student's learning. I was so proud of this teacher! She put the entire Nearpod presentation together all on her own! Students were extremely responsive and totally engaged! Students were able to work in partners. It was so fun to see them exploring this app together!

Shooting for the Stars in 1st Grade

I had the opportunity to introduce "Nearpod" to one of our awesome teachers this week. This teacher has excellent classroom management and the kiddos are hungry for technology! (More on Nearpod in a minute.) Last week as we were planning I challenged this teacher to really push the boundaries of what her lesson(s) and activities looked like. I reminded her that I'd be with her and her kiddos every step of the way and would assist in anyway needed! With that said- we had come up with a few awesome ideas that would challenge her, her students as well as myself!


Book Review Library:
A few months ago a few of our teachers across our district were able to network with each other. Since then it's been an amazing ride with these teachers! Both of them trade ideas on what they do in their classrooms. One of the things that we are working on is a Book Review Library in which students will produce book reviews over books that they had read. They are using iMovie for this task. Once the movie is created, they will put it on their teacher's YouTube channel. From there, the teacher and I will work our magic and put it on a Google Site in which other elementary campuses in our district will be able to see and hopefully make an informed decision on a book that they are wanting to read.
This is a huge work in progress that will definitely take the rest of the year but it will sure be rewarding!

 

Nearpod Rollout:

I had been waiting for the perfect opportunity to show this teacher a really sweet app called "Nearpod," She was introducing "objects in the sky" this week. However, instead of just having printables or such, I showed her the power of Nearpod! She immediately fell in love with this app used it for the first time on her own today! I had never heard so many "Ooohhs and Ahhhs" from a class before! The students were absolutely amazed on what they were seeing in front of them! Stars! Clouds! Sun and Moon! It was very "in your face!" The teacher was also thrilled about having "total control" of the student's iPad! I have a feeling that this teacher is going to be using it on a regular basis!