Professional Learning Facilitator
I fell in love with Nearpod when I worked in Manassas City PS. When I came to Marshall, they didn't have a Nearpod license and not many of the educators knew of it. I started making review lessons for our 4th grade team and they fell in love, too!
I worked closely with the ITC at my building to acquire a Nearpod trial license. We had just finished negotiations with the company when the schools shut down and everyone went home. As it turns out, this became an opportune time for me to work with Desiree to train our staff on the resource.
Desiree and I created and sent out an interest survey in early May 2020. I reviewed the data to drive my instruction: how much could the staff handle?
At the end of May, with the guidance and support of Desiree, I led the staff through a Nearpod training that I created. We opted to do the training in small groups of lower elementary and upper elementary where we could focus on the best ways to utilize the site at each level.
Because of the pandemic, I didn't spend as much time following up with educators to see if and how they decided to incorporate Nearpod into their lessons. However, there was enough interest that the school decided to purchase a license for the 20-21 school year - so I think that speaks volumes!
With the support of the principal, I provided extra opportunities for our staff to become comfortable with Nearpod by creating interactive activities for our staff meetings. This one had multiple matching games with the pictures and Bitmojis of the staff! It showed the staff how much more engaging a Nearpod lesson could be for their students than a traditional slide show!