JCPS Digital Teaching and Learning

  Now that Nearpod's co-teaching feature is live, learn more about the specific features and how to set it up. First, a note: the co-teaching feature only works in Live Participation mode. There are two ways to add a co-teacher to your lesson: 1. Add a co-teacher while you are launching the lesson Launch your Nearpod lesson in Live Participation mode . When the code appears, you will have the option to add a Co-Teacher Link . Turn this option on and copy the link . Share the link with your co-teacher; they will be prompted to join the lesson. 2. Promote a participant to co-teacher once a lesson has already begun After your co-teacher has joined the lesson as a student, go to your Participants List by clicking on the person icon in the bottom left corner of the screen, hover over your co-teacher's name, and click the " More " dropdown menu. Click " Make Co-Teacher ." Click "Yes" when prompted to confirm that you would like to promote this person t

  For this week's teacher spotlight, we're recommending two digital tools that are proven to work well with students and are easy to set up. As a result of virtual learning this year, many teachers discovered all kinds of new digital tools—and a few of them are so good that they'll keep using them even after returning to face-to-face instruction. For Rachel Langdon at Clayton High School, two tools that are sticking around are Flippity and weekly Bitmoji Classrooms. 1. Flippity Flippity lets you easily turn a Google Sheet into interactive elements . We're not talking about a complicated spreadsheet with formulas and pivot charts. Flippity provides a demo, instructions, and a template of the spreadsheet format that you can copy and edit. Even better: there is an option to skip the spreadsheet on certain elements if you prefer. Some of the interactive elements you can create include a Random NamePicker (one of Ms. Langdon's—and her students'—personal favorites), B

Breakout rooms in Google Meet are a great way to facilitate small group discussions and other collaborative tasks, but a challenge has been getting them set up at the beginning of class. However, you can now organize breakout groups in Calendar before your Meet starts! The steps below outline how to use this new feature: 1. Create the event in Google Calendar Either open an existing event in Calendar or create a new one for your desired date/time. If you are creating a new event, click " Add Google Meet video conferencing ."  If you are editing an existing event , click on the pencil icon in the top right corner of the window. 2. Add guests to the event Click " Add guests " to add your students or other attendees to the event. Note: If you have a large group of people to add, you can set up a contact group for them ahead of time in Google Contacts . Then you can simply type in the name of the group rather than each individual participant. 3. Edit the breakout room

  NCTIES (NC Technology in Education Society) hosts an annual conference for educators and educator leaders engaged in advancing excellence in learning and teaching through the effective use of technology. In today's post, we'll share a few of our favorite things from this year's conference that you can use in your classroom tomorrow! 1. Critical Thinking What's Going On in This Picture Unique weekly images posted by NY Times. Students submit descriptions of what they think is happening in the picture and what makes them say that. Application: Great for inferencing and writing prompts. Come back a few days later and learn what is really happening in the picture and what other students across the world said. A Google a Day Solve three search challenges to find an answer that cannot be found with just a basic Google search. Application: Develop students' research skills in order to find specific information with better search terms. Books NGram Viewer Search words/phr

Get more out of our built-in Google tools! In just a few steps, you can create clickable images for students to explore.  Note: If you're having trouble viewing the gifs below, you can access them all here . Step 1: Set up your image in Google Drawings Find an image you'd like to make clickable. Pro tip: Use Google's additional search tools to find an image with a Creative Commons license to ensure you're following copyright guidelines. Go to your Drive and open a new Google Drawing. Paste the image and resize the drawing to fit your needs. Step 2: Create the clickable area in your Drawing Click on the arrow next to the "Select line" tool. Select "Polyline." Draw a shape around the area you want to make clickable, clicking your mouse at each corner of the shape as you make your way back around to the starting point. Adjust the shape's Fill Color and Border Color to be transparent. Click the mouse icon in the toolbar once you've finished drawi

Nearpod has shared four new updates that are available now, with an additional one coming in a few days! 1. Live Slide Annotation Teachers can draw or write on any slide in a Nearpod lesson, and students will see the annotations in real time when both teachers and students are using Nearpod in a web browser. 2. Math Formula Editor Teachers can now add more complex math formulas to Open-Ended Questions, Quizzes, and Polls. 3. Turn Off Slide Transitions Users have reported that the left-swipe transition between slides can be distracting or interrupt the flow of the lesson. You can now toggle off this feature in Lesson Settings. 4. Videos Now Included in Report Data Post-session reports now include data from Interactive Videos (multiple choice questions and open-ended questions). 5. Coming March 8: Co-Teaching Teachers will now be able to share the Teacher View of a Live Participation lesson with another teacher, meaning both teachers will: See student responses to formative assessments i