Friday, November 17, 2017

Pear Deck Add-On for Google Slides


Pear Deck has been on my list for awhile to feature in a blog post.  When I learned that they now had a Pear Deck Add-On for Google Slides, I knew it was time!

Pear Deck is an interactive slide deck tool similar to Nearpod where students join in on the live presentation from their own device.  Pear Deck provides a variety of interactive question options and activities for teachers to use as means to assess student's learning and keep students engaged.  

What is super cool is that Pear Deck has been working with Google and just released a Pear Deck Add-on for Google Slides.  Now you can keep designing your presentations in Google Slides but add Pear Deck's formative assessment questions right from the Google Slides editor!  When your slides are made, it's important that you present with Pear DeckIf you present with Google Slides, you will miss out on all the interactive Pear Deck magic you just created. Now that's awesome!  

Check out the resources below to start using the Pear Deck Add-on for Google Slides in your classroom! today!

1.  Click HERE to get the Pear Deck add-on from the Chrome Web Store.  

2.  Watch this introduction video: 




3.  Pear Deck for Google Slides Add-On Frequently Asked Questions

4.  Example Pear Deck Lessons 

5.  Cool Things You Can Do (Tips & Tricks) 

Monday, May 08, 2017

Teaching Channel - All Grade Levels, All Subjects, All Teachers Learning Together


A while back I discovered a great web resource for educators called the Teaching Channel. The Teaching Channel is a FREE multi-platform service delivering professional development videos for educators.   

The stated mission of the Teaching Channel is to revolutionize how teachers learn, connect, and inspire each other to improve the outcomes for all students in America. To accomplish this, the Teaching Channel has established three goals:
  • Build teacher-driven professional learning
  • Deepen and improve opportunities for teacher learning
  • Elevate and celebrate teachers in our society
What I love about the Teaching Channel, is that its not just a site to watch videos of amazing teachers. With every video, you get all the materials you would need to teach the same lesson in your classroom.  In the screen shot to the right, notice they provide the Lesson Objective, the length of the lesson, Questions to Consider, Common Core Standards, and Supporting Materials that you can download. They also provide additional videos that pertain to the same topic of the video you just watched! 

The Teaching Channel also hosts a community for educators to share ideas, best practices, and enhance their knowledge. Over 800,000 teachers from around the globe are members of this community.  

Users do not need to register to explore their video library.  However, by signing up for a FREE account you could try out any of the following three features:


  • 1 FREE LESSON PLANNER

    You can save, schedule and get reminders on great ideas you want to use in your classroom.
  • 2 NOTIFICATIONS

    Get email alerts when there are new videos that match your interests
  • 3 VIDEO NOTES

    Take time-stamped notes as you watch videos and then share them with your colleagues


Registered users can aso download supporting materials.  


Here are a few video examples that I found using the search menu.  You can also search for videos by grade level and/or topic.