Nearpod Helps Teachers Launch 2018-2019 School Year with Content Spanning VR Field Trips, Coding, Civics, Professional Development, English Language Learning and More

Nearpod, the instructional technology partner helping districts and schools transform teaching through award-winning software and standards-aligned lessons, today kicked off the back-to-school season with a suite of enhanced features and content to make the new school year the most engaging yet. Nearpod’s Back-to-School Edition sets the theme for the 2018-2019 academic year as “Transforming Teaching, Together,” and delivers deeply enriching learning experiences for millions of students, teachers, and admins worldwide returning for the 2018-2019 academic year. New interactive features, 6,500+ lessons, and assessment tools like matching pairs from Nearpod give teachers even more to be excited about as they return to the classroom.  

Nearpod has reinforced its award-winning content offering through partnerships with premium content providers, as well as launching several new content divisions and adding new features that bolster student engagement and activity in the classroom. 

Nearpod has already been embraced by teachers in 60 percent of school districts in the United States. The company provides seamless adoption of transformational classroom technology for teachers, in a time when students’ technology use and ownership has never been higher.  

“As educators embark on a new school year, Nearpod is excited to expand our content offering to meet the needs of all students. Our team has been creating and developing new products and resources to help teachers and districts around the clock in preparation for back to school,” said Guido Kovalskys, Founder and CEO of Nearpod. “At our core, Nearpod is teacher-centered and our Back-to-School content is a true reflection of that.” 

Nearpod’s Back to School enhancements include: 

• Two New English Language Learners Series: Nearpod has released 40 new Building Background lessons that connect math and language standards to make content comprehensible, an important ESSA requirement. Plus, Nearpod has launched 10 new immersive VR experience-based lessons in partnership with ThingLink rooted in common locations around a students’ community where they act as protagonists in this first-hand experiential learning environment.
• Coding Lessons featuring CodeMonkey: Nearpod’s Digital Citizenship & Literacy curriculum now includes a coding series offering K-12 ready-to-run lessons that build computer science and computational thinking skills.
• New Lessons from iCivics, PhET, LearnZillion, and more: During the back to school season, hundreds of new lessons will be released in Nearpod’s Lesson Library, including digitally-enhanced iCivics lessons for grades 6-8 and new PhET Interactive Simulations for grades K-5. Plus, Nearpod will be adding over 200 revamped LearnZillion lessons that take advantage of Nearpod’s newest features.
• Collaborative Features like Matching Pairs: Making classrooms more accessible for visual learners, Matching Pairs provides instant feedback to students and allows for opportunities to self-assess and differentiation. Teachers can access the new engagement features, along with the ability to search the Lesson Library by individual state standards, by updating their Nearpod app to iOS 11.0. 
• New Ready to Run Professional Development (PD): In partnership with PD experts like the New Teacher Center, Nearpod has added new teacher-facing content for teachers to practice creating equitable classrooms, teaching through cooperation, the fundamentals of play, and teaching through technology.  

In addition to the above enhancements, Nearpod has also added a Future Ready Package, and integrations with Apple Schoolwork. Teachers can sign up and experience the free version of Nearpod to create lesson plans or purchase expert-derived lessons from the Nearpod Lesson Library. 

“Engaging my students during content-focused in-class lectures has always been a struggle. They get tired of sitting still, I get tired of directing the learning, and everyone gets bored of the lesson quickly,” recalled Leigh Weldin, an 11th-grade teacher at Red Clay Consolidated School District. “Incorporating Nearpod has transformed my ability to reach each student, gauge their level of involvement and understanding, and increase the depth of learning through technology.”

Nearpod provides over 6,500 standards-aligned lessons for K-12 topics - from digital citizenship to algebra - that feature a variety of interactive, engagement-boosting tools, like virtual reality, 3D models and live quizzes. The innovative nature of the company’s content along with its ability to deliver it to any web-enabled devices in a teacher’s classroom, from tablets and phones to Chromebooks and desktop computers, won the company the 2018 EdTech Awards in the Cool Tool Content Provider Solution category. Nearpod also seamlessly integrates with popular learning management systems like Canvas, Schoology, Blackboard, and productivity apps like Google Classroom, Apple Schoolwork, and Microsoft Teams.

The company’s back to school release follows the announcement of six new partnerships spanning LMS integrations with Canvas and Schoology, as well as the launch of hundreds of new lessons created with content from leading authorities such as BBC Worldwide.

About Nearpod:
Nearpod is an award-winning education technology company that is empowering teachers to transform instruction and is used in over 60 percent of school districts across the US. Through the combination of software that merges multimedia with real-time student feedback, ready-to-teach digital content designed in partnership with respected publishers like Common Sense Education, PhET and Readworks, and unparalleled educator support, Nearpod is changing how teachers are integrating technology into the classroom.
 

Contact Information

Sean Yokomizo

Account Manager

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