Tech Tips

Greetings Fellow Educators!

Welcome to Teaching Tips 2: Tech Edition brought to you by The Curly Code. We are here to provide (tech based) teaching tips to make (remote) teaching more sustainable. 

These tips work well both for remote and in-person learning, which will allow for a smooth(er) transition back to in-person learning.

Google Forms for Attendance

1. You control when you release and restrict access to the form. Avoid putting the link in the chat, students who join zoom cannot see the conversation prior to their arrival. instead, put the link on your student-facing doc. You can restrict access until the start of class.

2. You can choose to close the form when you begin teaching or use the timestamp tool to track late students. 

Use Zoom Polls to Make Lessons More Engaging
Zoom polls can be created prior to the actual meeting. 

1. At the start of class to do what I like to call a “temperature check.” Getting a sense of how students are feeling before you start the lesson 

2. As part of your hook to introduce new topics. It is a great way to immediately make a connection between the content and the real world. 

   1. When introducing the admissions process to students, I started the lecture with a poll asking them which part of the college application they thought was most important. 

3. Check for Understanding - Using polls to limit teacher talk and reinforce new learnings

Use Pear Deck to Make Your Slides Interactive

Pear Deck allows your google slides to be interactive, letting students answer questions in real time, labeling on a diagram and more recently students can go through slides at their own pace. There is a slight learning curve here but we’ve linked some videos to help you navigate it. Don’t be deterred by the pricing plan, the free plan has amazing features that allows you to take your lessons up a notch. 

How Does Pear Deck Work - Regular google slides you share your screen on zoom and students are essentially watching your slides, in pear deck you create a code and students have access to your slides. 

Pear Deck for PowerPoint - Pear deck allows you to share slides from Google and PowerPoint.

Pear Deck Training Sessions - Pear Deck also has weekly training sessions.

Use Google Forms for Your Do Now

Google Forms gives you the flexibility to upload answers so that the assignment is graded for you when students submit or manually grade. If you are using google forms for your Do Now you can use it as your attendance as well. Using the timestamps to track tardy or absent students.

Use Jamboard to Make Lessons Come to Life

Jamboard is essentially a virtual whiteboard that allows students to write their messages on virtual sticky notes. If you are looking for a virtual collaboration tool, Jamboard is it. Create a board and share the link with your students. You can have one board for all of the sections you teach so students can build on each other’s ideas or you can have a separate link for each class.

Use Nearpod For Interactive and/or Independent Lessons

Nearpod is an interactive presentation template that allows you to either integrate your current google slides or PowerPoint, use their templates for your lesson. You share the code with your students and you can track their engagement in real-time.