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Ready with Resources!

ready with resources

At Tutor Zone, we love to incorporate technology to engage students in their learning. Our free online resources include Jeopardy, Nearpod, Kahoot, and more. Instructors use resources for grades K-12 and for multiple subjects such as English language arts, math, science, history and social studies, and international languages.

Jeopardy Labs

            Tutor Zone uses JeopardyLabs to let students play the classic trivia game, Jeopardy! Creating a Jeopardy game with JeopardyLabs is simpler than with PowerPoint for the website https://jeopardylabs.com/ already has a template available. The standard template has five rows and five columns. JeopardyLabs conveniently allows instructors to share their screens on Google Meet, Zoom, and other video communication services so that students may read the category names and clues. Instructors may also find Jeopardy games that have been created by other people on the website. There is an option to pay $20 for a lifetime JeopardyLabs membership, which grants extra features to members such as: uploading images, adding rows and columns for more clues, and making games hidden or private. However, the membership is not necessary to make a fun, exciting game for students.

Nearpod

Sufia Jafery, Tutor Zone’s Placentia manager, described Nearpod as being “an interactive version of PowerPoint.”

In nearpod.com, instructors can take their PowerPoints and Google Slides to the next level by including activities such as Collaborate Boards, where students can post their answers for the entire class to see, polls, for surveying students, quizzes to check for understanding, and much more. Instructors may add other content such as videos, simulations, and VR field trips. Nearpod is user-friendly because it does not require instructors to share their screens. After creating a Nearpod lesson, instructors may click on “Live Participation” and invite students to the lesson by sharing the link, having the class visit join.nearpod.com and typing in a unique code, or sharing the lesson to Google Classroom. When students join the Nearpod lesson, they automatically see everything that the instructor presents. Instructors may also keep track of which students are actively present in the Nearpod lesson by checking whether the circles next to their names are green or red. If a circle is green, it means that a student is participating and if a circle is red, then a student may be “afk” (away from keyboard). Nearpod not only holds students accountable for their participation, but it also promotes engagement.

Kahoot

            Kahoot is another popular resource that instructors and students enjoy. With kahoot.com, instructors may create timed quizzes and assign points to each question. Instructors can develop multiple choice or true/false questions and add pictures to the Kahoot games. If an instructor does not want to start from scratch, then they may browse other Kahoot games and modify them to accommodate their classes. Students may play Kahoot with their classmates on the computer, a tablet, or a phone by going to www.kahoot.it and entering a game PIN and their name. For younger students, it is easier for them to use a tablet or a phone so that they do not have to switch tabs on the computer when looking at the instructor’s shared screen and their own answers. After every question, a leaderboard would pop up on the shared screen so that students can view their rank. This may build competition, which motivates students to improve their academic performance. There is also an option to assign a Kahoot for self-paced learning to prevent students from comparing themselves to one another. The catchy music in the Kahoot games adds even more fun to students’ experiences. It is common for instructors to use Kahoot with whole class groups instead of individual students because the more the merrier!

            Tutor Zone recommends Jeopardy, Nearpod, and Kahoot because they are free and simple to use. While many teachers use PowerPoints, Google Slides, or other virtual presentations in their lectures, it is a great idea to change things up with these interactive resources to increase students’ interest in their education.

by Melissa M.

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