Nearpod Math Launches with Emphasis on Flexible Instruction Design, Standards-Aligned Content

• By Kristal Kuykendall
• 01/26/22

Nearpod, the interactive instructional platform that lets teachers view students’ progress in real time, today is launching Nearpod Math as an additional curriculum channel for K–8 educators, the company told THE Journal.

Nearpod Math maximizes the platform’s potential, adding 5,000 math lessons, activities, and tools, with an emphasis on making it easy for educators to tailor learning experiences to fit classroom needs, Nearpod said.

The math content library is searchable and aligned to standards and to many of the curriculum providers used by a majority of U.S. school districts, Nearpod CEO Pep Carrerra told THE Journal recently.

“Previously, we had very generic math lessons in the standard Nearpod library’s total of 18,000 lessons,” Carrera said. “But it wasn’t aligned to specific standards or curriculum; there was maybe a 1 in 10 chance that teachers could find a math lesson they could use, and we found that a lot of teachers on the platform were uploading their own content.”

Now, teachers using Nearpod will be able to select K–8 math lessons specifically marked by the platform developers as matching their district’s approved standards and curriculum, he said.

Nearpod Math features interactive tools for educators to easily fine-tune lessons for their class, and for students as they work to solve problems either individually or as a group: a pen tool for drawing diagrams, for exampe; visual manipulative tools like drag-and-drop, a computer version of moving physical blocks basic addition problems or for building fractions; poll and quiz-building tools; graphing calculators; a chart creator; and more.

With a real-time view of student progress, teachers can intervene or “bring students to front of class” to show their good work, Carrera said. “Nearpod Math is the final piece of the puzzle for a teacher to be more efficient with their time and generate highly dynamic, engaging lessons in math, just as they are able to with other Nearpod subjects.”

“The amount of work on teachers right now is not sustainable,” he said. “Anything we can do to help them has become a goal for our company. We wanted to provide our teachers with a suite of math resources that help teach concepts in different ways and allow the educators to assess student comprehension in different ways.”

U.S. students’ math performance has worried education experts for years. Even before the pandemic in 2019, only 41% of fourth-graders, 34% of eighth-graders and 24% of 12th graders scored at or above “proficient” in mathematics, according to the National Assessment of Educational Progress. COVID-19 exacerbated this, with a spring 2021 Renaissance study of 3.3 million test scores from grades 1-8 showing students were an average of 11 percentile points lower in math than expected pre-pandemic.

This new math content joins existing Nearpod collections such as Digital Citizenship & Literacy and Social & Emotional Learning.

“Nearpod Math takes this platform to the next level by integrating math manipulatives into lessons. Now teachers can see all their students' manipulative math tools and results, like Fraction Tiles, in real-time. It’s a game-changer!” elementary math teacher Kate Roscioli said in a news release today from Nearpod. “I can see precisely what misconceptions students have, without worrying that I won't get to speak to every single student in my class. And I am confident that these lessons will engage my students through higher-level thinking and problem-solving skills.”

The company said educators using Nearpod Math can expect:

• A new Nearpod Math library that simplifies finding and customizing supplemental curriculum, with 5,000 new lessons and videos
• An interactive instructional experience that unlocks exclusive virtual math manipulatives such as Fraction Tiles, Base 10 Blocks, Algebra Tiles and Color Tiles to allow tailored instruction
• Enhanced outcomes with confidence-boosting math experiences that incorporate student voice, create safe spaces to participate, and support group and individual learning experiences

“When teachers use Nearpod to engage with students, it generates magic within the classroom,” said Carerra. “Instead of having to spend countless hours adapting various resources, educators can now access streamlined supplemental math resources, aligned to their curriculum.”

Nearpod Math will be available to Nearpod Premium Plus users, with pilots beginning this month. Existing users can learn more from their Nearpod representative. Schools looking to explore Nearpod for the first time can visit nearpod.com/math.