My Favorite Trio: Nearpod, Showbie, and ThatQuiz

I find myself using the trio of Nearpod, Showbie, and ThatQuiz together often. My students and I love Nearpod! After they complete their answer in their "Draw It"s, they take pride in "decorating" their answers, trying to make theirs the one I select to share with the class. They know the answer has to be correct for me to pick it to share, so it motivates them to take their time and try to get the correct answer. That's not to say that I don't also share incorrect answers as well -- I do. I will occasionally select an incorrect answer anonymously, and ask the class to identify where the author went wrong. I like using Nearpod because the students know they are all accountable for completing every problem since I collect the data. I appreciate the ability to go back and look at the students' answers after class if I need to, refer to them during IEP meetings, etc. 

After we complete our NPP (Nearpod Presentation), I have the students sign in to their Showbie accounts and find the assignment for practicing the skill they just learned in the NPP. They can annotate the PDF right in the Showbie app and save their work for me to review later. Before I began using Showbie, I used to have the students scan a QR code to open the PDF stored on my website, then open it in neu.Annotate+ PDF to annotate, then they would email it to me.


Next, the students get their QR code scanners ready to scan the QR code on the Smart Board, which takes them to an online ThatQuiz. They can monitor their progress by watching the stats on the right side of the screen. If they get any problems incorrect, it gives them a chance to go back and correct them. They like this feature because often they are too quick on the trigger and hit OK before they actually answer the question, causing them to get the problem incorrect, which drives them crazy! Sometimes I ask them to take a screen shot of their final results to show me how well they did, and other times I don't.

These three activities usually take us right up to the end of our 68 minutes class. If there's any time left, they usually get a head start on their homework. The students are so involved in the three activities that the class just flies by!