# data[].attributes.body
Launch a PearDeck in Teams without a join code or link

# data[].attributes.headline
Add PearDeck Questions to Existing PowerPoint

# data[].attributes.subject
Add PearDeck Questions to Existing PowerPoint

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
03 Add Pear Deck Questions to an Existing Presentation (Pear Deck for Microsoft)

# data[].attributes.headline
KYPL Materials (New teachers - this might be a helpful resource!)

# data[].attributes.subject
KYPL Materials (New teachers - this might be a helpful resource!)

# data[].attributes.body
This was a document that was shared with teachers in the spring as we navigated online learning for the first time. It will not all be applicable now but there are some great links to "how-tos" that will be helpful

# data[].attributes.body
Here is a great guide to support your set up and implementation with Pear Deck

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
Your How-To-Handbook for 2019

Just as students have diverse learning styles, we understand that teachers do too. Earlier this year Pear Deck released
a gallery of new help videos that provide getting-started tips in (approximately) three-minute bites. But we know
videos aren't for everyone, and some of us just love a more traditional approach to learning a new skill.

That's why we are delighted to announce the release our very first ebook, Getting Started with Pear Deck! Written by Pear Deck Certified Coaches Mary Alys Foutz and Mike Mohammad , it'll walk you methodically through the Pear Deck process of engaging every student every day. From installing the add-on for Google Slides, to leveraging the Teacher Dashboard for sub plans, these coaches share simple tips and tricks to maximize student engagement in any classroom - K through college, and even for PD!

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Just as students have diverse learning styles, we understand that teachers do too. Earlier this year Pear Deck released a gallery of new help videos that provide getting-started tips in (approximately) three-minute bites. But we know videos aren't for everyone, and some of us just love a more traditional approach to learning a new skill.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
05  Managing Student Responses (Pear Deck for Microsoft)

# data[].attributes.body
OneNote Tutorial for Teachers

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.provider_name
OneNote in Education - Interactive Guides

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
OneNote in Education - Interactive Guides

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Learn the basics of Microsoft OneNote, and then dive into specific scenarios for teachers, students, and school administrators with these interactive guides.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Students Guide to Microsoft Teams - OneNote Class Notebook

# data[].attributes.headline
20 ways to use Pear Deck to engage students

# data[].attributes.subject
20 ways to use Pear Deck to engage students

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
Ed Tech

The standard lecture has plenty of detractors, and rightfully so. Done poorly, it can be an uninspired stream of facts, delivered in sit-and-get style that get forgotten quickly.

However, we can turn the standard lecture - and its tool of choice, the presentation slide! - on its head.

The result can be students actively working with new ideas. Hands-on. Right away.

Presentation slides can be a drag.
But when students (and teachers!) have something interactive to do with them, it changes the game.
That's what I love about Pear Deck. And, of course, the best news: much of what I show you in this post can be done with the free plan!
(Note: I have no official relationship with Pear Deck, and I'm not being paid for writing this post. I'm just a Pear Deck user who loves the potential for it and wants to share it with others! I was given a Pear Deck premium account for review.)

What is Pear Deck?

It's a way to turn your presentation slides into interactive activities for your students. (It also works wonderfully with teachers in professional development!)

If you're using Google Slides, Pear Deck makes it super easy to get started. Pear Deck has created a Google Slides add-on. This makes it SUPER easy to make your slides interactive right from Google Slides.

1. Open a Google Slides presentation.

2. Click on the "Add-ons" menu and "Get add-ons ...".

3. Search for "Pear Deck" and click the blue "+ FREE" button.

4. Load up the Pear Deck sidebar menu. (It'll look like the image above/right.)

Here's a video that shows how to use Pear Deck with Google Slides:

How do I build slides with Pear Deck?

That's pretty easy, too. If you're using Google Slides, just create the slides that you want to display to your students. Then, use the sidebar menu to add interactive elements to each slide.

(You can do all of this at peardeck.com with PowerPoint slides, too.)

The bonus with Pear Deck: You can turn any of those slides into interactive slides. Some of the options include having students ...

enter text

enter a number

choose from multiple choices

draw a response (premium only)

interact with a live web page

drag an icon to a specific part of the slide (premium only)

Pear Deck has a slide library where you can choose pre-created activities ...

for the beginning of a lesson (check prior knowledge, ask what students are curious about)

during the lesson (summarize, assess learning, gauge understanding)

at the end of the lesson (retell what they learned, share feelings)

Set up your slide deck the way you want. The next step - let's get students connected to it so they can interact!

Learn how to use Pear Deck with this FREE ebook!

Getting Started with Pear Deck is written by Pear Deck Certified Coaches Mary Alys Foutz and Mike Mohammad. This ebook will walk you through everything from installing the add-on for Google Slides, to using the Teacher Dashboard.

How do I run a slide presentation?

Once all of your slides are designed and ready to go (including interactive slides), it's as easy as clicking "Present with Pear Deck" in your sidebar menu.

It will create a screen you can display to students on your projector, interactive display or flat panel. It will prompt students go to joinpd.com (think "join Pear Deck") and enter the join code.

When you're ready to start, your slides will be displayed on the students' devices. From the teacher device, you can ...

Go to the previous or next slide

See all slides with the slide navigator

Project student responses

Lock or unlock a slide

Add a new question

Make a slide full screen (under "more")

Open the teacher dashboard in a new tab (under "more")

Open the teacher dashboard on another device (under "more")

End the session (under "more")

From there, you display the slides. Students interact. You do what you want with student responses.

Using the new Pear Deck add audio feature

The new Add Audio feature lets you record or upload audio files to lessons. Students can listen to those audio files on their devices. This is a really helpful feature for remote learning -- especially when students are using Pear Deck in student-paced mode.

Ideas for using the new add audio feature:

Give instructions verbally. Teachers can record their voices giving students instructions. This can be helpful for students who struggle with reading or students whose native language isn't English.

Do social-emotional checks. Leave students a word of encouragement. When they hear it in your voice, it means more than just reading it in text.

Explain answers. When you talk about a problem students need to solve -- or a question that needs answered -- how you arrived at your answer is important. Having a teacher-guided answer with explanation can help students understand.

Read a story. Record audio of your voice while you read a favorite story -- or a new story! -- to students remotely. Students can even download the audio file to listen to later.

Guide pronunciation. Model how to pronounce new terms and vocabulary words in an audio file.

How to use Pear Deck for remote learning

Pear Deck gives you interactive options when teaching remotely.

Gather students on a video call with Skype, Zoom, Google Meet or Microsoft Teams.

Share your screen with an interactive Pear Deck presentation.

Students join the presentation in a separate tab (or in a window side-by-side with the video call).

Students follow along with the presentation and interact with the slides. You talk through the presentation on the video call.

Student-paced mode for Remote Learning

Students can progress through interactive Pear Deck slides independently in student-paced mode.

Create slides.

Share them with students with a deadline to finish them.

Students work through the slides and interact with them.

You watch their progress through Pear Deck.

When they're finished, Pear Deck gives you results to guide your instruction.

In the video below, I gave a webinar on how to use student-paced mode. Check it out to see how student-paced mode works, how it can be used for remote learning, and for answers to common questions.

Flip through the webinar slides (below) to get a feel for how student-paced mode works.

How can I use Pear Deck?

Here are a bunch of ideas, from the basic to the geeky. On most of these, I'll default to the free question types (and will note which ones require a premium account).

Ideas for the classroom

1. Ask students what they already know about the topic with a text question. (You might be surprised what they already know ... or what they don't know!)

Use the text slide in the "Beginning of class" slide library.

2. Ask students if they're ready to move on with a multiple choice question. (This sure beats raising hands, where you don't always get honest answers.

You can reword the draggable agree/disagree slide in the "During lesson" slide library.

3. Draw out a mind map to diagram what you've been studying.

Use the mind map slide in the "During lesson" slide library.

4. Retell what you've learned that day in your own words. This is another digital version of the ultra brain-friendly "brain dump" I described in this post.

Use the text slide in the "End of lesson" slide library.

5. Ask students to create a new ending/outcome for something you've studied that day.

Create a new text slide.

6. Ask students to describe their thinking process instead of providing the answer. (A focus on the process can illuminate student understanding better than an answer many times.)

Create a new text slide or a drawing slide (premium).

7. Have students put items in order (chronological, sequential, etc.). List the items on the slide and have students write them out in the correct order.

Create a new text slide.

8. Predict what happens next in a video or a story. Show a short video clip or an image ... or stop in the middle of a story in class.

Create a new text slide.

9. Label a diagram. Add an image of the diagram (without labels) on the slide. Have students add the labels.

Create a new drawing slide (premium) to draw labels ... or, put numbers on your image where you want students to label and have them label with a text slide.

10. Create an advertisement. You add an image or two to a slide. Have students add text to the slide to create a compelling ad based on what you've learned.

Create a new drawing slide (premium) to add text ... or, use a text slide to have students write what they would put on the ad.

Ideas from the Pear Deck library

Pear Deck has some great users doing very cool things, too! Here are some from their great library of examples from the classroom ...
11. Teach parabolas / quadratics using Super Mario Bros. (via MrOrrIsAGeek.com blog).
12. Helping students understand Anglo Saxon poetry with thought-provoking guided questions (via Melissa Pilakowski).
13. Get students interacting with literature, art and music from the Romantic Era (via Pear Deck).
14. Teach coordinate graphs with draggable dots (premium) and a coordinate plane. Here are some Pear Deck math templates to give you more ideas.

15. Teach grammar with draggable icons (premium) by displaying a paragraph and having students identify different parts of it. See how in this How ELA Teachers Use Pear Deck document.

16. Display a short passage of text with a drawing slide (premium). Ask students to use the highlighter to highlight an example and the text box to explain why they picked that example.

17. Count the number of forces on the object in a diagram like the one below. Ask students to enter the number in a number slide. (via Pear Deck) See more in this How Science Teachers Use Pear Deck document.

18. Have students in a world language class translate a sentence with a text slide. Then, see how the same idea can be translated differently in a variety of ways. See more in this How World Language Teachers Use Pear Deck document.

19. Add a map to a draggable (premium) slide - or add a map the draggable slide in the "During lesson" slide library. Have students identify locations on the map. See more in this How Social Studies Teachers Use Pear Deck document.

20. Use a map like in the example above ... but use a drawing slide (premium) and have students circle / draw an outline around certain regions you've been studying.

Give me some ninja Pear Deck tricks ...

Absolutely!

1. Customize the slide library. Use the pre-designed slides by Pear Deck, but add your own customizations. For instance, instead of a simple happy/sad face to ask students how they feel, add emojis or memes!

2. Do vocabulary the Pear Deck way. Check out "Pear Deck Vocabulary" for an interactive way to do flashcards with your students. (It's part of the free plan!) It integrates with Quizlet and Merriam-Webster to create lists in a snap. Students can even help you illustrate flashcards with the "Flashcard Factory."

3. Get up to speed quick with a webinar. Pear Deck offers teachers free webinars on Tuesdays and Wednesdays at 11 a.m. (lunch break!) and 4 p.m. (school's out!) Eastern time. Learn the features and best practices from the Pear Deck pros.

4. Insert a new question on the fly. Classroom discussions are organic things, aren't they? If you think of a question off the top of your head - or if your students do - you can add it to your Pear Deck presentation. Just use the "Add new question" button. (It looks like a speech bubble with a plus sign.) You can change your current question to a different type of question, re-ask the same question, or start a brand new question. See below (or here's a quick YouTube video to show you how).

LOOKING FOR MORE PRACTICAL IDEAS LIKE THESE? GET 3 FREE EBOOKS FULL OF RESOURCES!

101 Practical Ways to Ditch That Textbook, Matt's insanely practical guide full of new teaching ideas (updated spring 2018!)

101 Ways to Ditch That Textbook with G Suite, tons of practical, creative ways to use Google tools in the classroom.

50 Templates for Teachers, with templates you can copy and download to assign directly to students.

For notifications of new Ditch That Textbook content and helpful links:

Are you looking for quality, meaningful professional learning that both equips and inspires teachers?

Matt provides in-person and virtual keynotes, workshops and breakout sessions that equip, inspire and encourage teachers to create change in their classrooms. Teachers leave with loads of resources. They participate. They laugh. They see tech use and teaching in a new light. Click the link below to contact us and learn how you can bring Matt to your school or district!

FREE teaching ideas and templates in your inbox every week!

Subscribe to Ditch That Textbook

©2023 Ditch That Textbook by Matt Miller.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
20 ways to use Pear Deck to engage students

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Pear Deck flips the traditional lecture by actively engaging students in real-time. Ask questions. Students answer. Learn how to use Pear Deck in your class

# data[].attributes.headline
Assign and Grade OneNote Assignments in Teams

# data[].attributes.subject
Assign and Grade OneNote Assignments in Teams

# data[].attributes.body
A step-by-step tutorial on how to assign and grade a OneNote Class Notebook page in MS Teams.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
How to assign and grade a OneNote Class Notebook page in Microsoft Teams

# data[].attributes.body
Here is a great visual guide for beginners as well as experienced folks looking to continue to hone their Teams skillset

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Microsoft Teams How to Manage It Like a Pro (1)

# data[].attributes.body
Who doesn't love playing games and solving puzzles? Make your content a team game based on the popular Escape Room phenomenon using OneNote

# data[].attributes.body
Looking to utilize a digital whiteboard with students? Here are several videos on how to access and utilize the various features of MS Whiteboard

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Microsoft Whiteboard - 4 Ways to Access it 2020

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
How to use the NEW Breakout Rooms in Microsoft Teams meetings 🚀 JUST LAUNCHED 🚀

# data[].attributes.body
I am sure you have seen educators posting their Bitmoji scenes on Social Media during. If you would like to create your own, here is a quick step by step tutorial

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
If you want to create a Google Meet or Agenda slide like mine (or something similar), you can keep the default page dimensions and move onto Step 2.

If you want to create a Google Classroom header, change the page dimensions to 1,000 x 250 pixels by going to File -> Page Setup in Google Slides or Design -> Page Setup in PowerPoint. Just a warning though: When you upload your banner on Google Classroom, you'll get this frustrating dark overlay on your image. It's an accessibility thing and can't be changed, so just keep that in mind and try to keep everything as bright as possible.

To create a custom Google homepage, you'll want the dimensions somewhere in the neighborhood of 15 in x 8 in.

Next step is to collect the images for your scene.

For mine, I used posters from ECHO-LIT (my favorite poster shop) and a variety of Google Images. All Google Images were found using the "labeled for reuse" filter (more on that in a minute). I also want to note that I reached out to the creator of ECHO-LIT for permission to use her posters in my scene. Please do the same if you decide to include something similar.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
How to Create a Virtual Bitmoji Classroom in Google Slides or PowerPoint - Hello, Teacher Lady

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Learn how to make your own virtual Bitmoji classroom using Google Slides or PowerPoint with these step-by-step directions.

# data[].attributes.headline
Create Custom Bitmoji Announcement Banners

# data[].attributes.subject
Create Custom Bitmoji Announcement Banners

# data[].attributes.body
Create fun Announcement banners to engage students

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Bitmoji Banner for Announcements in Teams

# data[].attributes.body
Use PowerPoint live for inclusive and engaging lessons in which students will be able to attend your presentation in their own language and provide real-time reactions.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
How to use PowerPoint Live for inclusive and engaging presentations

# data[].attributes.headline
Multilingual Translator for Parent Teacher Conferences

# data[].attributes.subject
Multilingual Translator for Parent Teacher Conferences

# data[].attributes.body
Microsoft Translator allows you to conference with a multilingual parent-teacher. Here is a quick video on how to setup and utilize Translator

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
How to have a multilingual parent-teacher conference using Microsoft Translator

# data[].attributes.headline
Create Interactive Videos with Questions Embedded in a Video Lesson

# data[].attributes.subject
Create Interactive Videos with Questions Embedded in a Video Lesson

# data[].attributes.body
Are students not watching your videos or just skipping through the content? To engage students and hold them accountable, build questions into the video lesson via MS Forms.

# data[].attributes.body
Some great ideas on using the Sticker Pick to present content digitally

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
Flipgrid is by far one of our favorite educational apps to use both in the classroom and even more now during this period of remote learning. It has many useful features for teachers to use when creating lessons, one of these being the photo sticker tool.

Using the Photo Sticker Tool to Create Anchor Charts

To create a virtual lesson on Flipgrid with an "anchor char" start by heading to the top bar in the educator dashboard and click on the Shorts tab.

You can use the Flipgrid features in any recording screen in Topics, when recording a response and a reply, but we suggest using the standalone Shorts camera option so all your teaching videos are saved and stored in the same place. To begin recording a video, simply click on the orange-pink button in the top, right hand corner labeled Record a Short.

Once in the Shorts recording window, begin by clicking on the photo sticker tool icon. This is the icon on the far right of the tool bar-the one that looks like a framed photo.

It will ask you to drop in or upload a photo from your device in either PNG or JPG format. Once your photo has been uploaded, it will become a free floating image on top of the recording screen. To create your anchor chart, simple size the image as large as you can so you still have enough room to be in the screen beside it. Now you are ready to record!

While recording your lesson with your anchor chart, try using some of the other Flipgrid tools simultaneously:

Looking for more resources on creating anchor charts? Watch our live tutorial here!

Flipgrid is such a versatile tool and one that we use daily during our own remote learning instruction. Interested in learning more about Flipgrid?
For more #interACTIVE lesson ideas using Flipgrid, check out our book The InterACTIVE Class on Amazon!

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Creating Digital Anchor Charts in Flipgrid - @TheMerrillsEDU

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Flipgrid is by far one of our favorite educational apps to use both in the classroom and even more now during this period of remote learning. It has many useful features for teachers to use when creating lessons, one of these being the photo sticker tool.

# data[].attributes.headline
How to Turn your phone into a doc cam (see article and video for more ways to do this)

# data[].attributes.subject
How to Turn your phone into a doc cam (see article and video for more ways to do this)

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Using iphone as document camera in Microsoft Teams

# data[].attributes.body
Huge shout out to Lyneth Crighton from the Microsoft community who created this incredible guide on how to teach remotely utilizing a variety of educational tools and platforms

# data[].attributes.headline
Interactive Bitmojis to Use for Banners, PPoint, Teams, etc.

# data[].attributes.subject
Interactive Bitmojis to Use for Banners, PPoint, Teams, etc.

# data[].attributes.body
You may have seen my Bitmoji dancing recently in a chat session. Here is a great tutorial on animating your Bitmoji. Please note its designed for Google Drive, but works in OneDrive

# data[].attributes.body
Use this online tool to download any website without any ads, formatting issues, etc.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Convert and edit PDF documents and make web pages printer-friendly before you print them. Our browser extension and PDF tools are used by millions of people.

# data[].attributes.body
Here is the video session I facilitated for the Math department on Desmos teacher activities

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
How to create and use rubrics for Assignments in Microsoft Teams

# data[].attributes.headline
Fun with OneNote - Stickers, Emojis, Page Colors, etc.

# data[].attributes.subject
Fun with OneNote - Stickers, Emojis, Page Colors, etc.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Fun with OneNote - emojis, stickers, rainbow ink and page colors

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
How to use Whiteboard in Microsoft Teams

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
How to View Your Grades in Skyward - Student Facing

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
How to use Immersive Reader in Microsoft Teams - Assignments, Posts and Chat

# data[].attributes.body
Sway is an easy-to-use digital storytelling app for creating interactive reports, presentations, personal stories and more.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
How to use Microsoft Sway - Tutorial for Beginners

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
How to use Immersive Reader in Microsoft Forms

# data[].attributes.body
Did you know you can easily embed Kahoot into Teams?

# data[].attributes.body
Post this as a Tab in Your General Page

# data[].attributes.body
Follow these three steps:
1. Click on Embed Code
2. Copy the code into Word
3. Copy the URL inside the parenthesis for the Website question in Padlet

# data[].attributes.body
Remove any bias when grading assignments!

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
How to use Anonymous Grading in Microsoft Teams Assignments