Chicago Public Schools Training Calendar
Attend free Nearpod and Flocabulary professional development designed for CPS educators and earn ISBE credits.
Unable to attend the PD sessions? View the recordings below. Please note, ISBE credit is only eligible for live attendance at sessions.
Quick Start - The Basics of Nearpod
Nearpod Trainer
Ron Carroll
Discover teaching and learning with Nearpod while experiencing an interactive lesson the same way your students will. Next, explore the Nearpod platform as a teacher, beginning with the Nearpod Library of lessons. Here you will find, edit, and learn to launch lessons in Live or Student-Paced.
By the end of this session, you will be able to:
Log into your Nearpod account
Find a pre-made lesson from the Nearpod Library
Locate lesson reports
Introduction to Flocabulary
Nearpod Trainer
Gina Trapp-Golden
We’re known for our engaging videos, but each Flocabulary lesson comes with a suite of interactive activities, games, and assignments to make the learning experience even more robust. In this introductory session, we will demonstrate how the site is organized, describe the function of each lesson feature, and highlight a range of subject and grade-level content that students can access.
By the end of this session, you will be able to:
Understand the purpose and benefits of Flocabulary
Navigate the Flocabulary platform
Search for lessons and activities
Assign lessons
Review student data
Basics of Creating with Nearpod
Nearpod Trainer
Ron Carroll
Customize any digital lesson to personalize the instruction for your students. Learn how to take your resources and make them come to life with rich media and interactive activities to engage your students.
By the end of this session, you will be able to:
Edit pre-made lesson from the Nearpod Library
Upload teacher created resources to Nearpod
Add Media and Activities to lessons
Building Academic Vocabulary with Flocabulary
Nearpod Trainer
Mallory Mussard
Dive into research-based instructional strategies for supporting the acquisition of academic vocabulary. In this session, we will look beyond the platform and explore ways to support students by reinforcing Tier ll and Tier lll vocabulary with rigorous academic content.
By the end of this session, you will be able to:
Use Flocabulary as part of your essential vocabulary instruction
Access resources and accommodations to reinforce content knowledge and vocabulary mastery
Creating and launching choice boards with Nearpod
Nearpod Trainer
Ron Carroll
Choice boards and hyperdocs offer many learning opportunities for students in a single lesson. This session will show you step-by-step how to build a choice board directly in Nearpod and how to bring in boards you might already use. Walk away with a choice board you can use with your students next week!
By the end of this session, you will be able to:
Create a choice board in Nearpod using Nearpod Slides
Create a choice board with Google Slides and add it to Nearpod as Web Content
Link Student-Paced Nearpod Lessons and Activities to choice boards
Support Social Emotional Learning with Flocabulary
Nearpod Trainer
Gina Trapp-Golden
Students are more successful in school and daily life when they can understand and manage their feelings, show empathy for others, create healthy relationships, and make responsible decisions. This session will explore the CASEL core competencies for Social Emotional Learning, and highlight Flocabulary content that can be used to promote them in the classroom. Participants will also learn how to combine character development with vocabulary acquisition using Flocabulary tools and activities.
By the end of this session, you will be able to:
Understand the importance of Social Emotional Learning in schools and classrooms
Learn about the CASEL core competencies as they relate to SEL
Access Flocabulary content, tools and activities that can help with SEL instruction