Technology Spotlight: Pear Deck

logo from www.peardeck.com

I heard about Pear Deck as an add-on for Google Slides a few years ago at a conference I attended. I attempted to use it some, but never fully got into it.

Fast forward to March 2020 and hit with the realization that we would be teaching online for the near future and I knew that I needed something to help me out. Luckily, I received an email that our county decided to provide the premium version of Pear Deck for the teachers, so I decided to check it out again.

So what is Pear Deck? It is an add-on for Google Slides (or Powerpoint, we just happen to be a Google county). This add-on allows you to insert slides into your presentation that generate student engagement with a variety of interactive slides. I absolutely love that it is an add-on because I can easily create my presentations in Google Slides and add in the interactive slides where needed. 

There are 2 ways to use Pear Deck once you have your presentation created, you can enter Teacher-Paced mode or Student-Paced mode. Teacher-paced means that the teacher controls the slides and when to advance to the next one. This is great for in the classroom or during a Zoom/Google Meet teaching session. During distance learning, I always chose the student-paced mode which generates a link and allows the students to access the presentation on their own time.

A few of the ways that I used Pear Deck in my math lessons the past 2-3 months:

• use the Drawing Slide to have students plot points on a coordinate plane
• use the Text Slide to have students explain how to find the volume of a rectangular prism
• use the Drawing Slide to have students create a line plot with data
• use the Drawing Slide to match expressions to the word form

A new feature that they just launched in the past couple of weeks is the ability to leave feedback directly on the slides in Pear Deck. You can access this from your Teacher Dashboard and the students see it on their side of Pear Deck.

Here is a sample lesson from my 5th grade math class:

https://sharepeardeck.com/hq8k6p

Check out the presentation below to learn more about Pear Deck by clicking on the image:

Pear Deck also has many resources available on their website:

• The Orchard - templates
• Trainings - sign up for a variety of webinars
• Help Videos

You can earn badges for using Pear Deck. For example, you earn a badge after you have created your first session and even your 100th session! There are badges for types of questions used, using Pear Pop, and more. Check them out here: https://www.peardeck.com/achievements

Once you have become a Pear Deck pro, you can even apply to become an Inspearational Educator. More information about that program can be found here: https://www.peardeck.com/inspearational-educators

As the uncertainty of the fall looms, I would definitely check out this technology enhancement. As I said, it can be used for Google or Microsoft and definitely adds an engaging aspect to your lessons.