Pear Deck Premium

This post goes out to my secondary 1 students whom I won't be following up to the next level with. 25/10/19 was supposed to be a happy day for most secondary school students but I just had to tell them that it would also be the last day I'd see them officially as their teacher. It was nice while it lasted but all good things come to an end.

Increase your bightness and look carefully! Only in the darkness can you see the stars...

“May the road rise up to meet you, may the wind be ever at your back. May the sun shine warm upon your face and the rain fall softly on your fields. And until we meet again, may God hold you in the hollow of his hand.”- Irish Blessings. Thank you Mr Suhaimi for such a memorable learning experience wish you the best in your future ventures. All the best in your life that will countinue on. I hope we will meet again in the near future. Thank you - Jayden Ong 1E5

A student texted me the abovementioned message and it really tugged on my heartstrings. I only hope for the best for them and wish that they achieve success in whatever they set their mind on. I promise to do what I can from where I will be to conitnue to bring joy to future batches of students. For now, it is most probably through the impactful and scalable power of technology.

"The team at Pear Deck is pleased to offer the Google Certified Innovators and Trainers complimentary Pear Deck Premium access for the 2019-2020 school year (value of $149). Click here to learn more about Pear Deck! With Premium for the Pear Deck add-on, easily attain real time formative assessment through interactive question types and deliver powerful learning moments to every student straight form Google Slides. To learn more and claim Premium access, simply head to the Pear Deck Google Certified page and enter password: welovegoogle. After submitting form information, please allow the Pear Deck team 2 weeks to upgrade your account.* Only available to new users who do not currently have a Premium Account individually or through their school or district. "

A Peartember to Remember

I have never really heard of Pear Deck prior to the email. So, I took the opportunity to sign up for an account and download as well as install the add-on on Google Slides. Furthermore, my school has an upcoming open-house event and I wondered if I could use this tool for some integration of technology to the school tours that my school usually gives the potential students and their parents. The power of Pear Deck is in its ability to sync slides on several devices and in the little interactions it allows from simple selection of MCQs, typing of open ended questions or simple textual answers or even through some basec drawing funcions. I have not explored it fully but I believe in the potential of such a tool as it engages the user/learner quite directly in subtle but effective ways.

Pear Deck apparently even has a comprehensive blog which includes articles like 7 Tips for Creating Positive Classroom Culture to Introducing Digital Literacy Lessons from Be Internet Awesome and more. My curiousity was also piqued by the Active Learning site which included statistics about the benefits of active learning and 3 steps to better engagement; Question, Explore, Reflect. 

I think it is really amazing how the Google Innovator status is the gift that keeps on giving. Also, the community is so so so active. With the upcoming Innovator Academy in Sweden, we were asked to help tweet a Scrabble letter as a clue to help them in their pre-academy games. I really think that all these online activities will truly engage learners of any age so I am taking notes. It is great too that Google Slides has all these integrations and add-ons so I do not think there will be a day that I can stop learning something new about tech. So that is a good thing, this blog may be that one good thing that may never end. Hurray!

Mmm...
Is that the end?#SWE19 #GoogleEI pic.twitter.com/w6Yvx6tuHF

— Suhaimizs (@SuhaimiZS) October 24, 2019