Name: Driving Student Growth Through Connected Instruction, Practice, and Assessment
Uploaded: 2026-04-16T14:16:12.255Z
Duration: 59 min 38 s
Description: Driving Student Growth Through Connected Instruction, Practice, and Assessment

Transcript for "Driving Student Growth Through Connected Instruction, Practice, and Assessment": Well, good morning or good afternoon, depending upon where and, what time you are joining us. We are excited to be joining you today, as we are partnering with the Barbados Ministry of Education to share their story, share more about how we are partnering with two amazing individuals and, of course, an amazing ministry to better meet the needs of their teachers and students. Thank you for being here. My name is Matt Arend. I am the sales leader that is serving schools and ministries across Latin America and The Caribbean. It's an honor to be your host today, welcoming you and sharing the story and the journey that we have been on with the Barbados Ministry of Education. Before we go any further, we have two amazing guests that are joining our panel today that I would love to introduce. Miss Rasheeda, if you don't mind just quickly introducing yourself, tell us a little bit about your role with the Barbados Ministry of Education, and then we will have, David introduce himself. Okay. Hi. Good morning, everybody. My name is Rashida Bereton. I am here from the beautiful island of Barbados. I am an educator so I actually work within the school system and I teach a range of subjects. I'm also a theatre practitioner, curriculum specialist, so a bit of everything but my specialist specialty is theater. I also teach English language literature and digital literacy. Wow. And somebody out there right now is connecting with the many hats that Rashida is wearing in addition to being an amazing co host or a guest today on our webinar. So thank you for taking time out of your very busy day, to join us and help us share the story of the journey that you've been on in Barbados. Our second, guest this morning, mister David, please, introduce yourself. Hi, Matt. Thanks. Good morning. Thanks to you. Thanks to Renaissance for having me. My name is David Wood, school liaison officer in the Ministry of Education Transformation here in, beautiful island, Barbados. My role really and truly ends from the ministry's end. We have responsibility for everything IT related in schools. That is from the hardware to the software products in Renaissance Learning Nearpod, working with great companies at Renaissance, working with great teachers at Rashida to try to get as much technology integrated into the classrooms because we are in the process of transforming our educational system. So we're looking to move our system from just being an ordinary educational system to probably be one of the best educational systems in the world. And through Renaissance, we hope that this partnership will help us to achieve that. Just a brief introduction on my part. That that's that's a very excellent entry into our conversation. I love that David frames this as transforming the way that education is going to be delivered in Barbados and trying to be the very best in how they can partner with Renaissance and being able to meet the, the, the unique needs of their teachers and students. So before we begin this morning, we realize that you are joining us and you may or may not be familiar with Renaissance Learning Nearpod, which is the resource that, Barbados is, using to help transform instruction. But we do begin all of our meetings with our mission here at Renaissance. So, our goal, which has been the mission, since, day one, which we are celebrating this year forty years of being in this educational technology space, is to accelerate learning for all children and adults of all ability levels, ethnic and social backgrounds worldwide, which is a very exciting time that we can be joined with, the Ministry of Barbados this morning echoing that that worldwide sentiment. Now I do wanna share just a few, components of of what Nearpod is so that helps, frame our conversation today. As we enter into conversations with schools and ministries, across the world, a lot of the concerns or struggles that you see on the screen at the moment are some of the problems that we seek to partner with them on and solve. David mentioned technology use in the classroom. Like, there's no shortage of technology today, but it is how impactful can the technology be not to replace any of the teachers in the classrooms, but to enhance what the teachers are capable of doing. And I think that'll be a theme today that you see with us here at Renaissance, is that we are we are not trying to to replace, rather trying to empower what teachers can be able to do with some of our tools in the classroom to elevate, what instruction can look like. So what is Nearpod? Let's start at the very beginning. Nearpod is the most comprehensive instructional platform helping teachers deliver engaging teaching and learning opportunities that ultimately lead to student success. I think we all agree that when we entered into our educational journey, that was the goal. Right? It was to drive student success. Like, that is the outcome. How we do that at Nearpod is really through three goals or three main ideas that Nearpod can help you establish in the classroom with the first being student engagement. And we'll hear more from the team in Barbados about that engagement component. But when we think engagement, we think every single student, 100% of the students in your classroom space need to have a voice. So how can Nearpod help elevate that student voice? The second is the time that teachers are spending planning for and considering how all of their assessment insights, formative assessment insights, what they know about students, how that can go into a instructional plan that that specifically meets the needs of every individual. So how do we save teachers time? We've got a robust library that helps, teachers do that at Nearpod. And lastly, knowing that we are investing this time, how do we meet the needs of every individual learner in our classroom space? We know that no two students are alike, and Nearpod can help you deliver very specific, nuanced, instructional plans that are going to target each individual. Well, tell me how. How do we do that at Nearpod? First and foremost, everything we do at Nearpod is led by data to help that teacher differentiate instruction. So whether that's assessment data or whether that's formative feedback that you're getting through Nearpod, those teachers can make those lesson adjustments in real time, but also after the fact because our data is being stored in a reporting platform that gives teachers summary overviews as well as insights to the individual learner making sure that every decision is informed and planned based upon what that student is understanding. Second, we talked about the time saving capabilities. Our Nearpod library, my slide today says 22,000 resources. I would challenge that and say it may be closer to 30. 30,000 ready made resources that span all grade levels, all subject areas. Not to mention with the new insertion of AI into Nearpod, teachers can use AI to support the designing of lessons that they need to support the individual needs of their students. And, of course, everything in this Nearpod library is customizable. So use it immediately or use it and make those slight adjustments to give your lessons the teacher voice that we want you to have through instruction. And finally, it wouldn't be Nearpod without the over 20 different dynamic formative assessment features that we offer. So think about the ways that you're capturing engagement in the classroom now. Do you tend to rely on the same one, two, or three strategies regularly, let us help you be more diverse in how you're capturing that student insight, increasing engagement with over 20 different formative assessment options that again are getting you that feedback in real time so you can make those adjustments. Well, the good news is you didn't join this webinar this morning to hear me tell you all the great things about Nearpod for the next, thirty to forty five minutes. We're here today to hear the story from, David and Rashida on the journey that they've been on. And I say story and I say journey because the journey is not finished. And it truly is an opportunity for them to highlight the great work that they've been doing across the ministry. So at this time, I'm going to, stop sharing the screen. We've heard introductions from both David and Rashida. We're actually going to, have an amazing conversation, enter into this space. So I'll stop sharing my screen now. And, David and Rashida, we're gonna put you, front and center, and we're gonna just gonna have an exchange. I'll ask questions. We're gonna be excited to hear your responses. But let's begin before Nearpod, David. Help us set the stage and understand the the learning environment in Barbados prior to our Nearpod partnership. Help your help the audience today kinda just pretend they're in the classroom setting. What would they see and what type of problem were you trying to solve when we started, having conversations around Nearpod? Hi, Matt. So Nearpod our introduction to Nearpod was actually a very interesting one. Nearpod was something that be the ministry went out and looked for, Coming out to the COVID nineteen pandemic and even during the pandemic, it was brought to us from persons like Rashida and other teachers who were looking for things to use to integrate into their classrooms due to the fact that almost that we were pretty much working from home. We were home full time. Schools still had to go on. Teachers went and they found this product that gave them the ability to access content and to deliver content to their students. And it did it in such a way that it that it made the students want to use and to pay attention in classrooms. Because no student at home online joined that pandemic and coming out to the pandemic, wanted to just see a teacher standing in front of a chalkboard, even though they may have been at home with a camera and on their laptop, standing on the chalkboard, writing notes and formula and and doing that, they they they would go and play games. They would find better things to do. They go and watch YouTube. So when teachers, brought us near point and said, hey. That there's this product that that is able to capture the students' attention. It has the content that we want to use to deliver in our classrooms. Look at it as a ministry, and let's see if we can get it for the entire country, which we did. We looked at it. We realized, well, it was a product. It had a number of various subjects that we could use. It give us the ability to customize lessons. It gives teachers the ability to put their own lessons and their own lesson plans into there. They could pull in their own content, they could make their own lessons. And we said, hey. This will fix this problem that we were having in terms of getting a platform where our teachers can use to be able to deliver relevant content online to keep the children engaged and also to have some sort of assessment then on the children. And it did innovate that the children enjoyed. And for us, that is so near part came into play, and that is how we use data leverage then going into that full online environment coming through the COVID nineteen pandemic. Now that that's a it's amazing how many of our stories start with that moment in time today. In 2026, we're we're we're taken back to the pandemic times quite regularly as a as a moment in time that we use as a benchmark. Now, Rashida, tell me, what were you doing in the ministry during this time that David just described? Help us understand the role that you were in and how his kinda explanation of Nearpod helped meet the need that you mighta had at that time. So, David works within the actual ministry, and I work within the schools. So I'm I'm an a teacher within a school. Mhmm. So during the COVID pandemic is when I was actually definitely introduced to Nearpod, and I completely fell in love with it from the get go. Not only was a platform given that I could do so many things with, but you just didn't drop it there and say, okay. All the best. But you gave us support. So your Camp Engage was mind blowing for me because then it allowed me to sit, to to learn from other educators, which now I am a part of that family, that I love so much, where we share how we use the platform. So you're not left alone. You don't you're not left there to think, oh, but how do I use all of these wonderful, Nearpod sessions that you just spoke about from the library? But you're you're given nuggets of information from educators out there who are familiar with the platform. And I thought that that was so beautiful, because in in an hour, you can learn so much from one session. And I think that is what really grabbed my attention and helped me in. For me, it was a tool I I consider a one stop shop because you have so many things that you love out there. So then you have to go on to this web page, and then you have to take your students on to another web page and then another. But with Nearpod, what I loved is that, I could app smash. So I could use links to bring up some of the other websites that I had content on already and and use the link feature to pull those into the lesson so that everything that my students needed came within that one lesson. So they clicked on it and yes it might open another tab but their home base was an AirPod lesson. I loved that I had the opportunity to do it in person or I can do it as a student pace because while we were in the COVID pandemic so many people were, just kept getting sick unintentionally, just randomly. So what what was happening then was I had students who couldn't make my class. So what what do we do for those? Right? And David said it just now. I could create my own content. So I started to record myself, and then you upped the game and you did interactive videos. So then I could add my questions that they would have had if they were actually in the class with me. So I had a student, for example, who had broken her leg. She was out of, class for an extended period of time. So then I recorded content. I pulled content from the library. I pulled content from YouTube and other platforms. But again, because of the ability to bring those things into Nearpod, she still was one location. And that was beautiful to me. So she was able to feel like if she was in the class, you know. You end with a question or a collaborative board, so that she could leave her questions or concerns, and we can schedule something because she had her feedback there that I could then look at, work on, and then give her something else to follow-up on along with other things. So it was beautiful coming out of COVID, and I haven't stopped using it since then. I I love that. And and I think there there's there's so many nuggets of things that were just shared by both David and Rashida. The and and I hope that that you're you're keen listening to some of the ideas that they're sharing, but we we hit on a couple now that that we're identifying as themes. And I think David hit on the the motivating of students. Now that that was next level and so necessary as we were learning remotely. I would challenge you to think even though students are now back in the buildings, how important is that student motivation still? Even though we've got students and teachers that are looking eye to eye now every day, how important is that student motivation at the moment? And secondly, think of that teacher workload. We know teachers were working tirelessly during COVID. Are they working less now that they're back in the classrooms, or is the workload different but still at a high level? It's oftentimes I hear from school leaders that, oh, yes. We use Nearpod during the pandemic. It's like, tell me more. Well, we had students working remotely. We had students on devices. Teachers were working so hard. Absolutely. And now that students are back in the classrooms, we still have students working on devices. We still have students that need to be engaged at a high level, and we still have teachers that are working really hard. Shouldn't we still be leveraging Nearpod? So I love that you found ways to use it during the pandemic, but it was such a transformational tool that now that we're out of the pandemic, you're still finding a high level of value in how Nearpod can transform instruction in the classroom. So, David, you made it sound so simple. The teacher brought you an idea and the ministry said yes. We we know it doesn't always work in in such a straight line. There there's comp there's decisions, there's conversations, there's internal conversations that we don't even know about that have to go into the decision making process. So allow us to learn a little bit more about the the decision making process that you went through as a ministry, specifically thinking about Nearpod and Vocabulary because Vocabulary is another resource that you have. What were the just kinda talk us talk to us about what what were some of the conversations that you had internally about the decision you had to make about why Nearpod was gonna be the right fit? Sure. Remember, this all happened during, I started during the pandemic. And and so we had to do a quick rapid assessment of of of the product. So, we reached out to Nearpod. We got a a great customer service agent who was able to come on board, show us the project. I mean, I mean, we were even able to to demo it. So remember to, Neapolitan, other companies during the pandemic allowed users to use their platform. You could have the free standard access account, which was kinda limited, but you also have what now is pretty much a paid or tiered account. So we were able to reach out to to to Nearpod regarding response. Hey. Okay. You're looking to use this product. And and they answered a number of questions which we asked, coming from the ministries end. Is it able to be used, across all of our schools? Which, category of students? Because it go from nursery to to k 12. Does it go right up? How is your content delivered? Critical for us as a country as well too is, if you put information into your platform, where is that information stored? What is done with that information? What information do you capture from both students and teachers? Because that is critical for us as well. What information is placed into the platform, where it is stored, how it is used after we give you our information, even things done as far as test scores and results and all of that. How is that information kept? How is is it secure? Obviously, is the platform itself secure? What security does the platform has? Those were all questions which we deliberated and we looked at. We asked. We had the back and forth conversations with Nearpod on it, and the answers were great. They were able to answer all of our questions. We were able then to say, okay. So let's enter into a pilot. We were able to pilot the platform, for a period of time, and then we just transitioned it into the paid version of of the platform. And as Rashida said, it gave us lots of things which fit what we were trying to do. We were able to do sciences, math, English. It has gamification, which children love and that kept them on task and on stream. Vocabulary came on board and and that was like amazing. It's one of the newer things for us to use, but the fact that we could try to engage students with music. I mean, coming out of the pandemic, students are now have their own studios at home. So the internal discussions were had. We were able to to get direct contact with someone, who's been a great assistant to us, and that's what we appreciate as well. Not every platform vendor sometimes gives you that support upfront before being into a paid contract with them. But Nearpod did. Nearpod was was saying, hey. We know it's education. We are pushing educational product. We they gave us all the support. They answered all of our questions, and they made our decision, an easy decision to go forward with Nearpod. No. That's very insightful. And and I thank you, David, for just kind of pulling the curtain back a little bit more, helping us learn about the decision making process that you went through because there are other ministries and schools that have very similar thought processes. So hearing that from you as a leader may put their minds at ease knowing that, Nearpod is there to partner with you through that entire decision making process, whether it's a pilot or the professional development or just being available, as Rashida mentioned, to be able to answer the questions and provide that support whenever it's needed. Now one of the things Rashida mentioned, she mentioned the term app smashing, which I love. As a former elementary principal tech enthusiast, we we know how important it can be to combine tools into one space. Through your decision making process, and maybe Rashida, if you wanna think about this, David mentioned that there were many tools at your disposal that you could've you could've used. You mentioned app smashing. So how how did you work through Nearpod being the tool versus one more tool? Because we know even today, teachers have so many options that are out there. So how how did you keep the focus the focus allowing Nearpod to be a vehicle that can transform instruction versus one more thing? Because we hear from teachers all the time and leaders that, we have so many things. We don't need one more thing. How do you avoid Nearpod being one more thing? So for me, if I were to go to start a lesson from scratch now in Nearpod, it gives me options. So I could upload a PDF to make my start, or I can use their slides from within Nearpod, or I can use the Google Slides and then do an integration. And then the options within those, that creation tool allows me to add things like matching pairs. So game gamification is included. But along with the gamification, I could just have regular slides that gives content. So you have the content, then you have the gamification. Then you can also add, links from outside of the platform that allows me to bring in other resources that are out there. Whereas other platforms, you can only use what's in their platform. Right? Then the the struggle then is I'm gonna start in this because I have this content in in this particular, tool, and then I have to go into this other tool to get that other content. So it it was just too cumbersome. Right? And. because you're working with students in front of you and then you're working with students who are virtual, because as we said, we started this during COVID, but it happens today. Right? We still have children who are sick. Children didn't stop being sick. I didn't stop being sick. So you I continued using it because of the ability that I had, within the platform to do multiple things in one space. I and you're consistently upgrading. We're not you're not leaving us there and saying, again, as I said, all the best. Right? You're listening to us. So what would we like? What what new features or somebody complained about remember there was a big thing about how, after the lesson was finished, how you would look through, sorry, the the where does that come into me? Assist me there. Where we would look at the results. So a lot of the concern was that there were some of the features that you guys were giving us, and we didn't have results for those sections. Mhmm. Or in something like time for client where the questions were there, you only got the results for the individual who was quick on the draw, and got the most right, but you you didn't get actual factual information on on the time to claim. And you listened. Right? So now I have, somebody got 4,538 points, but I can also go in and see who got five out of the 10 questions correct. I can also go in to see, you know, the the troubled areas. that the students had. So the fact that you are consistently, improving based on the feedback of the teachers is something that is heartwarming because most times we're not listened to. You have admin and, they go off and they make all of their brand gestures, and you might have given feedback on a form, but you feel like but I still have the same issue that I had last year. Like, what's happening? Right? And I don't feel that way here. Right now, AI is a big thing. What did you guys do? We introduced AI. So you're assisting us now with creating questions. I can create an entire presentation. And then by the time I get to the end, I can ask AI to assist me to create questions based on the presentation that I just created. And I can decide to use those questions, or I can say, no. No. I'm okay. I actually have mine. Right? But the choice is there for me. So if I am in a bind for time, I can use that service. And if I am okay because I have my stuff covered, then I go on without it. Right? So there. is something for everybody. And I think that's for me why I continued with it outside of the engagement for the students because that was mind blowing. I remember I had one student very very quiet very reserved she was hardly communicating unless we were in one on one sessions but when we were using Nearpod for the entire lesson, you have that engagement. Right? And we have those everywhere we go. We have those types of students. No matter what you do, some students are just not people persons. Right? We as adults, Yeah. sometimes we have moments where we're just like, oh, people today. Right? Because we have jobs, we have to, but there there are some adults who actually work behind a screen because they don't want to interact. So we have to understand that we have those students. Right? And we can't force them to be somebody that they're not. We can allow them to explore other personality traits that they might have, but at the crux of it, we have to appreciate the student that we have in front of us. And for me, Nearpod allowed me to connect with all of those students throughout the. entire so Very a class, I could have somebody who just wants to do the virtual lesson. Well, go for it. It's already there. The content is there. So it takes time to build the content, but when it's there, I can utilize it in multiple ways. There you go. Well, that that very thoughtful answer. Now the one one of the pieces that that I'd love to just pull the string on a little bit further because it has come up as and when we talk with other schools, other ministries, and and Barbados isn't any different. Rich in culture, proud of the heritage, and and you want your instruction to reflect the culture and the heritage when you're delivering the instruction to students. So oftentimes, we we will hear that, hey. The the content in Nearpod, how does it reflect our culture, our heritage? How will our students see themselves in the Nearpod lessons? Will you talk a little bit about how you can leverage what's available, but still able to, as Rashida has mentioned, like, take ownership over it and and have it be a reflection of what you as the teacher or you as the ministry needed to reflect to lift up your students and their history and their heritage and and kinda embrace the culture of Barbados? Sure, Matt. Any country, is is is has its heritage, is is trying to preserve its history. And for us, that is crucial. Even the way we speak, the way we bring across things, our mannerisms, All those are things that are unique, to Barbadians. And Rashida can can can join in here and help me here. Define at Nearpod allows you to tailor, make a lesson on what you want. You can add your own audio. You can add your own images. You can add your own videos. We have a a media resource department that that thrives on creating content and preserving local, culture for the country. So I know teachers would come to us to get information from them on pictures and videos and charts. What happens now is that they've digitized a lot of that content. So no teachers are not able to take that same content to put a Saint in Nearpod and then to make lessons and videos which are applicable for us. I've used it. I'm more on the admin side. My role really. and truly is to make sure that that teachers get what they want to use in the classrooms and to support them where they need. But I've used it around our independence time to create a couple of lessons to do internally. We've used it to do a quiz internally, using Barbadian pictures and heritage and personalities and all of that. Vocabulary, vocabulary, to play no means. I've we've done a couple of lessons. We've had, one of your guys come down, Murph, and things that you're saying. shout out to Merv, Yeah. by the way. I wish he was here with us. today. Merv, we miss you, Great. guy. A great great guy. Murph Murph is excellent in what he does. Murph is is great at pushing vocabulary and the fact you can use music to teach lessons and to deliver content to these students. So we we've seen students take songs from from from our national hero, Rihanna, and and use them. They've done raps. They've incorporated it. The fact that we can incorporate vocabulary, but into Nearpod, wonderful, great tool. Lots of avenues that we can can merge and keep culture alive. And as Rashida as Rashida just said, you've added AI to it. So you didn't you didn't say I'm gonna get and use somebody else's AI or whatever. You've developed your own AI platform, and you've kept it in the platform. And for us, that is what we what we we appreciate because we don't want that students' exposure to AI is just fully online. The fact that the AI in Nearpod is is developed by Nearpod and works within Nearpod means that it's going to do things within the parameters of Nearpod for what we expect. So we don't have a problem with with the AI in Nearpod and with what Nearpod is doing because we we understand you've understood responsibility of of your product and what you're gonna do. And then you said we're not just gonna expose you to everything that's out there and hope that you can navigate it. You said we've we've developed something that that we're responsible for, and you've made it, easy for us to use. So I agree just waiting to see what else what what's new? What else is coming? And we're just waiting. David's David's ready. He's like, Nearpod, what's next? We we are hungry for more. What's next? Whew. It's exciting. We're coming, David. We are going to be there to support you all along the way. Now I I hope our audience members are are not missing on on this key thread that has come up a couple of times, and it's the importance of leaders. And I'm talking to myself even as a former administrator, listening to your teachers. Like, they are the end user, and you've heard Rashida mention it. Like, we don't always feel heard, but there's so many nuances just in this conversation today where I I feel like the teacher voice was a driver in a lot of these decisions. So leaders, please listen to your teachers. They are the ones boots on the ground, meeting with students daily. They know what they need. And kudos to David and the team at the Ministry of Barbados for having that listening ear and being responsive to the needs of their teachers. Now there's two more pieces that that I want to to unpack, before we dig a little bit deeper into what we can do next. Because the decision was made, and and now it's, hey. We have Nearpod. Now what? We have to make sure we're getting that return on our investment. It aligns with our vision moving forward. So this will be answered by both of you, David and Rashida. When it came to the rollout, the professional development, making sure teachers were having the support they needed. Talk to us about the professional learning plan, the type of support that you felt. And then even now, Rashida, how are you continuing to develop those teacher champions, which you are very much one of, but how are we how are we growing that across the ministry? So maybe Rashida go first in how you're helping other teachers transform instruction. And then, David, if you wanna talk about it from a ministry level, how did the PD help support the larger vision? Okay. So within this school, I support those who are interested in using Nearpod and vocabulary, so that if they're having any challenges, we can work through it to kind of understand best practices, so to speak. I'm also working with David and some of the other Nearpod team members, Bianca, specifically, to work through how we can do some whole group sessions with some of the other teachers on island here, coming out of the professional development, sessions that ministry and Nearpod would have worked through. So, I was able to go out last term to some sessions that they had on island face to face, so that was nice to see the Nearpod team here champion the platform, and it is always heartwarming to actually see people, right? It's it's okay to do it virtually, but face to face stuff is also still supported over here. So coming out of that, we had some discussions about some of the challenges the teachers were facing. Questionnaires would have been sent out as well just to check-in to see how people felt about using the platform and coming out of the feedback that was received. We're then going to be tailoring some workshops to support the others on on island, and also celebrating those who are using it in a positive, creative, and, consistent manner. Thank you, Rashida. Now, David, just take it up one level to the ministry, thinking about the implementation, professional development conversations you had with the team, kinda walk us through the implementation plan that you had envisioned. Matt, listen. If I could steal, Bianca from you guys. Bianca is our customer support manager. I I even there's a customer support specialist. Bianca has been with us from day one, and Bianca has been instrumental in developing professional development and our implementation of Nearpod. She's she's been here. As Rashida just said, Nearpod has made every effort and has tried every year to come and do face to face training with us and our teachers because you guys have understood the importance of making sure that from the administrative side, right down to the teacher, that you're comfortable with the platform, that we're well trained in the platform, and that we're able to use and implement the platform across all of our schools. So we've done training for our principals. We've done training for the administrators at this at this school level. We've done training for our teachers. And Bianca has been exceptional. The support from Nearpod, the fact that we are willing to see if you need us to come and do training, we're gonna come and do face to face training. We would we get constant reports on usage. I get constant reports on usage. The fact that Rashida is now, has now become a Nearpod champion, And she's she's our she's my local spearhead for Nearpod on on the on the ministries end because she's she's seen it. She's seen the benefit of it. She's embraced it, and she's become one of our local champions. So now she's not able to coming from just being a normal user of the platform to be a trainer for us, she's not able to have to help us develop more champions in our schools so we can have more reach and more and more boots on the ground. Because the more persons who use the platform, the more teachers who we can get engaged and loving the platform and utilizing it means that the platform is able to spread and we're able to get as much out of it as possible. So we're not just seeing it as throwing money at something that's starting in pandemic and hope that it caught on and that it stayed. The support from Bianca along with the development of persons that Rashida has meant that Neapolitan is now a crucial tool for us within the ministry to be used within our schools. Shout out to Bianca. I'm so I'm so happy that you brought her up. I remember my very first meeting with David and in which I joined with Bianca, and and he basically told me, hey, Bianca's amazing. You have huge shoes to fill. So here I am today still trying to fill the shoes that the, that the Bianca is entering into all these conversations with. Thank you for all of the great support and the ongoing support that Bianca provides. And that's a great segue, David, because now you talked about you're talking about lasting impact and measuring success. So, yes, Bianca's helping you with the the student engagement reports, and you're getting the the boots on the ground feedback from from great teacher leaders like Rashida. What have you what have you seen as a difference now that we are we're out of the pandemic? Professional development is is ongoing. It's taking place in person. It's taking place remotely. You've got Rashida who's now even presenting at some of our camp engage activities. What have you seen in regards to student interest, student engagement? Like, what are the benefits, the impacts that you're seeing now in the classroom, thinking about instruction that you wanna continue to focus on through our partnership? So much. We've had to we're still kind of in a hybrid system. We've had to to to balance the fact that not every cell has continuous access to a device. Not every cell is able to to have complete online presence, and we don't want that either. We're still trying to make sure we get a balance between the use of technology, access to technology, and just trying to keep children engaged for their mental health and everything and all of that. Rashida spoke to it earlier. You could have your lessons and do your lessons, deliver your lessons one time. You can have your self paced lessons there for the students to use. So Nepal has given us the flexibility to be able to reach our students where they are. We can for those who can, we can go full ahead and they can go full self paced. Those that may need a one on one or may need extra lesson. And she said, if you can create lessons, they have them ready for them, and then deliver them to the students when they need to. All of our students, we try as much as possible to make sure they have access to devices. And Rashida could add here to that because even from the school's end, we have full access to our teachers, our full access to it. Students, where possible, have full access to it. And we try to to to merge that gap between being fully online, but also being cognizant to the fact that there need to be some some measure of breaks built into that. And the platform allows us to do both. I'm not sure if she has anything to add there. For me, it's, again, the options that you have. So sometimes you can do a full lesson. I did a presentation at Nearpod, one of your camp engaged sessions where I also noted that you can just use one slide. Right? So sometimes you feel like, hey. You have to do this big grandiosel presentation for students, which isn't necessarily true. Sometimes you might just need that interactive video or you might need, a closed test where you give them a closed passage, pull out some of the words and they have to fill in the blanks. So it's given us options, a little bit more creativity when we are creating those lessons for the students. As and as I said, to have everything in one place. Right? So sometimes you would have those extra activities for them on hand, paper based, and then papers disappear or a child didn't hand it in. But if you have it through Nearpod, then everything is there for you to go back and do your quick checks in terms of who was, able to complete in full, who didn't get it halfway, and whether they submit or not, it's still there for you to see. So that's one of the things I love about it, but I don't always use it as a full lesson, because as David rightly said, you don't want them wholeheartedly dependent on the electronics. But you could do activities where they have to go between. So you can do station rotations. You can have situations where you have them in groups. So at one station, they're in a group doing an air quality lesson, and then they move on to something else. So there's so much possibility, that allows you not to give them just one world view, but Mhmm. a complete picture of of how the world works. With that, You decide. you you add yeah. Beautiful flexibility. You could decide you add just now in terms of content, and making it ours. So you guys have virtual realities. We can create our own virtual reality and upload it, in a in a creative way. So you have options. Right? And I I think that's the the fun part for me. So yeah. I love that. It speaks to the flexibility and the balance that it can provide. Oftentimes, when people think, oh, well, Nearpod is technology. Like, we don't need more technology. Like, you don't have to use it like that. You can really balance the the instructional flow, right, of of being online, offline, and the the the benefit of having both. So thank you for highlighting that, Rashida. You so many good nuggets that you you guys have shared today, and I'm gonna let you close with with one more nugget. So if if you were a a ministry or a school that was currently considering bringing Nearpod into their organization, into their building. What would be your advice? What would be your word of advice to someone considering, a Nearpod adoption? And, Rashida, why don't you go first, and then we'll close with David? I would say go for it. It is a one stop shop. Everything that you will need is already in there. It gives the best of a lot of the other applications that are out there, in one space. And then if they are indeed missing something, you can still integrate it using their link feature. And it's a beautiful tool. You they you have the support. They're listening, and we have created a family. Whether in your home territory or within the campaign game sessions, you can come out, connect, learn, share, and, you have the opportunity to connect via the directory with other educators that are out there that have, joined into Camp Engage as well. So join the family. Join the family. I love this. So thank you so much, Rashida, for your time. David, what would be your piece of advice? I would add on to what Rashida has said. And I would say from the ministry's point of view, any person who's looking to to to bring Nearpod online or to look at Nearpod, I'd say give them a serious look, and I'll tell you why. Integration. Nearpod integrates with almost every LMS that is out there. We've integrated it with our LMS that it works. AI, it has the AI. Everyone's looking at that now. That is now available and self contained. That's what it does. Fabulous job. We haven't touched on assessments, but they're yeah. They're now expanding the assessment side of it and delving further into what they can do with assessments along with the AI. The fact that the community is great is spans many countries. It gives our teachers the ability to get lesson plans, to go to to see other countries have that engagement with other teachers across the world as a platform. It's it's a wonderful the children love it for the gamification. It's it's very colorful and graphic videos are well done. Everything is well presented. Vocabularies that little extra oomph in there. Then the other things that the content is wonderful. It's very first century math. Oh, that is great. I've looked at it some elsewhere and I like it. And the greatest thing that I've seen with Nearpod, whenever I experience with Nearpod is the support. The customer support is there, whether it's on the administrative side or whether it's on the side of teachers. I've not had a bad experience or a bad company from anyone saying they've reached out. They've had a challenge. If Rashida can't get something done or can support our teachers, I'm sure Bianca will be finding someone who can. So as an overall partner with us here in the Barbados Ministry of Education Transformation, Nearpod has been wonderful. Go for it, as Rashida said. Go for it. Listen. I I I love that. Just very go for it. Go for it. And that gave you a ton of reasons why you should go for it. And and David, again, is setting me up for success with amazing transition as he just mentioned that some of the assessment conversation that can support Nearpod. So I I want our listeners to to learn just a little bit more about what David was referring to. So I'm going to believe I'm sharing this successfully. Yes. Perfect. Okay. So you'll notice Nearpod on the far right hand side that is part of our Renaissance ecosystem. What you heard today was that Nearpod can be a one stop shop, a a collaboration tool. And and Renaissance very much believes that because we hear from school leaders and teachers regularly that their process is segmented. We've got a resource over here and a resource over here and a resource over here, and we're spending our time trying to figure out how to connect the resources versus the resources already being connected. So how do we consolidate what teachers have access to and elevate the ways those resources can be used? So so if I can speak to the ecosystem for a moment, our assessments, which we have a variety of both academic and non academic assessments, can really lay the foundation for what we want to happen in the classroom when we think about our teachers and when we think about instruction. And Nearpod truly becomes the hub of that instructional insight. So if I can highlight our star assessments for a moment because we do have a direct connection from our star assessments using both an adaptive and curriculum based measures to inform what teachers can use in Nearpod. So, again, elevating the way Nearpod can be even more of an intentional instructional tool. Our STAR assessments can be used to screen students. So how are we identifying who might be at risk or who has instructional gaps that we need to fill? But it's also a part of a ministry's or school's progress monitoring plan, where after we've identified the need, how are we making sure the intervention we're providing is closing the gap? So our star assessments can be used both ways and directly inform what's going to happen in the classroom. Now when we think about assessment, we're gonna help you in deliver assessments in both reading and math at a foundational level of reading with STAR Early Literacy, which in short, how are we supporting students who are still learning to read? They're not reading independently yet. And how are we supporting readers once they've transitioned from learning to read now being able to read to learn? That comprehension aspect, which we know they're very different. And then, of course, we can assess math k through 12. So we've covered every single grade reading and math at a general level with an adaptive assessment that only takes about ten minutes for early literacy and about twenty minutes for reading and math. Mind you, we can do that in both English and Spanish. We then can follow-up and provide teachers with one on one knee to knee teacher table curriculum based measures that allow teachers to go more granular to identify the skills that are missing relating back to those adaptive assessments. So two different types of assessments still living in one house, still very much connected to Nearpod, which brings us to Renaissance Intelligence. We've talked about AI today. We've talked about AI living within Nearpod. And the most important aspect of AI for us here at Renaissance is that it is not a replacement of the teacher. We do not want AI teaching our students. We want to invest in the teachers who are teaching our students and empower them with AI. K. So we have developed a intelligence system grounded in AI that can help teachers connect the Renaissance solutions, personalized instruction, and truly unify the teaching experience into a singular platform. That sounds amazing and probably confusing all at the same time. So there's so much power in seeing what's available and how we want to consolidate and teach in today's classrooms because there's still a place for a balance. There's still a place for technology. There's still a place for our traditional, we need to work it out paper pencil. But how we push forward with AI empowering the classroom teacher might be the difference between where you are as an organization today and where you can be as an organization in the future. So I'm gonna close this out with sharing a quick commercial helping you better understand Renaissance. Education and technology are stuck in a loop. Automation is mistaken for innovation. Fragmented tools and rigid systems leave educators guessing what works. Prebuilt algorithms lack the context required to truly personalize and adapt. Renaissance rejects this model. Education should adapt to learners, not force learners to adapt to systems. Teaching and learning must be agile, contextual, and deeply human. Our vision, not another layer, a new system for modern teaching. We're staying true to what we know works. Evidence based design and educator control with AI that adapts to curriculum, context, and student needs under teacher guidance. Built to amplify impact, not replace teachers. We understand learning. We don't just build algorithms. Years of responsible innovation and decades of data and research back design guides every decision we make. The future of education isn't about more apps. It's about solutions. With Renaissance, educators can see and respond to every student's learning journey in real time. Deliver instruction that's aligned, personalized, and impactful. Save time with smarter workflows. We're creating a new category. Introducing Renaissance. The unified learning platform that unifies assessment, curriculum, and instruction. Powered by AI that truly personalizes learning at scale. Every student seen, every teacher supported, every classroom progressing. This is Renaissance. That kinda gave me goosebumps at the end. What an amazing way to close out our time. David's laughing at me. We're so excited to be able to have such a strong partnership with the team in Barbados. Rashida from a a classroom perspective, David from the the central office perspective. We're about to wrap up our time. If if you have been a part of this webinar today or have questions, please make sure that you follow-up with us. We are here to support you. David was so excited that he left already. Rashida, thank you for your time today. Oh, and he came back. Look at that. Thank you so much again, Rashida and David, for being thought partners with us, allowing us to support you as a ministry for your teachers and your students. I'm excited to see where we can continue to take things in Barbados. And if you joined us today from wherever you joined us, thank you for being a part of of the call and the webinar, and I hope that we are able to, support you in a similar fashion as we are supporting the team in Barbados. Rashida and David, any last thoughts? Thanks for having us, Matt. I appreciate it, from my end. Hope that that we're able to help some other country, some other ministry, some other school, some other teacher be interested about Nearpod and Renaissance Learning and go have a look. Happy from my end. Yeah. Same on on my end. Thank you so much for giving the space, to share our our journey with using Nearpod. And I looked forward to the continued growth, because as I said, you're you're still listening. You know? You you never stop. So I look forward to all the future possibilities. And the family is still here so if anybody has any questions and queries we are happy to continue the conversation so thank you Amazing. Thank you, Rashida and David. Thank you again. If you joined us, live or joining us after the fact, we appreciate your, commitment to helping us grow students and teachers across the world. Everyone have a wonderful day.