5 Simple Ways to Use Pear Deck to Make Your Lessons More Interactive

12 Tech Tips of Christmas – Day 4

Welcome to Day 4 of the 12 Tech Tips of Christmas for 2025!
Today we’re exploring Pear Deck, an incredible tool that transforms ordinary Google Slides or PowerPoints into highly interactive, student-centred learning experiences.

I used Pear Deck again this year with one of my classes, and the engagement and data it provided were outstanding. If you’re looking to involve every learner — not just the loudest ones — Pear Deck is a must-have.

🌟 What Is Pear Deck?

Pear Deck turns your regular slides into interactive activities where students respond in real time. They can:

• Drag items

• Draw their thinking

• Answer polls

• Type short responses

• Label diagrams
  … and much more.

Students join the session from their own device, making it perfect for:

• In-person teaching

• Online learning

• Self-paced lessons

Pear Deck helps boost participation, check understanding instantly, and give every learner a voice.

🎁 5 Practical Ways to Use Pear Deck in the Classroom

1️⃣ Real-Time Formative Check-Ins

Use draggable markers, polls, or short responses to instantly see who’s confident and who needs support.
Perfect for maths, science, English, humanities — anything!

Examples:

• Year 3 place value checks

• Year 7 geography multiple-choice review

• Year 10 English quote analysis

• Year 12 biology diagram labelling

2️⃣ Interactive Warm-Ups & Brain Breaks

Start your lesson with a quick spark: drawing tools, predictions, emoji check-ins or recall prompts.

Examples:

• "Draw what you remember from yesterday"

• Predict the outcome of today’s experiment

• Emoji check-ins for PDHPE or wellbeing

• Sketch a symbol for a historical figure

3️⃣ Make Your Existing Slide Decks Interactive

Don’t rebuild your lessons from scratch — add Pear Deck elements to the slides you already use.

Examples:

• Year 6 comprehension tasks

• Year 9 maths diagram annotation

• Year 12 modern history source analysis

4️⃣ Quick Exit Tickets

Finish your lesson with fast reflection:

• One thing I learned

• One thing I’m unsure about

• Confidence scales

• Misconception checks

Perfect for shaping your next lesson.

5️⃣ Capture Prior Knowledge Before a Unit

Gather instant insights into what students already know.

Examples:

• Year 3 science: drawing what plants need

• Year 7 history: defining archaeology

• Year 10 English: initial theme reflections

• Year 11 economics: predicting supply/demand changes

🎄 Why Pear Deck Belongs in Your EdTech Toolkit

Pear Deck helps you:

• Engage every learner

• See real-time understanding

• Make lessons interactive without extra planning

• Use data to inform teaching

• Build student voice and confidence

It’s simple, versatile and incredibly effective.

🎅 Ready to Try Pear Deck?

Give it a go in your next lesson — experiment with one activity and see how your students respond.
You might just find it becomes one of your go-to tools for boosting engagement.

Stay tuned for Day 5 tomorrow!