Prep & Play before a tutoring session & Google Docs uploads to the Writing Lab

Get ready to ace the school year with Pear Deck Tutor’s newest features: pre-session activities for students and Google Docs support for easy uploads to the Writing Lab. Plus, teacher-initiated tutoring can empower tag-team teaching this year.

Prep & Play: Educational games before the session

On-demand can’t always be instant, but it can be fun! Pear Deck Tutor introduces Prep & Play to make every pre-session minute productive and enjoyable. Students will now be engaged with educational games while we find them a great-match tutor. The learning support can start earlier in the session by playfully encouraging students to try out the tools and interface of the Lesson Space before a tutor joins. 

What’s changing? Students will now enter the Lesson Space immediately after submitting their session request, even if a tutor hasn't been found yet. There, they will have access to all the tools within a dedicated "Prep & Play" tab that features Draw, Word Search, and Speed Math activities. The Drawing game will prompt students with words to draw using whiteboard tools. The Math game offers timed practice with arithmetic problems, encouraging students to solve as many as possible and improve their best score. The Word Search lets students look for hidden words within a grid of letters. 

Besides these games, students are encouraged to upload additional materials and prepare for the tutoring session. The right side of their screen will notify the student when a tutor is about to join them in the Lesson Space. 

Prep & Play is available starting August 8th, offering students a tutoring experience they’ll keep coming back for.

Google Docs upload support in the Writing Lab 

No more file conversions! We’re adding a frequently requested upload option to the Writing Lab to make submissions easier for Chromebook users. Students can now seamlessly submit their essays and papers from Google Drive. They’ll receive detailed feedback from a tutor as comments in the margin, accessible directly within their document. 

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Writing Lab customizable template for teachers 

This enhancement is a great opportunity to re-introduce the Writing Lab at your school or district. We’ve seen the popularity of Writing Lab explode in the previous school year because teachers love the personalized tutor feedback on students’ drafts before the essays land on their desks. 

Do you want to encourage your ELA, History, and Social Science teachers to make the Writing Lab a standard step in the writing process? Send them this customizable template to attach to every writing assignment this school year. 

Assess understanding, assign assistance 

Power up your school year with Teacher-Initiated Tutoring! Based on real-time classroom insights, teachers can assign tutoring sessions to students and add notes about individual learning goals, so tutors can align their support with classroom instruction.

Through the integration with Pear Assessment, teachers can pair the data-driven insights, automated grading, and instant reports of Pear Assessment with 1:1 tutoring of Pear Deck Tutor. 

Through the integration with GoGuardian Teacher, teachers can assign Pear Deck Tutor sessions based on in-the-moment student progress in GoGuardian Teacher. Assigning tutoring to an individual student or a group helps everyone be better prepared for the next class.

A community of tutors to back up your teachers

We've designed on-demand tutoring that seamlessly fits into existing instructional workflows. Find more templates and helpful resources for teachers here.