Over 400 schools have already taken advantage of our offer to help ensure continuity of learning during the flu season by pre-registering for two weeks of free school-wide remote access to BrainPOP. Students who are not able to attend classes will have access to BrainPOP Jr. (K-3), BrainPOP, and BrainPOP Español for online learning during school-hours (7am – 5:30pm local time).

Has your class experienced a disruption in learning this season? Please comment below and share how you handled it.

Do you tweet? BrainPOP does! We use twitter as another way to support our educators. BrainPOP tweets about featured movies, monthly spotlights, upcoming conferences, and current BrainPOP events. It is just one more way that we support a professional learning community among our users.

To meet some of our BrainPOP twitter followers, BrainPOP hosted its first ever TweetUp last week. The event was held in conjunction with the NSBA T+L conference in Denver. What’s a TweetUp? It is a chance for BrainPOP followers to develop a sense of community, by meeting one another, the BrainPOP team, and connecting. Our first TweetUp was extra special because we were able to honor two of our BrainPOP Advisors, Teryl Magee and Robert Miller for receiving the 2009 NSBA “20 to Watch” award.

Attendees learned about the event by following @brainpop on twitter. Our first TweetUp was a success. Attendees mingled with BrainPOP team members and each other. Even Moby was on hand for pictures! TweetUp attendees were treated to a special t-shirt, and encouraged to tweet throughout the event.

To be among the first to hear about local BrainPOP TweetUps and events, be sure to follow BrainPOP on twitter@brainpop .

Help reduce anxiety by imparting a better understanding of the H1N1 virus. Embed the Swine Flu movie on your own blog or website using the code provided here. These are some examples of teachers and schools who are already using this free resource:

3rd Grade Class Blog

Library Website

School Website

District Website

Additionally, BrainPOP and BrainPOP Jr. offer a number of age-appropriate resources that can gently explain the H1N1 flu, its origins, its spread, and appropriate precautions. All are free throughout this flu season.

• On BrainPOP: We’ve updated BrainPOP’s Swine Flu movie to include the most recent information available. The movie is supported by a related FYI, quiz, activities, and Q&A
• Embed the Movie: Help reduce anxiety by imparting a better understanding of the H1N1 virus. Embed the Swine Flu movie on your own blog or web site using the code provided here.
• On BrainPOP Jr.: The BrainPOP Jr. Washing Hands movie serves as an excellent primer for younger students, teaching them about the basics of personal hygiene.
• BrainPOP Educators: Take advantage of our H1N1-related lesson plans, “Putting Germs to the Test” and “What to Do About Swine  Flu.“
• Beyond BrainPOP: The official U.S. government site for all things flu-related is www.flu.gov.

Please join us in congratulating our BrainPOP advisors Teryl Magee and Robert Miller, on receiving NSBA’s 2009 “20 to Watch Award” for Emerging Technology Leaders.

Teryl, an instructional coach with Knox County School District in Tennessee, is passionate about integrating technology into the curriculum, thus preparing her students to be productive 21st-century citizens. Another passion of Ms. Magee’s is helping teachers, from kindergarten to high school, learn how to use technology in effective ways in their classrooms.

Robert, a fourth and fifth grade teacher at Port Orange Elementary School in Port Orange, FL is also an Apple Distinguished Educator. He’s passionate about integrating technology, including movie-making and web publishing, into his teaching.

You can meet these superstar BrainPOP advisors in our booth at the upcoming NSBA T+L conference, where they’ll answer questions and share technology integration strategies and tips.

Join us in congratulating Teryl Magee and Robert Miller!

BrainPOP For Library Media Specialists
This Wednesday, October 14, 2009
4:00 pm EDT
Duration: 1 hour

We love our librarians! We’re excited to share some ideas on how to use BrainPOP and BrainPOP Jr. for research and collaborative projects with whole groups, small groups, and individuals. We’ll highlight relevant topics BrainPOP covers, ways to collaborate with your staff, and ideas for connecting learning outside of school. We’ll also talk about the tools and features you’ll find on BrainPOP Educators.

RSVP now if you haven’t already! Space fills up quickly!

Are you a library media specialist? How are you using BrainPOP? What do you hope to learn from this webinar? Post suggestions below!

Last spring, more than 700 schools in 25 states temporarily closed due to outbreaks of the H1N1 virus (swine flu). We’re all hoping for the best this flu season. But as schools prepare for the possibilities of illness-related absences and disruptions to studies, we’d like to help. We’re offering all schools two weeks of complimentary remote access to BrainPOP’s resources during school hours (7 am-5:30 pm local time). Pre-register now for your two weeks of access, then activate the account when and if you need it.

Current Subscribers: Remote access during local school hours is enabled. You’re all set.

Non-subscribers: Pre-register here.

All: Stay posted here on BrainPOP Educators to read and share tips about coping this flu season. You can subscribe to an RSS feed of our blog posts so you don’t miss a thing. Be well!

What are you doing to prepare your students? Share tips below!

We at BrainPOP have been doing our homework to make sure we’re as informed and up-to-date as possible on the latest science and recommendations from doctors and agencies like the Centers for Disease Control. And of course, we’re eager to share our findings with you and the children you teach, so that you can learn and together prepare to face this upcoming flu season. To that end, we’d like to direct you to the following resources:

-BrainPOP’s Swine Flu movie has just been updated to include the most recent information available about the novel H1N1 flu. Its related features (FYI, activities, and Q&As) are also available for further exploration.

-BrainPOP Jr’s Washing Hands movie serves as an excellent primer for younger students on the do’s and don’ts of safe personal hygiene.

-BrainPOP Educators is offering two free swine-flu-related lesson plans, one for BrainPOP users, and one for BrainPOP Jr. users.

- The CDC offers H1N1 Flu resources specifically for K-12 schools: http://www.cdc.gov/h1n1flu/schools/

We hope these resources will prove to be valuable tools in raising awareness and clearing up misconceptions about the novel H1N1 flu. And as always, we’d love to hear your feedback, so please let us know how we’re doing.