Due to the overwhelming response we received, the April 22^nd webinar is now full.  However, we’re pleased to announce a second time-slot: Wednesday, April 29^th at 2 p.m. EDT. We hope you can join us then instead; please respond to this email and let us know. Space is limited, so if you’d like to attend, please RSVP: RSVP@brainpop.com. We’ll then send you information on where and how to log on.

Our complimentary webinar will showcase the creative ways thousands of teachers have integrated our resources into their school day. The webinar will offer tips on making the most of our movies and features; best practices for engaging students; a look at BrainPOP Educators; and much more.

Are there topics you’d like us to offer webinars on? Post comments below!

Consider BrainPOP’s Spotlight: Winter & Snow your seasonal headquarters. You’ll find great content on all-things winter, from movies about Winter Holidays and Mount Everest, to those on Snowflakes and Hibernation. You can also send personalized, free e-cards to your favorite Moby loving friends and family!

Now through January 10th, save 25 percent when you purchase Family or Classroom subscriptions to BrainPOP (grades 3 and up) or BrainPOP Jr. (grades K-3), or Combo subscriptions for your family or classroom (Combo subscriptions include access to both BrainPOP and BrainPOP Jr.). Homeschoolers, you’re also eligible for this discount. Be sure to enter holiday08 as the coupon code.

Finally, check out our easily adaptable lesson plan on Hibernation to kick off your winter studies! Happy December!

We are so fortunate to have teachers like Robert Miller, who teaches 4th and 5th grade at Port Orange Elementary in Port Orange, Florida. He let me know he was doing a presentation on BrainPOP and BrainPOP Jr. at his school, and agreed to share his tips and resources with us. Read on, and please let us know how it goes if you use Robert’s resources, or if you’ve got some of your own to share!

I have been using BrainPOP within my own classroom for years, but last year Port Orange Elementary upgraded to a School subscription using improvement funds.  By surveying the level of use of BrainPOP in our classrooms, I decided to lead an in-service to get the entire faculty fired up on a great resource already easily available… and also for selfish reasons of showcasing a product that would definitely be utilized school wide after exposure, thus ensuring interest and support to guarantee a vocal lobbying group for renewal funding!
If you check out the handy workshop resources under “Professional Development,” you will find logical outlines to share. From my in-service RSVPs,  I would be working with more primary grades so I made BrainPOP Jr. a focus. However, it was still very easy to include corresponding material from BrainPOP (I had both sites running under different tabs of my web browser… just a quick toggle back or forth to answer questions about either).

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Look familiar? If you were at NECC, you probably saw what we refer to as Giant Moby hanging high above our BrainPOP booth. We were pretty excited about our booth set up this year, but would love to hear what you thought of it! Please post comments of your BrainPOP booth experience! We love feedback!

And just for fun, I’m including a behind the scenes shot of the making of Giant Moby!

That’s right! Your eyes are not deceiving you! NECC was a huge success and involved our very own Moby riding a mechanical bull! We had such a great time meeting educators from all over the world and sharing ideas at our events (which I will be posting here and in upcoming newsletters). For now, you’ll find our handouts from NECC in the Conference Materials section of our Professional Development page of BrainPOP Educators!

I was especially excited about the ideas that got bounced back and forth during the BrainPOP and BrainPOP Jr. workshops. It just made me that much more excited about this idea of building a community of BrainPOP users, so let’s hear it! Jump in and share the ways that you love using BrainPOP with your students! Post your comments here!

We’ve been working around the clock to beta launch BrainPOP Educators at National Educational Computing Conference (NECC) in San Antonio, Texas on June 29th. I can’t wait for its debut and I’m holding 2 focus groups during the conference to get feedback. Planning on attending? Please join me at a focus group or rsvp for one of our other special events we’re offering! Sign up soon - spots are filling up quickly.

And if you can’t make it to NECC, not to worry! I’d still love to hear your feedback. And since I’ve received many requests for our handouts and presentation resources, I’ll be posting conference materials in our Tips & Tools. We hope you’ll find these materials helpful!