Are you attending the NSBA T+L conference in Denver? If so, come check us out at Booth 313! Pose with Moby, connect with BrainPOP staff, participate in the BrainPOP challenge, catch a demo, and more! We’re even featuring a few of our BrainPOP Educators, including two of the newest crop of 20 to Watch. They’ll be on hand to share technology integration strategies and answer questions. Pick up a copy of our new science based research, too. See you in Denver! Checkout our full BrainPOP T+L conference schedule.

Here’s a list of our full conference schedule this school year. We hope to see you on the road!

What conferences are you attending this school year?

In case you missed our webinar for Library Media Specialists, you can access it at your convenience here.

I wanted to highlight some great ideas that came out of the webinar.

Units & Topics that may be of interest to Library Media Specialists:

Ways to make your life easier & extend BP to families/community outside of school make BrainPOP or BrainPOP Jr. your homepage

add BrainPOP to your bookmarks or toolbar

set up AUTO LOGIN

use library or school webpage to offer suggestions, resources, assignments…

use our BrainPOP On Your Site feature - take it a step further with assignments

have fun with our banners and badges

introduce at faculty and parent meetings. Make sure specialists know about relevant topics (Music, Health…)

highlight in district, school or parent newsletters

distribute promotional items (Just For Fun - printable bookmarks, posters, etc)

assign a resident BrainPOP expert at each school and/or grade level

utilize our Professional Development offerings to conduct hands-on training for your staff

highlight BrainPOP best practices at faculty and parent meetings

hold contests to encourage sharing and collaboration of BrainPOP best practices - we’ll be holding contests via BrainPOP Educators - teachers can win t-shirts, flip cameras, and more…

Please comment below and add on your own ideas!

We hosted our first after school online chat on Friday. It was pretty great! We even had a special guest join in (hint - the woman behind the voice of Annie!).  Here are some ideas that came out of it.  We’ll continue these online chats every Friday after school. Join us this Friday, September 18, from 3:30 - 5:00pm, EDT. We’ll be happy to answer questions & brainstorm ideas for integration.

*Make sure you and your colleagues register on BrainPOP Educators so you don’t miss out on free tips, tools, and resources!

*Let colleagues know about BrainPOP ESL for second language learners, FREE during beta phase!

*Professional Development Resources:

Graphic organizers for planning out a BrainPOP and BrainPOP Jr. topic over an entire week, shared by Robert Miller
http://www.brainpop.com/educators/professional_development/

*Resources for new users:

http://www.brainpop.com/educators/new_subscribers/

*Grant Writing Resources:

- Funding BrainPOP

- BrainPOP Effectiveness Study

- www.donorschoose.org
- www.grantwrangler.com
- www.ing-usa.com

*Consider BrainPOP for after school programs!

*Familiarize yourself with all of the interactive features on BrainPOP with our webinars

*Ideas for BEFORE viewing movie:
-POP Quiz (pre-assessment)
-review Vocabulary activity page (BrainPOP)
-review Word Wall (BrainPOP Jr.)
-use FYI as shared reading in small groups or as a class
-Cassie & Rita comic (FYI)
-Belly Up comic (BrainPOP Jr.)

*Ideas for DURING the movie:
-print Activity Pages in advance - use for scaffolding, note-taking…
-Pause & discuss! Tons of opportunities to make students active participants while viewing
–> ask questions, make predictions, activate prior learning, etc…

*Ideas for AFTER the movie:

Here’s where we left off. What do you like to do after viewing BrainPOP movies? Share your ideas!

Welcome back to school, everyone. I hope you’re off to a fantastic start. I wanted to spend some time catching you up on our latest news and features, so you can take using BrainPOP to a new level this year! And it’s all FREE! A big part of me wants to go back to the classroom, just so I can use BrainPOP in all these new ways that I hadn’t thought of when I was teaching.

I’ll go into more depth with some of these features in the next few weeks, but for now, here’s a rundown!

Research - How does BrainPOP impact student achievement? Read the research.

BrainPOP ESL - Check out our newest product for English language learners and teachers. Free while in beta phase!

Getting Started - New to BrainPOP? We’ve got everything you need to be up and running in no time.

Spread the Word - Let your staff and community know you’ve got BrainPOP with our implementation tools.

Webinars - Whether you’re a new or experienced user, you are sure to gain fresh ideas from our webinars. RSVP for upcoming webinars or watch our archived webinars at your convenience.

Curriculum Calendar - Just published this summer, our calendar makes planning a breeze. Get a heads up on timely topics you can weave right into your curriculum, and access our Spotlights to help plan out your year.

Funding BrainPOP - Resources to help you fit BrainPOP into your funding strategy.

Spotlights - Find a ton of resources to launch into these important back-to-school topics: Digital Citizenship (free during September) and Science Skills.

Special Back to School Promotions - Upgrade, renew, and save on Media Lab and multi-year District and School Subscriptions. For details, please contact our District Relations team.

It’s crazy how quickly we have to shift from summer to school. I remember how intense and draining September can be. It’s my hope that the resources we offer on BrainPOP Educators can make your lives just a bit easier, while enriching your students’ education with a quality resource. Here’s to a happy, healthy school year!

We’re proud to share a comprehensive efficacy study conducted by SEG Research. The study included 1,100 students in 46 classrooms in Palm Beach County, Florida and New York City, and examined Vocabulary, Language, Reading Comprehension and Science learning gains. The report concludes that students in classes using BrainPOP make significant improvements compared to students in classes not using BrainPOP.

Teachers already using BrainPOP may not find the results of the study surprising. We’ve been hearing from educators for years that BrainPOP has helped to motivate and engage their students, as well as help them make Annual Yearly Progress. That said, when deciding which resources to integrate into your classroom, scientific based research helps to affirm you’re making a smart choice.

We’re excited to share this study with all the BrainPOP Educators out there. We’re particularly honored to read educators’ initial reactions to the report on Twitter and in the blogs. Check out Kim Cavanaugh’s fantastic post on the Palm Beach County Schools’ Educational Technology Weblog.

BrainPOP will continue to fund research to measure areas of effectiveness and explore how to improve our product. We’re committed to learning how BrainPOP impacts achievement and how we can best serve students.

Click here to read the research!