For those of you getting ready to start the school year next week, welcome back! And for those of you who want to get a head start on planning for back to school, well, we hope this helps you out too. Our two August Spotlights are chock full of fantastic resources to start the new school year off on the right foot.

Back to School offers all of those community building topics you want to lay the foundation on early on in the year. Take a minute to see all of the graphic organizers we offer, and be sure to check out our K-3 topics in BrainPOP Jr. as well. Our library of topics has grown!

Natural Disasters provides you with all of the resources you need to explore what children are naturally curious about, and ties into current events, so you can turn to it at any time. You’ll find an action-packed  Promethean flipchart on Hurricanes to use on interactive whiteboards, a lesson plan that’s adaptable for any age group from 3rd grade and up to start off the year with this topic, as well as a thorough, high quality unit on Natural Disasters that bridges all the major content areas with a global, collaborative approach.

Hope you’ve all enjoyed your time off this summer, and for those of you heading back to school, we wish you the very best school year!

How do you use BrainPOP resources to build community in your classroom? Please share your ideas by posting comments below!

We just added a full screen option to our quizzes to help those using projectors and interactive whiteboards.

Some of my favorite ways to use the Quiz:

*Give a BrainPOP Quiz before a movie to gauge students’ familiarity with a topic. Or, take the quiz with the whole class afterward to verify what everyone learned. Choose one of three quiz options: graded online, reviewable online or printable.

*Teach students the American Sign Language letters for A, B, C and D, then have them raise their hands with the sign for the answer they choose during quizzes. One student can tally the votes and click on the most popular choice.

*Keep your students engaged and enthusiastic! Ask them BrainPOP and BrainPOP Jr. quiz questions the way you’d hear them on your favorite game show.

*Assign each corner of the room a letter and get your kinesthetic learners up and moving.

*Make test prep fun! On an interactive whiteboard, use the Screenshade/Windowshade tool to cover the question and have students analyze the answers to figure out what the question must be. Then try the opposite - cover the answers and have students practice writing answers based on the question. They know there will always be 1 right answer, 1 very wrong answer, and a close call/tricky answer.

Try it and let us know your favorite ways to use the BrainPOP Quizzes by posting below.

I’m Dr. Kari Stubbs, Director of 21^st Century Learning at BrainPOP! Keep an eye out for me as I join Allisyn to support our growing community on BrainPOP Educators. I taught elementary school for eleven years, and was (and still am) an avid fan and user of BrainPOP! Since leaving the classroom, I earned my PhD in Curriculum from the University of Kansas, where I received a graduate fellowship and was recognized as a P.E.O. Scholar.

I was also honored by the National School Boards Association in 2006 as one of “Twenty to Watch” rising leaders in the field of educational technology. I am a recipient of the “Making it Happen” Award.

Previously, I was the Director of Professional Development for ePals. I was also the senior project coordinator of the Title IID initiative in Kansas. My experience includes presentations at national conferences, including CoSN, NECC, NSBA T+L, and Society for Information Technology and Teacher Education.
In December of 2008, I traveled to China to study technology in education.

I look forward to sharing my experiences in education, enthusiasm for BrainPOP, and supporting our growing community. My former students, and own children, are so excited that I’m part of the BrainPOP team!

Please post a welcome comment below and feel free to contact me directly here .

I’ve had some very exciting, productive brainstorming meetings this week about ways we can improve BrainPOP Educators. You’ll be seeing some new additions over the next few months, like this Flickr photostream of fun teacher photos with Moby from past conferences. Stay posted for new features, and enjoy the last days of school if you haven’t already finished up!

What do you think of BrainPOP Educators? What should we think about changing or adding over the summer? Please post comments below!

Since launching in August 2008, 25,000 BrainPOP Educators have individually registered! It’s exciting to see how the resources have grown thanks to your amazing contributions.

How should BrainPOP Educators grow and connect over the coming year? What resources would you like to see developed?  Would forums or social networking groups be of interest?  Where else would you like to connect to BrainPOP?  Twitter? Facebook? On the Ning?

Let’s keep growing our community!

And the Winner Is …

Last month, we asked you to choose from a list of remarkable women and vote for the one you’d most like to see featured in an upcoming BrainPOP movie. We’re pleased to report that the winner is … Rosa Parks! Find out how everyone voted. Thanks for all the great input!

Send us your suggestions and feedback anytime, or post comments below!

Check out how quick and easy it is to embed all of our movies related to financial literacy on your educational website or blog! Take it further by creating interactive assignments around the movies. I like to think of how I can use BrainPOP and BrainPOP Jr’s features before, during, and after each movie.

Need help? Here are screenshots of how I embedded the code into Word Press and Blogger.

1. Create a new post.

2. Be sure you select the HTML tab to paste the code into.

3. Paste the code into the body of your post, add any comments or assignments, and publish!

Special Note for WordPress Bloggers: WordPress.com users are not
allowed to post Javascript. If your blog is hosted directly on
WordPress.com they will not allow you to embed BrainPOP’s movie player
and you will have to link to the player instead. However, if you have
a WordPress blog, but do not host it on WordPress.com, you should be
able to embed the code just fine.

Please share how you use this new feature by posting comments below!

In honor of Earth Day (April 22nd), we’re taking a month-long look at the environment and environmental issues. Topics featured on our Spotlight: Earth Awareness include air pollution, the carbon cycle, energy sources, fossil fuels, global warming, natural resources, humans and the environment, population growth, recycling, water pollution, and wind energy. K-3 topics on BrainPOP Jr. cover the Earth, rainforests, freshwater habitats, deserts, and recycling. Plus, BrainPOP Educators offers a lesson plan entitled “Reduce, Reuse, Recycle.” You’ll find a slew of ideas for bringing science into your classroom, including an Earth Awareness Film Festival.

What are your plans for Earth Awareness Month? Please share ideas by posting below!

Giving a workshop on BrainPOP or BrainPOP Jr? We are happy to offer free professional development materials, including presentation outlines, handouts, and more.

Anything else you’d like to see here? Please post suggestions below!

Covering topics from jazz, country, and Latin music to Elvis Presley, Louis Armstrong, and Beethoven, BrainPOP’s Spotlight: Music sounds like a great idea! The Spotlight’s featured quiz and free topic is 60s folk music, while BrainPOP Educators offers a lesson plan on writing folk songs. For the K-3 set, there’s BrainPOP Jr.’s Sound movie.