Guest Blog: Integrating BrainPOP Quizzes With Promethean ActiVotes
Posted by allisyn on
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Three years ago the district I work for took a giant leap into the 21st Century and decided to implement Promethean boards into all of the elementary and middle school classrooms. With this came the need to find supplemental activities that would support what teachers were already doing within their classrooms. That is when “BrainPOP” became a common term used throughout the district. Not a day goes by when a BrainPOP activity is not used as a tool within the teachers classrooms. If you even mention the names Tim and Moby the students know exactly who you are talking about.
During these three years I have been supporting the teachers by providing training and resources to help make their jobs easier and more enjoyable. One major obstacle that I ran into when I would help the teachers was their ability to use the ActiVotes with the BrainPOP quizzes. Some teachers were comfortable using them and some teachers just could not figure out all of the steps involved. This became a frustrating task for most of the teachers. Now I am excited to see that BrainPOP has developed a new tool for integrating their quizzes to work seamlessly with the ActiVotes. Not only will this make the teacher’s jobs easier it will also help keep the students engaged and on task during the lesson. I am looking forward to implementing this into our district and seeing how much more the teachers use the ActiVotes now that BrainPOP has simplified this task.
Currently, I have a handful of teachers who are testing this tool to see how it works and they are amazed at how the quizzes have come to life. The best thing about the ActiVotes being integrated directly into the BrainPOP quiz is the ability to stay with the quiz and not have to toggle between ActivInspire and BrainPOP. When a student can look at the screen and see that ten others answered the question the same way they did, it makes a huge difference in them retaining what they have learned. The teachers also enjoy the fact that they can give the quiz and then download the results to see exactly how the students did and get immediate feedback. Now that the quizzes are already graded the teachers are saving time and energy to focus on other areas of their curriculum. Once the rest of the teachers start using this great tool they are going to be amazed at how fun and easy using the ActiVotes with the BrainPOP quizzes will be.
Thanks so much for sharing your experiences, Shad. And thanks also to all of you brave pioneers that are trying it out! Have an experience, picture, or video clip to share? Please email us at educators@brainpop.com.