Posts on “ current events ”

Why are the days getting shorter? Why is it getting cold in some places and not in others? Why are there seasons? Here in the Northern Hemisphere, December 21st is the shortest day of the year and the first official day of winter! Starting tomorrow our days begin getting longer and there is a common misconception that it’s the midpoint of winter! Not so, but it can be hard to explain why to students, so check out the Solstice and Equinox topic page to explain the reason we’re not at mid-winter, and answer many other questions that come up around this short, but not coldest, day! On another timely note, are your students talking about the Maya apocalypse? Help them clarify misconceptions by checking out the Maya Civilization page.  We’ve made it free for the next few days in light of the recent apocalyptic speculation! Have a great weekend!

It’s Monday morning, and teachers everywhere are facing the challenge of helping students come to terms with what happened on Friday while ensuring they feel safe at school. On top of that, we’re still dealing with our own fear and sadness. So how much do we say, given that kids are returning to school with different levels of awareness? How do we acknowledge the events without going into more detail than kids can handle? How do we address feelings without adding anxiety? Do we talk about the event at all? As we said on Friday, we recognize there’s very little we can do to help right now. We hope our movies and resources bring a small sense of normalcy to your classroom. Perhaps they lead into a meaningful conversation. Perhaps they just take everyone’s minds off things. We’ve always tried to respond to tragedies with content that can help kids make sense of what’s going on. This time, there’s really no way to make sense of it. For those of you turning to BrainPOP today, we suggest topics like Stress, Getting Help, and Anger (BrainPOP Jr.). While not directly related to the shootings, they do deal with emotions, coping, and… Read the Rest»

There are no words to convey the horror of today’s shootings in Connecticut. Our hearts and our deepest sympathies go out to Sandy Hook Elementary – its students and staff, as well as the families and wider community. The magnitude of this tragedy is almost beyond our ability to grasp. We hope you’ll encourage the children in your life to share their thoughts and feelings openly. We recognize how little we can do at a time like this, but we also hope we can offer some comfort by providing a safe, familiar outlet for kids. May we never have to write a blog post like this again.

Searching for some last minute lesson plans to help students understand Thanksgiving?  Look no further than BrainPOP Educators Thanksgiving lesson plan and teaching tools page for some useful teaching tips and tricks.  Your might also consider directing your students to American Indian Spotlight page for additional context about the holiday, especially the complicated and often misunderstood connections between American Indians and European Colonists. As we take a short break for the November holiday, we reflect on how thankful we are that you, our BrainPOP educators,  contribute to our robust teacher community.  See you after the break!

November 12-18 marks Global Entrepreneurship Week, and our friends at BizWorld have the perfect resources to celebrate it. BizWorld is a non-profit organization offering programs that teach kids valuable business skills in a hands-on manner. Focusing on general business, entrepreneurship, and finance, the programs are designed to foster critical thinking and teamwork. Teachers can bring BizWorld into their schools at any time by creating their own “BizWorld Week” – five days of BizWorld programs that engage students, parents and community members. Throughout Global Entrepreneurship Week, BizWorld donors are offering free curriculum kits and materials to teachers who commit to running a “BizWorld Week” with their students. For more details, visit the BizWorld’s Entrepreneurship Week page. Act fast – the opportunity is open to a limited number of schools on a first-come, first-served basis.

Today marks day 4 of the week long marathon known as the Global Education Conference!  Here are some highlights from BrainPOP’s Games and Learning Strand. At 8:00AM, Join Danny Fain, STEM Teacher-in-Residence, Learning Games Network and Michael Suen, Community Producer, Learning Games Network for Collaborative Game Development Tools and Projects.  This session will explore how game design and production are emerging as an effective way to engage students across the curriculum. At 11:00 AM ET, tune into Prelude To Collaboration: A Global Learning Game in which Dr. Howard B. Esbin, PhD will present an overview of a powerful global learning game called Prelude. Prelude fosters self-knowledge, empathy, creativity, and collaboration. At 3:00 PM, Join Daria Ng and Joliz Cedeño , from Global Kids for a session called: Developing Global Citizenship Skills Through Game Design in which they will explore how serious games and game design can be used as a way to educate and engage youth about global issues and civic engagement, while enhancing their real-world problem solving skills. These 3 session are only a small sampling of the dozens planned for Thursday! Check out the rest of the schedule and get your PD on!

The third annual Global Education Conference will be held next week November 12-16th, and BrainPOP is thrilled to be sponsoring the many game-based learning and game design sessions. This year’s entirely virtual conference has an ambitious schedule filled with over 300 sessions, presented over the course of five days in all the time zones around the world!  So how, you may ask, is game- based learning connected to global education?  Doing a quick search for “games” in the accepted conference sessions provides a clear answer! Take, for example, Monday’s session at 1 pm ET, “Video Games for Global Learning.” It features Terry Heick, Director of Curriculum and Social Learning Facilitator at the Institute for Habits of Mind.  Terry will provide tips and tricks for how to integrate video games that address global issues into formal learning environments. Later on Monday, at 9 pm ET, check out “Developing Global Competencies through Gamified Units” with Amanda Pratt and Tim Saunders from the Coalition for Gameful Learning.   Learn about two case studies that demonstrate how teachers can use game structures in their classrooms to engage students in meaningful learning while developing global competencies. There are even more terrific sessions from our GameUp partners.  Global Kids, co-creators of “Ayiti, the Cost of Life,” lead… Read the Rest»

Today is the big day, and BrainPOP is here to help your students understand everything about elections.  Our election spotlight page is a terrific portal to begin exploring. From Election Games  on GameUp, to our election lesson plans and teaching tools, you are sure to find valuable topics pages full of content to help build understanding of the many aspects of this historic election.  Want to share how you’re using BrainPOP resources, or learn about what others are doing?  Join our Election discussion group and participate in our community conversation.

As Hurricane Sandy approaches the East Coast, people are busy preparing for the epic storm!  Need help explaining to students exactly what’s going on out there? BrainPOP is acknowledging the need for clear explanations by featuring both our Hurricanes and Natural Disasters movies on this historic day.   In addition to visually explaining the natural phenomenon of the hurricane, these featured movies also define all those tricky phrases, like “low pressure system” and “tropical depression” that the meteorolgists keeps using!   We hope you keep safe through this storm, and that today’s featured movie help you explain the origins of this extreme weather to your students.

The presidential election is just around the corner and GameUp has quite a few games that will engage your students while learning about the election process.  With a special election edition of “Budget Hero,” students will form a better understanding of the budget impact of President Barack Obama and Gov. Mitt Romney’s policies, as well as those plans championed by their running mates.  Additionally, our friends at iCivics have created some excellent election-focused interactive games that you can find on GameUp.  “Win the White House” takes students on the campaign trail to explore both the primary and general elections and the Electoral College.  Once they’ve secured the president’s seat, a round of “Executive Command” will give them the opportunity to exercise their power and learn about the day-to-day obligations of our nation’s leader. Not sure of where to begin?  All of our GameUp games have related teacher resources to support the use of these games in the classroom.  And, don’t forget to check out our election spotlight for additional games and movies that are linked to the election.