Posts on “ featured teachers ”

Guest Blogger Andrew K. Miller (@betamiller on Twitter) is on the National Faculty for the Buck Institute for Education, an organization specializing in 21st century project-based learning, as well as for ASCD, providing expertise in a variety of professional development needs. He is also a regular blogger for Edutopia. In this guest blog post, Andrew distills the game evaluation process into 3 key points. BrainPOP uses these and other evaulation points when determining games to present on GameUp. I love using games in the classroom, and I love supporting teachers in their implementation. As I continue this work, both in terms of advocacy and implementation, there remains a critical question that will either support games for learning, or undermine it. Is it a good game? I constantly watch the twittersphere and get emails from colleagues, game companies, and the like about “games.” Whether it’s “20 Games to Support ELL Students,” or “The 5 New Best Games for the iPad,” it can be daunting to even know where to start using games in the classroom. I’ve got news for you. What people claim to be games, may in fact not be games at all. Or, even worse, they may bad games!… Read the Rest»

Joli Barker, 2nd Grade Educator at Earl H. Slaughter Elementary McKinney ISD, McKinney, Texas www.tinyurl.com/xbrox360   Ms. Barker has been teaching for 15 years and has been recognized as a 2011 and 2012 Microsoft Partners in Learning US Forum winner and a 2012 Global Forum Winner.  She is a finalist as the TCEA 2013 Classroom Teacher of the Year and nominated for the Kay L. Bitter Award at ISTE 2012 and 2013.  She is a Discovery Education Network (DEN) Star Educator and on the DEN Texas Leadership Council and Innovation Team, a GlogsterEDU Ambassador and Reseller (code 5E9515), an ePals Ambassador, and a Smithsonian Classroom Teacher.  And of course she is an avid BrainPOP user!   Times are changing.  It is no longer enough to know content.  The days of “reading, writing, and ‘rithmatic” for the sake of passing a test are gone.  As educators, it is now our obligation to guide students through problem solving situations that require content knowledge and building, collaboration, and resourcefulness in order to successfully find a solution…if there is a solution at all.  As a second grade teacher, I found this transition of pedagogy easier in math and science than I did for language arts.  Seven… Read the Rest»

Joshua Z. White is an Eagle Scout and a graduate of Motlow College in Lynchburg, TN and Tennessee Tech University in Cookeville, TN. Right now he is currently pursuing a Masters of Educational Leadership with Arkansas State University, and even considering attending law school. Since August 2011 he has been teaching English, Mathematics, and Science to grade four and five students in the Middle East. Greetings from the Middle East! My name is Josh and I am a former educator from Georgia. Three years ago the state cut our budgets to the bare bones, and as the low man on the totem pole I was left without a job! It’s been an adventure that saw me working in a department store and selling cars, to walking the sands of the Arabian Desert! It has been an adventure that by no means I regret, even with all the challenges of moving to a foreign country – which with all due respect to my new home, might as well be a foreign planet! In my classroom I have 50 students between 2 classes. I teach fourth and fifth grade boys from Oman, United Arab Emirates, Egypt, Jordan, Syria, Sudan, Iraq, Saudi Arabia,… Read the Rest»

Guest blogger, Felecia Young, is a 9th grade math teacher at Salisbury High School, in Salisbury NC. She is a passionate educator committed to creating an educational environment where all students can be successful through the use of integrating fun digital tools.  One of the best digital lessons I’ve ever done was with the use of BrainPOP and ActivExpressions. BrainPOP and ActivExpressions gave me the opportunity to create lessons that are engaging and interactive. One day while in class, I came across BrainPOP and watched the video. I clicked on Quizzes and I saw shining lights around ActivExpressions and ActiVotes. Were my eyes deceiving me? Can my students use ActivExpressions to take a BrainPOP quiz? Yes, it was true! What a perfect combination! But, will it work with my high school students? I was very skeptical about showing a BrainPOP video to a group of high school students, but to my surprise they were very excited to see Tim and Moby appear on the screen. We went through the video and students took notes on one of the printable activity sheets on BrainPOP’s site. After the video, I wanted to see how much the students retained, so I told them… Read the Rest»

Guest Blogger and BrainPOP Educator Steve Isaacs share his methods for incorporating game design into his classroom.  You can find the post in it’s original form on Steve’s blog, games and learning Recently @techucation reached out to ask for some resources and ideas related to teaching Video Game Design and Development.  I responded to his inquiry and realized it would serve as a worthwhile blog post to share with the educational community.  Below is a general description of my 7th and 8th grade courses.  In 7th grade, I teach a six week introduction to video game design and digital storytelling.  In 8th grade I teach a full semester course in video game design and development.  I have also developed and teach the full semester course as an online high school course for The VHS Collaborative (http://thevhscollaborative.org/).  I hope you find the information helpful as I would love to see more courses evolve that teach important 21st century skills through game design. Currently, I am enrolled in the doctoral program in Educational Technology at Boise State University and the focus of my research is the pedagogical benefits of game design and development.  Some of the concepts I find most worthwhile to research… Read the Rest»

BrainPOP Educators continue to submit interesting quizzes using the BrainPOP Mixer™ tool.   One of our recent favorites is from @jodonnell from Raymond W. Kershaw Elementary School in New Jersey, who created a “famous scientist” quiz prompting students to match an individual scientist with his or her invention or discovery.  What a cool way to use a multiple choice!  For additional creative ideas to use the mixer, check out these other user stories, or share some of your own in the Mixer user group!

Guest Blogger and BrainPOP Educator Kara Wilkins is chair of the Social Studies Department at Hudson Memorial School in Hudson, New Hampshire. My name is Kara Wilkins. I have been teaching at Hudson Memorial Middle School , in Hudson, New Hampshire for fifteen years. I have spent a majority of that time as an eighth grade social studies teacher. For the last three years I have had the pleasure of chairing the Social Studies department as well. Our school purchased a full BrainPOP membership for teachers and students about five years ago and we have never looked back. I have incorporated BrainPOP into every facet of my teaching, from previewing a topic, reviewing a topic and my favorite, at home extension of topics being learned in the classroom. I am also constantly looking for meaningful ways to integrate technology into my classes to increase student engagement so when BrainPOP came out with The Mixer I knew this was going to become an integral part of my classroom routine. Over the years I have purchased various “quiz making” Web 2.0 Tools but I knew that BrainPOP’s would be great because my kids already knew the format, loved Tim and Moby and… Read the Rest»

Roosevelt Middle School educator Todd LaVogue recently received the first-place Educators Choice Award for his project “What’s Up Egypt?” during Microsoft’s Partners in Learning U.S. Forum. LaVogue is one of 16 U.S. educators who will attend the Microsoft Partners in Learning Global Forum in Prague, Czech Republic, in November.  My name is Todd LaVogue. For the past three years I taught sixth and eighth grade history at Roosevelt Middle School in West Palm Beach, Florida. I enter each unit of study with the idea of taking something the students know and enjoy and combining it with the material mandated by the state that should be taught during the unit. My students, in turn, create television shows, plays, public service announcements and music videos within our unit of study. In one of our more recent projects, my students researched and created an ancient Egypt Today show-style news program with news, weather, sports, cooking, lifestyle, historical and music segments. For example, the weather segment discussed the annual flooding of the Nile and how that was essential to life in ancient Egypt through the depositing of silt on the banks, fertilizing crops. We accomplished this by infusing technology into the curriculum. Using a… Read the Rest»

Wednesday, August 22nd at 4:00 PM ET- Kate Chechak and the First 6 Weeks As part of the Connected Educators Month and “The First 6 Weeks” discussion, join education consultant Kate Chechak for an in-depth conversation about best practices for setting up your classroom and preparing students for a positive new year! An expert in classroom management, Kate will share detailed and effective strategies for building a strong foundation for effective learning spaces. Kate is a former 3rd- grade teacher, curriculum designer, and founding faculty member at The School at Columbia University in New York City. She currently consults on curriculum development, and math and technology integration, and has served on the board of the Association for Constructivist Teaching for many years.  

As the summer begins winding down, we, at BrainPOP, want to help you best prepare for the start of the school year. From personal goal setting, to helping students achieve, to coordinating with parents and administrators, the teaching juggling act begins very soon! For some of you, it’s already started again, to you, we salute you.  Here’s to an excellent beginning! As part of August’s Connected Educators Month, you can read and share some ideas for the first 6 weeks by participating the initiative’s online forum.   In addition,  this Wednesday’s edition of the BrainPOP webinar series features former classroom teacher, and current educational consultant Kate Chechak.  Kate will share her strategies and methods for building strong culture of learning in your classroom. Join us for what promises to be a stimulating hour that can help you get start of the school year right!