Posts on “ interactive whiteboards ”

BrainPOP Educator, Jenaya Shaw, is a teacher at B.B. Harris Elementary in Duluth, GA. Jenaya is passionate about incorporating hands-on differentiated activities into her daily instruction.  Jenaya’s website, The Lesson Plan Diva!, provides free resources and lesson ideas for teachers to use in the classroom. Imagine for a moment that you are a first grader in my classroom, “engaged, intrigued, motivated and ready to learn!”  How does this happen? Well, it’s simple. Make your instruction meaningful, rigorous and better yet…fun!  One of the most important ways is by incorporating technology into my daily lessons and regularly using BrainPOP as a part of my mini lessons. Let’s focus on a Language Arts lesson on nouns. The class starts out by watching BrainPOP’s Noun movie.  As a class we discuss some of the important parts from the movie.  Next, we do “turn and talks,” where students discuss things they’ve learned with their immediate neighbor. We then use one of the awesome activities, Speedy Nouns, on the Lesson Ideas page.  Different colored post-its are passed out to partnered groups, and students then race to label all of the nouns they can find in the classroom.

Boy was I excited when my principal and media specialist announced that we finally purchased a BrainPOP subscription for our school. I jumped right in and started using the movies with my 4th graders in social studies. I am fortunate to have been awarded a $15,000 technology grant from my district that allowed me to get a tricked out 21st century classroom – a brand new Promethean board, a class set of Activotes, 15 wireless Dell net books with webcams, plus a whole lot more. Don’t be put off by that, anyone can use BrainPOP with just a computer. Having a computer connected to a projector allows for whole class viewing (which is all I had for years). Let me tell you about our classroom journey from whole group instruction to differentiated instruction with BrainPOP. For several weeks I did whole group instruction and showed all of my students how to login to BrainPOP and find a movie to correspond with our lessons. I would show the movies on the Promethean board, demonstrating how to change to full screen and how to turn on closed captioning (CC). I really love the CC feature, as many students grasp the information better… Read the Rest»

Engaging by Design: How to Clear the Clutter & Resonate With Students Wednesday, May 4, 2011 4:30 PM EST Duration: 1 Hour Using an LCD projector or interactive whiteboard to teach? Do your students seem bored by your LCD projector or interactive whiteboard lessons? Join Dave Kootman, a BrainPOP Educator and IWB guru, as he shares simple, effective techniques to engage your students. These quick and powerful tricks –touching on design elements, research, and multiple presentation media – are sure to liven up your presentations and increase your effectiveness. RSVP: http://engagingbydesign.eventbrite.com/

Kate Ryder, a 5th year elementary school teacher, is one of five winners in the Mobile Learning Experience Contest. Join us in congratulating Kate as she shares her vision for mobile learning, “My own love of learning, A-Ha moments, and FUN are promoted by my favorite mobile devices. I, myself, have experienced a positive impact professionally and personally when incorporating mobile learning into my daily life and as a result strive to provide my students with the same opportunity.” Mobile Learning Facilitates A-HAs and FUN There are two things any teacher, from pre-service to old-school veteran, will tell you are required for high student achievement (academically and socially). No, it is not based on years of research…just good old fashioned common sense! Students learn and retain more information when: 1.  The students’ light bulbs illuminate and they have “A-Ha” experiences. and 2. Students are engaged, on task, and learning when they are…dare I say it…having FUN! Even though this is not justification for the “powers that be,” it is understood by educators that are in the trenches everyday. (However, when decision makers are asked about their favorite teacher…inevitably, that teacher cared to make learning memorable and FUN!) Mobile learning facilitates these two elements in… Read the Rest»

Tisha Poncio was one of five winners in the Mobile Learning Experience Contest.  Join us in congratulating Tisha, as she shares her vision of  how mobile devices positively impact student learning, “After teaching high school for 8 years, then becoming an instructional technologist, I found that no matter what the subject, if kids of any age were given the opportunity to hold something in their hand, interact with the device, the teacher, and their peers, their world opened up, their eyes lit up with excitement, and for many it was their first time to see learning as FUN instead of a struggle or a chore!” i have a dream that one day our schools will rise up and live out the true meaning of its mission: “. . . seeks to promote student achievement and preparation for global competitiveness by fostering educational excellence and ensuring equal access.” (US Department of Education 2010) i have a dream that one day, every day, every student will have the ability to own or use a mobile device and work together to create music, books, movies, websites, and presentations that will change how the world thinks, evolves and engages as a people. i have a dream… Read the Rest»

Making Connections with Apps Wednesday, March 9, 2011 4:30 PM EST Duration: 1 Hour Join educational app guru Jayne Clare, a classroom teacher who co-founded the app development company i-itch inc. and Teachers With Apps, a web site that tracks down the best ed apps out there. Jayne and her 6th-graders will show you how they use a range of cross-curricular apps that complement our Featured Movie app. You’ll leave the webinar inspired to jump on the app bandwagon yourself! RSVP: http://bpapps.eventbrite.com/

Our BrainPOP Educator team is growing! Jessica Storer is our new Manager of Education Outreach. We are thrilled to welcome her to the team, and look forward to hearing much more from Jessica. You can check out her lesson plan on Moon Phases here. Please join us in welcoming her by commenting below. As an educator, how often do you hear about the importance of preparing our students for the future?  And in this challenging, ever-changing economic environment, how critical it is to give our students the tools to succeed in the 21st century and compete in a global marketplace? This push for developing 21st century learners is a recurring theme in the field of education, and for a good reason.  21st century learners are highly productive; they are innovative, thinking outside of the box to solve a problem; and they get results.  21st century learners are effective communicators, they are digital age literate, and they work well with others.  Our goal as educators is to help our students develop these skills, so they are prepared for whatever the future may hold.  How can we help students prepare to be 21st century learners?  A variety of resources are available to support educators in… Read the Rest»

Karyn Keenan is a recent recipient of a donorschoose grant. She teaches 2nd grade in Chicago, and she’s chock full of great ideas! Thanks, Karyn. This summer I decided to work on getting a subscription to Brain Pop, Jr. through Donors Choose.  Within twenty days my project was funded and we were looking at starting the school year with BrainPOP Jr. My students quickly learned that the catchy BrainPOP Jr. theme song meant Annie and Moby would be teaching them something new and making them laugh. The first thing I do when using BrainPOP Jr. for a lesson is for us to watch the movie. We watch the movie through one time just for watching. Then we watch it a second time, stopping the movie on the blinking pause sign and answering the questions that come up on Annie’s notebook. Sometimes I will have students write their answers to these questions on an exit slip. Other times I will pick a squirmy member of class to be in charge of pushing the pause button on our SMART board. Whenever we watch a movie I use the closed captioning feature. Closed captioning and viewing the movie twice helps my students, especially… Read the Rest»

Have you checked out BrainPOP Jr. today? We’ve made a few ch-ch-ch-changes that help improve usability. Most notably, we increased the size of our movie-playing window on the topic page, so it hooks in students and captures their attention immediately. Users can now play the movie right in the topic page with closed captioning on! Want to see it bigger? Select the “Movie Size” button for your choice of small, medium, or full screen. In the full screen mode, the movie will take over your entire screen–perfect for sharing with the whole class! Just click on “Esc” or click on the “Movie Size” button to exit the full screen mode. The medium screen mode is particularly helpful for interactive whiteboard users–you can have your tools or flipcharts open and play the movie at the same time. Of course, closed captioning is available on all modes. Please note where we put the Lesson Ideas button, right at the bottom. That’s where you can access each topic’s background information and suggested activities for the classroom or for home. And of course, you still have the same access to all of BrainPOP Jr.’s leveled quizzes, activities, graphic organizers, writing prompts, and other engaging… Read the Rest»

Ashley Nottis is a 5th grade teacher at Williamstown Middle School, in Williamstown, NJ.  She is currently pursuing a Masters Degree in Educational Media Design and Technology from Full Sail University.  Connect with her on twitter: @ashleynottis, and check out her lesson plan on Food Chains and Food Webs here! I have been using BrainPOP in my classroom for about three years, and like any method of teaching, it has evolved over time.  In the beginning, I used BrainPOP as a jumping off point, or closing activity, quickly showing the short video at the beginning or end of a class or unit.  However, this past year I decided to try something new. I began using BrainPOP as a foundation for my lessons, integrating them more into the curriculum and really diving into the information provided in the videos. I have come to realize that anyone who is only spending three minutes watching a BrainPOP is truly missing out on a valuable tool in the classroom. For example, now I might show a BrainPOP video as a closing one day, and then as an opening activity the following day. I’ve found tons of possibilities to incorporate the features that accompany each… Read the Rest»