Posts on “ 21st century skills ”

Digital Learning Day is a national campaign that celebrates teachers and shines a spotlight on successful instructional practice and effective use of technology in classrooms across the country. Here at BrainPOP, we strive to engage students by providing the best in digital learning content, and we’re committed to supporting teachers in their quest to utilize digital technologies in the classroom. Be on the look out for our newest tool in development called My BrainPOP that will enhance your students’ learning experiences, and give you the ability to track and assess student progress via tailored content. My BrainPOP is currently being piloted in select classrooms across the country and we can’t wait to make it available in your school! You can follow the Twitter hashtag #DLDAY to participate in discussions about the future of digital learning and see how teachers are celebrating digital learning in their classrooms today. A big thank you to Sharon LePage Plante (@iplante) for tweeting about using BrainPOP to teach verb tenses in celebration of this special day. How are you celebrating Digital Learning Day with students? Share your ideas in the comments!  

BrainPOP and Project Tomorrow invite all schools and districts to participate in the 9th annual Speak Up National Research Project.  Speak Up provides a quick and easy way for your students, parents, teachers, librarians and administrators to have a voice in local, state and national discussions about emerging technologies in education. Plus, every participating school and district gets back their own stakeholder data from the online surveys to use for grant writing, ed tech plans, budgets, professional development and community engagement.  No need to create your own surveys – Speak Up does all the work for you!   Just register your school or district at http://www.speakup4schools.org/speakup2011/, pick a password and promote the survey link to your community. Since 2003, over 2.2 million education stakeholders from over 30,000 schools have participated in Speak Up.  It is more important today than ever that your voice is heard by policymakers – and that you have the authentic, unfiltered feedback from your students, parents and staff you need to make good decisions and investments.   Be part of this year’s Speak Up movement! Project Tomorrow is a national education nonprofit organization dedicated to improving science, math and technology education in our schools. Learn more @ www.tomorrow.org…. Read the Rest»

You’ve been asking about it for months … and now you’ve got it! We’re proud to announce the launch of a major upgrade to our popular Featured Movie app, enabling mobile access to our entire collection of movies and quizzes from your iPad, iPhone, and iPod touch.  The upgraded app, available in the iTunes App Store will continue to deliver a fresh – and free! – Featured Movie and related quiz every day.  But you’ll also have the option of adding one of two subscriptions for additional learning. “Explorer Level”  complements the free Featured Movie with four additional related movies and quizzes each day. ($1.99/month) “Full Access Level” gives you unlimited access to all 750+ BrainPOP movies and quizzes  ($6.99/month)- sorry, K-3 teachers – BrainPOP only for now. If you’re already a BrainPOP subscriber, you’ll be able to log in from the app at no additional cost. If you’ve already been enjoying the previous version of the app, there is no need to re-download, just click update when prompted by iTunes®.  So, take the new version for a spin and tell us what you think – we’d love your feedback! Our Featured Movie app has been downloaded more than 900,000 times, and… Read the Rest»

Wednesday, September 21 6:30 PM EST Duration 1 hour Go mobile with BrainPOP! Special guest host Tammie Mihet, a Florida teacher, shows you creative ways to use work our Featured Movie app into your day. Whether you use the app in Chrome, on an HP TouchPad, or on your iPad, iPhone, or iPod touch, you’ll pick up great integration ideas, lesson plans, resources, and more.

Kids need to relate to real life experiences to learn and as a teacher I strive to make those connections when introducing new concepts. This week in math we are working on conversion; learning the basics of converting gallons to quarts, to pints, to cups, and vice-versa. Before I even think about introducing the math involved, I want students to be “prepped” by building their background knowledge. So, we begin our introduction to the lesson with our class friends, Tim and Moby, from BrainPOP.   Together we watch the Customary Units movie and pause as needed to discuss. This adventure with Tim and Moby gives us solid mathematical information and a real life historical perspective; we learn that customary units are older than the metric system and that the U.S.A. never converted over from the older Imperial System. Students also learn that customary units were originally used in agriculture and trade, long before the metric system came into use. The information provided on measurement and volume activates their knowledge, so they are ready for the remainder of the lesson.   To provide reinforcement of what we just learned and to prepare students for the meat of the lesson where we… Read the Rest»

Are you transforming your pedagogy to meet the needs of 21st century learners?  We often hear stories of passionate BrainPOP Educators breaking new ground with innovative teaching practices and technology integration.  Now is the time to share this expertise and empower others by presenting or conducting a workshop at the Texas Computer Education Association (TCEA) 32nd Annual Convention and Exposition! This year’s conference theme is “e5 – Embark. Engage. Energize. Empower. Educate.” With this in mind, we encourage you to submit a proposal targeting the innovative ways you use technology in your learning environment in conjunction with BrainPOP, BrainPOP Jr., BrainPOP ESL, or BrainPOP Educators. The TCEA Convention and Exposition will be held in Austin, Texas on February 6-8, 2012. The due date for submission of proposals is fast approaching, May 30, 2011 by 5:00 p.m. CST! Click here for all the details. Notice that there are several types of proposals you can submit: Presentation Session Hands-on Workshop BYOD (Bring Your Own Device) Workshop Panel Presentation If your proposal is accepted, BrainPOP will cover your conference registration fees, substitute teacher costs, and offer you a complimentary 12 month subscription to BrainPOP, BrainPOP Jr., or BrainPOP ESL. Plus, we’d be happy… Read the Rest»

The Brains Behind BrainPOP Series – Breaking Down Classroom Walls with Web 2.0 Wednesday, April 20, 2011 4:30 PM EST Duration: 1 Hour Get to know the people behind BrainPOP! To kick off this series, get to know BrainPOP’s Production Manager and social media guru, David Grandison Jr. Explore how to utilize social media and collaborative learning to facilitate the development of 21st Century skills in your students. David will offer an overview of the newest types of educational tools out there and discuss methods to make them work for you and your students in the classroom. RSVP: http://classroomweb.eventbrite.com/

A year and a half ago, Dr. Jan Harris, district superintendent from Cullman City Schools, spotted Moby on the shirt of BrainPOP’s VP of 21st Century Learning, Dr. Kari Stubbs.  Dr. Harris shared her district’s enthusiasm for BrainPOP and its use alongside other cutting edge technology tools to increase 21st century learning outcomes for students and teachers. BrainPOP has been following Cullman City Schools’ successes ever since and has had the opportunity to collaborate with one of their star Technology Integration Specialists, Aimee Bates. Here at BrainPOP, we were ecstatic to learn that Cullman City Schools recently won the 2011 CoSN Team Award for their visionary leadership and utilization of technology! They were recognized during the CoSN annual conference for their effective and innovative use of technology to transform teaching practices, learning opportunities for students, parent and community involvement, and professional development for teachers. To learn more about the award and the accomplishments of Cullman City Schools, check out the recent press release issued by CoSN. BrainPOP couldn’t be prouder of Cullman City School City schools! Keith Kreuger, CEO of CoSN, said it best in the press release, “From their implementation of a one-to-one laptop initiative to ensuring that teachers… Read the Rest»

April’s free webinars offer something for everyone! Join us Wednesdays at 4:30 pm EST (unless otherwise noted) for one or more of these diverse offerings. On April 6, our Tatum Murphy teamed up with netTrekker’s Danielle Abernethy for Search & Rescue: Earth Awareness Resources From netTrekker Search & BrainPOP. On April 13, see for yourself whether or not Test Prep Can Be Enjoyable?! On the 20th, BrainPOP’s David Grandison Jr., Production Manager and social media guru, explores the use of social media and collaborative learning to build 21st century skills in Breaking Down Classroom Walls With Web 2.0. And on April 27, Moby, Moby, What Do You See? shows you how to create real and virtual scavenger hunts that weave in BrainPOP resources to enrich whatever topic you’re teaching. Get the details and RSVP for these webinars – space is limited. Did you miss the April 6 webinar or want to browse past webinars? Visit our Archives. Are you interested in sharing your expertise in a BrainPOP webinar? Get in touch; we’d love to have you.

It Takes A Global Village Wednesday, March 16, 2011 4:30 PM EST Duration: 1 Hour BrainPOP Educators Adina Popa and Tammie Mihet will demonstrate how they teach 21st Century skills, use multimedia tools such as BrainPOP, and how all these resources prepare them and their students for collaborative activities at the international level. RSVP: http://collabor8.eventbrite.com/