Posts on “ BrainPOP ”

Our thoughts are with all of you affected by Hurricane Sandy – may our return to normalcy be safe and quick. We know how many teachers and students are out of school and house-bound this stormy week, and we’d like to help make life at least a bit easier for you. All BrainPOP resources – including BrainPOP, BrainPOP Jr., BrainPOP Español, and BrainPOP ESL – will be completely FREE through the weekend. Help explain the catastrophic weather with topics like Hurricanes, Floods, Natural Disasters, and, on BrainPOP Jr., Fast Land Changes. Explore any other topic the kids might be interested in. Or take the titles on GameUp for a spin (our online games portal is always free). We’re here for you! As you may have read on Twitter, our headquarters in New York are without power as of October 30th, and our servers are down. We’re doing our best to assist and respond to our subscribers remotely, but we hope you’ll be patient with us over the next few days.  

Wednesday, September 12th at 3:30 PM ET- BrainPOP’s Newest Features! We’re thrilled to show you a breadth of new features and teaching tools designed to make your BrainPOP experience even better than before. This webinar spotlights all of them, including all the latest on BrainPOP Educators. You don’t want to miss it!

Dr. Kari Stubbs, Vice President of 21st Century Learning, is heading west to Redmond, WA to visit the Microsoft Headquarters for the 2012 Partners in Learning US Forum.  This BrainPOP-sponsored event will take place July 31-August 1 and is an exciting, professional learning experience that spotlights and allows superstar educators from all over the US to share their innovative teaching expertise.  As a keynote featured speaker, Kari will have the honor of addressing 102 amazing educators from 25 states.  Additionally, she’ll be hosting Got Game?,  a BYOL session that focuses on educational games, at which attendees will have the opportunity to explore video case studies and play some quality STEM, Social Studies, and Health games.  If you’re one of the lucky Forum attendees, be sure to visit Kari in the exhibitor space to learn more about BrainPOP and our GameUp games.  

Happy Friday everyone!  BrainPOP is full of creative minds and they have quite a bit to say about the field of education.  If you’re not already following these BrainPOPpers on Twitter, be sure to add them to your list. Bev Fine @BevFine Editorial/Outreach Director for BrainPOP ESL Andrew Gardner @agardnahh Senior Manager of BrainPOP Educators David Grandison @grandison Executive Producer for BrainPOP Angela Watson @Angela_Watson BrainPOP’s Educational Editor Din Heiman @DinSquared BrainPOP’s COO and General Manager Karina Linch @mslinch SVP of Product Management at BrainPOP Allisyn Levy @allisyn BrainPOP’s Senior Director, Educator Experience Dr. Kari Stubbs @KARISTUBBS BrainPOP’s Vice President of 21st Century Learning And, of course, don’t forget to follow @brainpop for up to date news.  Have a great weekend!  

Heading to the Google Apps for Education California Summit in Santa Clara?  So are we!  Our very own Andrew Gardner, Senior Manager of BrainPOP Educators, will be there to join in the fun today and tomorrow.  If you are one of the lucky ones to be attending this event, be sure to visit the Demo Slam this afternoon from 4:30-5:30.  Andrew will be demonstrating BrainPOP’s seamless integration with GAFE.  With the opportunity to learn about single sign-on and automatic quiz score collection, this session is one you won’t want to miss.  

School’s out for summer, but that doesn’t mean students can’t squeeze in some summer learning with our spotlights. July’s spotlight, Red, White, and Blue, includes movies and activities to help us celebrate our country’s independence.  Students can explore United States history through our Declaration of Independence, Causes of the American Revolution, and Thirteen Colonies movies.  And, don’t forget our very first president, George Washington!  Students can test their U.S. knowledge with the accompanying interactive quizzes and activities.  This month’s other spotlight, Animals, gives students the opportunity to learn about both domestic and wild animals.  From dogs and cats to penguins and dolphins, students can become experts on the animals they find most interesting. We also have a number of spotlights that aren’t month specific and are perfect for students to enjoy all summer long.  Why not learn about the authors who wrote the books they’re reading?  Students can extend their summer reading assignments with our Books & Authors spotlight.  We’ve included movies about classic and talented authors like Charles Dickens, Roald Dahl, J.R.R. Tolkien, and more.  Additionally, check out the Famous Scientists spotlight where students can become scientists themselves.  The Albert Einstein, Benjamin Franklin, and Charles Darwin movies offer hands-on… Read the Rest»

Our whirlwind trip to San Diego for the ISTE 2012 conference has come to an end and we truly had a blast!   It was great seeing all of our amazing educators in person and hearing about the exciting things you’re doing with BrainPOP in the classroom.  Plus, we always get a kick out of seeing Moby with his fans! We sure felt the love from our booth visitors and the presenters who included us in their sessions, and we want to extend a big THANK YOU to everyone.  From mobile learning to educational gaming, we made a number of exciting announcements at the conference, so be sure to check back to catch up on what you missed.  You can also view the archived version of our ISTE Recon webinar to learn about some of the awesome new features on BrainPOP.  We think you’ll be thrilled with what we have to share!  

New to BrainPOP?  No problem!  This overview is the perfect way for newbies to learn their way around our sites.  Veteran users, don’t be turned off – you might learn a new trick or two as well. We’ll touch on the full range of our features and share best practices for getting the most out of your subscription.  

Guest Blogger Laura Candler was a teacher in Fayetteville, North Carolina for over 30 years. She has presented educational workshops to teachers around the country for over 12 years. She’s the author of 10 books for teachers, and her Teaching Resources website is jam packed with ideas galore! We are thrilled to have her contributing her timely ideas to BrainPOP Educators.  Be sure to click and check out her newly minted MLK lesson plan with a free 13 page teaching packet, just in time for the holiday. Honoring Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. by Laura Candler, Teaching Resources, www.lauracandler.com Many students across America will take time this week to reflect on the life of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. and his impact on the civil rights movement. Yet as a former teacher, I know how difficult it can be find appropriate resources for elementary students on this topic. How do we teach our students about the incredible challenges Dr. King faced and the social injustices of that time period? So a few days ago when I discovered the BrainPOP video, Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., I knew I had found an amazing resource! In this four-minute video, the animated characters Tim… Read the Rest»

In 2012, we pledge to help each and every BrainPOP educator. Here is a list of 12 promises that we make to you. We will help you by. . . 12)  providing lesson plans with ideas for using BrainPOP content with your students. 11) sharing best practice with stories from our guest bloggers. 10) mobilizing your classroom with our mobile apps. 9) supporting you to consider and implement game based learning with our offerings on GameUp. 8 ) providing community groups and forums for you to share ideas and comments with fellow BrainPOP educators. 7) sharing new ideas and training through our webinar series. 6) holding contests with prizes (like highly coveted BrainPOP T-shirts) for you! 5) listening to your suggestions and ideas for how to improve BrainPOP and BrainPOP Educators. 4) exposing you to our partner educational organizations. 3) supporting all the new BrainPOP features that will come in 2012 (no links here, because they aren’t announced yet, stay tuned!) 2) Aligning all our content with state and common core standards. 1) continuing it do all this for free! Thanks for using BrainPOP and being a part of this community.  In 2012 we have many exciting improvements coming your way…. Read the Rest»