Posts on “ middle school ”

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.  

Principal Mike Byron was kind enough to share how his school integrates BrainPOP into their closed-circuit tv system. We currently have a 51″ inch flat screen plasma television in our cafeteria along with a surround sound system.  Connected to this television is a Sling Catcher that communicates with a computer in the main office.  In addition to running Math Powerpoint presentations and school announcements, we will also run BrainPOP on the computer in the main office, which then gets transmitted into the cafeteria onto the plasma television. The setup is utilized on a daily basis to support the various standards and concepts being covered within the classes.  When we stream a BrainPOP animated movie into the cafeteria, we follow up with an essential question.  A student is called upon, and if they answer the question correctly, they win a prize.  We find that we are able to capitalize on time that was traditionally not set aside for learning and the students are welcoming to the fun and engaging activities. Michael Byron Principal Joseph H. Martin Middle School Tauton, MA How do you take your school day up a notch with BrainPOP? We’d love to hear your ideas!

Brian Lewis is a Computer/Business Education teacher in Warner Robins, Georgia, and has been teaching middle grades for 14 years. He’s taught middle grades social studies, science, P.E., Careers, and math to at-risk learners. I started a BrainPOP club for Teachers at Feagin Mill Middle School in Warner Robins, Georgia. We have teachers that join from all grade levels and all subjects. We meet about twice a month to share ideas on to improve our teaching using BrainPOP and other resources. We meet for about 15 minute’s afterschool.  The meetings are short and fast. We usually show a BrainPOP video and discuss review questions and vocabulary words. Teachers usually share how they use the resource to enhance their teaching of the standards in their classroom.  Middle grade students love BrainPOP. My sixth graders use BrainPOP to make animations using the BrainPOP clipart that is provided on BrainPOP Educators. During the last meeting, teachers learned how BrainPOP can be used with different technology, including laptops, interactive whiteboards, and student response devices.  We share ideas on how the videos can be used in our classes and how BrainPOP can relate to other subjects.  I realized that most teachers that use BrainPOP didn’t… Read the Rest»

My current state of Tennessee is adopting the STEM (Science Technology Engineering & Mathematics) approach to learning. A few years ago I was introduced to the idea that our students are “digital natives”. They are constantly immersed in technology, and cannot imagine any true life scenario where it is not used. Because of this mentality, students have an increasingly difficult time engaging with information used in the traditional classroom. In the past, I made the attempt to use technology in my middle school science classroom. This was usually a computer activity once or twice per grading period and possibly a video covering the topic. I am bored typing that sentence so now it isn’t hard to imagine why my students weren’t engaged in the lessons! After giving the idea of digital natives some serious reflection, I made it my mission to include technology every day. BrainPOP allows me to do this in an effective way much more often than twice per grading period. Middle school students love the videos and how they target several learning styles in their short exchanges. The slower learners appreciate the key word identification, all of the students enjoy the simple visuals and the higher achievers… Read the Rest»

I came across two articles today that I thought I’d share. I thought this was a really uplifting story about how a middle school within the low-ranking Tennessee school system is boosting students’ love of learning with technology. Read all about it! More and more accredited e-schools are popping up, and I’m always interested to read about how it works. Here’s how a family came to the decision of switching from a neighborhood public school to a public, state-funded e-school.  Take a look! Both articles capture current trends in education. What do you think? Can you relate to either of these experiences?