Posts on “ SRS ”

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»

Recorded December 21st 2011. Put technology right in your students’ hands and engage them on a new level.  Our special guest Chris Haon – 3rd grade teacher at  Murdock Elementary in Marietta, GA – shows you how to integrate the iRespond student response system with BrainPOP and BrainPOP Jr. quizzes.  See how easy it is to use the two resources together – and even create your own quiz questions! Click here to listen!

Higher Order Thinking & ActivExpression Wednesday, December 15, 2010 4:30 PM EST Duration: 1 Hour What do you get when you combine BrainPOP’s Higher Order Thinking features and Promethean ActivExpression? This webinar will offer tips and strategies for increasing student engagement and thinking in your 21st-century classroom. RSVP: http://hotactivexpressions.eventbrite.com

Toya Gordon is an experienced classroom, ESL, and science cluster teacher, as well as a BrainPOP Educator! Thanks for sharing this idea with us, Toya! Parent involvement is a crucial part of any child’s education, but in many instances, it’s on the decline.  Too often than not, we’ve all seen how a parent’s absence at a school event can have a big impact on any child.  We already know how to motivate our students using BrainPOP, but we can also use Moby and his friends to help engage and incorporate the parents as well! Once a month, my school hosts a “Parents as Learning Partners” event.  On that day, parents are invited to actively participate in what their child is currently learning in the classroom.  Each month focuses on a different subject area, and the celebration is centered on a related game or learning activity. What better way than to use BrainPOP to engage both students and parents?  If you have any types of celebrations like these at your school, you could begin by showing the video related to the focus of the month (such as addition or animals).  Then, using Promethean ActiVotes or ActivExpressions (if you are fortunate enough… Read the Rest»

Interested in learning more? Join us for this week’s free webinar: Promethean Integration With Dave Kootman. Three years ago the district I work for took a giant leap into the 21st Century and decided to implement Promethean boards into all of the elementary and middle school classrooms.  With this came the need to find supplemental activities that would support what teachers were already doing within their classrooms.  That is when “BrainPOP” became a common term used throughout the district.  Not a day goes by when a BrainPOP activity is not used as a tool within the teachers classrooms.  If you even mention the names Tim and Moby the students know exactly who you are talking about. During these three years I have been supporting the teachers by providing training and resources to help make their jobs easier and more enjoyable.   One major obstacle that I ran into when I would help the teachers was their ability to use the ActiVotes with the BrainPOP quizzes.  Some teachers were comfortable using them and some teachers just could not figure out all of the steps involved.  This became a frustrating task for most of the teachers.  Now I am excited to see that… Read the Rest»

Back to School With BrainPOP Tuesday, August 31 4:30 EDT Duration: 1 Hour Welcome back! This webinar highlights the countless ways BrainPOP can help make the back-to-school season easier for you. From using BrainPOP to review topics covered in the last school year to reinforcing online research skills, our resources can help engage students and keep them excited all year. RSVP: http://backtoschoolbp.eventbrite.com Planning with netTrekker Search and BrainPOP Wednesday, September 1 4:30 EDT Duration: 1 Hour Looking for high quality online educational resources? Find out how easily the leading educational search tool can pinpoint engaging digital resources like BrainPOP – organized by grade, reading level, curriculum topic, media type, state standards, and more. Come see the value of our partnership with netTrekker, and plan out a portfolio of resources that you can take with you to teach your students the ins and outs of Digital Citizenship. RSVP: http://nettrekker.eventbrite.com Make it Click: BrainPOP Quizzes With Promethean’s Learner Response Systems Thursday, September 2 4:30 EDT With Promethean’s response technology right in the palm of their hands, students are engaged on a whole new level. This webinar will show you how to get BrainPOP’s quiz integration with Promethean ActiVote and ActivExpression learner response… Read the Rest»

We are so excited for the official launch of the newest feature with our partners at Promethean… BrainPOP and BrainPOP Jr. quizzes are now fully integrated with Promethean’s learner response systems, ActiVote & ActivExpressions! After we piloted it in many schools, we are hearing nothing but positive responses! As long as you’ve got an ActivHub, and ActiVotes or ActivExpressions, it’s quick and easy to set it up, and you can choose the length of time students have to respond, decide whether or not you’d like voting to be anonymous, and incorporate the results into your grading system! Find out more and try it out! You can follow this screencast to be up and running in minutes. We’d love to hear what you think of this new feature. Please email kylel@brainpop.com. Still interested in quiz integration but not a Promethean user? You can still use other student response systems in overwrite mode with BrainPOP and BrainPOP Jr. quizzes.

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?

On Tuesday, July 29 I had the opportunity to spend the day with the wonderful teachers of Spring Branch ISD in Houston, Texas. As avid users of Promethean ActivBoards, they generated many creative ideas on how to connect all the resources available on BrainPOP and BrainPOP Jr. with ActivStudio. Here is what they shared: • Using the camera tool, teachers can take a picture of the graphic on Tim’s shirt. Then they can use it as a picture prompt for students to write a journal entry. • Students can use the highlighter tool, as well as the pen, to underline verbs, circle nouns, and highlight the main idea in a passage on the FYI section of a unit in BrainPOP. • Students can use their Activote learner response systems to answer the quiz questions. Then they can see their results compared to those of their classmates. • Using the words from the Word Wall feature of a topic in BrainPOP Jr. and the camera tool on ActivStudio, teachers can create flipcharts where students drag the vocabulary word and match it to the correct definition. • With a Promethean Board, BrainPOP can be used in learning centers where students can work… Read the Rest»

Today BrainPOP was visited by one of Promethean’s super-talented TLC’s, Ben Posner. Ben showed us Promethean’s new Activexpression devices and helped us brainstorm ways to use them with BrainPOP. Activexpressions are Student Response Systems, or SRS devices. If you’re not familiar with SRS devices, they allow teachers to get instant feedback on what each student knows or has to say. Newer SRS devices allow students to respond in a variety of ways; the Activexpression devices even allow students to text short answers with a mobile-phone like design. One topic we explored was how students could use SRS devices like Activexpression to write collaboratively. For example, In BrainPOP’s Thirteen Colonies Activity: “Think About It,”, each student could use the devices to text one reason why colonial immigrants and modern immigrants have similar reasons for coming to America. Their various texted responses would appear on the interactive whiteboard at the front of the room. Then the class could decide how to arrange or edit the various responses into one paragraph. I don’t know about you, but I’m pretty excited that students can now put those texting skills to work for an educational purpose! What are your thoughts? Are you already using SRS… Read the Rest»