POPtalk

Last night, something rather special happened. Teachers came together from all over Oxfordshire to transform the way that they plan at the first ever TeachMeet Fishbowl.

This all began in a meeting between James Bird (Oxfordshire Primary LA Advisor) and me (BrainPOPper), at the Rusty Bicycle, where we talked for a long lunchtime (over soft drinks!) about the joys of being inspired by innovation, at events like TeachMeet, and the challenge of making that transferable to the schools and teachers we worked with.

James had the idea to use an adult training method (andragogy) called Fishbowling, where a small group take on the role of ‘experts’, and engage with a real life problem, whilst a wider group watch and contribute. This is how it was set out (see the annotated version on Flickr courtesy of Leon Cynch for more detail):

http://www.flickr.com/photos/learn4life/ / CC BY-NC-SA 2.0

This event needed to focus on the one aspect that all the TeachMeets, conferences, and workshops we had been to sometimes lacked: practical steps to improve planning.

How could we change that moment when a teacher sits with a blank sheet of paper – and turns it into a plan!

We hoped for three outcomes:

1 – That participants would be able to get engaged with planning in a way that they could take away ideas to apply to their schools immediately

2 – That we would inspire each other and share new ideas, tools, resources

3 – That we would create a local and powerful learning network which would have life after the event.

James has written more about what we planned and hoped for in a blog post:  TeachMeet Fishbowling

I set up a Ning space, we invited folk in, most of whom had not really used online spaces in this sort of way. Fishbowls are not about ICT or technology led. We made the event invite only and kept the proceedings closed (not streamed) because we wanted to test this model and allow people to be open and honest, without fear of colleagues, parents or looking daft!

I invited Tom Barrett and Dawn Hallybone to help us, as great friends of BrainPOP UK (they are both VIBs!) and experienced TeachMeeters (Tom was so inspired that he filmed himself at the beginning of his planning process for his Superheroes topic last term) and Leon Cych, of Learn 4 Life offered to come and video the event.

We were also lucky to be joined by Mark Berthelemy who has years of experience making CPD work, both on and offline.

The hardest thing to do in any walk of life, is to bring about behaviour change. Even in those who want to change, or believe in it, acknowledge that making change happen is difficult and rare.

Last night we got some talented and skilled practitioners to share, think, and do in a slightly different way. We set in motion something that was unique in all our experiences of CPD.  Questions of how we sustain this, and the ways this fits with policy and in practice are hard. But I have no doubt in the abilities of the people in that room to find the answers – together!

Is this way ‘better‘? Can I make a value judgement of the efficacy of this model, just because people did something different from normal? I know that we captured the ‘Aha!’ moments that make traditional TeachMeets so inspiring, but also grounded them in practice. We demonstrated the power of social learning – something we all believe in with children – and established network based on trust.

BrainPOP UK was involved because we believe in local CPD networks. Which is why we support TeachMeets.

There are lots of great posts already, talking about last night, if you want to read more about it, try these starting points:

• http://twitterfall.com/?trend=%23tmfishbowl!%231F3547
• http://buzzinged.wordpress.com/2010/02/25/reflecting-on-teach-meet-fish-bowl/
• http://www.learningconversations.co.uk/main/index.php/2010/02/25/reflections-on-the-oxford-teachmeet-fishbowl?blog=5

Finally, can I thank:

• Oxfordshire County Council who supplied the the venue
• Tim & Moby for providing the food, drink and nibbles.
• Joe, Victoria W. ,  Lizzie, Rebecca (who came despite being in the middle of an Ofsted inspection), Mike, Row, Joan, Dawn, Mark, Tom, Nick, Matt, Leon, Carol, Carolyne, Victoria S. , Amy, and James (did I miss anyone?).

We took delivery of a table today.

You might be wondering why we are blogging about it. Because it’s not just any table, that’s why.

Where to start? We have recently moved offices and we needed a new table. A table for us to meet at. A boardroom type table. We looked in the catalogues, and the options were…terrible. Or at least, terribly uninspiring.

Hugely overpriced steel and glass things, or chipboard with thin veneer on. Even the secondhand options were bad – proving the poor quality of most office furniture.

So, we thought we’d start from first principles:

• We wanted something remarkable.
• We needed something affordable.
• We wanted something crafted.
• We wanted something sustainable, local and with a low carbon footprint.
• We wanted something that shouted BrainPOP UK

Quite a brief, eh?

Phil Pritchard , a local “permaculture designer” and expert on sustainability, works with kids who are out of the school system, to develop skills like carpentry and permaculture. Frontiers is a very cool charity that does very important work. So we got in touch and pitched him the project.

Phil said we could use reclaimed wood, local materials, and bring the kids into the process of creating a table. How could we refuse?

Can you tell what it is yet?

Phil found some lovely mahogany beams, and some oak from the side of a pub bar (the pieces came from ‘Ocean & Collins’, a drinking bar in Oxford which is now Kukui, a Tiki bar/club), and began work.

He was slightly hampered by some terrible weather, and quite a difficult design to create, with a very specific orange colour scheme.

The kids in the project were initially less than interested in making a table, but as it began to take shape and they saw it was a GIANT ROBOT FACE they started to get involved.

Painting the Moby table

Then, today, all the pieces arrived, and Phil put them together.

So, at last, we can finally introduce you to our new BrainPOP UK meeting table!

Please feast your eyes on this table made of reclaimed local materials by a local craftsman and kids learning new skills, that is both remarkable and truly the most BrainPOPpy piece of furniture in the universe!

Fairtrade Fortnight begins on 22nd February and, as Fairtrade is an issue us BrainPOPpers care quite passionately about, we’re taking part in the Fairtrade Foundation’s Big Swap.

We’ve always been Fairtrade tea drinkers but we got coffee in on Monday too…

The BrainPOP team may be all about the caffeinated drinks (and bananas) but there’s lots of stuff the Fairtrade Foundation suggest you can swap.

Why should you swap?

“Fairtrade believes that developing world producers should be in control of their own lives, by getting a better deal for the work that they do. This is a different way of doing business. It’s a way that puts the poorest of the world first.” (http://www.fairtrade.org.uk/thebigswap/why_you_should_swap/)

We registered our swap here – it’s pretty cool getting to see it in all its swap glory.

The Fairtrade Foundation are trying to get one million and one swaps registered over the fortnight so we’d like to encourage you to join in the fun. Schools, towns and even islands can be Fairtrade.

To show your support and learn more you can follow the Fairtrade UK twitter feed or become a fan of their Facebook page. They’ve also got a Flickr group where all sorts of people are posting funny massive inflatable coffee mug pics. We don’t think our photo qualifies in the amusement stakes. ..

We hope to be adding more to the Fairtrade Big Swap list throughout the fortnight so we’ll keep you posted via twitter.

In the name of social research, and the fact we can’t stop thinking about delicious pancakes for Shrove Tuesday tomorrow, we thought we’d conduct a little poll:

Just in case you’d completely forgotten about pancake day, here’s a little recipe from the matriarch of the British kitchen herself, Delia Smith.

Some tips from the BrainPOP UK office:

1. Melt plenty of butter in your frying pan before you add the batter. This prevents your pancake from sticking. A good frying pan always helps here too.
2. Don’t use too much batter – stodgy pancakes ahoy! You’ll be surprised how far a couple of large tablespoons of batter can go.
3. It’s all in the flick of the wrist. Try not to toss your pancake too high – it’s never nice to eat food that was once on the ceiling (or the floor for that matter!)

As we’ve noticed from year to year, it’s usually a case of trial and error…then ending up too full to eat your final perfect pancake.

If you want to learn from the year-in-year-out try-hards, here’s how the Blue Peter team suggest you go about it. And, can anyone find a clip of Yvette Fielding and her pancake attempt on Blue Peter around about 1988? Please send us a link! We found one here but it’s not the best…

Good luck to all of those who plan to toss a pancake or two around the kitchen tomorrow. Hats off to you if you manage frying and flipping in the classroom with your students! Wherever you’re cooking, we hope your pancakes taste delightful.

The pains and pleasures of pancake day. We can’t wait!

Love is in the air this Valentine’s Day…or is it?

Well, we love BrainPOP (obviously) and loooove Tim & Moby so we penned a little something for the romance of it all. Ah, the robomance!

Sonnet BP, Shall we watch Tim & Moby at school today?

Shall we watch Tim & Moby at school today?
He art so orange and robotic.
A ticking clock could stop our BrainPOP play,
For English lessons hath all too few minutes.
Sometimes our time is too confined,
And often is Moby’s gold complexion dimmed;
And off we must go to other lessons,
No BrainPOP there, because it’s gym.
But Moby’s gold complexion shall not fade
Nor lose possession of his funny ways;
Nor shall a slow server keep him down,
For Tim & Moby like to keep it short,
So long as we have 5 minutes spare,
Tim & Moby can show us Poetry with flair.

Not a robomantic? You can view all of these fab and totally unrobomantic movies all rather tenuously linked to the big V day…

Heart – we all have one, and they’ll be dotted about here, there and everywhere this week so why not watch the movie and let Tim & Moby tell you how it all works.

Poetry – let Tim & Moby give you the poetry low-down. Bonus points if you spot the sci-fi reference. Poetry isn’t always robomantic.

William Shakespeare – he not only authored 154 sonnets, but he gave us Romeo, Juliet, Henry V and Richard III, and they all get name dropped in our movie by our favourite pair.

Venus – the Greek goddess of love and beauty (and also a planet you can learn about today on BrainPOP!)

Pollination – last but certainly not least, what is love without the birds and bees?

Thanks for reading. Why not let Moby know you love him too? Post a valentine’s message on our Facebook fan page and we’ll make sure he gets it.

He may even respond. Though, we can’t guarantee he’ll pen you an ode.

In light of it being Safer Internet Day we thought we’d post a little reminder that BrainPOP UK is a totally safe place for kids to hang out – that’s why Tim & Moby hang out here so much!

There’s a lot about keeping kids safe online in the news today but we’re always concerned about online safety! And that’s why our Online Safety movie is always free. Watch it with your class today to learn Tim & Moby’s easy-to-follow top online safety tips.

For other movies about keeping safe, online and off, have a look at our PSHE and Citizenship subject area.

Also, if you happened to miss him, Eylan BrainPOP was demoing BrainPOP UK and ActivExpression on the Promethean Planet stand at BETT this year. Because it’s such an important issue, he chose to demo Online Safety. If you’d like to learn how it all came together, Liam O’Marah’s written a great blog post about it.

Happy safer internet day!

Today we launched our “Free stuff” page. It does exactly what it says on the tin.

This one-stop-shop brings together ALL our free movies in every subject. And they will stay free for the forseeable future. So you can link directly to them if you want to highlight a movie to your students or collegues in your VLE, on your blog, etc. We’ve even made the weblink easy to remember.

http://www.brainpop.co.uk/free_stuff_from_brainpop_uk

We think, collectively, they represent some of the best things about BrainPOP UK. You may or may not agree with our choices but we love each one of these movies.

It’s Charles Dickens’ birthday on 7th February and we made his BrainPOP UK movie free to celebrate. We thought we’d also search back through the annals of BrainPOP UK to see what life was like for Victorian children.

Well, we were overjoyed to find this very special extract from a pupil called “Cratchface Tim” from 1876 which gives us a vivid glimpse of the very first time BrainPOP was used in a school…read on, dear visitor…

“My breath wheezed into the thick dawn air of Oxford town as I peddled in haste from Cowley proper to Summertown for I was due at Mr Moblingwell’s lesson.

It was not one and twenty minutes earlier that I had awoken from a delightfully peaceful slumber at my benevolent mother’s cottage so my mind was well rested and well prepared for the morn’s enlightenment.

The bell tolled upon my arrival at the schoolhouse gate. I bid a hasty farewell to my steed and made my way inside and up the cold winding stairwell.

I found myself at the schoolroom entrance. Instead of thundering in, as is my usual fashion, I stood in awe.

In the very place Mr Moblingwell’s chalkboard once occupied, there stood what can only be described as a white board, glowing celestially upon a leggy pedestal.

I gasped, ‘Sir, what sorcery is this?’

‘Ah, dear Cratchface Tim, good morning to you! Fear not. There is nothing here that means you harm. Enter, and let me demonstrate the wonders of this invention.’

‘Thank you Sir,’ I murmered, for I was too shaken to argue with the learn’d man, and moved to my writing desk.

As my school friends bundled in, each with a similar exclamation as I, I lifted my desk top to retrieve my pen and ink. Alas, my tools were nowhere to be found!

Presently Mr Moblingwell chimed, ‘Yes, young scholars, no writing wares for you this thrilling day. I must tell you that a spirit appeared before me upon the stroke of 7 this morn, err I emptied my chamber pot.

He was no bigger than I, but had skin of metal. He uttered sounds no man of this goodly earth could yet, implausible as it seems, I was able to understand his mechanical ways and communicated quite comfortably with the orange Sir.

Lest be assured, dear boys, he bore no ill will toward me. He simply brought me a wonderful gift.’

And, as Mr Moblingwell gestured at the glowing white board, all of the colours of the rainbow appeared illuminated upon it.

I can hardly contain my excitement at this juncture, dear reader. This day I shall never forget. For, this is the day I BrainPOPped!

Powered by just five treadmilling rats and an engine shovellingly fed by Little Billy Weasel, two brilliant academics, borne of BrainPOP, appeared on the magical screen before us.

My namesake, Tim, greeted us. And, cries of astonishment rang out, for he was accompanied by none other than Mr Moblingwell’s unearthly chum, Moby. These great philosophers took us on a journey through “The Mysteries of Life”, explaining things so advanced and alien it was as though we were learning of things yet to come.

I have to say it was a joyous lesson. Mr Moblingwell’s fat red face and tremendous belly shook as we all laughed heartily together at Moby’s larks.

‘But, how is this learning?’ I asked myself.  Lo and behold, as though he were a witch doctor with the power to read my thoughts, Mr Moblingwell “quizzed” us.

A small examination proved unequivocally that we had absorbed all of the facts and figures described. Ten out of ten!

“Hurrah!” we chorused.

As the clock struck noon, the school bell tolled and the white board’s glow abated. Master Weasel took a chair and the rats were obligingly gathered up in a cage.  Elated, my classmates and I prepared for home. I turned to Mr Moblingwell, ‘Please Sir?’

‘Yes boy? Spit it out.’

‘Can we have some more?’

“Cratchface Tim”, February, the year of our Lord 1876. God bless the Queen.