POPtalk

Last week Moby and The BrainPOPpers went to Glasgow to the Scottish Learning Festival 2010 to talk about the wonderful world of BrainPOP to Scottish teachers.

Glasgow's Armadillo building

We had a blast - the teachers were so friendly and welcoming. LTScotland is currently integrating a new curriculum - the Curriculum for Excellence - so it was a particularly interesting time to be there.

Here are our Top 5 moments at SLF 2010…

1: Meeting lots (and lots) of Scottish teachers on the XMA Apple stand. Our resident Scottish BrainPOP UK Ambassador, Kim Conway, was demoing BrainPOP UK, showing off our Curriculum for Excellence tagging and giving out our very special Scottish Moby badges. Which we ran out of they were so popular. We’ll have to get more for next year.

Moby gives the thumbs up to SLF 2010

Kim Conway demoing Brainpop UK

Moby gets the girl(s)

2: Meeting Scottish fans and putting faces to Twitter names! We have been lucky enough to make a number of friends up in Scotland in the last 12 months, but most of them were virtual. This time though we could say hi in the flesh and they could get to meet Moby. You can read Jenny’s (on right) account of SLF 2010 on her blog “Student ponderings“.

Moby meets Ann Marie and Jenny at SLF 2010

3: Demoing BrainPOP UK on the Promethean stand. The crowds gathered in large numbers to see Eylan Ezekiel showing off BrainPOP UK resources, including a sneak preview of the Active Expression POPquiz integration, with Promethean ActivInspire and Learner Response Systems. And, because we know how tiring exhibitions can be, the crowd were offered an apple or a cupcake. Can you believe it - the cupcakes proved more popular!

Moby watching the Promethean demo

4: Sponsoring the TeachMeet. We are always proud to be asked to be involved, in any way, large or small, with a TeachMeet. This year the famous SLF TeachMeet took place in the famous “Armadillo” building opposite the Exhibition hall. Moby was chuffed to be asked to wave people into the hall, although the security guards wouldn’t let anyone take any photographs (boo!).

It was this time last year that we premiered our very first TeachMeet movie and we were more than happy to create a brand, new revised version that incorporates some of the changes that TeachMeet has gone through in the last 12 months. Afterwards most of us headed off to the TeachEat to sample some famous Glaswegian curry. Moby didn’t come to that - he had to be in bed. He’d had a long day.

Our new TeachMeet movie premieres at TeachMeet SLF 2010!

5: Moby’s “dance off” with the guys from Learning Teaching Scotland. Ollie Bray and Derek Robertson were presenting the wonderful work they’ve been doing with games based learning in Scottish schools (you can read lots more about it the world leading work on the Consolarium blog) and one of the games they used was Wii “Just Dance”. They challenged Moby to a dance off. First Moby tried to psyche out Ollie Bray and threw a few moves to warm up.

Moby tries to pysche out Ollie Bray before their epic dance off

Then the dance battle commenced to MARRS - Pump Up The Jam.

Did you meet Moby? What were your highlights of SLF 2010?

Related Posts:

• Come and say “hello!” at SLF 2010
• What’s in store at SLF 2011?
• Calder-lightful! Using BrainPOP UK in Secondary English
• Highlights from the Scottish Learning Festival
• Bookcases up for grabs

It’s Scottish Learning Festival time again and we’re going to be there in all sorts of ways, shapes and forms.

XMA

We’ll be demoing BrainPOP UK on XMA Stand F15. Come and meet our BrainPOP UK Ambassador for Scotland, Kim Conway, and see BrainPOP UK demoed on a shiny new MacBook. Kim can show you how to use our Curriculum Matching Tool, Deep Beep, to find topics to match Curriculum for Excellence.

Also, if you register your interest with an XMA represntative and you could be in with a chance to win an iPod!

Promethean

At midday on both Wednesday and Thursday, take advantage of the offer of a sit down by popping along to Promethean Stand C10.

You’ll  get to learn how to use BrainPOP UK with Promethean ActivInspire and Learner Response Systems with fun voting activities and lesson ideas. And, because we know how tiring exhibitions can be, we thought you might appreciate a sugar boost to keep you going; an apple or a cupcake, it’s up to you!

Watch oot, Moby’s gonnae be aboot!

Throughout the festival, Moby will be popping along the XMA and Promethean stands. He’s got some exclusive SLF badges to give you so make sure you say hello.

Remember he’s a real poser too so have your cameras ready for a snapshot with him.

TeachMeet SLF2010

We were happy to sponsor #TMSLF2010 this year with the added bonus of a big orange robot at the front door. If you’re in to TeachMeet SLF10 at 5:30 please give him a wee wave when you walk in, he loves the attention!

Feel free to come and say hello to any BrainPOPpers you spot at the festival this year – we’d love nothing more! If you want to meet up and can’t find us, tweet @BrainPOP_UK. We’ll soon find one another.

Related Posts:

• North of the border – Moby goes to the Scottish Learning Festival
• What’s in store at SLF 2011?
• Bookcases up for grabs
• Calder-lightful! Using BrainPOP UK in Secondary English
• Treats not tricks for Halloween

To celebrate the launch of a brand new feature to BrainPOP UK - the ‘FYI’ resource that now accompanies every topic - we asked you to record yourselves saying “For Your Information” And boy, did you come up trumps with some really creative ways to say “FYI”!

Thank you to @relativism, Amanda Morgan, David Rogers, Chris Hall, Margaret Ashworth, Dave Morrison, Leisel, Peter West, Jenny Campbell, Harriet Brinton, Lestat and Leroy, Rumi, Hazel, Nathan, Zoe and everyone else for your submissions. And congratulations to @relativism who won a free 6 month school subscription for her class submission.

So visit BrainPOP UK today and select any topic. On the topic page will be a button that opens up the FYI. Bear in mind that you need to have a free trial or subscription to view them.

Have YOU subscribed to BrainPOP UK yet?

If not, this could be your lucky day. We are offering you the chance to claim a 15% discount off any annual school subscription until midnight, Monday 30th September 2010. Simply quote “hifyi” when placing your order.

What are FYIs?

• Every single topic now has a brand new FYI with Graphs & Stats, Famous Faces, In Depth, Way Back When, Real Life, Q&A…and more. Each FYI contains up-to-date facts, figures and fun.
• We believe the best learning happens outside school; FYIs not only encourage curiosity in the world around us but encourage further research and investigation.
• After introducing a topic for the first time with a short movie and quiz, an FYI can often be the best way to fuel that initial interest and desire to learn more.
• If you’re doing a class project in a certain subject area, FYIs can provide additional breadth - including a broad range of cross-curricular info.

FYIs offer oodles of extension material for further reading, homework, class projects and, most importantly, fun, engaging, learning. Why not visit your favourite topic and check out the FYI now? www.brainpop.co.uk

Related Posts:

• FYIs are almost here
• BrainPOP UK just keeps improving - with your help
• For Your Information - The Movie
• POPing ahead to the new term
• The little movie that could

Packed full of further information, FYIs are coming soon…

• Around the World
• Graphs, Stats & Numbers
• Arts & Entertainment
• In practice
• Quotables
• Comic Strip
• Did you know?
• In Depth
• Flora & Fauna
• Design
• Trivia
• Q&A
• Careers
• Mother Nature
• Language
• Gadgets
• Unsolved Mysteries
• Myths
• Discoveries & Inventions

…and more!

FYIs are coming to every single topic, in each subject area, all at once.

One to whet your appetite? Here’s an FYI from one of our brand new topics, Measuring Matter.

You still have time to submit creative FYIs here. Deadline is 5pm Thursday 9th September.

Related Posts:

• How many ways are there to say “For Your Information”?
• BrainPOP UK just keeps improving – with your help
• For Your Information – The Movie

We’re about to welcome a brand new feature to BrainPOP UK: The FYI.

FYIs contain astonishing facts, figures and information, to be used as extension material to the BrainPOP UK movies. Every movie will soon have its very own FYI.

And, just for fun, we’re putting together a little viral movie that we want YOU to star in called “How many ways are there to say “For Your Information“?

It’s very simple.

1. Video yourself or create an image saying/displaying the phrase “For Your Information“.
2. Say it, shout it, whisper it, sing it, sign it, synthesise it. Write it on a blackboard. Create it in alphabetti spaghetti. Ask your parrot to repeat it. Any way you like (be creative but no naughtiness please).
3. Submit your video or image using the form below or by email to info@brainpop.co.uk

Some last things:

• It has to be your own original work. Don’t include any commercial music or anything as we won’t be able to use it.
• The final edit will be going on our Youtube channel as an embeddable, sharable movie.
• The best/most creative/funniest “For Your Information” will win a 6 month subscription to BrainPOP UK. Editor’s decision is final. Everyone who submits an entry will have a sneak peak at some of the FYIs in advance.
• The cut off date for submissions is 5pm 9th September 2010, so you’ve only got about a week to join in. Its premiere will be 13th September, alongside the FYIs.

So go for it! Tim, Moby & The BrainPOP UK team cannot wait to see what you can do.

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• And…action! Make a Tim & Moby movie competition
• How many ways are there to say “For Your Information”?
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Spotlight on…money sense. Take stock, invest your interest and give credit where credit’s due, Tim and Moby get clued up on money matters.

On the Spotlight homepage you’ll find a Money Quiz, a Stocks and Shares Activity, and you can Learn More about Comparing Prices.

The topics we’ve decided to highlight for Managing Your Money include:

• Basic Probability
• Comparing Prices
• Communism
• Credit Cards
• Findng Percentages
• Interest
• Money
• Stock and Shares
• Stock Market
• Using a calculator

There are also some extra activities you can do on POP Spot!

Give them Credit – Head of ICT, Drew Buddie, has some inventive ways to teach students the value of money in the real world.

Creating a Budget – Learn how to budget properly using our Excel spreadsheet template.

Buy buy buy, sell sell sell! – Following real companies on the stock market.

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• “Give them credit!”
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• Spotlight on…Managing Your Money
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You may remember a little while ago we asked for some of your help regarding a financial literacy article for Teach Primary magazine. Quite a few people volunteered their services so thank you very much! But it was Drew Buddie who won us over with his original finance lesson tips. Here’s the finished article which is currently appearing in Teach Primary’s September/October issue…

The credit crunch has dominated headlines in the past year to such an extent that young people cannot avoid either reading or hearing about it, or worse, experiencing the consequences first-hand within their families.  In short, youngsters are hearing that financial experts got it so wrong that debts arising may not be paid for many years.

In the face of this, I have tried to redress the balance within my classroom by showing my Year 5 and 6 students how to carry out financial exercises that allow them to see the implications of their decisions and understand how to deal with money in everyday situations.

At the outset it’s important to understand that I am a Head of ICT in a school where I teach Year 5 to Year 13. I am not a teacher of Maths. However, I try to ensure my lessons are not just skills-based; they are contextualised so students see the application of ICT across a spectrum of situations. So, I’m going to outline a progressive blend of ICT-based activities I employ in the classroom which involve finances in some shape or form.

1. Shopping around

Introducing spreadsheets gives rise to many opportunities for discussing finances. I give students a spreadsheet showing the cost of a recipe and they see how a rise in the cost of an ingredient can result in the cost of the finished meal increasing. After a discussion of the implications of this when working within a budget, students research prices of ingredients using supermarket websites, learning the value of shopping around – important when parents may exclusively shop in one supermarket.

Using Disney’s superb business simulation, Hot Shot Business, students gain first-hand experience of what happens when they make crucial business decisions.  It lasts for six virtual weeks and gives students a good understanding of factors such as the repayment of loans,   competition, and supply and demand.  Students can take screenshots of financial updates at the end of each virtual week and incorporate the data into a spreadsheet of their own, creating live graphs of their progress. A combination of fun scenarios and engaging game play makes this one of my students’ favourite activities. It gives rise to many a ‘light bulb moment’

2. Planning for disaster

Placing students in a pressurised situation proves of great value when teaching the importance of money.  Stop Disasters Game is a website created by the International Strategy for Disaster Reduction.  This simulation presents five natural disasters scenarios for which students are given Mission Goals.  To succeed, students are given limited funds to spend to ensure that as many people as possible survive the impending disaster.  The game climaxes with a disaster occurring and students discover how successful they were.

We discuss the finances involved during the game as students start to realise how much needs to be spent to keep people safe in vulnerable areas.  This leads to further discussion about why relief charities often need vast sums of money if they are to serve large areas of devastation.  Some of the discussions that have arisen from this exercise have been truly invigorating.

3. Top of the league

Finally, in terms of scale, no part of our lives seems to involve as much money as football currently does.  All of my students in Year 6 participate in Schools Fantasy League which is based on real life data attributed to the performances of English Premier League footballers. Pupils buy a team of real players and manage that team for the duration of the season.

The realism and meaningfulness of the data is the game’s secret weapon and there are many spinoff activities. It is easy to use and is a hugely engaging activity which ensures the investigation into finances continues outside the classroom and into the home.

As a teacher, what more could you ask for than that?

Hear more from Drew Buddie by checking out his blog, http://digitalmavericks.blogspot.com/ or following him on Twitter, @digitalmaverick

The September/October issue of Teach Primary is available in large WH Smith stores from 6th September.

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• Spotlight on…Managing Your Money
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Knowing how to budget is an essential skill; a budget means you can set your own guidelines for spending and saving your money.

A budget isn’t fixed in stone; there’s no punishment for overspending in one category and underspending in another. But, the more you manage to stick to your plan, the more able you’ll be to pay for the things you want and things you need.

Important to remember!

Fixed expenses include things like buying a weekly bus ticket for £8 or topping your phone up the same amount each week. Fixed expenses are unlikely to change so list these regular expenses exactly as they will be paid or you expect them to be paid.

Variable expenses – you need to make an estimate of what these expenses might be. These expenses are irregular and are not based on stuff you do or buy all the time. An example of a variable expense would be a cinema ticket, a lunchtime snack, or even new shoes for school.

Even though variable expenses may not be the same each month, it’s a good idea to provide a certain amount for them on a regular basis. Then, if they don’t spend that money in a certain month, it can be set aside. The money you set aside will add up and can be used later when another variable expense comes along.

We’ve prepared a Budget Template for you to work from in Microsoft Excel. This example will help you create a budget for the Autumn and Winter school terms; that way you can plan your spend in advance.

Click to download

But why not have a go at creating your own budget? Follow our example and you’ll soon be a budgeting boffin…

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To get a feeling for how the stock market works, try playing this stock market game with a friend. This is a challenging activity for 13-14 year olds – “play the market” without spending a penny.

What you need:

• Financial newspaper or online resource. Here are a few online resources to pick from: London Stock Exchange, Google Finance, Yahoo Finance, BBC, Guardian, The Daily Telegraph.
• A good friend!
• £10,000 each in IMAGINARY money

What to do:

1. Download this worksheet. Make sure you have a copy for yourself and a copy for your friend.


Click to start download

2. Watch the movie, Stocks and Shares, so you understand what makes a good investment when it comes to buying shares in a company.
3. With your friend, make a list of 10 companies from the FTSE100 in which you might consider investing the imaginary money. When selecting companies, you should follow the advice from Tim & Moby in the Stocks and Shares movie. (Read more about the FTSE 100 here.)
4. Do some reading around the 10 companies in your list and investigate how their stocks have been performing and what financial analysts predict for the future. You should be able to find all of this information in the Business sections of news websites.
5. After you’ve done some reading, you should each pick 5 of the 10 stocks and divide your imaginary £10,000 among the 5. You’ll most likely need your calculator for this so you don’t go over budget.
6. Use a free Internet site or a newspaper to take note of your five stocks in “Week 1” on the worksheet. (Note: Online, the numbers will constantly update during business hours. In the newspaper, they will represent the final tallies for yesterday’s trading period.)
7. A week later, preferably on the same day, fill in “Week 2” on the worksheet, noting the price of each stock. Using the formula provided, you should be able to work out whether your stock has gone up or down. Do this for the following 3 weeks.

At the end of the 4 weeks, you should be able to see which one of you made or lost the most imaginary money on the stock market.

Did the stock that you expected to do the best perform as you expected?

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