• 11 Apr

    Did you know an increasing number of schools are using their Pupil Premium to fund a subscription to BrainPOP?

    This funding has recently risen from £600 to £900 per eligible pupil so a typical 2 form entry primary school can buy a whole school, 24/7, 3 year subscription for approx 1 x Pupil Premium.

    Why should you consider BrainPOP an ideal use of your Pupil Premium allocation?

    1) Because BrainPOP is easily accessible at home on many different devices and there’s ZERO extra licensing cost for doing so

    Successful use of Pupil Premium funding, as recorded by OFSTED:

    “The school was very aware that its pupils seldom had access to good quality information communication technology in their homes so could not practise the skills they learnt at school outside school hours or use computers for research. Equally, pupils often lacked the wider vocabulary and knowledge that they needed to reach the higher levels in their writing. The school used the laptops that they bought with some of the funding to enhance pupils’ research skills in different subjects, to be able to conjure up instantly an image with which pupils may not be familiar, such a desert, a lion, or a snowy landscape, and to give them independent access outside of school hours to enhance their homework.”

    “The Pupil Premium: how schools are spending the funding successfully to maximise achievement” OFSTED Feb 2013

    As well as being accessible from any browser that can display Flash, such as Sony Playstations, BrainPOP has an app for Apple and Android devices. From the cheapest smartphone to a top of the range iPad many homes who may not have access to a computer will have a mobile device ready to show BrainPOP (“the UK has the highest smartphone penetration of any market covered in the survey, at 61%”, says Techcrunch). We’re very BYOD friendly, and would complement any school that is investing in mobile tech.

    Remember, our apps are free to download, and ALL site subscribers get automatic full access.

    Android app on ASUS

    2) Because it’s wonderful at engaging parents too

    “Good quality home learning contributes more to children’s intellectual and social development than parental occupation, education or income.”

    The role of parents in a child’s learning, Department for Education

    If Mum & Dad are involved in their children’s education the child does better at school. The role of the parent or guardian cannot be underestimated in seeking better pupil attainment and towards improving achievement.

    But they need support and guidance. BrainPOP resources are cross curricular and cross phase. They are highly visual, fully subtitled and very engaging. If you identify specific needs in literacy or numeracy advise families to explore a BrainPOP topic together. That level of family support can have a big impact.

    3) Because it’s mighty useful during transition and term breaks

    Keep learning alive during school holidays with BrainPOP. It’s an educational resource that kids will WANT to use out of school. Take advantage of this by suggesting movies to watch that link into the following term’s work.

    BrainPOP can be employed to help with Year 6 to 7 transition across the summer break, especially those about to enter Year 7 who did not achieve at least level 4 in KS2 in English and Maths. As BrainPOP is cross phase you might want to discuss licences across both your primary and secondary schools to ensure that consistency of resource.

    4) Because it’s ready made to support SPaG (Spelling, Punctuation and Grammar)

    BrainPOP has a wealth of related resources that can be used to tackle SPaG concerns, or simply improve understanding.

    BrainPop covers nearly everything in the SPaG test put in a format that children can quickly understand and enjoy learning.

    5) Because it can be deployed to assist with English and Maths intervention

    If you have underachieving students in English and Maths and provide additional time to catch up to their target levels use BrainPOP to engage and assist. As BrainPOP is so simple to use it can be deployed easily and quickly to address concerns. When choosing where to allocate their pupil premium it is useful for schools to adopt an evidence based approach (see the EEF Toolkit).  BrainPOP has been shown in a quantitative independent study to positively impact upon comprehension, vocabulary and science understanding when used for two hours a week.

    See our research “A Study of the Effectiveness of BrainPOP” to see how students using BrainPOP experience substantial growth compared to students who do not use BrainPOP.

     

    The message is essentially that BrainPOP is so flexible it can be used to effectively address multiple challenges AND it easily fits into a single Pupil Premium.

    If you want to know what options are available please don’t hesitate to contact us and we’ll help you understand more about how BrainPOP can work with your Pupil Premium ambitions.

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  • 22 Nov

    We recently hosted a fantastic guest webinar from Danny Nicholson of Thinkbank and The Whiteboard Blog fame.

    There were so many great tips and inspiration on how to use your SMART or Promethean whiteboard software with BrainPOP that we wanted to direct you to the Elluminate recording of the webinar (download it then skip to around 16 mins to get started) and Danny’s excellent 19 page eBook, which you can download below.

    Trust us, it’s free and well worth your time to own.

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  • 30 Oct

    We were invited by Probationer Teacher Scotland, (part of GTC Scotland), a national support service provided to newly qualified Scottish teachers, to feature in their very popular “BlogSpot” section. This is a space where teachers in their probation year are asked to review products they love to use in class.

    We turned to Jenny Harvey (@relativism), a class teacher from Kirkcaldy, Fife who presented  a fantastic overview of BrainPOP. You can read the whole review below. Many, many thanks to Jenny for taking the time to provide this article. We hope you all enjoy it :-)


    Jenny meets Moby

    BrainPOP UK – What is it?

    BrainPOP UK (http://www.brainpop.co.uk/) is a library of animated movies featuring the characters of Tim and Moby who explain a range of different topics in a clear and accessible way.

    Movies are available across all curricular areas and the content is added to and updated all the time.

    BrainPOP is something I discovered during my training and I have been using it for three years with a range of stages across the primary school.  The children respond well to the characters and are always very impressed to hear that I have met Moby in real life.

    Although it is a subscription resource, there are featured movies and free content available to everyone plus there is a mobile app which has a free featured movie every day.  It is also possible to sign up for a free trial, which is how I first used the site.

    Why do I use it?

    In a nutshell: it is easy to access and use, the information is presented clearly and it is linked to Curriculum for Excellence.

    The format of the BrainPOP UK site is extremely easy to navigate and clearly set out in curricular areas.  The home page is bright and visual rather than having screeds of text and the search function does exactly what it should.

    Curricular mapping tools, which are linked to Curriculum for Excellence, make planning an easier task and the interactive multiple choice quiz feature can be a useful formative assessment tool.

    How do I use it in class?

    I have used BrainPOP UK during teaching time, as an activity for a group and also as a research tool for directed research tasks.  When used during teaching time I vary the order of the movie and quiz; sometimes I use both but at other times I use one or the other.

    As I mentioned, the curricular mapping tool, which is called Deep Beep, makes planning easier as you choose the subject area and the Curriculum for Excellence level to match to your Experiences and Outcomes and then the topic of the movie based on the matching results.   Movies can be paused, rewound or fast forwarded as required.  This allows time for questions, reflections and checking understanding at any stage of the movie.  I like to keep a notebook book file open to record any notes or observations during the movie.

    The quiz can be very useful at the beginning of a topic and at the end to assess knowledge gaps and progress and inform future planning.  I have also used the quizzes as an example for question creation lessons during which groups of pupils create their own quiz on a particular topic and these are then peer assessed.  The quizzes can also be used with response units if you have these in school.

    Quizzes and movies are not the only resources available on BrainPOP UK. There are associated activities, related topics and an FYI section providing additional stories and facts related to the chosen movie topic.  The FYI sections are a particular favourite of mine as they often help to answer further questions and can help to generate other questions for investigation by pupils.

    And there’s more…

    Free CPD! BrainPOP UK provide free webinars which you can access online and from the comfort of your own home.  If you need evidence of these CPD sessions they can also provide certificates of completion.

    The BrainPOP UK staff, or BrainPOPpers, have always been outstanding in terms of customer service.  They answer any questions promptly and they have even created a movie for me in the past.

    I hope that this brief introduction has helped give you an overview of how BrainPOP UK can be used in your classroom.  Remember it is free to try, the only software needed is a browser with Flash Player and if you need any support the BrainPOP UK team are just an email away.

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  • 03 Sep

    Win an exclusive piece of BrainPOP artwork, inspired by your own writing!

    As part of September’s Creative Writing spotlight we’ve created story cubes and we want you to use them as inspiration for our Get Cubed creative writing competition.

    There are three different cubes to make. Download the PDF, print the cubes, cut out, and assemble.

    Ask an adult to help if you’re having difficulty.

    BrainPOP Story Cubes

    Click the image to start download.

    It’s time to get rolling

    Roll your completed cubes. Whichever three images land face up are your inspiration for some storytelling!

    If you don’t like the images you get, you can always take another roll, we won’t tell anyone ;)

    And now for some creative writing

    We want you to produce a piece of writing inspired by the story cubes and, whatever you create, we’d like to see it. Submit your finished piece for us to judge and we’ll pick a winner.

    If you win, you’ll get an exclusive piece of BrainPOP artwork based on your submission.

    Six runners-up will win back to school goodie sets.

    We’ll also feature our favourite entries here on POPtalk.

    Submission criteria

    • Finished work must be no longer than 500 words
    • This competition is for children aged between 6 and 15
    • The winner will be chosen by the BrainPOP UK team
    • You must use the BrainPOP story cubes as the starting point for your writing
    • Entries must be received by midnight on 21st September 2012
    • Entries received after the competition deadline will not be considered
    • The winners will be contacted by email before the end of September
    • Winning entries will be showcased on this blog
    • You can read our full Terms and Conditions on our website

    Submit your finished writing using the form below.

    Fill out my online form.
    We can’t wait to read your entries. Good luck! 

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  • 27 Jun

    If your school  subscribes to BrainPOP UK you’ll be getting some Olympics themed goodies in the post shortly. (Scottish schools, you should have had yours already – have a great summer holiday!)

    But when we make awesome new goodies, we like to share them with the world. We’re winners like that.

    So, without further ado, let the crowds go wild for…BrainPOP paper pals!

    Moby cut out dolls in action

    The dolls in action

    Download this A4 sheet, print off on card, cut out and fold, and you’ll have your very own Moby paper dolls.

    Download our Moby paper dolls

    Click to download, print, and cut out Moby paper dolls

    PS: You will need a PDF reader such as Adobe Acrobat Reader to view the paper dolls. Download the latest version here: http://get.adobe.com/uk/reader/

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  • 22 Jun

    App store button

    Announcing a MAJOR upgrade to our popular Featured Movie app.

    Subscribers can now access every BrainPOP UK movie and POPquiz through an iPad, iPhone, and iPod touch*.

    This is available to every subscriber – school & home – no questions asked. If you have a username and password you’re in!

    BrainPOP UK app on iPhone and iPhone

    BrainPOP UK app on iPhone and iPhone

    What’s the benefit of full app access?

    BrainPOP is designed to make the integration of learning and technology a seamless and simple experience. Schools that employ iPads or iPod Touch devices in class will be able to bring BrainPOP into mobile learning strategies – with high quality pedigree content that’s highly visual, short and impactful. It will deliver an unsurpassed breadth and depth of animated educational content.

    Out of school access - if your school subscribes to BrainPOP you now have a terrific way to blend our content into your parental engagement strategy. Some parents will have Apple devices – encourage them to get the App. It’s free to download! We’ll be building support for schools who want to extend their BrainPOP use to their parent community.

    • Every movie is fully subtitled
    • Every movie can go full screen and can be paused and scanned easily (pausing is a great way to stop and discuss what’s happening and engage)
    • The app has “predictive search” which means we try to guess what word you’re searching before you finish typing it!
    Full access BrainPOP UK app - iPad version home page

    Logged in to BrainPOP UK on the iPad.

    If you already have our app simply update it through the iTunes App store > Updates. If not, go and get it or search iTunes App store for “BrainPOP UK”.

    Got it? Good! Now here are your options:

    “I am/We are already subscribers…”

    All school and home BrainPOP UK subscriptions include full mobile access, at no extra cost. To access any movie or quiz that requires you to be a site subscriber simply enter the same username and password you normally use to access the BrainPOP UK website.

    “I am/We are NOT subscribers…”

    If you aren’t a BrainPOP UK site subscriber you can still browse the app and check in every day to watch the free Featured Movie and its related quiz. The 21 extra free movies will remain free too.

    “I/We want to subscribe to access all the movies…”

    Go to our website store and order your subscription type. Once your subscription has been activated you will be able to log in and view all content.

    “I literally cannot wait to experience all the movies on the go BUT I’ve forgotten my username and/or password!”

    Oops. Please visit our password reminder page. If you’re still having trouble email us at appsupport@brainpop.co.uk and we’ll get back asap. We’re open 9am-5pm, Mon-Fri. It would also have been sent to you on email when you subscribed. As login details are often shared you cannot change it via the website.

    BrainPOP UK app - choosing a movie

    BrainPOP UK full access app - choosing a movie on an iPad

    App store button

    *iPad, iPhone and iPod Touch are trademarks of Apple Inc., registered in the U.S. and other countries.

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  • 01 Jun

    This is the story of Moby’s first visit to a UK school.

    It all started with a parcel that arrived at BrainPOP UK, for the attention of our resident robot. It contained a number of posters, fan mail, and intriguingly, a link to a video.

    It seemed a year 5 class at Titchfield Primary had been set a homework challenge: pick a BrainPOP topic you’re interested in and write about it.

    When we saw the video of what the kids put together – “Our BrainPOP Homework“ - we were blown away! It was incredibly creative work, made with joyful enthusiasm. Not something you’d usually associate with your typical homework assignment ;-)

    Along with their homework we received quite a few letters and drawings, all addressed to Moby, all pleading with him to come and visit.

    Moby please come!

    This got us thinking, why not? Moby had never visited a school before and who better to visit than the hard working kids at Titchfield?

    So we squeezed into the Moby mobile and headed to the school. After a quick tour of the school we hid out in the staff room while everyone rolled into assembly.

    They had no idea who was just about to walk in. Moby’s excitement circuits were in overdrive!

    Miss Deane, our inside woman, peeked out of the assembly hall to give us a signal, and we marched right down the middle of Mr Bainbridge’s assembly.

    We were pretty lucky as Mr Bainbridge didn’t seem to mind. In fact, he seemed really pleased we’d chosen to visit Titchfield and even let Moby join in with the Assembly at times:

    Next on the agenda was a few classroom visits. Moby met Year R first and enjoyed answering their questions.

    Moby answering Reception's questions

    When we visited Mr Howard’s Year 2 “Diamond Mine” classroom the kids were keen to know how Moby deals with the pressure of being famous. He loves it of course – he’s such an attention seeker.

    Mr Howard's Year 2s get badges

    Moby got a real kick out of meeting Year 1 – they had a castle and princesses in their book corner and BrainPOP and Purple Mash in the laptop corner. After lots of hugs we met Joe out in the corridor who got Moby’s autograph – the first of many that day!

    Moby meets Joe

    After break we met Year 4 and Moby made sure to hand out a BrainPOP badge to each pupil – a certain teacher was particularly chuffed to get the Moby football badge.

    Moby and Year 4

    We took class photos aboard the H. M.S. Titchfield moored in the playground and Miss Deane’s digital leaders did a fantastic job herding the classes in and out.

    Moby and the Digital Leaders

    One thing we were particularly impressed with at Titchfield was that BrainPOP is being used throughout all year groups. From Reception to Year 6, every teacher and child was familiar with the site. Moby was particularly touched to receive a piece of writing from Tyrone, a reluctant writer in Year 1.

    Tyrone hands over his writing

    Our last port of call for the day was meeting the homework whizz kids in Year 5 (a.k.a. H.M.S. Astute) who had Moby signing autographs.

    We presented Miss Deane with a certificate for Titchfield for being such an excellent BrainPOPping school.

    Miss Deane accepts her certificate

    We spoke to Miss Deane about their BrainPOP homework and here’s what she had to say:

    Before we knew it, it was time to go back to BrainPOP UK HQ, but not before the Year 5 girls showed us a cheer they’d choreographed especially for Moby. Thanks girls!

    Thanks to all the staff and students at Titchfield Primary for making us feel so welcome. We don’t think we could have picked a better school for Moby’s first visit…He wouldn’t stop beeping about it all the way home.

    Read what Year 5 had to say about our visit: Our very special day

    And here’s a collection of all our photos from the day: Titchfield Primary visit 

    Moby also insisted we make a video of his “best bits” so here they are for your entertainment:

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  • 02 May

    Hurworth Primary have been using BrainPOP for a few years now, and when I met Mr Dooris at the BETT show this year, he said everyone was really enjoying the site but when I got to the school I was shocked to discover Moby had been creating all kinds of mischief!

    It seems Moby found out the school was having a project week to celebrate National Science and Engineering week and thought he would get in on the act…

    As you can see Mr Dooris stumbled upon a mysterious set of orange footprints, weaving in and out of each classroom. At the end of each trail, in each classroom, was a question.

    This stimulus gave the children the opportunity to research the answers and create their own BrainPOP type movies with what they had learned.

    The selection below shows just a handful of the information-packed, brilliantly presented and funny movies the students made. Please take a few minutes to watch their work and leave comments, we know they’d appreciate it.

    Bobby and Adam give us the run down on gravity:

    Ella and Charlie tell us a great way to remember the order of the planets in the solar system:

    Alfie & Sam wonder if plants can breathe and this leads to them to explain the ins and outs of plant respiration:

    And the learning didn’t stop there. After making the movies, the children uploaded them to a collaborative site and watched and commented on each other’s work – what a great way to help and encourage classmates!

    Not only did everyone learn some new science facts, by the looks of it they also worked on developing great presenting, writing and filming skills.

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  • 23 Apr

    If you have a passion for education, in any which way, shape, or form, you will undoubtedly have heard of the Times Educational Supplement.

    BrainPOP UK on TES

    If you’ve checked out their fabulous website you may also have happened along the Resources section. A section spilling with over 300,000 teaching resources, all ready and waiting for you to download…for free.

    The best news is it’s growing. 

    TES is always looking for teaching materials that can enhance the resource bank and inspire the teaching community. They are working with more and more content partners, helping them engage with the largest network of teachers in the world.

    At BrainPOP, we know our content is quality assured, teacher, parent and child approved. So when we were presented with the opportunity to partner up with an organisation such as the TES to get our quality resource into the hands, homes, and classrooms of even more people, we jumped at it.

    BrainPOP is an official TES Teaching Resources partner. It might not mean a lot to the folks already using BrainPOP but we like to think that it will get BrainPOP under the nose of lots of teachers who haven’t stumbled across our most excellent resource yet.

    We’ve included 21 permanently free movies, our Swine Flu movie, September 11th topic, and a selection of other downloadable teacher-made resources including Promethean flipcharts, Smart notebooks, lesson plans and powerpoints.

    If you do a quick search for “BrainPOP” on TES, here’s what you’ll find at the end of the rainbow.

    BrainPOP UK TES partner page

     

    Quite a pot of gold we reckon and we have every intention of building on the resources available in future.

    If you click on any of the resource links, you’ll find a POPbox which plays the topic movie within the TES site, and also links to the movie, quiz, FYI and activity on BrainPOP, all available for free. Here’s an example resources page:

    Basic Probability page

    If the free movies aren’t quite what you’re looking for, have a quick search on BrainPOP to see what comes up. You’re also likely to find some other gems on TES to spark your interest.

    With BrainPOP and TES resources in your teaching arsenal we’re sure you’ll find something!

     

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  • 08 Mar

    The BBC reported on Monday research that shows kids “would rather struggle alone” with Maths than ask for help and that they are worried they might “look foolish”.

    “A survey of 1,000 10- to 16-year-olds found two-thirds would rather struggle alone or ask friends or family for help…The reasons pupils gave for not asking for help more often were that they were worried about looking foolish, were embarrassed or did not want to draw attention to themselves.”

    BBC News - School maths lessons: Pupils ‘scared to ask for help’

    Hands up who hasn’t felt like this at some point – fear of reaching out in case we stumble and fall. Adult approval and peer judgement at this age can be very powerful (de?)motivators.

    BrainPOP has core qualities that can help kids independently sidestep this issue, to help them build confidence away from the glare of an audience.

    1) Peer vs Authority - BrainPOP uses the power of narrative and engaging characters “posed as peers” rather than “instructing as authorities” to help students grasp complex topics. Tim and Moby create a personal aspect to learning through a conversational tone, the more informal “you” or “I” language, and a familiar voice.

    Kids can turn to BrainPOP to engage with Maths concepts in a comforting child-friendly environment without the need for adult guidance. Tim & Moby are non-threatening and empathetic characters who exist to support learning. Tim & Moby never judge, only help.

    “Peter Lacey, of the Association of Teachers of Mathematics, said schools should focus on developing pupils’ confidence in mathematics slowly, rather than racing through concepts with undue haste and leaving some students behind.”

    2) Reinforcement – Kids can watch BrainPOP movies again and again or re-take the POPquizzes until they truly understand the concept.  We address the knowledge and understanding behind the practical application of problem solving.

    For example, our Exponents topic doesn’t provide endless examples showing workings involving exponents; it tells them what an exponent is so they gain the understanding required to work out maths problems in class. In the movie, we follow Tim and Moby as they travel in a microscopic submarine around a human body.

    Exponents explanation

    By using the example of calculating white and red blood cells, these characters show us what a base number is and where an exponent is written in relation to it.

    Exponents

    They  teach us a couple of different ways to talk about exponents, as well as why exponential numbers can get so big so fast. We also find out how to write exponents, and how to expand them into their fuller form.

    A comprehensive explanation, with natural pause points and key vocabulary highlighted throughout, all in under 5 minutes.

    The pedagogical benefits of BrainPOP don’t stop at Maths either.

    3) Learning Outcomes – every movie starts with a letter from a child. The famous BrainPOP letter sets the expectations of the student at their level. Each POPquiz allows students to get instant feedback and retake the quiz multiple times should they wish.

    4) Control – they can pause, rewind, fast forward, and replay movies at their speed and understanding. Having control over their own learning significantly increases understanding of the concepts.

    5) BrainPOP supports various learning styles – Whether kids are visual, logical, social or solitary learners, BrainPOP is a flexible resource that can accommodate them.

    While we think it important to highlight the benefits of BrainPOP for those students afraid to ask for help we would never encourage kids not to ask for help. That’s why we produced a Getting Help topic with the overarching message to ask for help whenever you need it. Please take the time to watch it and show it in class.

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Tue Jun 11th
Having a few problems with the site today. Big apologies, but we are working top speed on fixing things!
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RT @davestacey: Working with some Maths teachers this afternoon looking at opportunities for using ipads for teaching Maths. Any got any ti…
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@DeeBlackman So many awesome ideas, they'll just have to wait and see! Good luck :-)

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