So when Jennifer Finlayson’s Primary 6 class sent us their completed word searches we made sure to send them a selection of the very best BrainPOP badges (modelled below) as a reward for doing such a good job.

Of course there are other things just as important to us as making learning fun!

For one, we value customer feedback. And another, we love hearing your tales of good classroom practice. We simply can’t maintain our high standards if we don’t listen and learn from you.

To this aim, and because Currie Primary School are such long term BrainPOP customers, we asked Jennifer if she could give us a run down of a typical BrainPOP lesson and she happily obliged.

My favourite movie is: all of them!

Because: there is such a wide range of movies I always find one to suit my needs!

My class like: Tim and Moby

Because: they think they are funny and they like that the movies always follow the same format

Brief description of a typical BrainPOP lesson

Introduction/background:

A lesson about synonyms and antonyms. These are new concepts to the children and, although they might understand the concepts, they are unfamiliar with the terms.

Getting Started/Preparation:

• Ask the children to discuss in pairs what they think a synonym (then antonym) is.
• Give clues i.e. syno means same, nym means name.

What we did:

• Once the pupils had generated definitions for each and we had discussed these, they worked in pairs to come up with as many examples as they could, and recorded these on mini whiteboards.
• We then discussed these as a class to produce a class bank of synonyms and antonyms.
• Then we watched the BrainPOP clip to reinforce what we had learnt, and this also went beyond our learning to touch on homonyms – which was useful as, although we hadn’t discussed it, this was planned for a later lesson.

Outcomes:

Pupils had a good understanding of synonyms and antonyms and were able to provide examples.

What’s the best thing about being a BrainPOP school?

• A wide selection of resources easily available and easy to search for on the site.
• The clips really appeal to upper primary children and often provide a great ‘hook’ into learning at the beginning of a lesson.
• We also enjoy your seasonal/topical clips, for example Halloween, and use these as stand alone stimulus for discussion.

Thank you BrainPOP!

If you’ve got any teaching and learning tales you’d like to share with other schools, please send them to info@brainpop.co.uk or post a comment below.

Luckily, Tim & Moby seem to be able to traverse the unknown boundaries of time and space with relative ease so we’ll be learning about aliens, black holes, galaxies, and more with our space-themed collection of topics, classroom activities, and resources.

You’ll also find an Outer Solar System FYI, Space Flight Activity and Moon Phases Quiz on the Space homepage, along with the following topics:

• Aliens
• Apollo Project
• Asteroids
• Big Bang
• Black Holes
• Exoplanets
• Galaxies
• Life Cycle of Stars
• Mars
• Moon Phases – NEW!
• Solar System
• Telescopes
• Space Flight – NEW!

We promise to leave no corner of the universe unexplored! Now, where did we park that spaceship?

Some kids find it hard to write. There could be any number of reasons for this but sometimes the writer simply needs inspiration. The following is a guest post from a teacher who describes how one of her reluctant writers found his muse in a certain robot called Moby…

“Hello! I am Miss Read (@missread10) and I am currently teaching a Year 3 class at a Primary School based in Ipswich, Suffolk. I am in my second year of teaching and ICT/VLE co-ordinator at my school. Following finding out about BrainPOP from my visit to the BETT show I was keen to use it in the classroom and to show my children about the technology I use.

So for my own benefit, I used BrainPOP for the first time with my Twitter account open for the children to come and post about what they thought and if I should continue to use it. Armed with some great feedback and comments (as well as an impromptu chat on Twitter with BrainPOP themselves!) I set my children the task to write about what they had learnt from the Rainbow movie we watched.

I have a very wide range of ability within my class ranging from labelling and sounding out words to those who produce reems of A4.

My superstar is classed as a P Scale writer – he usually verbally told our teaching assistant Mrs P what he needed to say and copied from the scribe. But following his exposure to BrainPOP the below is the most he has ever produced!

Since then, he has been writing and adding things in a variety of forms and styles around my classroom – even on my BrainPOP calendar!

Moby makes me feel happy

For as long as Moby (who apparently is a Baby Transformer who has come to learn about Earth) sticks around – I cannot wait to see what my superstar as well as my class (who are all stars) will produce next!”

This is Moby

The significance of this small but important step forward is not lost on Miss Read, nor us. It’s what we hope for when we construct BrainPOP – that at some point a child will make a break through that empowers them to progress and fall in love with learning.

And we don’t apologise for our emotional language – Moby making kids and teachers happy and successful in their learning is what we’re all about and it’s what motivates us in return.

If you have any teaching and learning tales you’d like to share with us – it really is a treat to see what your kids have been up to – please email info@brainpop.co.uk. We’d love to hear from you!

This year we were lucky enough to have three teachers take over our stand, each of whom, in the spirit of TeachMeet, were  more than happy to share their presentations with us so we could share them with you.  What a wonderful world!

1. Mark Anderson (a.k.a. @ICTevangelist) kicked off with a crowded session on Thursday where he shared the “cornerstones” of his classroom: Web 2.0 tools you can use straight away. He managed to cram an unbelievable amount into just 15 minutes and told us about the following, to name just a few:

• Popplet, a mindmapping tool that works on the iPad
• A free online presentation tool, SlideRocket
• SpicyNodes – a mindmapping tool which teachers can even use to write schemes of work
• VisuWords – an online graphical dictionary
• Format Factory – a free tool for converting mediatypes
• And offered good tips and tricks for using YouTube in school

2. On Friday, we were delighted to have Julia Skinner (a.k.a. @TheHeadsOffice) “let loose” [her own words] on the stand and tell us all about the 100 word challenge, a creative writing challenge which aims to spark the imagination of potentially reluctant writers. It’s truly awe-inspiring to see what kids have written and shared with a worldwide blogging (and tweeting) community.

3. And finally on Friday we had Phil Bagge (a.k.a. Baggiepr) take over the stand with an animated and engaging presentation about how easy and effective it is to blog in schools using an iPod Touch and Posterous.

You can find a full list of other takeovers from the four days here: TeachMeet Takeover BETT 2012

But we were especially delighted to welcome Fiona, Betsie, Jack, Trafford, Bayleigh from Woodlands Primary class 4h, onto the stand along with their teacher, Mr Handley (a.k.a. @tomhenzley and author of The PGCE Survival Guide). The kids gave a presentation about BrainPOP and finished off with a quick lesson on the Heart.

A sizeable crowd looked on as Mr Handley kicked off with a quick introduction before the kids took over:

www.youtube.com/watch?v=yn7NRLdtq38

Here’s a prezi Mr Handley put together to accompany their presentation: A Child’s View of BrainPOP and we’ve included the full transcript below too.

Mr H: Introduce what we are going to do - talk about BrainPOP, why the children love it and then do a mini lesson.

Bayleigh: BrainPOP is a really cool website that we all love and we use a lot in school.

Fiona: On BrainPOP there are lots and lots of videos, featuring our favourite characters - Tim and his Robot friend Moby.

Betsie: Each video starts with a letter written by a child, asking Tim and Moby a question.

Trafford: And Tim and Moby receive the letter and try and answer it in the video.

Jack H: The video is full of lots of useful information about lots of different topics.

Bayleigh: All the topics are interesting - many are linked into what we study in school.

Betsie: But others are about interesting events or generally super information, that we love to learn about.

Bayleigh: All of 4H love to watch Tim and Moby and often ask to watch Tim and Moby vidoes.

Jack H: We can also go on BrainPOP at home - which is super for exploring with our parents and helping them to learn things too!

Fiona: Often the videos are quite funny too and always try and with a joke or something silly.

Trafford: At the end of each video there is also a quiz to help us show what we have learnt.

ALL: WE LOVE Brainpop because…

Jack H: Because it can help us with our learning

Trafford: Because it is easy to understand.

Bayleigh: You learn things without realising.

Betsie: You can go on variety of different things and explore.

Fiona: You can watch things and they are fun whilst learning.

All: Our Favourite BrainPOP movie is…

Fiona: Fireworks - because it’s cool to see what is inside fireworks.

Betsie: Chocolate - because I love chocolate and it’s interesting to see how it is made!

Jack H: Electricity - because it is really interesting as it works each day.

Bayleigh: Heart - because it’s funny

Trafford: Simple Equations - as it’s really interesting.

Mr Handley finished up their presentation with a quick BrainPOP lesson using our Heart topic.

The kids’ favourite movies again for you:

Fireworks

Chocolate

Electricity

Heart

Simple Equations

A big thank you to Mr Handley and all the kids from Woodlands Primary School for your clear dedication to BrainPOPping. We have your letters and promise to answer them soon!

And finally, it’s no fun visiting the BrainPOP stand unless you get a hug from a big orange robot. Moby was happy to oblige.

Jack, Trafford, Bayleigh, Fiona and Betsie meet Moby

BETT is one of those exhibitions where you bump into people a lot – in both the idiomatic and literal sense. 1000′s of minded folks head along to meet with other like minded folks, all keen to see new technology and tools for education.

One of the best ways to find out about the coolest things to see & the people to meet and greet is to join Twitter. If you’re a teacher looking to collaborate and share teaching ideas and hear about new resources and tools to use in school it’s a fantastic thing.

Below, we’ve included a selection of our BETT tweets using this awesome free webtool called “Storify” . It just goes to show how much is said and done in the virtual world of social networking.

@BrainPOP_UK yay…my kids are so looking forward to meeting you guys…they don’t care about getting freebies a long as they see Moby — Charlie Deane (@charliedeane) January 9, 2012

Is your school a Google apps user with a Google apps domain?

Then pour yourself a nice hot cup of tea, sit down, and take a deep breath. We’ve got some major news for you.

We’ve teamed up with Google to provide schools and LAs that are Google Apps users with a Google Apps domain to access BrainPOP UK resources via your Google account AND to be able to export quiz results directly into a Google Doc spreadsheet.

And the app is completely free.

Bet you’re glad you sat down now, eh?

Look! It's BrainPOP UK in your Google toolbar

Single Sign-On

If you’re logged into your school Google account you can now access BrainPOP UK straight from your toolbar.

1. Ask your Google Administrator to add the BrainPOP UK app. Search the Google EDU Marketplace for BrainPOP UK.
2. Click ‘Add’.
3. Under “configure” you add your BrainPOP UK login details. This links your Google account with your BrainPOP account.

You will now be able to access BrainPOP UK seamlessly under your Google toolbar under “More” alongside other apps you’ve installed.

This means you now have the convenience of a single sign-on. Teachers and students will be able to access BrainPOP UK directly using their Google Apps account. Cool, huh?

That’s not all. The REALLY cool bit is next.

Track and Store Student Progress using Google docs

After completing any BrainPOP UK graded quiz, a 4th option will magically appear - “Send to Teacher’s Google Spreadsheet”.

Send your BrainPOP UK quiz results to your teacher's spreadsheet

Once they do, the student will be prompted for the teacher’s email address. The results will be automatically sent to a spreadsheet that will appear among the teacher’s Google docs. Within the spreadsheet, each topic the teacher assigns gets its own worksheet (“tab”), storing students’ first, second, and most recent quiz score along with their names and Google App IDs. A summary sheet is included to help teachers further customise the data.

Remember - students will only have the option of sending their answers to their teacher’s spreadsheet if the student has logged in to BrainPOP UK through Google Apps. If you log directly into BrainPOP UK this 4th option will not appear.

Stuff you might want to know

How do I integrate my BrainPOP UK account with Google Apps?

When the app is installed, the system administrator will be prompted to integrate the accounts. If you do not integrate the accounts, or you do not have a BrainPOP UK account, you will still be able to access our free content through the Universal Navigation Menu and enjoy the integration of our quizzes with Google Spreadsheets.

Can I sign in to BrainPOP UK manually and still send my results to a spreadsheet?

No, the ability to save quiz results to a teacher’s spreadsheet is only available when you access BrainPOP UK directly from Google Apps.

When I choose to send my results, I’m asked for my teacher’s email address. Which one should I use?

You’ll need to use your teacher’s Google Apps email address to make sure the quiz results are sent properly. Ask him or her what that is.

Why can’t I resend my results after choosing the “Retake the Quiz” option?

You can’t send your quiz results more than once in a single session. The next time you visit BrainPOP UK to take the quiz, however, you will be able to.

I use Google Docs at school. Am I able to take advantage of this integration?

While Google Apps does utilise Google Docs and Google Spreadsheets, your school must be a Google Apps user with a Google Apps domain.

Learn a little more from this Google video about the EDU marketplace

www.youtube.com/watch?v=-9TFnWrL8jw

1. VIBs and a girl named Phoebe

For the past few years, we’ve invited VIBs (Very Important BrainPOPpers - expert BrainPOP Educators) to help us out on our stand. We figure it’s better for teachers to hear from teachers about BrainPOP than just a demo from us*. So a round of applause and huge thank you to Dawn Hallybone (@dawnhallybone), Charlie Deane (@charliedeane) and Ian Addison (@ianaddison) who all rolled up their sleeves and got stuck in for BrainPOP.

Special mention must go to an honorary VIB, who operated the stylus on the IWB for us when we showed BrainPOP movies on the Saturday afternoon, like only a 10 year old history fan can. She worked the board as competently as any dyed in the wool classroom teacher.

Phoebe watches the Cleopatra movie

Phoebe, we salute your laid back style and whiteboard skills. And you’ve got great taste in movies: Black Death, Queen Elizabeth I and Cleopatra to name but a few.

*Please note: we don’t actually pitch, that’s not how we roll.

2. TeachMeet Takeovers

Having been the host to the first ever TeachMeet Takeover in 2010, we were keen to offer up our stand once again. On Thursday we watched Mark Anderson (@ictevangelist) present on Web 2.0 tools you can use straight away, followed by Friday appearances from Julia Skinner (@TheHeadsOffice) who kindly shared what she’s been up to with her 100 word challenge, and Phil Bagge (@Baggiepr) who talked about using Posterous on the iPod touch. We’ll be doing a post shortly showcasing all of their presentations - there’s too much to fit in here - so stay tuned and watch this space!

It wasn’t a Takeover but we also welcomed Mr Handley’s class who presented a masterclass in BrainPOP. They were incredible and a real highlight of the show for us. This presentation deserves a full blog post to itself so look out for that. In the meantime see the post they wrote up on their BETT visit.

Mr Handley's class meets Moby at BETT 2012

3. The heart-stopping moment when your wi-fi fails

We were so excited about our “media counter“. We were finally going to be able to show off just how flexible BrainPOP is: For use at school, home, and on the go. BrainPOP can be accessed via the Sony PS3, various flash-enabled tablet devices, and also our free app for iPad, iPod touch and iPhone. We were also keen to hear Dawn Hallybone’s top 5 educational apps.

However, none of this is possible if your wi-fi connection fails. And fail it did!

It’s fair to say we were pretty devastated about both of the above but have learnt a good lesson for forthcoming years. Do not rely on wi-fi at BETT.

4. Are you using iPads, iPod touch or iPhones in school?

A question we asked everyone we spoke to. And it seemed for every teacher with access to iPods or iPads in school, there were another three who were visiting BETT to help them make a decision: Is there enough content available to justify the spend on such devices?

While we can’t speak for other suppliers, we are well aware of the growing multitude of helpful apps and tools available for mobile devices which can be used in schools. As we’ve mentioned many times now, we’ve got a free app you can download from iTunes and start using it today. You’ll find top tips for classroom use available on our Mobile page.

5. The goodies, the goodies!

As ever, BrainPOP goodies seemed to go down a storm. But, when we’re surrounded by suppliers who seem to be offering less and less giveaways on their stands each year, we’ve got to wonder whether it’s truly worthwhile having them.

What do you think? As a teacher, does it make any difference whether you get something to take away and share with your class? Or, does it all end up in the bin at the end of the day anyway? We implore you to let us know.

6. Evaluate BrainPOP? No bother

If you spoke to any of the BrainPOP team at BETT you’ll know that this year we opted to set up a generic free trial for the event. This meant that anyone could walk away and log in to BrainPOP as soon as they liked; no messing with emails and activation links and all that jazz.

Not only did we make the free trial process as simple as can be, we created evaluation booklets, each with a photocopiable topic sheet so your class could complete an evaluation of BrainPOP for you. Download the PDF here if you didn’t manage to grab a copy last week:

Click image to download

7. Moby does the robot

Erm, there are no words?

www.youtube.com/watch?v=cj-Yri8hp8g

(iPod touch, iPhone and iPad are all trademarks of Apple Inc.)

Last year's stand - this year's will look a bit different

If you’re attending you’ll find us in the same place as last year on stand B60, next to the big RM stand, neatly tucked up against the staircase, on the Grand Hall ground floor. You’ll be able to experience the full range of BrainPOP products, get all the gossip and, maybe, get a hug with Moby.

Everyone who comes and talks to a lovely BrainPOPper will walk away with a free trial to every BrainPOP product, a chance to win 6 months of BrainPOP UK for your school AND an ice-cool set of BrainPOP goodies.

1. Get your kids involved: Something we’re trying this year, which we piloted at the Scottish Learning Festival, is our “Evaluation booklet”. We thought you might be a little jaded with marketing brochures so we’ve made a photocopiable Activity sheet that you can give out to your class when you’re evaluating BrainPOP. It’s designed to provide a visual framework to help your pupils give their thoughts on BrainPOP. This means you have a simple way to collect their feedback to input into any descion about whether to subscribe.
2. Spotlights 2012 Calendar: A high quality piece – full to bursting with BrainPOP colour, based around our monthly Spotlights for 2012. Always extremely popular! If you want one come and see us early doors as once they’re gone, they’re gone.
3. Research Leaflet: A 2 page summary of our “Study of the Effectiveness of BrainPOP” report, which provides insight into how BrainPOP can effect real and substantial change in your school. You can see more here: http://www.brainpop.co.uk/support/research/
4. Badges: Our brand new 2012 badges will be released into the wild. Glorious little round discs of Moby goodness. Pick some up and wear them with pride. But can you collect them all?
5. Tim Handley & Class BrainPOP lesson at 11am on Thursday- we’re properly excited about this. Tim Handley and his class will be running a real BrainPOP lesson on the “Heart and Circulation”. Please come and support the children and see how Tim blends BrainPOP resources into his teaching.
6. Dawn Hallybone will be presenting her “Fave 5 Apps for Education” at 12:15pm on Friday. In her talk she’ll be showing a range of iPad Apps that she knows and values. This is a must see – Dawn is a great presenter and we think you’ll find her thoughts invaluable.
7. Catch the “TeachMeet takeovers” on Thurs & Fri at our stand. We GUARENTEE you will walk away with practical ideas:

• Thursday 2pm-2:30pm: Mark Anderson (@ICTEvangelist) – “Web 2.0 tools you can use straight away”.
• Friday 11:30am-12pm: Phil Bagge (@baggiepr) “Posterous & IPod Touch Dream Blogging made easy” & Julia Skinner (@theheadsoffice) – “100 Word Challenge Creative writing through blogging”.

Anything else?

1. Our VIBs will be in attendance on the stand – in what has become a bit of a BrainPOP UK tradition genuine classroom teachers and BrainPOP experts will be on hand to talk shop with you. They can give honest and practical advice on how they use BrainPOP, giving you a “from the chalkface” view of our resources.
2. We’ll be talking mobile a lot at BETT this year (as will many other exhibitors, we imagine) so this year’s show will be a fine time to explore how you can take BrainPOP mobile.
3. To show you how flexible BrainPOP is there will be a “Media bar” where you’ll be able to see (and try) BrainPOP on a PS3™, an Android tablet, and Apple devices. We don’t think learning should stop at the school gates and we’ll show you how BrainPOP could become an integral part of your parental engagement strategy.
4. Meet Moby – come and have your photo taken, give a high five or get a hug of our resident robot superstar.

If you’ve not been to BETT before or fancy a refresher we recommend you have a good look at Ian Addision’s “BETT Guide”. It’s full of hints, tips and advice.

So if you’re already a subscriber come and say hi and we’ll share tall BrainPOP tales. If you are new to BrainPOP then WOW have we got a lot to talk about

On the Spotlight homepage you’ll find a Cyberbullying Activity, a Social Networking FYI, the Information Privacy Quiz and a host of helpful movies:

• Blogs – FREE!
• Computer History
• Computer Viruses
• Cyberbullying
• Digital Etiquette
• Email and IM
• Information Privacy
• Internet
• Internet Search
• Online Safety – FREE!
• Online Sources
• Plagiarism
• Social Networking

And there’s more!

You can download the Digital Citizenship flipchart available from our Promethean Partner Resource page (you’ll need the ActivInspire Software for this). We’ve also got some Tips & Ideas for Digital Citizenship lessons for you to download:

Visit the Spotlight to begin your Digital Citizen education…