We met the lovely Annette Iafrate (twitter: @annette__i ) at the recent Scottish Learning Festival Teachmeet in September 2009.
She is a big BrainPOP UK fan and told us stories about how her class used Tim and Moby as characters in their climate change wall posters.
Well, suffice to say (after we waved a whole book of Moby stickers at her), she kindly agreed to tell us the story of that lesson. We just LOVE pupil made Tim & Moby stuff! Anything we can share and enjoy that comes direct from the classroom is the juice that keeps us motivated…
“Hi BrainPOP,
I’m currently doing my probation (NQT) year at Knightswood Secondary, Glasgow.
I have a fantastic S1 Geography class, with whom I have been working through a unit on weather. Towards the end of the unit I decided to include a few lessons on climate change. We focused on the causes, environmental impacts and what pupils can do to help prevent it.
I decided to use the BrainPOP UK movie on Global Warming and quiz as a plenary to the lesson. I signed up for a free trial as I had been directed to the site after reading Ollie Bray’s blog.
I used the global warming movie because it brought together everything we had been learning during the lesson.
Using the clips with the lower school (S1/2) was useful because they are short, fun and cater to different learning styles.
They engage the pupils with their bright and colourful animations and at the same time are packed with geographical content. The quizzes are great too because the pupils are given instant feedback.
After watching the movie the next lesson pupils were given was a task to design a poster to be placed around the school that makes people think about their actions and what they can do to help limit climate change.
I specifically asked them to make the posters fun so as to attract pupils their age to read them. Some pupils had asked me to play the global warming movie again as they wanted to include Tim and Moby in theirs. The poster was then taken away to be completed as homework, and the photos you see below were the end result.
I have also used some of the movies with other classes – PSE and tutor group – the bullying and Swine flu movies.
Annette Iafrate”
Sounds like you used Tim & Moby to inspire some real creativity. You have also inspired the team to establish our own climate change manifesto. Thanks so much for sharing your lesson with us, Annette.
