This week, I’m passing along another professional development opportunity with no traveling required.
Seesaw, the student learning journal with the family connection, has new offerings for webinars and constantly is adding more. The webinars also are archived if you can’t participate live. There also seems to be something for all levels and interest… I’m intrigued by “LIVE PD for Tech Integrationists – Creating a Hands-On PD Lab“.
Go here to check out the latest options.
$40 can get you in on a PDP opportunity with MassCUE.
The Digital Educator Recognition Program is a four level micro-credentialing system to enhance and show your skills. Currently, it is free to all MassCUE members. Therefore, it only costs the price of a membership! Also, the higher you go in the badge system, the more benefits you will receive from MassCUE as well.
Right now, the Level 1: Explorer Badge is open and ready to go.
Here are some screenshots to give you a peek:
I am intrigued to give this a try, and I think this program has the potential to be a great study group for teachers. Anyone else interested?
Allow me to take a poll…
How many people have used the movies at BrainPOP?
(I’m sure there are a generous show of hands…)
How many people have used the quiz that follows the movie?
(Again, I’m sure there are quite a few hands out there…)
How many of you are using BrainPOP for science and social studies?
(Yup, those hands are still up…)
For ELA and math?
(Oh, down go some hands…)
And how many of you have differentiated instruction using BrainPOP?
(OK… I will bet that there are far fewer hands now…)
I just wrapped up facilitating a BrainPOP study group. Our focus was on meeting the needs of diverse learners. If you haven’t taken a good look at BrainPOP lately, run right now and do so!
The school district I am in has a subscription that gives us access to BrainPOP, BrainPOP, Jr. and BrainPOP ELL. After being in this study group, we fully are aware of all the good stuff that we have been missing in BrainPOP and BrainPOP, Jr. (we did not explore ELL)… and definitely are taking advantage from this point.
First, get a My BrainPOP account. If your school has a subscription, there’s a code for you to use. We have connected our G-Suite with BrainPOP, so teachers easily can create classes in My BrainPOP. What does that mean?
When a student goes to BrainPOP or BrainPOP, Jr., s/he can log in, receive assignments and submit them directly to the teacher. These assignments can be: watching movies, taking quizzes, creating concept maps (Make-a-Map), composing their own movies (Make-a-Movie)… and this is only the beginning… NewsELA, Primary Source, Activity, Graphic Organizer, Vocabulary, or Related Reading also are BrainPOP features… and if you are using BrainPOP, Jr., students can be assigned Word Play, Draw About It, Activity, Write About It, or Talk About It.
Quizzes can be redesigned and modified by teachers. Templates for concept maps can be shared with supports as needed. Actually, different versions of assignments can be made and shared with specific members of the class.
I haven’t even mentioned SnapThought yet or the game features like Sortify that really get students thinking and digging deep as well as reflect on their learning.
Below are my initial thoughts about SnapThought that I wrote during the study group:
SnapThought is a real game changer. I always am promoting student reflection, and I was totally unaware that BrainPOP had that feature available! The fact that students are playing a learning game is motivating for many, but I always question whether students are even understanding why they are playing. Sometimes they seem to be ignoring informational pop-ups and just clicking away with no real purpose or thought. I can see how having students stop and take a photo with SnapThought of where they are and explaining their thinking or rationale at that point of the game will keep them focused. I can see having students identify what they have learned at that point of the game being very valuable and reinforcing to skills and concepts they are acquiring.
The bottom line: there is great depth to BrainPOP and BrainPOP, Jr. with so many possibilities beyond simply watching movies whole class. With so many avenues to take and customizations to make in this service, there truly is a way to engage all learners. I also see the service as a wonderful formative assessment, giving teachers real time data to inform their instruction in small groups.
If you have access to this tool, I definitely recommend you start exploring! I’d love hear any of your favorite things about BrainPOP.
Disclaimer: I am not a BrainPOP Certified Educator (although I work with two!) nor am I receiving anything from BrainPOP. I just like spreading good stuff.
I came across the Google for Education YouTube Channel today.
A couple of things that stood out:
Personally, I like watching how-to’s, especially current ones that reflect changes in the services. I also prefer to go right to the source to learn about these updates.
Therefore, I subscribed.
How do you stay in the know?
As I walk around different classrooms, I see popular tools or widgets being projected on screens…
What if all of these options were from one source, and were easy to set up and break down throughout the day without toggling between different websites and apps?
Maybe, the free ClassroomScreen website is a teacher’s new best friend in managing a classroom…
Check out the short video below:
One thing that also may be of interest, but is not highlighted in the video, is the site’s ExitPoll.
ClassroomScreen – is it something you would use? Leave your comments below.