Transitioning Teachers and Students to My BrainPOP – One Success Story
Posted by cemignano on
Our CBE of the month, Cathie Gillner, has taken the initiative to get her entire school up and running with My BrainPOP. Read on to learn about her recommendations for on-boarding and what she’s found to be most effective!
Integrating LTI or Single Sign On with our building LMS (which is Schoology) has been really helpful. This integration enables kids to be assigned a particular movie without leaving the interface of Schoology. It really helps because kids have NO Passwords & NO Usernames. (Schoology users: Check out Cathie’s slides for creating a My BrainPOP account on an iPad through Schoology.)
To start the year, my principal used the Quiz Mixer to create a My BrainPOP-focused quiz that reviewed everything he did in the opening faculty meeting. His exact words were, “I saw Cathie giving a presentation on this feature at the end of the year and if I can make a quiz on BrainPOP anyone can!” Letting the teachers interact as students took a very simple upload on my end using the admin dashboard and the exercise was a great reminder that we do have a BrainPOP account. (We love to kick off our trainings with a BrainPOP quiz! Cathie used these slides to walk her teachers through logging and taking a quiz.)
Throughout the year, I usually do a voluntary half-hour BrainPOP session each month and gear them towards certain aspects of BrainPOP. I’ll split it up and focus on different features like Make-a-Map, the Quiz Mixer, GameUp & SnapThought, and primary sources.
I also work closely with teachers to give them tips for integration. I sometimes email teachers ideas — for instance I emailed all of the 7th grade science teachers about the game Food Fight when I knew they were working on a particular unit. Back in November when BrainPOP launched their mobile site, I started morning sessions with teachers at 7:30 in helping them set up their classes on their iPads. We also incorporated BrainPOP with the Hour Of Code and that really encouraged more students and teachers to create their own BrainPOP accounts.
I always leave my morning time (7:00 – 8:00) open for teachers to stop down and get tech or BrainPOP help. I know trainings can be frustrating for people who always give them on the same things. My philosophy has become, “Even if I need to walk one person through on a daily basis — it benefits kids.” The more I show people how to do something, the more kids use BrainPOP. Even if I have to do the same thing every morning, it gives another set of kids another opportunity to learn.
As a mom of a 7th grader who struggles and has a pretty packed IEP for reading and math, my son watches the BrainPOP movie daily while he eats his breakfast. He has even become savvy enough to tell his teachers about certain BrainPOP movies and games that go along with his current units. That type of self-made learning proves how important ALL kids should have access to the learning.
