Professional Development with CBE of the Month Julianne Ross-Kleinmann
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We’d like to welcome December’s Certified BrainPOP Educator of the Month, Julianne Ross-Kleinmann, to the blog! Read on to learn about Julianne’s 25 years of teaching experience, as well as some of her BrainPOP favorites. She’s sure to inspire some wonderful ideas in your own classroom!
What grade(s) do you teach? Subject area?
Beep! Wow; I am really here, here on the BrainPOP webpage as a Certified BrainPOP Educator (CBE). Hi everyone! I am Julianne Ross-Kleinmann, Technology Integration Specialist in the Educational Resources Department of New York’s Dutchess County BOCES (Board of Cooperative Education Services). My passion is instructional technology in the service of teaching and learning. My administrative position takes me out of the classroom and leverages my experience as a teacher trainer to help teachers authentically integrate technology into their lessons. This way instead of reaching twenty students per class I can reach ten teachers times twenty students each in one PD session. The main thrust of my PD’s focus on STEM, digital citizenship, computational thinking, publishing, assessment, and choosing the right tool for the job.
How long have you been teaching?
I have been an educator for over twenty-five years, from elementary classroom teacher to K-5 administration, to college adjunct teaching pre-service teachers, to staff developer in literacy and technology.
What inspired you to go into education?
It was never my plan to go into education. I initially wanted a position in communications as a news reporter. I even thought of sociology but not teaching. However, a professor saw something in me that I did not see in myself and asked if I would be willing to take an education course. I did, I loved it more than anything else I tried, and here I am.
Which CBE class were you a part of? What do you like about being a CBE?
Circa 2014 I was selected to participate in CBE training at BrainPOP headquarters in New York City. Life intervened and I couldn’t complete the assignments within the required timeframe. I reapplied for the ISTE17 CBE cohort and here I am honored to be featured as CBE of the month.
What is one of the most memorable projects you’ve done with your class using BrainPOP resources?
I started using BrainPOP in 2009 and, in October 2014, actually submitted a cross-curricular BrainPOP lesson plan, designed for 3rd graders, titled BrainPOP + Graphic Organizers = Enthusiastic Students https://goo.gl/aHZkzQ . At the time, I was working with K-5 students and teachers as an Instructional Technology Facilitator (I actually used this lesson as a demo for for the job interview). I kept abreast with BrainPOP activities through the free webinars and the BrainPOP Educators site. Some of favorite webinars were Differentiating with BrainPOP and BrainPOP Jr., My BrainPOP Overview, Playful Assessment: BrainPOP’s Sortify Game, Back to School with BrainPOP (2016 Digital Etiquette and Cyberbullying), and so many more. But the one that crystallized my love of BrainPOP was a webinar on computational thinking and coding that came out in 2013 just prior to the Hour of Code initiative. I was wracking my brain for a way to introduce my K-5 students to the concepts of coding before we began our Hour of Code. And then POP, a new computer programming BrainPOP video with resources was released. I was so excited to watch the video myself and show it to my students. I have shared this video a multitude of times with students, families, colleagues, and, through my affiliations at ISTE, with educators around the world. The reason I love this video so much is because I enjoy teaching computational thinking concepts. The video is short, succinct, and funny. If you think telling someone how to make a peanut butter sandwich is easy, watch this video. Starting out as an elementary school teacher, I remember being introduced to the Logo computer language in one of my undergraduate courses and throughout the years I enjoyed learning and teaching computer concepts to students. BrainPOP’s Computer Programming video and GameUP activities have been amazing resources to teach computational thinking concepts.
How has becoming a CBE impacted you?
BrainPOP is a cornerstone of the staff development I deliver to veteran and novice educators. I recently shared the Computer Programming video and resources to teachers at three professional development sessions last month as many schools in the district in which I work are preparing to participate in Computer Science Education Week through Hour of Code. This month (December) I am providing a new training session titled, Learning and Creating are Fun with BrainPOP. I can’t wait to share Make-a-Map, GameUP using SnapThought, and Make-a-Movie with the teachers in my sessions. I created a class in My BrainPOP and plan to have teachers sign in as students to play and create. Come back later this month to see the fun.
What’s on your BrainPOP wish list?
Well, selfishly – in my recent move, I lost my Moby bobble head doll and would love to replace it. To share with others – I would love to have BrainPOP interview Karen V. Hill and add to their Harriet Tubman movie how she was instrumental into making the Harriet Tubman Home the first African-American National Park in the United States. (Full disclosure, Karen is a family treasure and my cousin.)
