Showcasing Knowledge with Make-a-Movie – A CBE Aha! Moment 6.18
Posted by cemignano on
One of the requirements for becoming a Certified BrainPOP Educator is to identify a past teaching practice or project, and brainstorm ways BrainPOP could be used to improve it. Reflection is such a huge part of professional growth, and we hope that by sharing our Certified BrainPOP Educators’ Aha! Moments we can inspire you to reflect and grow as an educator. Read on to learn more about Alexa Corniel’s BrainPOP Aha! Moment!
1) Tell us your BrainPOP “Aha! Moment” from the certification process. What specific use or application of BrainPOP excited you during this course? How did it change your expectation for using BrainPOP in your teaching practice?
The certification process exposed me to Make-a-Movie, which was the ultimate game changer. BrainPOP teaches kids about a particular content area, then it hit me, why not have my kids show their understanding by making their own teaching movies. It made me excited to explore all of the capabilities of Make-a-Movie so that I could show my kids how to use it to the fullest, so they could bring their knowledge to life.
2) What is a specific lesson or unit you’ve taught in the past that you can re-formulate to bring in the new tools, features, or content you discovered through the CBE process?
Review! Before learning about Make-a-Movie, whenever I would want kids to review content or assesses student understanding, I mainly used worksheets and short answer questions. It was boring, not fun, and the antithesis of what I would want to be doing if I was in my class. But, when you know better, you do better, so thank goodness I now know and can do better!
3) How will you integrate BrainPOP’s new features and tools to replace what you’ve done in the past?
Using Make-a-Movie, my kids have been able to showcase their knowledge in such creative and quality ways that was not possible before. Also, because of how much emphasis I put on the film festivals, students were really invested in their creation. So, I also made a review sheet for students to leave compliments and star reviews on the work they saw. It was very inspiring to see my kids smiling after reading their review and magical to see kids being inspired by each other when viewing each other’s work. We have had film festivals to showcase their understanding of science, history, grammar, and math. A few examples have been when students have made peer teaching videos on content they feel confident in, from math, writing, to reading. Bringing writing to life, whether narrative, opinion, or informational, my kids used Make-a-Movie to tell their story. Or even using BrainPOP to showcase their Genius Projects. I will never go back to the old way, – give kids a topic and ask them to show it in the best way they can, and presto- you’ll have magic.
