I am sure all of you educators out there are just going to be rolling your eyes at me, thinking, “What?! She’s just now discovering BrainPop?” Yes, it’s true. Many of my colleagues at my school swear by it but I have never bothered to try it out. So, on a whim (and because the deadline for this week’s lesson is looming over me), I logged into BrainPop to see what all the hype is about.
BrainPop is an interactive program featuring videos lessons, quizzes, study guides, questions and answers, and so much more. I spent some time checking out some of the music lessons and they were pretty good. While the lessons themself were a little dry, there was some humor in them, which should keep the students’ attention. At the same time, I felt validated that these videos were teaching exactly what I am teaching in my class at this time to my 4th and 5th graders. BrainPop is going to be a great supplement to my lesson plans.
One of the things I really loved with BrainPop is the online quizzes. I have looked at many Web 2.0 assessment websites but I have yet to find one that caters to elementary music. BrainPop teaches to the elementary music students and the quizzes are easy to take; each quiz can be done as a practice, as a review and as an actual quiz.
The only drawback I found was when I went looking for user-generated content. I started to draw a blank until I clicked on BrainPop Educators. Here, teachers can blog and respond to others’ blogs and they can submit lesson plans to share. While this probably is not exactly what I am looking for as far as user-generated content, I think the rest of the website more than meets the rest of my criteria.
With BrainPop, I believe I have found a website that I can use in the classroom, and I can use as part of my Action Research project. I am looking forward to exploring more of BrainPop and using it in my classroom.
Check out BrainPop and I'll blog with you later.
-Jenn
Hi, Jenn -
ReplyDeleteWell I guess I'm in good company; I've never looked at BrainPop either! I'm so glad you did. I never realized the extent of the resources. I liked the Digital Citizenship section in Technology. It's something I can really use with my students in the library. One of my students last year used BrainPop for one of their Web 2.0 tools to evaluate. I watched their brief overview, but I just didn't get the extent of the tool. So thank you...I'm so glad you prompted me to take a better look.
Hi Jenn,
ReplyDeleteI am a big fan of Brainpop! My school has purchased a site license so I use the resources at least three times a week. My students and I love Tim and Moby. One of the things we do after a movie is complete the graded quiz as a class. It can get quite noisy when we do this but the kids are so motivated I do not mind. Brainpop is a great way to introduce your students! I hope you will continue to explore all of the features and enjoy hanging out with Tim and Moby! OH! By the way thanks for sharing the Educators Blog section. I have never explored that area so am excited about taking a look at it this week while I am planning.