BrainPOP in BVSD: Michelle Eckstein

Our series of spotlighting teachers who use BrainPOP continues with Michelle Eckstein, the Elementary Technology Teacher at Peak to Peak Charter School. To get started, visit the BrainPOP in BVSD webpage, and for more ideas about how to use it in the classroom, check out Part 1 of this blog series!

Michelle Eckstein, Elementary Technology Teacher | Peak to Peak Charter
21st Century Cohort 4.0
@mdeckstein | Website

Michelle has been teaching in elementary schools for 10 years, and is currently the Elementary Technology Teacher at Peak to Peak Charter School. Prior to joining the staff at Peak to Peak, she was the TAG Educational Advisor at High Peaks Elementary and Lafayette Elementary Schools. She has a Masters in Gifted Education from the University of Connecticut and endorsements in elementary education, gifted education, and instructional technology. She loves seeing students authentically engaged when they are creating with technology.

How do you use BrainPOP in your classroom?

I use many of the digital citizenship videos and activities in my classroom as well as using the BrainPOP videos to introduce coding to students. Students and I really like the Meaning of Beep. In this game students compete against the computer or a classmate as they improve their academic vocabulary on the topic being studied.

What is one of your favorite things that you have done with BrainPOP?

One of my favorite BrainPOP features is the SnapThought tool. Using this tool students can capture their thinking while playing a game. It’s a great tool to use as students play Sortify. SnapThought allows students to grab a screenshot at a moment during game play. They then reflect on their thinking. In the example below, a student is playing Sortify Multiplication and uses the SnapThought tool to take a screenshot during game play. They then explain their thinking and submit their thinking to the teacher. Students love game play, and the SnapThought tool increases the cognitive demand by asking students to explain their thinking.

   

How is BrainPOP helping your students?

Students enjoy the BrainPOP characters: Tim, Moby, & Annie. The characters and humor in the videos keep students engaged. I find BrainPOP a great way to introduce a topic and build background knowledge, and then I can use many of the activities for students to engage with the content. I love the number of choices for students to show what they know and think critically about the content. I like using Make-a-Map as a collaborative activity for students to think together about most important ideas of a video. The creative tools of Make-a Movie and Creative Coding provide opportunities for collaboration, critical thinking, creativity, and communication. I’m really looking forward to using these new tools more often!

If you have one piece of advice to give to another teacher, what would it be?

My advice to others wanting to get started on Make-a-Movie or Creative Coding is to start with a small group. Give them some time to learn how to use BrainPOP to create and then have them be your “experts”. In the beginning it can be a bit overwhelming for some students to figure out how to create with Creative Coding or Make-a-Movie. Having a few student experts will enable you to focus on helping students with higher level thinking and not get bogged down with teaching the tool. I’m planning to start with my 4th and 5th grade Student Tech Team as experts and they will then train others in their classes to help as well.

Anything else to share?

The BrainPOP Certified Educator program is a great way to get to know some of the less frequently known features of BrainPOP. I’d highly recommend this free training.

BrainPOP in BVSD

Did you know that BrainPOP is available in BVSD for all K-8 students? If you are not already using this resource in your classroom, check out the BVSD BrainPOP page to get started!

How can you make the most of this awesome resource?

Some of our BVSD teachers share their best tips & tricks below!

Along with these fun projects, teachers shared how they appreciate the way BrainPOP allows students to access content, no matter what their academic level is. The visual animation is attention-grabbing and effective, and Tim & Moby, the funny and friendly guides, are an instant hit with students! One growing resource is their digital citizenship collection, which can be used with any content area. The activities change with each movie, so they never get boring, and many are available in a printed format if needed. Additionally, because the videos are short, they are easy to incorporate throughout a unit of study.

How have you used BrainPOP in your classroom this year?

Guest Blogger - Erin Mayer | The Road Less Traveled - Going Gradeless

Erin Mayer, Science Teacher | Casey MS
21st Century Cohort 4.0
@Erinsmayer | www.reinventingclass.com








The Road Less Traveled - Going Gradeless

After a successful trial run last spring eliminating grades in lieu of feedback and reflection with my eighth grade science students (The Road to Gradeless), I decided to completely eliminate grades for all 155 of my sixth and seventh grade students this year. In September, after I felt that my students and I had begun to create and develop a collaborative, safe, learning community, I explained to my students that because our primary focus throughout the year would be learning and understanding, they would receive learning feedback from me, not grades. With the full support of my administrators, I also shared my vision with my student’s families (Learning and Grades Parent Letter).

To provide and document feedback on student learning and understandings, I use Schoology in conjunction with single point rubrics focused on our learning criteria.

If a student learner has met the learning criteria, they receive a “Proficient”. If they have not met the criteria, they receive a “Not Proficient Yet”. I include concerns, questions and evidence of advanced understandings in the comment column of the Schoology “gradebook”. I emphasize the “yet” in not proficient yet, consistently acknowledging and reminding my student learners that the learning process is messy and that it is often necessary to traverse multiple learning paths and revision processes to develop, refine and communicate understandings and ideas.

Our school is on a quarter system and I still need to submit traditional letter grades each quarter. At the conclusion of each quarter, my seventh graders reflect on and evaluate their learning using a Personal Learning Reflection and Evaluation template that I share with them. At the conclusion of this document, each student determines what their quarter grade will be. Students mini-conference with me after completing their reflection. These conferences are critical and allow my students and I to dig deeper into their personal reflection and evaluation of their learning. Our class is self-paced which allows us to mini-conference during class time because all students reach the unit evaluation and reflection phase at different points.

I discovered that my sixth grade students need more scaffolding to reflect and evaluate on their learning. Their most recent reflection, after a quarter-long problem based unit focused on bioplastics, provided this additional structure and focus: Polymers for the Planet Individual Learning Reflection.

Overall, the feedback I have received about our gradeless learning environment has been positive. Parents and family members appreciate our emphasis on learning and communicating understandings. At this point in our journey, most of my students have developed a deeper understanding of what gradeless means. This has been a transition for many students, particularly my seventh graders. An emphasis on learning and understanding over grades requires students to own their learning. Their experiences in our science classroom are helping them understand that learning is messy. They are realizing that it is okay, and often beneficial, to slow down and focus more deeply. They are more aware that the ability to communicate their understandings, in ways that work best for them, is critical and can be very rewarding. As my students’ learning facilitator, our experience has convinced me that a gradeless environment is best for kids. It provides the opportunity for all of my students, many who are often labeled as “underperforming”, to find learning success in our science classroom and ultimately allow to develop their capacities as thinkers, learners and doers.

Game Based Learning: Make It Fun with Kahoot!

Are you ready to re-energize and reward your students? Try using Kahoot!, a fun formative assessment game that can be used to survey opinions, initiate debates, and gamify your classroom.

Check out how engaged students are as they create, play, and share their learning.

While you can easily make your own Kahoot, sometimes you just need one that has already been created. Have you investigated the many Kahoots already created for education? Since winter break is coming soon, perhaps you can play some of the Kahoots listed below:

Christmas Candy and Sweets Around the World (could be used with staff to highlight a fun Kahoot)
The Traditions of Hanukkah
Physical Science the Energy of Holiday Lights
Christmas Traditions from Around the World
Physical Science the Science of Holiday Cooking
This History and Traditions of Kwanza

Another great part of Kahoot is that it isn’t just about the teacher! We always support students as creators, and using this tool, students can make their own games and quizzes. They could easily use their creation and design skills to put together their own Kahoots as a learning objective for the unit, semester, or year. Wouldn’t it be fun to have a review for a final exam via student-generated Kahoots? Check out this example from a BVSD Spanish 3 class.

Already trying Kahoot in your classroom? We would love to hear from you! Chime in and share some of the Kahoots that you or your students have created by commenting below or tweeting us @BVSDEdTech!