BrainPOP; the Perfect Tool for An Educator's Tool Belt

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BrainPOP; the Perfect Tool for An Educator's Tool Belt

Teachers are constantly planning, preparing, learning new curriculum and technology, grading, emailing, counseling, conferencing, attending professional development and meetings, supervising, designing curriculum; and, of course, teaching. Teaching is an incredibly demanding profession, cognitively, emotionally, and physically. It is said that teachers make 1,500 decisions in a day!??Let that sink in for a second…1,500 decision a day!?And, this number is based on old data that is likely significantly higher today as teaching has become more personalized with a much more dynamic and ever changing curriculum. Alyson Klein, who wrote an article entitled, “1,500 Decisions a Day (At Least!): How Teachers Cope With A Dizzying Array of Questions” said that this number “is based on research that was conducted in the 1980s and 1990s...But tack on all the new technologies now used by teachers, the decisions they are increasingly asked to make about the social-emotional learning of their students…and to some educational experts, that 1,500 seems like it should be much higher in today’s world.”

And, it’s not just the amount of rapid-fire decisions that are made during the course of a school day that are challenging, it is the also pedagogical side of teaching.?Great teaching is an art form, and it requires a tremendous amount of thought and design to meet the unique learning needs of each and every student in a classroom.??“Teaching has been compared to rocket science but usually in jest, as in it’s?not?rocket science. But any teacher worth their salt–and thus aware of the incredible demands of instructional design, personalizing learning, classroom management, the always-on demand of student and collegial relationships, grading, and so on. Teaching isn’t rocket science; it’s harder.” (Decisions, Decisions, Decisions

As educators, we use an expression, after learning about a new concept, that we were adding a tool to our tool belt.?For example, when we attend a training on cognitively guided instruction in math, we are adding math research and effective math teaching to our tool belt.?When we attend professional development on ADHD and executive functioning, or dyslexia, or anxiety, or culturally inclusive teaching, or Guided Language Acquisition, Design, or Professional Learning Communities, etc. etc.…we are adding tools to our tool belt on how to best support students in all capacities within our classroom.

As a school-site principal for many years, I have continuously contemplated the best tools to add to teachers’ tool belts over the years and...one of the BEST tools is BrainPOP.?It’s like the Leatherman or Swiss Army Knife of tools. ?The following are some of the many purposes that BrainPOP serves for educators and students:

• Smart ways to captivate students’ attention
• Fosters intrinsic motivation and helps students become confident learners.
• Extends and deepens learning through multiple modalities to activate student voice and choice in their learning (e.g.?like?Make-a-movie,?Creative Coding,?Make-a-Map, and more!?
• Built-in standard alignment that can be customized for a district’s needs
• High quality, standards-based instructional tools and lesson plans that teachers can leverage with ease
• Proof that time in product results in measurable learning gains
• Equitable solutions that close “learning gaps” and accelerate growth toward grade-level expectations by supporting ALL students in gaining grade-level content knowledge (See "Equity in Learning with BrainPOP - Fostering Access and Impact for All")

As mentioned previously, teachers have to make thousands of decisions in a day and the demands of instructional design, personalizing learning and classroom management are formidable to say the least.?Something that District Leaders and Site Principals can do for teachers is to give them the perfect tool to introduce new and complex topics that reinforce essential academic and life skills; BrainPOP.

Other Related Articles on why BrainPOP is an Essential Learning Platform for Students:

• BrainPOP Brings Joy & Delight to Learning
• BrainPOP Fostering Access and Impact for All
• BrainPOP Movies Are Just the Tip of the Iceberg ·?????
• BrainPOP Science - Inspire the Next Generation of Scientific Thinkers!

Additional Resources:

• Product Overview
• SEL
• BrainPOP ELL
• BrainPOP Science for 6-8

#students #learning #school #futureready