Dear Educators and Friends:

Happy November! It's finally getting colder here in New York, and Moby's busy buttoning up his stainless steel coat (it's not easy to do when you only have four fingers).  While we're keeping warm in the office, Moby is fearlessly stepping out onto the streets of New York! Look for our 5'11"-'bot roaming through Times Square, other New York neighborhoods and On the Road, this holiday season and throughout next year.

Happy BrainPOPing! 

New Movies and Timely Curricular Tie-Ins

BrainPOP
♦ November 20: Edwin Hubble was born on this day - he discovered the existence of galaxies! Learn more in our Galaxies movie.

♦ November 22: What happened at the first Thanksgiving? Find out in our Thanksgiving movie!
♦ November 30: Learn how to play it safe on the Internet this Computer Security Day by watching our Online Safety movie! 

Be sure to check out these revamped movies: International Space Station, Tornadoes, Measuring Matter and Vision Problems!

BrainPOP Jr.

♦ NEW! Similies, Short Story & Mexico

♦ On November 22, watch our Thanksgiving movie.

Joseph Magie (7th-Grade Science Teacher, Mesa, AZ)

Students are finally coming to class on time! Joseph began using BrainPOP as a warm-up activity at the start of each class, and quickly realized students didn't want to miss out on their daily dose of Tim and Moby. Throughout the lessons that follow the BrainPOP warm-ups, Joseph references the movie he showed earlier.  Joseph's 7th graders are also jumpstarting class for him! One student plays the movie, and when it's over, he or she reads the pop quiz questions while classmates record their answers.  Responses are then collected at the end of the week for daily work points.  We love Joseph's idea and encourage you to revisit the featured movie throughout your week! 

Know an educator who's doing great things with BrainPOP and making a difference for kids? We'd love to hear and share your suggestions!

Quick Tip of the Month
Keep a Movie List

Fran Sylvester, a 5th-grade teacher from Putnam City Overholser Elementary, suggests copying a list of all of BrainPOP and BrainPOP Jr. movies and keeping it in your plan book! It's a great way to quickly and easily plan out what movies you want to incorporate into the units you teach. She also uses the movies to introduce and review concepts for state-mandated testing in the Spring.

Press, Community Outreach, Contests, Lesson Planning and More

Moby's Big Screen Debut. As part of the ad campaign we launched to promote our holiday gift subscriptions, Moby has made his big screen debut! If you're in the area, be sure to pay a visit to the Geoffrey Tron (a.k.a. "big screen") in front of Toys "R" Us in Times Square. Moby and friends will appear in a BrainPOP ad there four times an hour everyday until January 1. 

The Write Stuff. Roughly 500 kindergarten, 2nd-, 3rd- and 4th-graders at the Dunwoody Springs Charter Elementary School in Sandy Springs, GA, kicked off the school year by participating in a creative writing contest sponsored by BrainPOP.  Annie Choi, BrainPOP Jr.'s Managing Editor and a published author herself, announced the winners when she visited the school last month. Congrats to the winners, whose masterpieces were animated as storyboards by BrainPOP animators!

Moby's Mantle Sure Is Getting Crowded. BrainPOP Jr. has been honored with an Award of Excellence from Technology & Learning magazine. The award is given to the best educational offerings of the past year.

And the Winners Are... This fall, our partner Promethean raffled off a series of BrainPOP subscriptions at the NSBA T+L conference in Nashville and GaETC in Atlanta.  Congratulations to winners Luvell Jones, of the Holy Springs School (Holy Springs, MS); Amanda Mowery, of Black Fox Elementary (Cleveland, TN); Helen Farrell, of Williams Middle School (Moultrie, GA); and Jimmy Jones, of Greater Atlanta Christian School (Norcross, GA). All will receive year-long access to BrainPOP, BrainPOP Jr. and BrainPOP Español for their entire schools.

24-Hour Access for Teachers. BrainPOP is committed to helping you make the most of our movies and activities in your classroom. Media labs, schools and districts subscribing to BrainPOP services automatically get a special username and password for teachers to use after the school day so they can review BrainPOP resources and plan their lessons when it's convenient for them. If your teachers don't have or don't know their after-hours login info, be sure to contact Customer Service.

Interested in talking to us about BrainPOP launch events? Want to work with us on getting your school in the news? Contact our Director of Communications, Traci Kampel.