Win a free year’s subscription to BrainPOP!

Many of you know that I work part-time as an Educational Editor for BrainPOP. My job entails outlining and editing BrainPOP Jr. scripts and making sure features/activities are developmentally appropriate and aligned with state and common core standards. I also work with the BrainPOP Educators community, managing the lesson plansand contributing to the blog.

If you’re not familiar with BrainPOP, here it is in a nutshell: animated, curriculum-based for grades K-12. We create short movies (just a few minutes long) which can be used in whole class, small group and one-on-one settings. BrainPOP is used in numerous ways in classrooms, at home, and on mobile devices, from introducing a new lesson or topic to illustrating complex subject matter to reviewing before a test. Content is mapped to Common Core, aligned to academic standards, and easily searchable with our online Standards Tool. All the products are fully compatible with interactive whiteboards, learner response systems, projectors, Macs, and PCs. No downloading, installation, or special hardware is required. It’s a subscription-based service that’s currently used in 25% of U.S. schools! I used it when I was a classroom teacher so I know firsthand how much kids love it and how well it helps them understand key concepts and skills.

I hear from many blog readers that you all loooove BrainPOP, but aren’t able to afford a subscription. So, I’ve gotten permission to give away a one-year subscription to one lucky blog reader! The winner can choose to have access to BrainPOP, BrainPOP Jr., BrainPOP ESL, BrainPOP Espanol, or any combination thereof. The subscription will be good for 365 consecutive days in one classroom (or one home, for parents who want their kids to use BrainPOP and homeschooling families.) The complete combo subscription is a $395 value!

Here’s how the contest works:

1) Create a lesson plan using any of the BrainPOP resources.

You can check out the full selection of what BrainPOP has to offer by signing up for a free trial, or write your lesson for one of the free movie topics that are available (no subscription required.) Use this form to submit your lesson: just explain how you as a teacher integrate the BrainPOP movie and related activities/features into an innovative classroom activity. You can look over some sample lesson plans to get an idea of what we’re looking for. If you have handouts or printables you want to include, just indicate that in your lesson plan submission and I’ll contact you via email to get the attachment.

2) Leave a comment on the BrainPOP Educators Community forum.

Click on the lesson plans message board topic and add a reply–just to introduce yourself and give a super short summary of what the lesson plan you submitted is about.  You will need to create a profile for yourself in our community, which is free and takes about 2 minutes. That will give you access not only to our message board forum, but to all kinds of great FREE stuff like graphic organizers and webinars. If your lesson plan is published to our database of lessons, I’ll add the link to your comment so you can view and share it. Be sure to add a gravatar (if you don’t already have one) when you create your BrainPOP Educators profile. This way, if you win, we can share a photo of you (or an image you select as your avatar) when we feature you and your lesson plan on our site.

At midnight on January 31st, the contest will close, and I’ll select and announce a winning lesson plan the following day.

Hey, you’ve got to write lesson plans, anyway…why not win a whole year’s worth of access to BrainPOP in the process? If you have a blog or website you’d like to link to, you can include that in your lesson plan to bring more exposure to your site (we currently have 165,000 members in the BrainPOP Educators community!) All high-quality lesson plan entries will be published on the BrainPOP Educators site. I’m looking forward to reading your submissions!

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CONTEST CLOSED. UPDATE FEBRUARY 1st:

Thank you to everyone who submitted lesson plans! We got some fantastic entries–every single one met the BrainPOP standards for publication on our site, and will be featured in an upcoming BrainPOP Educators blog post! 

WINNER:

• We Love Nouns! by Jana Wilson

RUNNERS UP:

• The Columbus Exchange…Cause and Effect by Stephanie Moorman
• Capture the Angles! by Joy Hall
• Hibernation by Crystal Radke
• Money Mania by Kathy Keith