Do you have fond memories of Saturday morning cartoons? Looking for an easy and fun way to spice up your classroom? Check out www.brainpop.com. I came across this interactive site for students and teachers after I overheard a colleague talking about how his high school students love the witty cartoon characters who introduce subject matter in an efficient and easy to understand way. After spending a little time on the site, I found it to be full of wonderful short cartoon clips which support the concepts I teach, in addition to great teacher resources. Here’s a quick rundown of some of the great things you’ll find:

Short Video Clips by Subject Area: These are by far my favorite and the students’ too! On the home page you’ll see a variety of subject matter areas – Science, Social Studies, English, Math, Arts & Music, Health, Technology, and some specialty categories as well. Click on a subject area and you’ll find a more detailed concept map within that subject, listing countless cartoon clips which teach the specific subject area. Students can even take a comprehensive quiz at the end of the video clip!

Educators’ Page:  This link is just for you. Updated with new research, lesson plans, video tutorials, and classroom tools, a few minutes spent browsing this site will leave you with endless resources for your classroom. Check out the “Curriculum Calendar”, which is a schedule of free resources to access each day including BrainPop and BrainPop Jr. video clips, conferences/professional development, and holidays.

Standards Search: Looking to meet a specific standard? Use the “Standards” link on the homepage to access a database search which will pull up the video clips and resources which meet the specific standards you are working on!

Ready to check it out? Take five minutes to go to www.brainpop.com and you won’t regret it. Many of the resources are free, but if you want access to all of the great videos talk to your school or district about a classroom, school, or district subscription. It is well worth the cost and a great way to supplement your teaching!

Taking the opportunity to connect your students to career opportunities can return great dividends for you and the young men and women you teach. We spend so much time teaching the content in our lessons, that sometimes we forget that we must train our students to learn, think independently, and make connections to real life. Try this twist on a common review technique to begin training students to make life connections to material learned in class.

Once a week have students complete a “Ticket-Out-The-Door” on a small slip of paper. Ask students the simple question, “What is one career that is related to the content we learned this week?” If students are unsure, have some resources available for students to quickly review. During some challenging concept areas, you may wish to imbed references to related careers throughout the week, to begin introducing students to career opportunities. Remember to include jobs at all experience levels, including completion of high school, technical school, or receipt of a degree from a college or university. After students capture down their career ideas, stand at the door and collect these “tickets” as students exit.

What may seem like a simple review technique is actually training your students to continually ask themselves, “How does this content apply to real life?” By repeating this activity weekly at the same time, you begin to anchor the thought process with students. Before long, students will be subconsciously going through this thought process each time they leave your classroom, and hopefully their other classes as well. Take the time to teach students to make these important connections, and you will open their eyes to a world of opportunities.

“It is more than probable that the average man could, with no injury to his health, increase his efficiency 50%.”  Walter Scott

 Time – there is never enough in the world of teaching. By the end of the day, drained and exhausted, you wonder…how did this stack on my desk get even higher? With the realization that every day will bring with it new challenges and opportunities, I pass on a bit of wisdom from my mother. Mom is an elementary school teacher who guides her class of Kindergarten-2^nd grade special education students through a myriad of adventures each day. Pop into her class on a given day and you will find students engaged in Zoo-phonics as they move their little bodies to learn the alphabet, baking a healthy treat as they learn nutrition and life skills, or working to develop social skills in the greenhouse. “How do you do it all?” I asked her one day. “I continually ask myself one question,” she replied, “Could a student do this?”

 Each day as she plans her class assignments, instead of spending hours cutting out shapes, sorting colors, filing papers, or moving materials, she asks herself, “Could a student do this?” If the answer is yes, she incorporates that step into her lesson. She looks at every step of lesson preparation as an opportunity for students to develop skills, and as a result, has streamlined her daily preparation process to an efficient machine. By empowering students to be involved in daily classroom tasks, she allows more time to focus on the conceptual areas of her teaching plan.

 As you get ready for this next week, and you begin to sort, file, stack and organize – ask yourself, “Could a student do this?”