April 2015 - Minds in Bloom

Can your students write to explain their thinking in math? The Common Core State Standards put more pressure on students' ability to thoroughly explain their solutions, and this new math routine will help you teach them how to do that.

Write to Explain: Your New Favorite Math Routine

Hello everyone! I’m Laura Santos, from Core Inspiration by Laura Santos, and I’m honored to have this opportunity to reach out and share my favorite math routine with you. One of the best (and most challenging) things about teaching math is guiding students in the creation of clear math models and helping them develop the ability to communicate the reasoning behind their solutions. The widely-adopted Common Core Standards for Mathematical

[ Read More ]

What do you do when you have a bunch of wiggle worms in your class?! This guest post on Minds in Bloom shares four ways to accommodate students who are extra wiggly to help them find success and to help you improve your classroom management. Click through to read the whole post!

How to Deal With Class Wiggle Worms

We are delighted to have Kayla from K’s Classroom Kreations guest blogging for us today! If you’ve got wiggle worms in your class, then you’ll find this post highly useful! Be sure to comment with your takeaways or other tips to share! NOTE: As Amazon Associates, we earn from qualifying purchases. Ever have one of those years days where your classroom feels like an

[ Read More ]

When teaching factoring, finding the GCF is easy with the ladder method! This is a sure-fire way to help your students both quickly find the GCF when factoring and complete the factoring process quickly and correctly!

Using the Ladder Method in Math

Happy spring! I’m Ellie from Middle School Math Moments, and I’m so happy to have the opportunity to share my ideas with you! I am always excited to learn something new, and I’ve learned quite a bit in the last few years about how the ladder method can help students with different math concepts (I didn’t learn this method when I was in

[ Read More ]

With the ever-increasing emphasis on testing, so too rises test anxiety. Help your students overcome their test anxiety with these brain-based tips.

6 Tips for Fighting Test Anxiety

Today’s guest blogger is Ellen from Brain Leaders and Learners. She’s sharing her six favorite tips for helping students to overcome test anxiety. Spring sends a refreshing new lilt into some students’ steps. Daylight stretches into late evening, outdoor events replace closed-in classes, and young friendships tend to blossom into new life for many students. Have you seen it? Why, then, does winter’s melt into

[ Read More ]

Rachel Lynette participates in a book study of Unshakeable by Angela Watson. Read Rachel's key takeaways and click through to see what else the book has to offer.

Unshakeable: Incorporate Playfulness and Have Fun with Learning

Teaching is serious business, now more than ever. With Common Core standards, less and less recess time, an overwhelming number of high-stakes tests, and, of course, the many challenges students bring to the classroom on a daily basis, it really can’t be anything else…..or can it? NOTE: As Amazon Associates, we earn from qualifying purchases. I would argue that even in today’s challenging

[ Read More ]

Every teacher wants to help struggling students, but we don't always know how. This post describes how struggling students may be lacking certain processing skills that would make them more successful. Learn what they are and how to address the issues.

What Your Struggling Students Need You to Know

Today’s guest blogger is Cherice from Inner Pieces Gallery. She’s using her background as an educational therapist to provide some tips on reaching our most struggling learners to help them succeed. Do you ever feel like some students in class are unreachable? Even though you believe all children can learn, sometimes they arrive at your classroom door not knowing how to read at the

[ Read More ]

Tips for Encouraging Reading at Home

I am so excited and thankful for this opportunity to guest post here on Minds in Bloom! I’m Rachel from Rachel K Tutoring, and today I want to share about my desire for kids to read at home and to provide a free printable to go with it! I was always a book nerd growing up. I loved the library, the smell of books,

[ Read More ]

It's important to build confidence in math class for many students, because they don't believe they're capable of learning math. These five strategies will help you make math class feel safe, fun, and worthwhile for your students who struggle.

5 Fun Practices to Build Confidence in Math Class

Hi everyone! I’m Brittany Kiser, from 123teach, and I’m so excited to share some ideas from my classroom in hopes that together, we can help students build confidence in math class! As a middle school math interventionist, the students who enter my classroom have already given up hope that they will ever be successful with math. I bet there are many other teachers out there who have

[ Read More ]

Nature Snacks: How to Squeeze a Daily Dose of Nature into Your Classroom

You really can’t argue against the mountain of research that proves direct exposure to nature is essential for healthy childhood development, both physically and emotionally. Knowing this is one thing, but actually finding time in our over crowded class routines for our children to connect with nature is increasingly tricky… As much as we’d all like to be roaming free with our class exploring ‘Bear

[ Read More ]