By Rachel Lynette
My name is Hillary Kiser, and I have been teaching for seven years now. Rachel was so sweet to allow me to be a guest on her blog and talk about Creative and Critical Thinking. Thank you, Rachel! I hope you all enjoy this post and learn a few things about incorporating creative and critical thinking in your classroom! Teaching children to think sounds easy…but
Hi there! I’m Rachel Haltiwanger from The Cozy Learning Cottage, and I’m thrilled to have the opportunity to post on Minds in Bloom! I’ve spent my whole teaching career teaching elementary English learners either here in the US or abroad, and one of my favorite ways to integrate content, language skills, and collaborative learning is through cooking activities in the classroom. While these activities are
Hello Everyone! I am Erin from rrrErin2Learn and am so excited to be guest blogging for Minds in Bloom! I can’t remember life before I started focusing on ed tech in my classroom, but it was only two years ago that my technology administrator handed me a couple of iPads and the password to download “ALL THE FREE APPS I WANTED!” I admit, I went
Hello everyone! I’m Tammy, and I’m excited to have this opportunity to share with you today here at Minds in Bloom! While most of my experience has been in teaching fifth grade, I currently teach third and have been teaching since 2004. Although I teach all subjects, I have a passion for teaching science. I love creating hands-on and engaging lessons and activities. When I first began my student teaching, I could not wait to get
This is Meghan Vestal, from Vestal’s 21st Century Classroom, and I am honored to be a guest blogger for Minds in Bloom! Recently, the science trend has changed from S.T.E.M. to S.T.E.A.M. (Science, Technology, Engineering, Art, & Math). We all know hands-on learning makes a lesson memorable for students, and integrating art is a great way to add creativity to any lesson. One of my
My name is Jeanine, and I am the girl behind the giggles at Third Grade Giggles! I am so honored to be guest blogging for Minds in Bloom, especially about my favorite topic: LAUGHTER! Charlie Chaplin said, “A day without laughter is a day wasted,” and I couldn’t agree more! But can laughter really be brought into the classroom? Absolutely! These five strategies will have
Hello! I am Hallie Sherman, and I am a licensed speech-language pathologist. I am excited to be here today to share some strategies for classroom teachers to use in their classrooms to promote communication (for ALL students, not just those receiving speech). Thank you, Rachel, for allowing me this opportunity to share strategies on your blog! “Communication? Why do my students need that in school?”
We all use a variety of social media outlets daily. Have you ever thought about using them in your classroom, though? My name is Sarah from Mrs B’s First Grade, and I am excited to be guest blogging today to give you five steps to successfully implement a class Twitter account! Setting up and using a class Twitter account can seem like a daunting task;
Hi, I’m Sandra. I’m so honored to be writing about test prep rallies for Minds in Bloom. Test pep or prep rallies are motivational school assemblies that occur right before state testing and focus on raising student confidence and enthusiasm. You might wonder what makes me qualified to tell others about prep rallies. Well…I just may have invented them. I’ve been doing rallies since 1985
Today, we’re welcoming Sharon from Classroom in the Middle! She’s sharing her ideas on a combined reading and writing unit with a mysteries theme. Are the finer points of reading comprehension and written composition still an elusive mystery to your students? To one degree or another, reading and writing can be a bit mysterious to all of us, so why not play up the mystery theme with
Rebecca from Science Girl Lessons has brought us a super fun and hands-on post today: It’s all about slime! Even if you’re not a science teacher, I bet you’ll want to make slime and get your hands dirty with this one! I am so excited to be guest blogging today about one of the most FUN science activities out there… SLIME. With all the
Welcome back to Minds In Bloom! Today’s guest blogger is Carrie of My Book Boost, and she’s sharing her favorite comprehension question to ask her class. Read on to find out what it is and why it’s her favorite! What’s my favorite comprehension question to ask kids after reading? Let me give you a hint. It requires kids to use more than their brains to
Using Task Cards with Your Students Lately, a lot of teachers have been asking me about how they can use task cards with their students. One of the things I love about task cards is that they are a very versatile teaching tool – there are tons of ways to use them! So, I decided to do a round up of all of the ways I know
Hi y’all! It’s Katie “Texas” from Rock and Teach. I’m a fourth grade teacher in the great state of Texas. I’m so excited to be guest blogging for the amazing Rachel Lynette! The topic I’ll be blogging about today is inferences. Sometimes I wonder why forming an inference is so hard for students. Evidence + Schema = Inference… That should be clear as day to our
Hey there! I’m Kathie from Tried and True Teaching Tools, and I am beyond excited to be guest blogging today at Rachel Lynette’s Minds in Bloom! I was asked to write about making thinking clear to students, a topic near and dear to my heart! A fantastic resource is Making Thinking Visible: How to Promote Engagement, Understanding, and Independence for All Learners by Ron Ritchhart, Mark Church, and
Hi! I’m Lyndsey from Lit with Lyns, and I’m thrilled to be doing a guest post on Minds in Bloom. Over the past couple of years, I have become somewhat (ok, extremely) obsessed with using task cards in my classroom. It started when I purchased Julie Faulkner’s Cite Textual Evidence Teaching Pack that included task cards. Once I saw how engaged my students were, I
