[2021 Round-Up] Your Favorite Edmentum Blogs of The Year
[2021 Round-Up] Your Favorite Edmentum Blogs of The Year
This year, we hit the incredible milestone of over 1 million (1.53 million, actually) blogs read by YOU! With over 360 new blogs this year, we figured you wouldn’t have time to read them all, so we put together a list of our most-read posts from 2021! Check out our countdown (with a little help from Gordon Ramsey, because why not?):
20. Cool to Be Kind: Teaching Kindness in the Classroom by Celebrating the Small Things
Amidst the frequent stories of violence, bullies, and disaster, what can educators (and other adults) do to cut through the negativity? A little kindness can go a long way—after all, it’s the stories of outstanding compassion, humans banding together, and small gestures making a big difference that bring a smile to our faces and truly leave a lasting mark.
19. 5 Tips for Helping Students of All Ages Find Credible Online Sources
Teaching your students the valuable skill of finding credible online sources is not an easy task, but there is a variety of strategies that are appropriate for students of all ages to help them learn the basics. We’ve gathered a few age-appropriate resources to help you teach your students about how to navigate the different parts of a website, how to find the right site, how to evaluate its credibility, and how to start the conversation about credibility in your classroom.
18. [Free Classroom Resources] January Printables, Activities, and More!
It’s a new year, and a fresh semester! January is the perfect time to reflect on the previous year, set goals for the months to come, or just hop back into your routine after a well-deserved holiday rest. Check out these fun resources we’ve assembled to help you jump into January.
17. Back to School: Free Printable Classroom Resources from Edmentum
Edmentum has just what you need to start off the school year right. Our fun classroom packs are full of downloadable printables that are perfect for getting your classroom organized and ready, while our Back-to-School Resource Pack is loaded with everything you need for a perfect first day back no matter what your classroom looks like, including fact sheets, activities, and name tags!
16. 10 Classrooms That Will Make You Want to Give Yours a DIY Makeover
These educators have gone above and beyond to make their classrooms unique, fun, and engaging for their students. Get ready for some inspo that will make you want to DIY all weekend!
15. 5 Things Parents Can Do to Support Students Learning Online
Parents and other caregivers can offer some of the most important guidance students need to find the right online learning approaches, remain accountable for their work, and get extra help when needed. Here are five things grown-ups can do to help their child be successful when learning online.
14. 7 Essential Life Skills for High Schoolers to Build Before Graduating
The transition from secondary schooling to the world at large can be a challenge but having a strong foundation in a few key life skills can help things go a little smoother by equipping young people with the tools and techniques that make for a less stressful, organized, and productive life. Young adults can work on building these skills in the classroom for later independence. To help, we’ve compiled a list of skills that students should start practicing now in order to be ready for success after graduating.
13. Acceleration vs. Remediation vs. Intervention: What’s the Difference?
Acceleration, remediation, and intervention have the same fundamental goal: supporting struggling students to ultimately achieve academic success. Dig a little deeper, however, and you’ll find that the differences between these three flavors of support are critical to determining what sort of environment, time, and approach might be required to best serve your students. Let’s take a closer look at these terms to unpack the differences and provide guidance on when and where they might fit into your instructional day.
12. 7 Essential Elements Every Elementary Classroom Needs
Before you head back to school to unpack your boxes and gear up for the new school year, consider these seven key elements that every elementary classroom needs to have to be successful.
11. Taming the Chaos: Eight High School Classroom Management Strategies That Work
How do you handle a classroom full of students who are dealing with real challenges of growing up—along with plenty of legitimate and difficult adult problems—when hormones are raging, everything is over-dramatized, and classroom curriculum is becoming demanding? Here are eight strategies that we had success with in the classroom.
10. [Free Resources] Learn All May Long with Free Downloadables from Edmentum
Our fun classroom resource packets are stuffed with fun lessons and activities your elementary students will love, and our downloadable K-12 worksheet bundles and printable Edmentum Brain game are perfect for students at every grade-level. Check out these fun printable and downloadable resources we’ve assembled just for you and your students!
9. [The Five Pillars of Reading] Breaking Down the Elements of Successful Literacy Instruction
The building blocks of reading, as defined by the National Reading Panel, include phonemic awareness, phonics, fluency, vocabulary, and comprehension. Together, these five pillars make up the components of successful reading instruction by shaping learners' brains one step at a time, to learn to read and understand the written English language.
Let’s take a closer look at what these five pillars are and how they work to build the foundation of an effective literacy instruction strategy.
8. 100 Days Smarter: 22 Activities to Celebrate the 100th Day of School in Any Learning Environment
Whether class occurs in a virtual, hybrid, or in-person setting, the 100th day of school can be an exciting event for your students. We’ve put together several of our favorite activities across all subject areas (plus some just-for-fun additions) to help you and your learners enjoy this special day.
7. The Daily 5 Literacy Framework: A Guide to Best Practices
It’s no secret that building strong literacy skills from an early age pays huge dividends for students. However, implementing an effective literacy program in the classroom—one which meets the widely varying needs of all your students while building a genuine love of reading—is a significant challenge. Here is a guide to getting it right in your classroom.
The theory of learning styles is widely popular in education. It claims that learners have preferences about how they receive and process information. In education, we usually categorize these preferences into styles such as visual, auditory, and kinesthetic. These theories are alluring because they are low lift for the classroom and promise better results for students, but what does the research say?
5. Marzano 13 Teaching Best Practices for Virtual, Blended, and Classroom Instruction
The Marzano Research study considered Edmentum solutions being used in three instructional settings and developed 13 best practices across three dimensions of teacher behaviors and strategies that are correlated to significantly higher levels of student achievement in an online learning environment. Take a close look at all 13 best practices identified in the study, along with insights into how each can be implemented.
4. 10 Back-to-School Read-Alouds to Teach Classroom Rules and Expectations
In the elementary classroom, the beginning of a new school year ushers in a critical opportunity to set classroom rules and expectations. And, while creating your rules, modeling procedures, and enforcing expectations are absolutely necessary, the lessons to help instill some of these behaviors don’t have to be dull and boring. We’ve searched far and wide for our favorite books to teach rules and expectations and build a strong classroom community, and here is a list of 10 of those top picks!
3. 5 Strategies to Help Boost Your Students’ Self-Esteem and Confidence in the Classroom
For your less-confident students, the day-to-day requirements of school can cause anxiety and frustration. They may question their abilities and struggle with the stress of balancing it all. As a teacher, you can positively influence your students and encourage them to feel proud of their abilities and accomplishments.
Here are five strategies to help boost your students’ self-esteem and confidence in the classroom.
2. 5 Brain-Based Learning Strategies to Boost Learning, Retention, and Focus
Incorporating brain-based learning into the in-person, online, or bended classroom is easier than you think (and you may already be using some of these strategies!). Finding new and innovative strategies to appeal to your students can help open them up to a world full of learning.
1. Play-Based Learning: What It Is and Why It Should Be a Part of Every Classroom
Let’s talk about why students need play and how we can bring it into our own classrooms—even if we have to sneak it in, and even if we are working with kids who are not so little anymore.
Thank you for another great year of the Edmentum blog. We are so thankful to have readers as dedicated as you. We can’t wait to come back in 2022 with even more incredible best practices, success stories, and deep-dives into the topics that matter most to you. Cheers!
