Andy Larmand

A tool built to amplify both student productivity and retention, ideamapper essentially serves as a visual mind mapping tool by combining the practice of mind mapping with word processing. It’s designed to help your students establish visual connections among all the most crucial curricular concepts and pieces of information they need to know in all areas of the curriculum.

What about those students who will still be doing remote learning at the start of the school year? They’ll have social-emotional needs, too. Establishing connections between these students and their new teachers is going to be important for ensuring success throughout the school year, but it’s probably going to be tougher as well.

This month, Jim shares his thoughts and experiences with teaching PE remotely and, if not, no worries—you can learn about his creativity in this post as well! Like almost everybody else, Jim had to adapt his teaching style to accommodate distance learning and he definitely found some success with what he tried. Keep reading to learn more about him!

With help from our vendor partners, we’ve been working hard to make sure educators know how to adapt the tech tools they consistently rely on in the classroom into a home learning solution. Each one is different, but the opportunities to include STEM experiences, like coding, engineering, and design, in distance learning are there.

When schools first started to shut down, we saw how STEM and MakerEd really began to take a back seat in favor of more traditional educational requirements as teachers tried to find a rhythm in remote learning. At the same time, however, we—and plenty of others—knew just how important and beneficial STEM learning could be.

We’ve transitioned into another new month, and that means we have some news regarding the awarding of our EdTech grant from last month. For this latest award, we’ve presented the grant to Carla Neely, who is a fourth and fifth grade STEM teacher at an all-girls school in Cleveland, Ohio—and she works with a lot of Title I students as

Like so many teachers, students, parents, and administrators, we’re uncertain about what this school year will bring, especially as school doors slowly start to reopen. Whether learning is going to be taking place in person, at home, or as part of a hybrid model, we know that we couldn’t let STEM learning opportunities fall by the wayside.

To use their littleBits micro:bit Adapter, kids will need a micro:bit V2, which are available on our store separately. The micro:bit board slides easily into the slot on the top of their micro:bit Adapter and fastens securely, allowing students to incorporate MakeCode programs in littleBits circuits. Read on to learn more about this valuable STEAM and CS accessory.

Like fellow members of the education world, we’ve realized there’s a bit more to educating the whole child than simply ensuring they have a strong foundational background in STEM. As the school year begins, STEM remains important, but we’re also committed to ensuring students have the chance to focus on social-emotional restoration. 

In our latest Rising Resources post, we’re exploring the Edublogs platform, which is an online tool students can use for practicing some key real-world skills like writing, blogging, and written communication. Usually thought of as more of a soft skill, communication is nonetheless extremely important for students as they prepare to enter the workforce in the coming years.