Mentoring Minds

I was approached by this amazing company and was asked to write a blog post about them. I have to admit, I did not know much about them at the time but after their request, I did some research and got to review some of their materials and I liked what I saw. Their logo caught my eye!

Mentoring Minds is a company that is focused on student success. Their products are created with the student in mind. If you have any questions you can go to their website www.mentoringminds.com and go to their research tab. Here you will find the efficacy studies and the product research they conducted.

The items that I absolutely loved were the CCSS flip chart. They have these by grade level and I was impressed with all of the information in this chart and the good thing is it is all at your fingertips. There are several sections of the flip chart. Here are some photos of the kindergarten flip chart.

This a section that has RTI Strategies for all 3 tiers. In this section, there are also action steps listed for each tier. Then considerations to do before referring them to another tier or other options.

I loved the sections on CCSS for Math and ELA. All the standards at your fingertips. This is a very useful resource for teachers!

The one section that I have to admit blew me away was the Higher Order Thinking Section. This had question frames for all the domains. The power words are listed and It contains Hess' Cognitive Rigor Matrix and Curricular Examples! This combines the DOK (Depth of Knowledge) with Bloom's Taxonomy. This is so vital for teachers to insure that their lessons are rigorous! Then to even add more greatness to this section, it ends with a Differentiated Instruction Checklist! I am sorry but you can not get any better than that!

Here is a photo of the Differentiated Checklist!

I could go on and on about this one product but I have another one to talk about!

I also got to review the Math Vocabulary Cards. I was impressed with the wording. It is worded so that the students would understand and it also has an illustration with the definition. These cards come with a word play activity book.This book has a plethora of awesome ideas to do with word walls so it can be used with all words not just the vocabulary cards that it comes with. One game for example is Word Wall Baseball. This is a great way to get the boys involved.

Here are some pictures of the Vocab cards: 

But not only do they focus on learning, they also focus on behavior management! They have flip charts for this as well!

Mentoring Minds combines technology with print. The students can have both ways to learn the material. It is not worksheet based!

The Math and ELA programs are geared towards student success: Here are some links to get some additional information:

https://www.mentoringminds.com/products/subjects/math.html

https://www.mentoringminds.com/products/subjects/reading.html

Those are the two items that I previewed. They were at the ISTE 2015 conference in Philadelphia and they are enthusiastic and very knowledgable when it come to ways to improve student success.  

They have programs for both Math and ELA. They also have DOK wheels and many more awesome teacher resources. This is definitely a company you should look at when trying to find that just right resource for CCSS implementation.

Click on their logo below to go to their website!