It’s still summer, and we hope you’re taking time to relax and recharge your batteries. But if there’s a little voice in your head reminding you that another school year lies ahead – and you’ve promised yourself that you’ll be more prepared this time around – we can help you get a handle on things with this helpful checklist. It covers the pertinent categories: students, parents, curriculum, technology, organization, classroom management, and self-care, plus miscellaneous. With the checklist in hand, you can silence that nagging little voice and get back to the important work of summer: relaxation, with a bit of time spent reading, learning, and growing as a professional! 

America has always had a culture set on dreaming up possibilities and then taking action to make them happen. I believe that the amazing innovation we have seen in the United States (and, in some cases, don’t even know about yet) is due to the “maker” mentality. Because the art of making is inherent to the very fabric of our culture, it’s central to 21^st learning.

Childhood has long been a time when young minds are allowed – indeed, encouraged – to play and “make.” It’s important to understand that allowing students to be makers opens the doors to both personalized and authentic learning.

The current Maker Movement in education puts greater emphasis on allowing students to imagine, envision, create, innovate, play, formatively learn, experiment, collaborate, share, and – most of all – dream of possibilities. Creating a classroom makerspace seems to be a natural progression in today’s schools.

Merry and Oh So Bright!

Everyone is counting down the days to holiday break – students and teachers alike. To power all of us through the end of the year, we’re bringing you some holiday cheer today. We asked fellow educators, administrators, and Mimio parents to share the holiday traditions that are observed in their schools and classrooms. These stories put a smile on our faces and also gave us some great ideas for next year.

Wonderful holiday traditions bring fun, the joy of giving, and the spirit of learning to one and all. Enjoy!

Learn ways to help you make lessons that are easy on the eyes and the mind!

Do you sometimes find yourself wanting to create a lesson that will wow, but end up just staring at a blank screen? Don’t worry – it happens to all of us. Maybe it’s writer’s block, a creative road block, or you’re just plain stumped. When that happens, following these 10 tips can help you get you back on track and on your way to creating a truly great lesson. They center around 5 key areas: interactivity, aesthetics, instruction, originality, and collaboration.

When you build lessons do you sometimes have trouble knowing where to begin? Or do you get stuck in a rut, re-creating the same thing over and over? We know how important it is to not only create engaging lessons, but ones of high quality. We have compiled 5 key ways to improve your lessons to make them more interactive and effective.

Lessons that achieve positive learning outcomes with students often contian the following instructional design components:

Get ready to get organized!


The first day of school is just around the corner – are you prepared for the 2014-15 school year? To help you start the year off right, we’ve got a Content Pack filled with "housekeeping" classroom templates and resources for customizing activities. This free Content Pack, available from the MimioConnect® online teaching community, will help you and your students get ready to get down to business.

Over the past year, Mimio created two informative guides to help educators with some of the challenges they currently face in their classrooms. Mimio has also documented the stories of some dynamic and creative educators who are using Mimio products. These case studies highlight how they have benefited from our hardware and software to facilitate engagement and instruction. If you missed any of these publications, you can download them now from the link below.