QUICK LESSON: Make the Most of Student Resources

April 28th, 2011 No Comments
QL 6 Prewriting Select a Topic

With Inspiration®, InspireData® and Kidspiration®, we’ve provided some excellent resources to help teachers get started and continue using visual learning across all subject areas in the classroom. These tools include things like lesson plans, video tutorials, templates, activities and examples. It’s important to us to help educators feel fully equipped to integrate our visual learning technology tools into their curriculum.

That’s why with our new, online writing, visual thinking and collaboration tool, Webspiration Classroom™ service, we’ve done this – and more. A Webspiration Classroom subscription includes both Educator and Student Resources to help you and your entire classroom get start with visual thinking, writing, collaboration, peer review and more. So, check out how you can make the most of these resources.

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Visually Think Through the Brainstorming Process

April 26th, 2011 No Comments
Post 34 Graphic 3

So your students have sat down at their computers to begin brainstorming. They have a main idea in the center of their screens and maybe they’ve started to RapidFire® every concept that comes to mind on the topic. Soon their screens are full of words, pictures and symbols that represent their thoughts. This visual learning technique is often called webbing. It’s a free-form way to kick-start the brainstorming process for any writing assignment or project. Yet, this in itself is not the end result of brainstorming that embodies all the elements of 21st century skills. Your students aren’t done with the process  just because they’ve thought of some ideas and concepts. Instead, the creative process is an elaborate one that bridges the gap between scattered thoughts and organized thinking that is ready for the production of an essay or project.

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INSPIRED SITE: Inspiration and Kidspiration for the Deaf and Hard of Hearing

April 25th, 2011 No Comments
Inspiration and Kidspiration for the Deaf and Hard of Hearing

Did you know Inspiration® and Kidspiration® are commonly used among learners who are deaf and hard of hearing? In fact, at the Resource Materials and Technology Center for the Deaf and Hard of Hearing, associated with the Florida Diagnostic & Learning Resources System, Inspiration and Kidspiration are widely used to help students with disabilities to better organize, comprehend and retain information. This is evident from their information page on their website.

Here, you’ll see how your school can set up a resources page for professional development and training for your teachers on tools such as Inspiration and Kidspiration. On this page you’ll find resources for Computer-Based Study strategies, lesson plans, classes, tutorials and sample diagrams or outlines. The Florida School for the Deaf and the Blind has truly prepared its teachers to use tools like Inspiration and Kidspiration successfully in the classroom.

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Begin With the End in Mind: Purposeful Visual Learning

April 19th, 2011 No Comments
Post 33 Visual

It’s widely understood that visual learning can improve students’ comprehension, retention and critical thinking in the classroom. Yet, you can’t just throw any visual learning activity into an assignment and expect enormous results from your students. These visual learning tools, be it graphic organizers, compare and contrast diagrams, plot summaries or character analysis webs, must serve a purpose in each and every lesson. Visual learning for the sake of visual learning won’t get you or your students anywhere. Instead, begin with the end in mind and introduce visual learning tools with an added value and purpose for the learning exercise.

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INSPIRED SITE: A Webspiration Classroom Tutorial from TeacherTube

April 18th, 2011 No Comments
Webspiration Classroom tutorial on TeacherTube

We love TeacherTube and we know you do too! That’s why we’re excited to share with you today’s featured Inspired Calendar. It’s a Webspiration Classroom™ service tutorial to help you get going with our new, online writing and collaboration tool! This video shows you just how easy and smooth it is to work with Webspiration Classroom. Check it out to truly see it for yourself!

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Teaching DNA for the 21st Century

April 12th, 2011 No Comments
21st Century Pedagogy

Improving education ultimately comes down to supporting our teachers and helping them develop and expand their methods of teaching as the world evolves and the demands of educating our youth change. To me, this means giving teachers the fundamental building blocks and tools to prepare students for the 21st century. Yet, what are those fundamental building blocks? What’s the pedagogy of the future? How does the way students learn today affect the way we need to teach today and tomorrow? These are the questions that are floating around in my head after I watched a compelling video on YouTube titled “21st Century Pedagogy” by Greg Whitby, the Executive Director of Schools at the Catholic Diocese of Parramatta. Let’s explore these ideas further.

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INSPIRED SITE: Templates from The Missouri School Web Project

April 11th, 2011 No Comments
Templates from The Missouri School Web Project

Discover some excellent Inspiration® and Kidspiration® templates from The Missouri School Web Project! You can easily download these documents directly to your computer to use in your classroom. One of my favorite diagrams from this list is the “Branches of Government” template listed under Inspiration Templates. What’s great about this site is that it also gives you additional ideas for using Inspiration and Kidspiration with your SMART Board or SMART Notebook.

 

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What Are the Ingredients of Learning?

April 5th, 2011 No Comments
Learning to Change, Changing to Learn

In his State of the Union address last January, President Barack Obama put education at the top of the agenda. These themes for education reform and change have rippled through the nation with his recent campaigns for the Race to the Top. There’s a great deal of talk about technology integration, 21st century skills, web 2.0 and more, throughout the education community. It’s evident that we are resting on the dawn of a great change in education, the classroom, teaching and learning. Yet while we work to train more teachers, change policies, increase funding and expand overall efforts to turnaround education, I thinks it’s important for us to ask: What are the ingredients of learning today?

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INSPIRED SITE: Get Started on Webspiration Classroom

April 4th, 2011 No Comments
Step-by-step instructions by Andy Mann, from Calhoun Intermediate School District in Michigan

Follow these step-by-step instructions by Andy Mann, from Calhoun Intermediate School District in Michigan, to get acquainted with our newest web-based tool. At the end of these instructions, you’ll be able to successfully show the similarities and differences between two ideas through Webspiration Classroom™ service’s visual learning tools that will help you better visualize, comprehend, organize and analyze information. What I love about this featured Inspired Site is how visual it is! You won’t miss a step in these instructions because the screen shots help you follow along. What’s more is that these instructions can be used in your classroom to introduce your students to Webspiration Classroom. It can even be used with educators in professional development or technology training of this new collaborative Web 2.0 tool.

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