The complimentary Webcast “Using Visual Learning Techniques to Improve Academic Performance with Inspiration” on January 29th, 12:00-12:45 pm was a great success! For all of you that attended, thank you for spending your time with us. Don't worry if you missed the event, it is archived and available for viewing. All of our Inspiration, Kidspiration and InspireData webcasts are archived so feel free to watch all of them that pique your interest.
During the webcast, I had attendees submit their ideas for using Inspiration in the classroom. I asked them to think about a past lesson or future lesson that could be enhanced using Inspiration. Below you will find the list of ideas submitted by the attendees during the webcast! If you submitted an idea on the day of the Webcast, or you can think of a great idea after you watch the archive, please post your templates or exemplars on the Inspired Learning Community website at: inspiredlearningcommunity.com. I know that all teachers would appreciate the shared knowledge and creativity. Go out there and post your Inspiration, Kidspiration and InspireData lessons!
Great job everyone on the list of ideas below!
Use Inspiration to:
* Help brainstorm word associations in foreign language
* Investigate Plate Tectonics
* As a timeline for music genres in a Digital Music class
* Do family trees in German or French
* Research minerals for a science lesson
* Map out the Civil War conflict using the Conflict template in Social Studies
* Compare elements of fiction
* Study photosynthesis
* Classify plants and animals
* Compare tribes and regions of Texas
* Study types of Verbals - Participles, Gerunds, and Infinitives
* Research a software title and plan a "Software Review" paragraph
* Study kinds of triangles and their characteristics in a concept map
* Introduce students to Inspiration by using their Science book and Create and outline based on their chapters, info and definitions
* Create family trees in middle school and used it to expand into another lesson
* Study and contrasting volume, mass and density
* Guide a geometry lesson about Polygons
* Compare and contrast two myths
* Do a literary comparison between two poems
* Compare and contrast FDR's economic policies with Hoover's
* Plan an All about Me yearbook pre-writing lesson
* Study reasons for overpopulation in the world
* Do timelines in world history
* To create life cycles for animals
* Research and then develop a travel brochure about a country
* Study the legislative process
* Study the Lewis and Clark Expedition
* In art class, I have my sixth graders make Inuit clay masks. I include writing a story about their animal masks and can use the Inspiration Lang. Arts template on the parts of a story to help them write their story.
* Work with special ed. students who have trouble organizing thoughts, etc. for any subject!
* Compare different speeches from presidents...past and present...I see using the videos from the web as links to hear the actual speeches...Each Presidents picture could be on the main template and info included
* In a business app class, students have taken notes on class info taken during lecture. The kids said, "I've never had so much fun taking notes."
* Offer wonderful support to students in their classrooms who work with a speech language pathologist.
* Allow students to give oral reports using their presentation. The hyperlinks would be great along with included videos. They will have the notes available if they need them.
* Teach students about biodiversity. They needed to demonstrate their knowledge on how plants and animals interact in the environment.
* Create a template to help students organize their thoughts for a writing assignment - different templates can be created for the different types of writing
* Do a comparison of characters in Roll of Thunder
* Help students trying to organize their thoughts to write a biography
* Show character identification in the novel Julius Caesar
* In a private school setting to: create a map showing 1 - 12 tribes of Israel, comparison of Infancy Narratives in Luke and Matthew's Gospels and study of King David - pre-kingship and post kingship to his death.
* Have students’ plan their animal research project
* Help with French assignments by using the recording feature
* Create a three page paper that need to have 4 concepts from our 2 different text books and write a paper on this topic: Library/Information Science Profession Facing a Leadership Crisis? Take a side.
* Create concept maps to summarize a chemistry unit and then have students tie it all together. I am currently starting weather and am using concept maps to create an ingredients list: heat-pressure-moisture and wind. Students will draw the relationships between each.
* Teachers could use Inspiration to create diagrams for units of study providing students with related videos and links to websites. The diagram would help students to focus on the learning goals.
* Introduce vocabulary to students. Engage the listening tool, so students can use the lesson independently to develop background knowledge and vocabulary.
* In teaching the accounting equation (Assets = liabilities + owner's equity) for an Accounting class- I have students insert pictures of images which would be assets (cash, supplies, buildings, etc.)
* Any of the following projects: New Year Celebrations Around the World, Studies of States, Studies of Continents, Healthy Choices for Life, Comparison of Novels/Novel Study, Pioneer Life vs. Modern Survival Skills, Political Parties and Processes
* Create a comparison of different School system in Germany and the USA
* Classification of organisms in biology class would work perfectly with Inspiration
* Show Story Grammar-setting, character, plot, and theme
* Create comprehensive book reports
* Teach the writing process all the way through creating the works cited paged. I would include Internet searches, databases, books
* Show results of rapid population growth on an area
* Show causes of the American Revolution, Civil War or any conflict..
* To draw concept map about lesson introducing tactics in advertising (bandwagon, transfer, etc)
* To compare and contrast USSR vs. USA Cold War POVs
* To create life cycles for animals
* To show the areas of the library media center (storytelling area, table area, reference area, computers, etc.) or the various materials areas (fiction, nonfiction, easy, reference, professional, etc)...students make visual 'map' & add notes
* To tackle comprehension of vocabulary
* To create a graphic organizer of a story and use pictures and key words/ expressions for ESL/ELL learners
* Use the process template in Inspiration for science fair projects
* To analyze conflicting forces in World War II - Allies vs Axis - 5th grade
* To do a logic flowchart with geometric figures and their properties---we classified figures flowchart style.
* Create a web for each: Wampanoag and English Colonists in Massachusetts in the 17th C; then compare and contrast both
* Teach living vs. non-living to 1st graders
* Compare and contrast the design of two different websites
* Exam view organization
* Adapt a basic cake recipe to create three types of cake: white, golden and chocolate using Inspiration
* Help the student organize their thoughts for debate class using Inspiration
* Use in science and social studies to have students outline sections in the chapters.
* Students who are reluctant to write long papers or even paragraphs will be more open to sharing ideas one or two sentences at a time. I can imagine how excited some students would be to transfer their thinking on the Inspiration screen to a Word document.
* Organize information about different technologies and resources that can be used when teaching.
* Create a problem solving diagram for troubleshooting computer errors
* Organize information about chemical reactions: parts, types, change in energy, controlling reactions
* Introduce the scientific method as a process
* Help students to keep track of all the new terms they have to learn.
* Organize your information about your state/town.
* In-service trainings to developing outlines that are given as handouts create a flow chart as a visual aid for following a sequence of steps in a procedure
* Show the Powers of Government Branches
* Pre and post assessments, Overview of Unit for students, project designed by students
* For broader application, Inspiration can support levy passage strategies, building expansion/modification initiatives, community input during "In touch" sessions, etc. Also, for parent or teacher input in creating policies, curriculum ideas, school benefit
* Outline a Grant Proposal
* Show the connection between the three fundamental funding sources in Utah public education.
