Inspired Dr. Seuss

March 2nd is Dr. Seuss's birthday and Read Across America Day! By that time, you'll have downladed the trial version of Kidspiration or Inspiration, completed the tutorial and submitted your assignment (Project 2, due February 17.). Now you can use Kidspiration activities to celebrate the birthday of Dr. Seuss and provide students a fun workspace to group word families and match antonyms. Watch this demonstration to see how:



See lots more videos with ideas for using these programs with students from K-12 here and here and here.

Learn About Inspiration - You're Invited!!

In your second project, you'll be using Inspiration or Kidspiration software. The company offers training materials, free trial downloads, lesson plans, a newsletter full of ideas, teacher scholarships and much more. I've been impressed with some of their webcasts, and they have a one coming up you might enjoy. Remember, one of the NETS*T standards is to engage in professional growth and leadership. Here's a good opportunity to do that!


Webcast: Using Visual Learning Techniques to Improve Academic Performance with Inspiration®
Date: Thursday, January 29th, 2009
Time: 12:00-12:45 p.m. Pacific Time, 3:00-3:45 p.m. Eastern Time

Register for this event today!

Inspiration® helps students develop ideas, analyze concepts and improve organizational skills. Join us on January 29th to explore templates and examples that will help your students improve academic performance in Science, Language Arts and Social Studies. Cathy Cuff, our Education Development Manager for Science, will host a complimentary 45-minute webcast demonstrating how you can use Inspiration 8 to:

• Expand on ideas to create well-supported thinking and conclusions
• Build knowledge by increasing comprehension of new concepts
• Increase organizational skills by connecting ideas into a logical hierarchy

Join us for this professional development webcast!

If you are unable to join us, don't worry - the webcast will be archived and available to you shortly after the event concludes. View our archived webcasts!

Benjamin Zander: Amazing!

What is YOUR outlook toward learning? Is learning a joy to you? or is it a chore? What is your attitude toward teaching? This video will make you think (and entertain you, too!)

See my favorite Benjamin Zander video here. (You don't have to like classical music to enjoy this super-teacher and learn from him, too!)

I wish for each of you many "shining eyes" in your future!