"FLASHES OF INSPIRATION," Inspiration Software, Inc's quarterly newsletter, showcases educators using Inspiration in interesting and unusual ways. Follow the links below to read stories from past issues.

May 2000

Inspiration fever heats up NHEEEP expo
Students coming in early to work on projects? Entering and winning competitions, and training other students to use software? No, it isn't a scene from a science fiction movie, just a normal day at Queensbury Union Free School District in Queensbury, New York.

Where can I find those chattering teeth?
As you probably already know, Inspiration 6 ships with over 1,300 symbols. That's a lot of images to remember! If you're having problems locating specific symbols, we've got a solution.

January 2000

Inspiration 6 offers educators expanded visual learning tools Educators now have an expanded set of tools for bringing the power ofvisual learning into their classrooms - Inspiration 6! Released in January 2000, Inspiration 6 is the premier tool to develop ideas and organize thinking.

Inspiration goes to Washington
Instructional Technology Specialist Kathie Stewart has been using Inspiration with students in her lab to organize a variety of projects, from a report on the Boston Tea Party to a "My Best Friend" essay.

Character webs and Inspiration capture essence of Macbeth
This year, Vicki Broadhead is using Inspiration to tackle Macbeth with her Senior English Honors students. As they read the play, each student uses Inspiration for a variety of activities, all designed to help them understand the characters, scenes, metaphors, and major themes in the play.

August 1999

Last September, eighth grader Alden Dale tried something new when writing his English papers. Before jumping into a word processing program, he used Inspiration to create a graphical organizer.

For the third year in a row, Muggs Murphy's fifth grade Gifted & Talented students have swept the Association of of Indiana Media Educators (AIME) Commercial Authoring competition. Each year, students select a topic . . . this year it's Endangered Animals. Using RapidFire^TM, one student quickly captures and records the other students' ideas: gorilla, chinook salmon, and manatee get them started.

May 1999

Punnett squares and inherited traits have long filled the genetics projects at high school science fairs across the country. One high school freshman used Inspiration to complete a zoology project that stood out from the rest.

Helping students learn to learn has never been more challenging. Schools are pressed for time and funding to provide technology staff development in an increasingly technological world. It is more important than ever to help students develop critical thinking and learning skills. Webbing, concept mapping, and other graphical organizers tap visual learning modes and help students develop these important skills.

February 1999

Last October, Donna Hall's kindergarten classroom was full of scary things...By December, the ghosts and goblins had been replaced with trees, snowflakes, and festively wrapped gifts. This February, you will find the Florida classroom full of boxes of candy, cupids and red hearts. But don't worry about the clutter! Mrs. Hall uses Inspiration to introduce these topics to her young students; they use Inspiration to create KWH charts.

Elizabeth Kadish, a fourth grade teacher in Flint Lake, Indiana, threw caution to the wind last November and took the plunge with Inspiration. After only fifteen minutes of training on Inspiration and thirty minutes to rethink her plans, she scrapped her original lesson plan and jumped right into one using Inspiration.

September 1998

Evelyn Woodman, Education Coordinator with the Massachusetts Elementary School Principals Association, sent her eight-year-old son off to summer camp in June expecting him to return with dirty laundry, fun memories, and maybe even a case of poison ivy. She was surprised, though, when his camp experience inspired an idea for a classroom activity using Inspiration.

Don't be surprised if strains of jazz leak into the hallways of Boston Public Schools during the coming year! In June, Inspiration was included in The Rhythm of Learning, a week-long training Institute for teams of teachers in the Boston area.

Summertime in Alaska is a perfect opportunity for a picnic. And planning a picnic was a perfect opportunity for Doug Davlin to use Inspiration to plan a classroom activity.

Spring 1998

Sue Sorrentino sits on the floor with a group of seven-year-olds, all clustered around a computer. They squirm a little, but their eyes are big and she has their full attention. ...It looks like the class is playing a game. Actually, Mrs. Sorrentino is showing her students how to use Inspiration.

Professor Lucy MacDonald's students take field trips every week -- and not just within Salem, OR, where her college is located, but around the world. They travel, of course, through the internet. And they take Inspiration everywhere they go.

Fall 1997

"When students sit down with Hyperstudio, they get so intrigued with its bells and whistles that they forget about content," says teacher Patti Scanlon. "But if we've first worked with Inspiration to plan the content of our projects, then my students can create something really useful."

There's a science teacher in Georgia sitting around a computer with a group of students. The teacher calls out the name of a creature, and the group discusses in which taxonomic category to place it. Then the teacher enters it into the flowchart they're creating with Inspiration. This brief exercise is a triumph for the InTech program at Georgia's Kennesaw State University.

Winter 1996

Prof. Don Messerschmidt and his team of Australian community forestry experts carried Inspiration to Nepal, where the software was put to its most humanitarian use ever: rapport building with Himalayan mountain villagers.

Middle school teachers show their students how to tame the Web -- by pre-planning with Inspiration. "Kids love the adventure of the Web," Larry Lewin says, " but they get deflated when they don't find what they're looking for. Their attention span requires a successful search, and pre-planning a search ... increases their chances of success."

Fall 1996

Middle school teacher George Windham finds concept mapping helps his students comprehend science concepts more fully, and uses it as an assessment tool.

Back to Visual Learning Page