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Inspiring Creations   Two English teachers share their successes using Inspiration software to inspire creative thinking and writing in their students.   By Angie Gebhardt and Pam Harrell

s educators we feel we need to inspire our students to learn. Whether it be to motivate them to work harder and show more effort in their work, or to show them the endless possibilities in their learning, educators are here to inspire. While we are inspiring them, we have to somehow teach them how to channel and organize their inspiration. Now that's tough!        You have seen it happen so many times. You assign a task, but before the student begins you ask them to brainstorm for all the possible ideas or directions he or she may go. Unfortunately, many students can create the ideas, but they can't do one of three things: They can't make connections between their ideas. They can't write fast enough to remember all their ideas. They can't organize their ideas and thoughts in a logical way.

Check out all of the Standards applicable to this story! ISTE technology standards I. Technology operations and concepts. II. Social, ethical, legal, and human issues. III. Technology productivity tools V. Technology research tools National English Language Arts Standards NL-ENG.K-12.3 Evaluation strategies NL-ENG.K-12.7 Evaluating data NL-ENG.K-12.8 Developing research skills NL-ENG.K-12.12 Applying language skills Click here for a detailed description.

o make matters a little more challenging, educators are now being asked to incorporate technology into their classrooms. So how can you take an activity like brainstorming and connect it to technology?        Well now there is a way. There is a wonderful piece of software that allows teachers and students to brainstorm electronically, create graphic organizers, make Venn Diagrams, and much more. Ironically, this program is called Inspiration.        We, fourth through sixth grade instructor Angie Gebhardt and seventh and eighth grade instructor Pam Harrell have been using Inspiration in our classrooms for several years. Educators have been inundated with all types of new software that can do all sorts of amazing things. But many times, software is limited to a specific subject or task. Students may be able to use it to play a game, review a skill, or learn about a specific topic, but they can't adapt it for use in other areas. Inspiration is different.

nspiration allows you to take any topic or idea and make it expand. The only limit is the user's imagination and thinking process and even then, Inspiration encourages you through those times when you are "stuck" for an idea. Probably it's neatest feature is that while you are gathering your ideas together, Inspiration is at work organizing your thoughts for you. It has the capabilities of not only making graphic organizers, but it will also automatically put your thoughts into an outline format.         We have been using Inspiration for several years in a variety of ways. We would like to share with you how we have used Inspiration with our students. We hope from our projects and ideas you will be inspired to make your own creations. Listed below are some simple Inspiration tutorials to help get you started.

"We hope from our projects and ideas you will be inspired to make your own creations."

Getting to know Inspiration Inspiration Tutorial #1 - learning the toolbars Inspiration Tutorial #2 - modifying the diagram Inspiration Tutorial #3 - outline vs. diagram Inspiration Tutorial #4 - arrangement Inspiration Tutorial #5 - creating a poster & printing

Project Idea #1 - Essay Writing Template nytime you want students to choose a topic and then name things that relate to that topic, Inspiration is the way to go. When students are in the planning stages of writing an essay or research paper, Inspiration is a great way to get them going and organize their thoughts. Using Inspiration, I (Pam Harrell) created a template for a 5 paragraph essay which enables students to just plug in their information to create an essay. Using the template gets the students' thought processes going and demonstrates the importance of using supporting details in their body paragraphs. They also learn the importance of the introduction and conclusion and how all of it works together to create a quality essay. I no longer have to make an essay outline because Inspiration does it for our students.

Project Idea # 2 - Disney Project eaching the concept of "theme" can be hard, especially when you are trying to show how selections that seem to have nothing in common can actually have a related theme. One of the best resources I have found to teach students to find themes is by using a resource they (and I) can relate to, Walt Disney movies. Disney movies seem to have a pretty constant structure to them good guys, bad guys, humor, best buddies, danger, love, secrecy, and I could go on. So we look at some Disney movies in class and discuss what themes are repeated in several of the movies. We then discuss how Disney portrays each theme.        For instance friendship is a pretty constant theme in Disney movies. I ask students what evidence they can find in Disney movies that show "friendship." Common answers are: Timon and Pumba from "The Lion King," the Genie from "Aladdin," Flounder from "The Little Mermaid." Then I ask, "How do you know there is a friendship between these characters?" A typical answer may be: Timon and Pumba follow Simba back to his lion tribe to help him. We get into some great discussions. I then pull in Inspiration and have students choose three themes, they can use some we discussed in class or they may come up with some new ones. I find that students like to "show off" and impress me with their knowledge and ability to think creatively on their own.

hey then are asked to find three pieces of evidence for each theme that will support their theme choice. Inspiration is the tool they use to show their work by creating a flowchart. They are instructed to make sure their links are correct and to make sure that their evidence is matched to the correct theme. Sometimes students find that their evidence for one theme overlaps to another theme. Inspiration helps them make that connection.        Students are encouraged to use graphics and explore the many options in Inspiration offers. In fact, I use this project when I teach them to use this software. Another thing that makes Inspiration great for something like this, is that it allows my students to check their work. I have them browse between the diagram and outline mode. If the outline doesn't make sense, then something is wrong with their flowchart. I have done this project for four years and it keeps getting better and better each year. Here is a Sample Disney Inspiration submitted by Pam Harrell.

Project Idea # 3 - Egypt Study his project can be done using any topic you choose, in this example we will be studying hieroglyphics and students will be learning to create outlines to organize their research. It can be difficult to teach students how to outline the information they have researched, but using Inspiration can help us organize it in an exciting way!        First we spend two or three days using the Internet to research a certain topic such as hieroglyphics. Next we open Inspiration and use the rapid-fire icon to enter all the information we have discovered about the topic. Remind the students to just use single words or phrases when entering the information. When finished, we categorize the information that can be linked and link it together. Next we look at the outline by clicking on the outline icon and the outline is done for you. If some of the information is not exactly where you want it, you can change it here or go back to the diagram and make changes there. Finally, I have the students write a report that follows the outline. The students can't believe how simple it is to write using the outline as a guide.

Project Idea # 4 - Recipe Book his project allows more than one class to collaborate. A third grade class brought their favorite cooking recipes to school and shared them with our sixth graders. They had drawn a flow chart of their recipe showing each step. Before we got started, the sixth graders made a picture folder that contained pictures of food items that we could use when creating our Recipe Book. Using Inspiration we worked in pairs with the third graders and started entering the recipes. For each step the students would enter the information needed in sentence form. We would also pick the picture that would best describe each step. Each recipe only had five or six steps.        The classes worked hard and were very successful. When finished we printed posters to hang on the wall for our display and put a copy in the library so all students at our school could check the book out and try some great recipes.

e continue to find new ways to incorporate Inspiration into our classrooms. Because it is so user friendly and a great learning tool, Inspiration has become a standard feature on our computers right along with word processing programs and the Internet. We welcome comments and would love the opportunity to come to your school and do a workshop with you and your staff.   Angie Gebhardt Lincoln Elementary School Lincoln, KS 67455 gebhardta@usd298.com 785-524-4487   Pam Harrell Lincoln Jr/Sr High School Lincoln, KS 67455 harrell@usd298.com 785-524-4193

Angie Gebhardt teaches fourth through sixth grade English at Lincoln Elementary School in Lincoln, Kansas. Pam Harrell teaches seventh and eighth grade English at Lincoln Junior/Senior High in Lincoln, Kansas. Teacher Testimony authors are nominated by people like you. Send nominations to the editor. © 2000, 2001 High Plains Regional Technology in Education Consortium. This page is Bobby Approved.