Inspiration & Web Resources

While I believe Inspiration is very useful for Elementary classrooms, I found it hard at the beginning to find many uses for the program in a secondary English classroom. Some things I could use the program for include:

1. Brainstorming ideas about a certain topic/author/novel/character before the class embarks on a unit, and then do the same thing at the end to see what was learned.
2. Use the mapping tool to create a relationship diagram to discuss complicated relationships, such as the relationship between everyone in Wuthering Heights.
3. I could also use the tools to map different areas of grammar and show what each area does specifically.
4. Inspiration would come in handy while mapping character plot-lines and growth in stories, especially those about dynamic characters.
5. The Venn Diagrams found on Inspiration would also be valuable.
6. The mapping tool would be amazing to show students how to plan for a paper.
7. On the other hand, the mapping tool could also be used when editing a paper and highlighting what needs to be fixed.
8. Using the webbing tool would also work well with test review. Highlight several important aspects such as character, symbols, and themes in easy to read formatting would allow students to study easily.
9. I personally believe that using the websites the school gives teachers are going to be the easiest way to connect with students. However, it is difficult planning a website that is actually user friendly, so I believe that keeping an (updated) map of the website would be helpful.
10. Finally, using mapping tools to discuss connections between history and the literature of the period will help students understand why certain things are happening in the story.


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My favorite web resouces we've covered in class was definitely United Streaming. I found a lot of the movies and clips on the website to be very helpful. In school, my teachers would order movies, but they often did not get there on time, and we had to move things around. United Streaming is just so easy, and it is literally always there. I think I will use this and Rubistar the most, because they seem to have the most for secondary level teachers. Overall, many of the web resources could prove to be helpful, however.