What’s New at Inspiration Software®, Inc.
Students Will Comprehend, Create, Communicate and Achieve With Inspiration 9
The Inspired Visual Learning Winners are Announced!
New bonus packs now available
New lesson plan books support student learning
Introducing Kidspiration® 3 -- The visual way to explore and understand words, numbers and concepts
Introducing InspireData® 1.5 -- The visual way to explore and understand data
Students Will Comprehend, Create, Communicate and Achieve With Inspiration 9
Newest Version of Leader in Visual Thinking and Learning's Flagship Software Designed to Build 21st Century Communication and Thinking Skills
Inspiration® Software, Inc., the leader in visual thinking and learning, today unveiled Inspiration® 9, the ultimate thinking and learning tool to comprehend, create, communicate and achieve more. With the ninth generation of its flagship software, the company is taking the proven ways that visual learning builds critical-thinking skills and improves student achievement in new directions, making the world’s bestselling visual learning tool even more powerful. New capabilities in Inspiration 9, such as support for creating presentations and additional visual learning methodologies, provide an essential framework for thinking and help students develop 21st century skills.
Since its debut more than two decades ago, Inspiration has garnered numerous awards from the education, technology and parenting communities. Now used by millions of students and teachers around the world, the software is considered the gold standard of visual learning tools.
"To be successful in the 21st century, it isn’t just enough to learn facts and figures. It is essential that today's students develop strong critical-thinking, writing and organisational skills as well as good communication skills to effectively share their knowledge and understanding," said Mona Westhaver, president and co-founder, Inspiration Software. "Inspiration 9 encourages creativity, comprehension and retention, helping students build the critical-thinking and communication skills necessary for success in school, higher education and life."
New in Inspiration is the Presentation Manager, which students use to create organised and compelling presentations to present and communicate their knowledge and work. The Presentation Manager automatically creates bulleted slides and graphics from a student’s diagram, mind map or outline. Students use this as the starting point to build their oral presentation and handouts and then add slides, speaker notes, talking points, graphics, video and sound to emphasise their points. Inspiration 9 ships with numerous ready-made professional quality themes to quickly develop a visually appealing presentation, or students can create their own themes to personalise their presentations. Once their presentation is complete, they can play it directly from Inspiration or from any Macintosh® or Windows® computer using the free Inspiration Presenter available on the installation CD and at http://www.inspiration.com/global/inspiration-presenter.
Inspiration 9 also provides:
Tricia Lockhart, a freelance education adviser, has extensive experience using Inspiration Software; having tested the latest version, Tricia was extremely impressed, commenting, "Inspiration 9 has delivered what I have come to expect. The robustness and intuitive interface remain; the multimedia tools so useful to many are intact; the new tools such as the Presentation Manager form extra features that are really valuable and totally integrate into my favourite and most used piece of software. The uncanny knack to come up with neat twists simply applied and to wrinkle out features of real benefit to users makes me feel they must have been in my classroom watching my students!"
About Inspiration Software, Inc.
Recognised as the leader in visual thinking and learning, Inspiration Software, Inc.’s award-winning software tools, Inspiration, Kidspiration® and InspireData®, are based on proven visual learning methodologies that help students think, learn and achieve. With the powerful combination of visual learning and technology, students learn to clarify thoughts, organise and analyse information, integrate new knowledge and think critically. Founded more than 25 years ago by Donald Helfgott and Mona Westhaver, the company's visual learning software tools are used today by more than 25 million students and teachers worldwide.
Inspired Visual Learning Winners are Announced!
We Honour 15 Educators with Inspired Visual Learning Awards for Best Projects Using Visual Learning
Educators, School Library Media Specialists Rewarded With Inspiration, Kidspiration and InspireData, New Classroom Technology and Professional Development Opportunities
PORTLAND, Ore. – March 31, 2009 – Inspiration Software®, Inc. today announced the 15 educators and their students from around the world who will receive Inspired Visual Learning Awards. The 2008-2009 awards program recognises three Gold Star and 12 Silver Star winners for creatively using the company’s visual learning software tools, Inspiration®, Kidspiration® and InspireData®, in their classrooms. More than 220 entries from 11 countries competed in the inaugural year of this award program. To see the winning projects, visit the Inspired Learning Community!
Top honors went to the three Gold Star winners: Jason Rushing, technology integration specialist, Humann Elementary School, Lincoln Public Schools, Lincoln, Neb; Kimberly Seder, media specialist, Cathedral School, Diocese of Raleigh, N.C.; and Cheryl Teaters, biology teacher, Gateway School District, Monroeville, Pa.
All 15 winners receive a new Intel-powered convertible classmate PC, donated by Intel Corporation. The three Gold Star winners also receive $2,500 USD to support professional development and/or classroom technology purchases, a 10-pack volume licence for one of Inspiration Software’s visual learning software tools, along with the supporting lesson plan books, and a six-month Atomic Learning video subscription. The 12 Silver Star award winners receive $1,000 for professional development and/or classroom technology and a five-pack volume licence for an Inspiration Software product with supporting lesson plan books.
“The educators who entered our new Inspired Visual Learning Awards program gave us great insights into how visual learning is being used across the curriculum at their schools around the world, as well as what is needed to help them take the integration of this proven instructional strategy to the next level,” said Mona Westhaver, president and co-founder, Inspiration Software. “We are proud to honour these 15 remarkable educators and know that with the new visual learning software, technology and professional development opportunities supported by our awards, they will have even more stories of creative teaching and improved student learning to share with us in the future.”
The three Gold Star Inspired Visual Learning Award winners are illustrative of the creative ways that educators around the world are using visual learning to help students of all ages and abilities to learn and build critical thinking skills.
Gold Star winner Jason Rushing teaches educators in his school – and throughout the state of Nebraska – how to use Kidspiration with their students to teach maths, language arts and science, mapping back to state and district standards. His award will support attendance at the 2009 National Educational Computing Conference (NECC) in June in Washington, D.C., as well as to purchase digital cameras and even more Kidspiration 3 upgrade licences for his school.
At the Cathedral School, Diocese of Raleigh, N.C., Gold Star winner and media specialist Kimberly Seder worked with teachers and students in years 4-8 to use Inspiration and Kidspiration to plan and organise a Web celebrating the school’s centennial. They created a timeline and learned about the events that had changed the world, the country, their state and their school during the past century. She will use the Inspired Visual Learning Award for a workshop at the school on integrating technology into the curriculum and to purchase more laptops for the school.
For high school biology teacher and Gold Star winner Cheryl Teaters, technology and visual learning are integral parts of daily science instruction. This school year, her students used Inspiration to complete an innovative cell analogy project, where they compared each individual organelle of a cell to another “organism” such as a shopping mall or a car. Teaters plans to use her award to spread the word about Inspiration and visual learning in her school with a professional development workshop, and to purchase digital cameras and other technology to support the school-wide use of visual learning.
The 12 talented teachers who won Silver Star Inspired Visual Learning Awards are named below, along with brief descriptions of how they use visual learning with their students and how they will use their awards.
- Megan Clapp, technology integration coordinator, Cooperative Educational Services, Therapeutic Day School, Trumbull, Conn., said technology has truly changed the ways that teachers use visual learning with students at her K-12 special education school. In language arts, they use Inspiration to brainstorm ideas and create character maps. In maths, students use the visual manipulatives in Kidspiration to problem-solve as a group on an interactive whiteboard. She will use her award to support the purchase of an additional whiteboard for the school to provide training for teachers on using Inspiration on a whiteboard.
- Michael Eppolito, teacher, Flood Brook Union School, Windsor Southwest Supervisory Union, Londonderry, Vt., describes himself as a “champion” of Inspiration and Kidspiration in his school and district, supporting their integration across the curriculum as well as by educators for a planning tool. He will use his award to purchase an interactive whiteboard and to attend a workshop on integrating it into the curriculum.
- With Inspiration, students in Sabine Fleshner’s German classes at Millard Public School, Omaha, Neb., organise vocabulary, learn grammar concepts, build family trees, develop German reading comprehension and even take notes in German. Her award will support the purchase of an interactive whiteboard or audio response system for her classroom.
- The kindergarteners in Jennifer Frederick’s class at Fairview Elementary School, Lake Charles, La., learn with Kidspiration every day. Frederick uses visual learning to support reading and maths instruction and to keep children on track to master the Louisiana learning goals. Her award will support attendance at the 2009 NECC in Washington, D.C., a workshop at her school on visual learning and the purchase of MP3 players and handheld computers for her classroom.
- For Paula Hogue, art teacher, Mount Saint Charles Academy, Woonsocket, R.I., Inspiration is her personal planning tool as well as an instructional tool. With Inspiration, her Advanced Art students planned a visual presentation highlighting their artwork for a potential job interview. The award will support the purchase of a high-quality printer for producing professional quality prints of her students’ artwork.
- Saima Khalique, teacher, Rawalpindi, Pakistan, had eighth-grade students use InspireData to conduct a survey asking the question, “Does our lifestyle and diet affect our health and exam grades?” With the Inspired Visual Learning Award, Khalique will participate in an online professional development course and purchase a multimedia projector for the school’s resource room.
- Sherri Miller, instructional technology resource teacher, Gloucester County Public Schools, Gloucester, Va., works closely with her school’s teachers and students to integrate both Inspiration and Kidspiration into teaching and learning. Her award will support the purchase of her school’s first interactive whiteboard on a portable rolling stand so that it can be shared by many teachers.
- With InspireData, students in Mickey Monahan’s Advanced Placement government classes at James Wood High School, Winchester, Va., understood the changing data around the 2008 presidential election as well as conducted their own surveys and analysed the results. As a result of her award, educators in her district will have the opportunity to attend an InspireData Summer Camp, where they will learn more about using the visual way to understand and explore data with their students. She will also purchase an interactive whiteboard and airliner pad for her classroom.
- Maureen Murphy, technology teacher/coordinator, St. Celestine School, Elmwood Park, Ill., sees Inspiration and Kidspiration as key to differentiating instruction across the curriculum. She uses graphic organisers to teach second graders about spiders and to teach fifth graders the elements that make a planet habitable as well as the events surrounding the Revolutionary War. Her award will support the purchase of new presentation technology tools for her school and attendance at a conference on integrating quality Web sites into classroom instruction.
- Whether she is teaching math or language arts, Michelle O'Brien, fifth-grade teacher, Mary Eyre Elementary School, Salem-Keizer School District, Salem, Ore., relies on both Inspiration and Kidspiration to help her students understand complex topics and communicate their ideas clearly. The Inspired Visual Learning Award will support the purchase of an interactive whiteboard and projector for her classroom.
- As an instructional leader in her school, Vicky Richter, library media center teacher, Benjamin Middle School, Benjamin School District 25, West Chicago, Ill., works with teachers at all grade levels to help them integrate visual learning into instruction. The grant will allow Benjamin Middle School to license Inspiration Software’s visual learning software for all of its computers.
- With Inspiration, Oanh Vovan, head of modern languages, American School of Bombay, Mumbai, India, has a powerful tool to help his foreign language students learn vocabulary as well as write essays. Vovan said planning writing with Inspiration is “like going shopping to gather all of the ingredients before cooking.” The Inspired Learning Award will be used for professional development and to support attendance at a conference on integrating technology into learning.
This awards program builds on the company’s decade-long tradition of honouring educators for their creative use of visual learning in the classroom. Through its own and other awards programs that it has sponsored, such as the Intel Schools of Distinction Awards, Inspiration Software has recognised hundreds of educators from the United States and other countries around the world.
For more information about Inspiration Software and the Inspired Visual Learning Awards, visit http://www.inspiration.com/global. To see the winning projects, visit the Inspired Learning Community!
About Inspiration Software, Inc.
Recognised as the leader in visual thinking and learning, Inspiration Software, Inc.’s award-winning software tools, Inspiration®, Kidspiration and InspireData®, are based on proven visual learning methodologies that help students think, learn and achieve. With the powerful combination of visual learning and technology, students learn to clarify thoughts, organise and analyse information, integrate new knowledge and think critically. Founded more than 25 years ago by Donald Helfgott and Mona Westhaver, the company’s visual learning software tools are used today by more than 25 million students and teachers worldwide.
©2009 Inspiration Software, Inc. All rights reserved. Inspiration Software®, Kidspiration® and Inspiration® are registered trademarks of Inspiration Software, Inc. All other brands are the property of their respective owners.
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New bonus packs now available
New lesson plan books support student learning
Kidspiration® in the Classroom: Reading Essentials and Kidspiration® in the Classroom: Maths Made Visual lesson plan books support teachers as they help primary pupils develop literacy, numeracy and thinking skills. Developed by educators, these books offer lesson plans designed specifically to support primary reading and maths instruction. Find out more.
InspireData® and Science: Question, Analyze and Predict and Developing Data Literacy with InspireData® lesson plan books support teachers as they help students develop the skills necessary to collect and analyse data. The books offer lesson plans designed specifically to support instruction using InspireData 1.5. Find out more.
Introducing Kidspiration® 3 - the visual way to explore and understand words, numbers and concepts
Created for primary learners, Kidspiration develops literacy, numeracy and skills using proven visual learning principles. In literacy, Kidspiration strengthens word recognition, vocabulary, comprehension and written expression. With visual maths tools, pupils build reasoning and problem solving skills. Across the curriculum, pupils express their creativity and thinking with pictures, words and numbers. Find out more.
Introducing InspireData® 1.5 - The visual way to explore and understand data
The new InspireData 1.5 offers more ways to engage students as they build critical data literacy skills. More than 100 content-rich databases, the e-Survey tool and database templates jumpstart data collection. Students actively explore and analyse data using dynamic Venn diagrams and bar, stack, pie and axis plots to interpret information and draw conclusions. InspireData's enhanced teacher support offers educators tools to identify classroom trends and support data-driven decision making. Find out more.
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