Events
Sit in on one of our complimentary professional development webcasts or visit us on the road!
Webcasts
Conferences
We’re expanding our webcast lineup for the school year. Watch for announcements about webcast topics, dates, and presenters in our newsletter, Flashes, on our Inspired Learning Community site, in our Professional Development Bulletin, and through email announcements.
Sign up for one of our upcoming complimentary webcasts and find out more about how to inspire students by using the power of visual thinking and visual learning. And of course, we hope you’ll take advantage of our webcast archives, where you can view past events anytime and anywhere you have an Internet connection.
Next webcast - Writing to a Prompt with Kidspiration® 3
Date: Thursday, January 15th, 2009
Time: 12:00-12:45 p.m. Pacific Time, 3:00-3:45 p.m. Eastern Time
Graphic organizers are an effective tool to support students as they learn how to write to a prompt. Join us on January 15th to learn how your students can learn to write on demand using Kidspiration. Lucy Belgum, our Education Development Manager for Language Arts, will host a 45-minute webcast demonstrating how to:
- Use visual techniques to plan writing that is mindful of audience, purpose and form
- Engage students in the process of writing paragraphs that contain supporting details
- Target, plan and write to the components found within the various modes of writing using graphic organizers
Register for this Kidspiration event today!
View our archived webcasts.
Webcast Archives
November 13, 2008
Engage Students and Promote Project-based Learning Across the Curriculum with InspireData®
Listen to an interview with Telannia Norfar, a ninth-grade math teacher at Northwest Classen High School in Oklahoma City. Mrs. Norfar used InspireData by having her math students use it to collect and analyze data for how to improve the quality and selection of food in their school cafeteria.
The cafeteria-food project was a collaborative effort with her colleagues across the curriculum. Mrs. Norfar’s focus was on math, as she guided students in analyzing the data they had gathered using InspireData. In English class, the students worked on writing skills, as they wrote business letters to the principal and the cafeteria manager. From their social studies teacher, the students learned about other cultures, including the geography and cuisine of different regions. And they worked with their science teacher to create lab reports about the patterns they saw in their data and to learn about environmental considerations in the cafeteria.
During this complimentary 45 minute webcast, Ms. Norfar explains three things her students learned from this project:
- How to analyze data that is not pre-formatted
- How to compare and contrast data using venn diagrams to see trends
- How to create appropriate graphs to support a proposal
Click here to access the archived presentation.
Thursday, October 16, 2008
Analyzing Close Presidential Races with InspireData®:
How Might a Different Winner Have Changed History?
The 2008 presidential election is looking to be another nail biter, so we will tap into the excitement and use this "teachable moment" to look back in history at the other close presidential races. Then we'll examine how history might have been different if the candidate who was narrowly defeated had won.
Rick Reynolds, our Education Development Manager for Social Studies, hosted a 45-minute webcast demonstrating how to:
- Use InspireData to analyze vote totals by state through history to identify the elections decided by slim margins.
- Help students see the importance of civic engagement and voting.
- Manage the process of conducting additional research and recording findings in animated slide shows which can be played back for engaging student presentations.
- Adapt the activity for different age groups and to develop additional skills.
During the webcast Rick also presented the results of the Nationwide Mock Presidential Election we are sponsoring. If you and your students haven't done so already, please take a moment to weigh in with your votes! Click here to view the archived presentation!
Individualizing Early Literacy Instruction with Kidspiration®
Learn how Kidspiration supports the teaching and learning of phonemic awareness, phonics, vocabulary development and reading comprehension, all components of effective reading instruction.
On September 25, 2008, Lucy Belgum, our Education Development Manager for English/Language Arts, hosted a 45-minute webcast demonstrating how to:
- Support emergent readers in practicing essential early literacy skills with individualized reading instruction
- Use Kidspiration activities as an informal classroom assessment tool
- Incorporate Kidspiration activities into independent literacy centers
View this archived webcast now.
Making Sense of Fractions with New Math Tools in Kidspiration
Meg Courtnage, our Education Development Manager for Mathematics, hosted a 45-minute webcast on August 28, 2008, demonstrating how to:
- Use fraction tiles, pattern blocks, color tiles, base ten blocks and fraction boxes to develop conceptual understanding of fractions
- Represent and compare fractions; add and subtract with like and unlike denominators; and work with mixed numbers, improper and equivalent fractions
- Engage students in tasks that promote problem-solving, reasoning and communication
Click here to view archived webcasts.
Engaging Students in Civics and Government with the Presidential Election and InspireData®
Engaging Students in Civics and Government with the Presidential Election and InspireData® was hosted by Rick Reynolds, our Education Development Manager for Social Studies on May 29, 2008. During this 45-minute webcast, Rick demonstrated how to:
- Create e-Surveys to gather data about the candidates' views and gather students' opinions about those views
- Analyze the results with visual graphs and plots that show the power of polling
- Engage students with interesting questions that encourage them to look further into their information, explore the data and find correlations
Click here to view archived webcasts.
Building Data Literacy Skills with Radish Plants and InspireData®
Content Categories: Nature of Science and Life Science
Building Data Literacy Skills with Radish Plants and InspireData® was hosted by Cathy Cuff, our Education Development Manager for Science on April 29, 2008. During this 45-minute webcast, Cathy demonstrated how, using plant data collected by an Oregon middle school science class, you can:
- Collect and display data quickly and easily
- Construct dynamic data plots
- Use scientific inquiry to analyze and interpret results
Click here to view archived webcasts.
Conferences
Come meet your Inspiration Software team and learn about our exciting new products and services.
Florida Educational Technology Corporation
January 22-24, 2009
Booth #835
Orlando, FL
Texas Computer Education Association
February 4-6, 2009
Booth #1835
Austin, TX
