Inspiration from Inspiration

Mind-mapping is an incredible visual tool that I wish I had when I was in school - I am an extremely visual person, so this would have really helped clarify a lot of things for me and made them easier to remember. I also didn't understand, until I was older, how there was a rhyme and reason to what my teachers were doing. Usually it was just, "Now we're going to learn this..." This is why I chose the idea of outlining the 9th grade curriculum for ELA. When I have my own classroom, I am going to do this at the beginning of the year so that students know where we are heading and how everything that we're learning is connected! Of course, students will have a syllabus as well, but this kind of tool helps students to visualize the scope of the year. Hopefully, this will help students get excited for what's to come and possibly instill some patience - especially as not all students will enjoy every concept we study, so they'll see that there are other things ahead!

The most important thing that I am always learning, and did so from this activity as well, was to keep my students at the center of whatever I'm working on - to always be thinking, "How is this going to be useful and relevant for them?" Using Inspiration was great, although overwhelming, because there's so much to it, and so much choice! So in that way, it's hard to learn quickly - it takes a long time through trial and error for some of the more intricate details that I like to have. I can see that, as with everything else, the more I use it, the easier it will become. I'd like to try the other (free) web-based online mind-mapping tools as this one will not be free after a few more weeks!

There are so many more ways that I want to use this kind of visualization tool - not just at the beginning of the year but throughout! It can be used with all kinds of concept mapping learning/teaching strategies, as we organize our thoughts and concepts pertaining to character studies, themes, comparing and contrasting, learning writing skills, etc. I especially loved the templates they had already in the softward for ELA and can't wait to get a job where I can use them! :)