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Pre-order your upgrade to Inspiration® 9 today and
Pre-order your upgrade to Inspiration® 9 today and save up to 60%!With added visual thinking tools, a new Map View for creating mind maps, more powerful outlining and organizing functions and a new Presentation Manager for creating slide presentation, Inspiration® 9 is the ultimate visual thinking and learning tool to comprehend, create, communicate and achieve more. And now is the best time for you to pre-order your upgrades and save. For a limited time, we’ve reduced the prices of all qualified upgrades to Inspiration 9 – making these the lowest upgrade prices ever! Upgrade from Inspiration 8 or an earlier version of Inspiration and save up to 60% when you pre-order between November 1st and December 18, 2009. Plus, your order of Inspiration 9 will be shipped prior to December 31, 2009.
Inspiration Software Sweeps 14th Annual Educational Software Review AwardsInspiration, Kidspiration and InspireData Honored by ComputED Learning Center PORTLAND, Ore. – Sept. 18, 2009 The EDDIE Awards target innovative and content-rich programs and Web sites that augment the classroom curriculum and improve teacher productivity, providing parents and teachers with the technology to foster educational excellence. Selection criteria include academic content, potential for broad classroom use, technical merit, subject approach and management system. Winners are selected from titles submitted by publishers from around the world. "It is always exciting when educators recognize our visual learning software tools with awards," said Mona Westhaver, president and co-founder, Inspiration Software. "However, it is particularly gratifying to see all three products – Inspiration, Kidspiration and InspireData – recognized by this group of leaders in education technology." Kidspiration 3, the visual learning software for students in kindergarten through grade 5, was honored in the "Thinking Skills" category for early elementary students. Kidspiration supports students as they strengthen reading and writing skills, build conceptual understanding in math and develop thinking skills across the curriculum. This is the 14th award for Kidspiration 3 since its launch in early 2008. Inspiration, the essential tool to visualize, think, organize and learn, was recognized in the "Thinking Skills" category for upper elementary students. Learners grade 6 to adult rely on Inspiration to plan, research and complete projects successfully. InspireData, the visual way to explore and understand data, won an EDDIE award in the "Data Exploration" category for upper elementary students. Students grades 4 to 12 use InspireData to investigate, analyze and represent data and information in dynamic graphs and charts.
Inspiration Software Congratulates Illinois Mathematics and Science Academy, Named "Star Innovator" in 2009 Intel Schools of Distinction AwardsLeader in Visual Thinking and Learning Contributes Software Licenses, Professional Development, Curriculum Materials as Sponsor of Award Program Honoring Schools for Math and Science Excellence PORTLAND, Ore. – Sept. 15, 2009 The Intel Foundation and sponsoring companies, such as Inspiration Software, will distribute more than $1 million in cash, products and services to the winning schools. Inspiration Software's sponsorship of this awards program builds on the company’s more than two-decade-long tradition of honoring innovative educators from around the world. The internationally recognized Illinois Mathematics and Science Academy, a teaching and learning laboratory created by the State of Illinois, enrolls academically talented Illinois students (grades 10-12) in its advanced, residential college-preparatory program and serves thousands of educators and students in Illinois and beyond through innovative instructional programs that foster imagination and inquiry. In addition to the Illinois Mathematics and Science Academy, this year's Intel Schools of Distinction Awards winners for mathematics excellence are Cedar Park Elementary School, Trumann, Ark.; Urban Assembly for Applied Math and Science, Bronx, N.Y.; and Lynn English High School, Lynn, Mass. Schools honored for science excellence are Oakcliff Elementary School, Doraville, Ga.; and Palm Desert Middle School, Palm Desert, Calif. "The Illinois Mathematics and Science Academy and the five other winners in this year's Intel Schools of Distinction Awards exemplify the innovative ways that educators are using the power of technology to educate our country's next generation of mathematicians and scientists," said Mona Westhaver, president and co-founder, Inspiration Software. "Our company sponsors this important award program with Intel to recognize the accomplishments of these schools as well as to promote models for innovative instruction that can be replicated around the country." All six of this year's winning schools, honored today at a gala in Washington, D.C., receive a $10,000 grant from the Intel Foundation and an award package that includes curriculum materials, professional development resources, hardware and software. The elementary schools honored in this year's Intel Schools of Distinction Awards will receive 100 licenses for Kidspiration® 3, Inspiration Software's award-winning visual learning software for young learners, as well as licenses for the company's Kidspiration lesson plan books: "Kidspiration in the Classroom: Reading Essentials," "Kidspiration in the Classroom: Math Made Visual" and "Kidspiration in the Classroom: Writing Essentials." Created for K-5 learners, Kidspiration develops thinking, literacy and numeracy skills using proven visual learning principles. Inspiration Software's award package for Intel Schools of Distinction elementary schools also includes 60 licenses for InspireData®, the visual way to explore and understand data. Learners use InspireData to build critical data analysis skills. To help these exemplary teachers use InspireData with their students, Inspiration Software will provide them with the supporting lesson plans books "Developing Data Literacy with InspireData," "InspireData and Social Studies: Explore, Analyze and Understand," and "InspireData and Science: Question, Analyze and Predict." This year's middle and high school Intel Schools of Distinction Award winners will receive 100 licenses for Inspiration®, the essential tool to visualize, think, organize and learn. With Inspiration, learners in grade 6 to adult develop a deeper understanding of difficult concepts and build stronger critical-thinking skills. Inspiration Software's prize package for secondary schools also includes materials that support using the visual learning software with students, such as "The Thinking Classroom: Using Inspiration to Meet Curriculum Standards." Secondary school winners will also receive 60 licenses for InspireData and schoolwide licenses for its lesson plan books. As the Star Innovator, Illinois Mathematics and Science Academy will also receive 20 additional licenses for Inspiration and InspireData. Instructional teams at all six 2009 winning schools will have the opportunity to participate in four hours of online professional development from Inspiration Software to help them integrate the visual learning software into teaching and learning. For more information on the Intel Schools of Distinction Awards and to view the complete list of winners, visit http://www.intel.com/education/schoolsofdistinction. Read the featured eSchool News article.
Inspiration Software Launches New Site License Program to Stretch School Budgets, Ensure Access to Visual Learning Software for All Students and TeachersAchievement Soars, Critical-Thinking Skills Grow When Students Learn With Inspiration and Kidspiration PORTLAND, Ore. – Aug. 17, 2009 – To ensure that all schools can offer their students and teachers access to its award-winning visual thinking and learning software, Inspiration Software®, Inc., today announced the launch of a new Site License Program. With the addition of this new purchasing option, designed to help schools and districts stretch their software budgets, even more students will return to classrooms this fall where the power of visual learning will help them build thinking skills and learn new and difficult concepts. Inspiration Software’s Site License Program for Inspiration® and Kidspiration® was designed for schools and districts that want to provide visual thinking and learning support in every classroom. A convenient, low-cost, single, perpetual license purchase covers all student, teacher and administrator use at a school. Pricing is based on school enrollment at the time of purchase, eliminating the expense and hassle of ordering more licenses when more computers are purchased. In addition, this cost-effective site license includes Teacher Take Home privileges, so they can use the visual learning software at home for lesson planning, grading and training, as well as free online professional development materials. Every day in classrooms around the country, students use Inspiration and Kidspiration to learn in new ways and achieve at higher levels. At a Pennsylvania high school, students are quickly learning complex concepts in science. Math scores on state benchmark tests for fourth-graders at a Virginia elementary school have doubled. And middle school students at a private school in North Carolina have discovered how history shaped their state, their country and the world. "The three schools described above and their visual learning success stories are unique, but their teachers share a clear understanding of the power of visual learning. Their students are building strong thinking skills, quickly grasping new and complex concepts, and achieving at higher levels when visual learning supports instruction," said Mona Westhaver, president, Inspiration Software. "We developed our new Site License Program so that schools like these and hundreds of others around the country can make the most of their investments in Inspiration and Kidspiration with a program that suits their individual needs." At John Tyler Elementary, part of Portsmouth Public Schools near Norfolk, Va., the fourth-grade students who reached brand-new heights in math were learning with the award-winning Kidspiration 3. Created for K-5 learners, Kidspiration develops thinking, literacy and numeracy skills using proven visual learning principles. With the new visual math tools in Kidspiration 3, students build a strong mathematical foundation for reasoning and problem-solving by using visual representations to understand math concepts. When the John Tyler students started the last school year with an average score of just 43 percent on state math benchmark tests, their teacher Jennifer Patgorski was determined to find a way to engage them in learning so they could achieve at the levels she knew were possible. Now with math test scores in the 80s, her students are realizing the greatest level of improvement in their school. Patgorski finds Kidspiration reaches students of every learning ability – from special education to advanced students. Even students with the most severe disabilities – those who require help from paraprofessionals to navigate the school day – are able to use Kidspiration, she said. “I put them on Kidspiration and they are able to fully participate, 100 percent, doing the exact same thing as everyone else. You can imagine how that makes them feel.” Meanwhile, high school students in Cheryl Teaters' biology classroom at Gateway High School in Monroeville, Pa., used Inspiration, the essential tool to visualize, think, organize and learn, to grasp difficult concepts, such as the functions of the organelles that make up a cell, by creating "cell analogy projects," comparing the parts of a cell to another structure, such as a school, an automobile or a city. Teaters' students constructed Inspiration "webs" – or visual maps – of a cell and the structure to which they compared it. For each organelle, students found a corresponding function in their analogous structure and created a visual representation of the connection. With Inspiration’s vast library of symbols, graphics and photos, as well as images they imported, students were able to depict virtually anything they could visualize. Young researchers at Cathedral School in Raleigh, N.C., also used Inspiration to explore their school’s history, creating "webs" – or visual maps – to research, organize and evaluate significant events that occurred over the last 100 years. Students scoured online resources for events they found noteworthy. Using Inspiration as a brainstorming tool, the students were able to narrow down the list to the most relevant facts. "They loved searching for facts, and it was interesting to see which events caught their attention," said Kim Seder, the school's director of information and educational technology. "This project gave students an overview of history in an easy way, and Inspiration was the perfect tool." Schools and districts, ranging in size and grade levels just like Cathedral School, John Tyler Elementary and Gateway High School, can now make the most of their budgets by choosing from Inspiration Software's purchasing options to ensure that their students and teachers have access to the company’s visual learning tools. For more information about Inspiration Software's new Site License Program, call 800-877-4292 or visit www.inspiration.com/sitelicenses to find a local education dealer.
Inspiration Software, Inc. recently launched the public beta of Webspiration™, the new online visual thinking tool that helps capture ideas, organize information, diagram processes and create clear, concise written documents individually and collaboratively. With Webspiration, Inspiration Software offers powerful visual thinking tools combined with Web 3.0 capabilities to create a visual thinking and collaboration environment that creative thinkers can user anywhere, anytime. Using Webspiration’s integrated diagram and outline views, users can think visually, structure work effectively and express ideas in ways that best communicate them. Creative thinkers can use Webspiration’s diagramming environment to brainstorm and create bubble diagrams, flow charts, concept maps, process flows and other visual representations that stimulate and reflect their thinking. With Webspiration, users focus on developing and connecting ideas – not drawing. Powerful outlining capabilities in Webspiration allow users to take notes, organize their work and expand ideas fluidly to develop their writing into plans, study guides, papers, reports and other more comprehensive documents. Webspiration’s collaboration capabilities make it ideal for co-authoring materials, working on team projects and participating in study groups by allowing any number of users to add to, review and comment on documents. All Webspiration users need to do is simply send an invitation to a colleague or friend and they can share documents and work collectively contributing ideas, posting comments and viewing changes. Documents created in Webspiration are stored online without discs, drivers or email. That means users can work anywhere inspiration strikes and they have access to the Internet– at home, a friend’s house, the library, the airport or the local coffee shop. Sign up for a Webspiration Beta account and give us your feedback! Sign up today!
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Webcast ArchivesInspiration Webcasts: Writing a Research Paper with Inspiration Using Visual Learning Techniques to Improve Academic Performance with Inspiration®Inspiration® helps students develop ideas, analyze concepts and improve organizational skills. Explore templates and examples that will help your students improve academic performance in Science, Language Arts and Social Studies. Kidspiration Webcasts: Keep Your Students Learning Till the Final Bell with Kidspiration 3 Teaching STEM and 21st Century Skills with Kidspiration® Learn to Use Kidspiration®’s Visual Math Tools Writing to a Prompt with Kidspiration® 3 Individualizing Early Literacy Instruction with Kidspiration® Making Sense of Fractions with New Math Tools in Kidspiration InspireData Webcasts: Struggling to Engage Students in Math? See How Math Concepts Come to Life with InspireData® Making Data Analysis Fun and Engaging with Real Data and InspireData® 1.5 Engage Students and Promote Project-based Learning Across the Curriculum with InspireData® Analyzing Close Presidential Races with InspireData®: How Might a Different Winner Have Changed History? Engaging Students in Civics and Government with the Presidential Election and InspireData® Building Data Literacy Skills with Radish Plants and InspireData®
Announcing the 2008-2009 Inspired Visual Learning Awards Inspiration Software Honors 15 Educators From Around the World With Inspired Visual Learning Awards 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 recognizes 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 all of 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 to support professional development and/or classroom technology purchases, a 10-pack volume license 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 license 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 honor 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 teacher 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 math, 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 licenses 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 grades 4-8 to use Inspiration and Kidspiration to plan and organize 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 math, 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., organize 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 math 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 analyzed 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 organizers 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 honoring 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 recognized 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. To see all of the winning projects, visit the Inspired Learning Community! About Inspiration Software, Inc. For more information, press only: ©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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