Blog Post Number 4

Outlines, Idea Maps and Storyboards are the three concepts presented in Chapter 7, and all of these concepts will, of course, be valuable to me in the future as a teacher. Outlines will be used to plan out lesson plans and analyzing works of literature, poetry or prose. Idea maps will be used for in-class brainstorming, as well as planning out lesson plans. Storyboards will serve as a great visual aid for use during lectures and lessons. Inspiration will be a great source of technology to use in all of these concepts.

I strongly believe that brainstorming and thought organization is a firmly important part of the educational, learning and even thinking process. However, I am also a firm believer that each person thinks and processes thoughts and information in a different manner. In the past I have been in classes where teachers have presented a rigid "thoughts map" or "idea concept" process that students were then required to follow before a project. I do not agree with this whatsoever, because, as previously stated, what works for that teacher and maybe a few of his or her students, might not work for a different type of learner. Therefore, my solution to this will be to teach my students several methods for outlining, idea mapping and thought organization and encourage them to choose one or even invent his or her own. The most important point is that the process used by the student is a benefit to him or her, otherwise I feel that it is almost busywork and possibly even a detrimental idea.

In the past week we have learned about Inspiration. I believe this program will become extremely useful to me as an educator! I had no idea such a program existed and I think it is a very neat concept, very easy to use and clear-cut. I was very impressed. The idea organization will be extremely useful behind the scenes, as in planning for lessons and classes. It will also be useful in the actual instructional process as a display tool to project onto a screen during class discussion to help the class keep track of ideas. Then, after listing all the ideas it can be organized into different formats in order to appeal to all types of learners and thinkers. It is a simply awesome program, and I am so glad I learned about it!