You're the inspiration

1. Is Inspiration something you would invest in for your classroom? List some ideas in your content areas where you could incorporate it.
Personally I think that I could come to like Inspiration very much. I think that it could be used for language arts as a story organizer/web. The students could use it to plan out their story elements ahead of time. Or in math the students could use pre-made mini webs to solve word problems, for example each branch could have a different question to help them solve the problem (ie how many did we start with, what function (+,-, x) are we using, how many do we have at the end). Inspiration could also be used in history or science to show progress or a timeline.
The class could also use inspiration to create word walls at the beginning of each new unit to show what they already know about the subject at hand. I know that I have personally created word walls/graffiti walls at the beginning of a new class and it has help tremendously. But I believe that inspiration could make it quicker and easier to do.

2. What are your favorite web resources we covered in class? Which do you think you would use the most? Why and how? Be specific.
I like the word cloud creator. I thought it was a fun and quick way to get everyone thinking. It was also very easy so that anyone could do it. I also stand by the fact that I love Diigo, the social bookmarking site. I would use it as previously mentioned as a way to stay in touch with parents. I think that it is a great tool to use to keep the family involved. It also give the students a steady base connection with the class. Now a days there are so many children who have baby sitters, stay with a relative after school, or come from a split home; with a social bookmarking site the child will never accidently leave homework at someone else’s house and it will also never be lost. Even if the child were to forget a study aid they could just check Diigo and find the material online. I also like social bookmarking for the older students as an honesty check in. They can show the progress they are making on different projects and it also lists all of their sources so they cannot plagiarize.
If I was teacher to a slightly older crowd I would say that blogger would be the best, but I believe that second graders may have a bit of trouble using blogger at home, especially if their parents are like mine and have no idea what a blog is yet alone how to make one work.