Inspiration!

This week the 5th graders will be making Inspirational posters using Big Huge Labs. This is a great site that even works for our old computers. They will write or choose an inspirational quote for their poster and select an image that will be a representation of the meaning of the quote. While listening to a free webinar offered through TAGT, I was so inspired to hear Ian Byrd speak on the power of technology and it's use with Gifted students. His focus was: 1) Use RSS feed through Google reader to subscribe to blogs and sites that offer information to inspire or ignite your mission 2) Subscribe to educational podcasts. Use iTunesU to find classes along your interest or line of teaching and you can even sit in on university courses 3) Use Delicious to store bookmarks and browse popular links. I use Pinterest and I am still trying to figure out how to link. 4) Collaborate with teachers and find inspiration using Twitter. What? I thought Twitter was just for important folks. I didn't want to spend my time reading Oprah on Twitter or following the sports news so popular at my house. I had no idea! Twitter is like someone handing me my favorite magazine with the best article in the world and then handing me another and another and another! Giant collaboration! Unbelievable! As teachers we try each day to motivate our students. We need to try to devote as much time to inspiring ourselves as we do our students.