Inspiration and Web Resources

1. Inspiration is an excellent program for making flow charts, Venn diagrams, and other similar things. I think it would be a great investment for my classroom. Some ways I would use this program:
-if I wanted the students to explain the process of how they solve problems (such as order of operations or single variable equations).
-to compare and contrast different processes that might be similar but have different results (such as differentiation and integration).
-in geometry, when we are doing simple proof with right triangles, I can show the step-step procedure of showing 2 triangles are congruent.

However, I can also use it to make my own charts explaining how to use a graphing calculator or the order in which students should consider convergence tests when trying to find out if a series converges or diverges.




2. I have just been introduced to almost all the websites and programs about which we learned, so I am not sure which ones I will be even using. However, from just a few glances, I like Thinkfinity and eMINTS. I am sure this will change in the future, but these two are my favorites for now. I love Thinkfinity because I found my technology lesson plans there. I am sure once I explore the site some more, I will completely hooked. Thinkfinity had countless interesting lesson plans and activities that related to math. The technology lesson plans had interesting ways of explaining the concepts. It never occurred to me of explaining that way. I am really interested of how the actual lesson would work out. I will most likely keep this site and the lesson plans I found and use them one day. eMINTS is quickly becoming another favorite because it has a huge list of websites for different math subjects. It gives you links to sites that explain whatever given subject for which you are looking. Also, when you choose your subject, eMINTS lists the standards the sites cover. This is great for teachers because they can keep track of what they taught and what else needs to taught, so their students are prepared.
I will mostly use these two sites the most to look for additional resources that will help me become a better teacher. Perhaps, a website on eMINTS will use an interesting analogy or explain a topic in a way that would the students understand.