Inspiration and Publisher

WHAT?
This past week we learned the basics of Inspiration and Microsoft Publisher. Inspiration is a great program that creates outlines and concept maps. The ease of this program is great! The buttons and controls are very easy to manipulate with a simple click and drag of the mouse. It's a great way to prepare for any subject and any topic in a organized fashion. I liked that we used this to outline our projects. I was surprised to find a program that was helpful in this way. I like that you can organize in any way that helps you for example, color, shape, ideas, etc. Another great feature is that the program will create a typed outline from your concept web so there's no need to enter in the information as you go. As I was creating my concept web, I liked that you can work on the map as a whole and add to it from any side as you go.
Microsoft Publisher is a template program that contains templates such as brochures, flyers, newsletters, etc. With tools and features all similar to other Microsoft programs it is fairly easy to navigate for even an amateur. I'm sure there are tons more fabulous things that you can do to spice up your projects but I'm just learning. I wish that I would have had this program for past projects. It's great to have templates that you can use as is or manipulate to fit your needs. I really liked that you could choose your own layout and design colors. For assignments or projects like our media campaign, it's nice that the layout and designs are the same for each kind of project. (i.e. brochures, flyers, newsletters all having the same basic design to look uniform)

SO WHAT?
As a teacher, I think Inspiration is a great program for every content area. I would use this program to outline on a large scale the school year and the topics to be covered and then on a smaller scale outline each unit and the topics to be discussed. It would even be useful to outline each lesson and get down to even the details of the lesson so that I don't miss anything. It would then be useful to keep them stored online to refer to from year to year.
For my students, I think Inspiration would be a great way for them to outline projects and assignments as they plan out how to execute the project at hand. It's great way for them to see what they have as a whole and where they're going with the topics they have. They can then also see how things are relevant or irrelevant to their topic.
Publisher is a program that would be very useful for campaign such as our assignment or for schools or departments to put newsletters and flyers together for students and parents containing information about anything and everything possible. I would like to make a newsletter for my students' parents about assisting their students with their math assignments. I could then give them resources and tips to getting homework done that they're not sure about how to complete themselves.
Students could also create projects using programs such as Publisher, for any content area. Math may not have as many choices but in other content areas it would be a great way to complete such assignments.

NOW WHAT?
I feel like I caught on pretty well to both of these programs however, with Inspiration I could use some more practice using the other features of the programs since I only created a concept map. I'll need to play with it a little more to be able to figure out how to make the outlines and be able to present this program to students. I would like to spend some time filling out an outline for a unit and see how it all works together.
Microsoft Publisher is such a rich program, filled with so many different capabilities that I don't know that I would ever be able to learn everything it has to offer, however I feel that I know enough to make some really good products to use in my classroom, school, and personal life. I need to practice manipulating the pages and being able to spice them up a little more creating more professional looks.