Welcome new followers

Rather than share something about me, I thought I would welcome you all with a gift. This gift is knowledge, experience and the practical application of an online tool (which I like to call creativity). Of course, as with all gifts, some of you will have the knowledge already, others will have no use for the knowledge and some of you will find it useful at some point in the future. At any rate, like any gift, it is the thought that counts, right?



One of my favorite tools at the moment is WORDLE. I used it for all kinds of things. Its colorful layouts, choices of display and simple function make it ideal for my English Language Learners and my students who learn most effectively through visuals. All my kids enjoy it when we collect our ideas together on a shared poster. I use Wordle to garner prior knowledge at the beginning of our units of inquiry and for reflections at the end. Just take the children through it provides me with more valuable summative assessment than a quiz ever could!
Wordle poster are also excellent for Literacy (for example, gathering alternatives to the word said) and Mathematical language (especially important for ELL students). I use Wordle for story planning and for showing commonalities in Social Studies.
We even made a poster of our classroom essential agreements. I had the children write a short list of what was important to them individually. Then I entered the words they chose (such as "being kind"). The interesting thing about a wordle poster is that the more times the same word is entered the larger the font of that particular word. Thus, the words and phrases that were common to us all showed up larger and more significantly on our final poster.

Perhaps best of all is that it is so simple to use that the children learn to manipulate it quickly and effectively. The choices of format, color and font provide just enough room for individual creativity.

Please feel free to share if you have any great ideas to share!
Meanwhile, enjoy experimenting!