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I love the idea of leaving kids with one "cool tool" each time they visit me. During my second session with the grade 3-5 students, I modified an idea I found on Chad Lehman's website using Wordle. In a nutshell, Wordle creates a word cloud out of the text your provide. The more frequently a word is used, the bigger it becomes in the cloud. We began our Wordle lesson by modeling the process, and I had kids quickly brainstorm reasons we love Thailand. Yes, the beaches truly are amazing here, but I did cheat a bit when we made this. When one kid said 'beach,' I asked who else liked the beach and then added a bunch more to give them the idea.

"Wordle.net is becoming one of the most used new technology tools for teachers. It is free, and versatile enough to be used in any area of the curriculum. This article contains ten of the best ideas for Wordle lessons in the classroom."

"Forty Interesting Ways* to use Wordle in the Classroom *and tips"

Wordle of Obama's Sppech to KIds on Sept. 8 Prepared Remarks of President Barack Obama Back to School Event http://www.whitehouse.gov/MediaResources/PreparedSchoolRemarks/

Wordle on steriods, REALLY Cool

just pretty amazing, create words from stacks of books.

I haven't used this but it looks cool!

"Learning new vocabulary can be quite daunting for most students. We just have to look at the literacy rates to see how much children struggle with vocabulary. Rote learning of vocabulary does not really work. Experience has taught me students remember what they use and explore. Students need to have fun, engage with the material, and explore how their new knowledge works. Vocabulary lists are boring, but word clouds can be quite engaging. Therefore, I am sharing my favorite ways to help your students begin to explore new vocabulary through various word cloud tools, tips, and resources."

"Tagxedo turns words -- famous speeches, news articles, slogans and themes, even your love letters -- into a visually stunning tag cloud, words individually sized appropriately to highlight the frequencies of occurence within the body of text."

"Ten tried and tested internet tools for teachers Over the past academic year, my students and I have been experimenting with the use of a number of web based applications (often known as Web 2.0 tools). My aim has been to enhance our schemes of work by providing our students with new and exciting learning opportunities."

"Take a look at some Historic American Rhetoric "