Yesterday I read an article about the website Wordle.net. This website creates a “word cloud” out of select writings. A person may write an original piece, cut and paste some text, or link it to a blog for analysis. Using the submitted words, the website then creates an image. The most frequently used words appear in the largest font and the least used words are much smaller. The author may then change colors and fonts for greater effect.

I decided to try this for my blog to get a visual representation of what I emphasize when writing. The resulting image appears on my blog, and you can see that by far my top-used word is “students”. The next three are “school, learning, teachers,” followed by “excited, skills, 21st Century, world, different.”

As a school leader, I focus my energies on students and creating an educational environment that challenges them to learn and grow. It was nice to “see” that my professional writing does indeed communicate this focus.

But Wordle has many more possibilities.

I’m challenging my teachers to use this website in their classrooms. Ideas include poetry study, spelling lists, writing that includes a specified word list, and artwork. Wordle will enable them to effortlessly differentiate lesson plans and engage students using multiple intelligences. All this ties back into my goal of creating an innovative educational environment. As teachers and students become comfortable with this new tool, I’ll be curious to “see” how their Wordle creations reflect personal word choice.

The teachers cheered this morning when I completed the hookup of our fifth document camera. Why the cheer, why the sparkle in the teachers’ eyes, and why were the students equally excited? Well, let me tell you….

A document camera is a tool that allows the teacher to project an image on to a screen. The image can be from a worksheet, a book, a science specimen— anything either two- or three-dimensional. Instead of gathering all the students around the teacher to see a demonstration, the teacher can project the demonstration up on the screen so students can see it while sitting in their desks.

The addition of these tools was made possible through generous donations to “purchase something the teachers otherwise would not have” and a special rebate. The donations allowed us to purchase four document cameras, two LCD projectors, and five AV carts to support the new tools. We now have document cameras for teachers to share on each level of the school, except the basement.

The teachers are excited because this tool is very flexible. They no longer need to make a black line master and make a transparency on the copier. They simply slide the paper under the camera and it is projected up onto the screen. The teachers wasted no time in using the new tool. As the youngest students prepared to vote in the school election, their teachers projected the ballot up onto the screen. This allowed the students to easily become familiar with the format and how to indicate their presidential choice.

There are many different uses for this tool and having it available all day, each day, makes it a productive addition to a classroom. Mrs. Schulz utilized a document camera that a vendor lent us for a few weeks. Once it was gone, she realized how often she was using it and the flexibility it allowed. She was able to quickly and easily show something that added to the discussion or lesson. She really misses the daily use and is waiting patiently for her turn because the third-floor camera is currently in Mrs. Scholl’s room.

If you want to see this tool in action, I encourage you to come to the November 13 PHT meeting. Three different teachers will present how the document camera is used in their classroom and how it benefits the students.