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Upon the suggestion of a friend and colleague who commented on a previous post , I went beyond Wordle and "Tagxedo-ed" my blog! Thanks Danja (a.k.a. @MagistraM on Twitter or read her blog, Magistra's Musings ) I like the newest large word: LEARNING! Now that one makes me happy. What makes Tagxedo better than Wordle? You can decide design the word cloud color scheme, word font, cloud shape, file size, and more! You don't have to create an account and you can add a bunch of words or put in the URL of a blog or website. There is a cool part of the website called " 101 " that has 101 ways to use Tagxedo. I can think of at least 20 off the top of my head, but even if you aren't a teacher it is a great tool! Enjoy!

Wordle is an easy-to-use tool that can help teachers and students analyze primary source documents, poems, blogs, or anything else that contains text. I have used it with my students before, but a video blog that Howie DiBlasi tweeted this morning reminded me to check it out again. This is how Wordle works: Once you enter the text, Wordle creates a word cloud that makes the words used most often appear more prominently. I thought I would Wordle this blog, to see if I am truly addressing the topics I set out to address when I started it: history, politics, and technology in the high school classroom. I have to admit that I was pretty happy with the results: Click here for a larger view . The Results that Made Me Happy students : The fact that "students" is the largest word means that I use that word the most. It also means that it seems to be the primary focus of most of my posts. This thrilled me because it means that I truly have followed through on my goal of putting stu...