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Saturday, August 4, 2012

Using Wordle or Tagxedo to Welcome Your Students to a New Year

Today I decided to take a day of rest and work on some technology projects I wanted to complete. So I am sharing with you a Welcome Sign I made for my classroom. 

Last year I had my students use Pages to create a Wordle about themselves to share with their classmates. I had them use Pages because I wanted them to be learn how to create text boxes, change the font type and color, turn images, add pictures, and save to their thumb drives. Now that I know how to save the word cloud files, I think I will just have them import it into Pages this year and then add the images to their cloud. 

This year I knew I wanted to create a word cloud to welcome my 4th grade Treasure Hunters and their families outside my classroom for Open House on Wednesday. I saw this sign on Pinterest this summer and immediately pinned it to my Classroom Decorations Board. It is from Heather over at Pencils, Paper, and Pixie Dust. So naturally I thought...what if I combined the two to make my classroom welcome sign? A Wordle and a QR Code in one...brilliant! I had never done this before, so naturally I had to look for a little blogspiration to figure out how to do everything.

The first step is to make your Word Cloud. There are two really great sites that I like to use: Wordle and Tagxedo. Wordle is a great tool for when you want to put a word cloud together quickly. Wordle will take the text you enter into the box and create your cloud. If you want to emphasize certain words to make them larger, like your name or class name, you enter the names in the text field more than once. I also learned today that when you want to enter two words together, you need to put the"~" symbol in between. So Mrs. Moricz had to be entered as Mrs~Moricz in order for the words to show up together in your word cloud. I had a lot of difficulty getting numbers to show up, so I just used the word form of the number in the text field box. Once the original design is made, you can change the font, orientation, and color design until you find the combination you like. The only drawback to Wordle is that you are unable to save the completed image for other uses. One way to work around this is to click print. Once your print menu opens up, look for the button where you are able to select how you print. For me it is in the bottom left corner of my screen. I click print as a pdf which allows you to then select to save the document as a pdf to your computer. Once you have saved it as a pdf on your computer, there is a site called Zamzar that will convert your pdf into a jpg or other file option. All you have to do is upload the pdf document, choose the file type you want to convert to, enter your email address, and click convert. In a matter of minutes, you will receive the converted file in your email box to download and add to your computer. I wanted to save mine as a jpg because I planned to combine it with the QR code that links to my website. Here is what the finished wordle looked like once I got the jpg file from Zamzar.



If you want to get a little fancier with your word cloud, you should try Tagxedo. In Tagxedo, you can put your word cloud into a shape.  First you click on load and enter your text. Then you can choose the shape for your cloud. They have a good selection of images to choose from. However, you can also import images. I decided to make a palm tree cloud with my Core 2 Names for my teaching partner's door, so I uploaded a clip art picture of a palm tree from my computer. Then you can change the color theme, font, and orientation easily using the left side tools. One thing that you need to know is that if you are using numbers in your word cloud, you have to change the settings to allow them to appear. To change the settings, click on word/layout options. Then click on the word tab and click yes for number words. Another advantage of using this site is that you can save your word cloud when you are done by clicking share. Here is the finished product.



The next step is to make your QR Code. I learned how to do this from Sandy at Teacher Technotopia. She wrote a great post about how to Use QR Codes Creatively in the Classroom. I like to use QR Stuff to make my codes. All you will need is the web address link you want the QR Code go to. Copy and paste your link into the content box and click download. Then you can drag the QR code from the download box to your desktop. Now it is ready for you to add to your poster. 

Once you have all the pieces, it is time to add it altogether. I like to use Pages to make my classroom signs because it is easy to layer, but you could use powerpoint too. The first thing that I did was drag a red and white polka dotted background and covered the area of the page that I wanted for my sign. Then I dragged the word cloud jpg image on top of the polka dot layer. I centered my box using the guidelines. Then I used the shape tool to add a rectangle slightly larger than my word cloud image to the page. Next, I clicked on arrange, send back. This will make the image move behind the word cloud and create a border between your word cloud and the background. Now drag your QR code onto your sign. I resized it to make it smaller. Finally, I added two text boxes with our Room Number and Welcome. After I print it out, I will trim off the bottom with the paper cutter, glue it onto black construction paper, and laminate it before posting it on my wall outside my door. 

Here is the finished product. It took me about an hour to make it...mostly because I couldn't decide on my color layout for my Wordle. What do you think?