I love that the first thing we got to explore was word clouds. As a kindergarten teacher, I have used word clouds in the past. My assistant and I usually list all the words we can think of to describe each student and the things they love. Once we create the word cloud and print them out, we present them to our students as their end of the year gift from us. 

As someone who is not typically fond of talking about themselves, I had to really think about what words someone else would use to describe me. I first thought about how my students would describe me, and then what my family and friends would say about me. I used the same words on every site, so I was able to see the finished product of each word cloud. After completing the reading on typography, I was more aware of what font I was choosing when creating my word clouds.

I started with the Word Art site because that is the site I use when making the word clouds for my students. After playing around on all the different sites, I found this site to be the one I was still drawn to, and I preferred the various options you could select to customize your word cloud. I liked that the sizes of the words vary and how you can change the image for your word cloud. I also liked when I used more than one word, they stayed together on the finished product.

I am familiar with ABCya and have allowed my students to go onto the site to practice various letter and number games. I have not used the ABCya Word Cloud game before, but I was curious if I would end up liking this one better overall. Once I entered my word list and saw the word cloud, I had a hard time finding a layout that I enjoyed. I ended up clicking on the randomize button and kept clicking until I settled on this layout and color scheme. Green is my favorite color, and I felt the font and layout was the easiest to read out of all the ones that it showed me prior. While it wasn’t hard to figure out, I still preferred Word Art over this one.

The next site I explored was Word It Out. This site was simple and had less choices to customize the word cloud. It also reminded me of the ABCya Word Cloud game. Both of those sites split more than one word into separate words. I went back and edited my word list on the ABCya Word Cloud, but I did not go back and change my word list on this one. I feel this site could be appealing to many since it was easy to navigate. However, I still liked the options available on the Word Art site better.

The last two sites, Answer Garden and Monkey Learn Word Cloud Generator, I did not prefer at all. I had more trouble figuring out how to begin my word cloud on these sites. While Answer Garden was an interesting take on a word cloud, it was difficult to read the words the more you added. Some of the words began to run together without having the option to change the layout. The Monkey Learn Word Cloud Generator was my least favorite. I personally did not see the need for the side bar that lists the frequency, or relevance of the words on the word cloud.

Overall, I enjoyed seeing the various options available to create word clouds. It was beneficial to explore the different sites, and I can see choosing different sites depending on the desired outcome and age group of your students. Word clouds could be used as a type of group project or individually. Students could use word clouds as a way to present a character, especially for students who are learning about character traits. It could also be used as a way to organize vocabulary words, or a type of exit ticket where students list what they have learned after a lesson. 

I previously listed one way that I have used word clouds in the past. As I was creating my own word cloud, I thought it might be fun to change how I present these word clouds to my kindergarteners. Next year, I would like to ask my students to say something nice about their classmates. Then, I can create a word cloud that I present to them during their birthday celebration. Usually this is something I work on with my assistant, but I think it would be even more special knowing it came from their classmates too. 

There are so many different ways word clouds could be used in the classroom or library. If the past two years during COVID have taught us anything, it is that there are so many possibilities to increase student engagement through the use of technology. Word clouds would be a great way to make an assignment more exciting for students. It could also be a great social emotional activity, and useful in developing a greater sense of community in the classroom.