With my Google Reader and Pageflakes accounts, the ideas have truly been rolling in. I’ve been especially impressed with news related to Wordle and I’ve tried to keep up with ways people might use this online tool in their classrooms.  A post to the langwitches blog caught my attention in Pageflakes. The post, titled, “Digital Storytelling Part IX- Wordle” offered an excellent idea: use a word cloud to “showcase characteristics of a protagonist in a book.” I loved this idea! At my school we begin the year in reader’s workshop with a study of character; we dig into characters’ personalities, decision-making patterns, relationship histories, etc., and I think a Wordle project would be a fun, engaging way to share our thoughts about character and help students connect to the books that others read.

I just finished reading Bob Smith’s memoir, Hamlet’s Dresser, so quickly I created a sample word cloud using all the words I could think of that connect to my experience with the book:

I wonder if Library Thing would allow me (or my students) to upload a Wordle creation as part of a book review. That would be a great way to get a conversation around a book going on Library Thing…

If I had subscribed–or even known that I could subscribe–to Reuters I would have learned that Pluto was relegated from its position as the 9th planet in our solar system back in 2006. Poor Pluto. Fortunately, now that I have a Pageflakes account, the news that small sphere-shaped celestial bodies will now be called “plutoids” was delivered directly to me. At least Pluto got to keep part of its name!

News: interesting, relevant, random, and fun sent to me as often as it happens. RSS. That’s how I blog roll.