Wordle Wonder

Today I introduced my students to wordles ("word clouds").  When they came in from morning recess, my students saw a powerpoint slide that read "What is a wordle?"  Interesting answers were given, mostly of the humourous sort.  The next slide explained what wordles were and how they originated. Then I showed the next slide, which was a wordle created from one of the student's stories.  There was a collective intake of breath, and then, "Oh, that's sooo coooool!"  "Who wrote the story?", I asked.  "Alexis!", they exclaimed. (it was a creative story about The Great Marshmallow, which the students recognized right away).  I told them that today they were going to create wordles of their own.  Excitement ensued (the feeling of electricity was palpable).  The previous day they wrote down thirty or so words that described themselves, including characteristics, favourite things, physical descriptions, and so on.  These words were for inserting into the wordle generator, found at http://www.wordle.net/.  Students who didn't finish their thirty word descriptions frantically completed their assignment.  "Mr. K!  Come here!  What words would you use to describe me?"  To those students I suggested they work with a classmate (I don't like directing writing if I can help it as I want students to come up with their own ideas or collaborate with a partner).  Some students grabbed thesauruses and later even looked online in the computer lab at dictionaries and thesauruses.  After I showed them how to use wordle.net to greatest advantage (colour schemes, layouts, fonts, etc.), we proceeded to the computer lab where, for forty-five minutes, my students were totally and actively engaged in the assignment.  I haven't had as many of these actively engaged moments as last year teaching the same class (two years with the same group is difficult for both teacher and students).  Those forty five minutes are ones which I will hold on to as a reminder of the good things about teaching when the "no-so-good moments" rear their ugly heads.