Tagul

I have been experimenting with a tool very similar to Wordle, but find it to be much better. It is called Tagul.

Tagul is a web service that enables you to create beautiful looking tag clouds and embed it on your web page, blog or wiki. This service was created by Alex from Russia who has a passon for technology. Currently the site is in beta form and like alot of services, this one may end up costing a fee in the future. From what I have read, he will charge businesses but is trying to keep it free for nonprofit. But for now, while it is free, take advantage of it.

How is Tagul different from other cloud tags? This service lets you customize your cloud to meet your individual needs. That's what is so cool about it. Tagul will allow you change the font and color of individual words. It will also let you create various shapes as well as rotate the the words if you like. The the neatest feature of all, is that each word in your tag cloud can be linked to a website. For example: by default all words in the cloud you create are linked to Google's search page about that particular topic. So, if blogging is one of your words in your tag cloud, then when you clicked on blogging, it would take you to Google's search engine results page yielding additional links for you to learn about blogging.  If you don't want to use the default, you can customize it to whatever page you desire, like your delicious bookmarks. If you really wanted to get creative, create a website with all the links to the desired sites you want your students to use for research and link your tagul to it. Give it a try, I think you will be just as impressed with this tool as I am.

Writing Prompts for A Christmas Carol

I was reading about writing prompts the other day on TeachHUB website. The first lesson I discovered was for Disney's A Christmas Carol. This lesson started out by having your students watch the movie trailer, then offered various curriculum ideas for grades K-2, 3-5, and 6-12.
Here are some of their suggestions.
For K-2: Pretend your school has a ghost. What is his or her name? What does he/she look like? Draw the ghost and write his/her name under it.
For 3-5: First, put three columns on your paper and label them "past," "present" and "future." Then, write 5 action verbs that you "do" during the holidays.  In each column, write the verb in proper tense (past, present or future).
For 6-12:  Disney wants to release a sequel to A Christmas Carol. Describe three new ghosts they could create for Scrooge's next story. (9-12) Write a one-page pitch to persuade Disney to use your plot for the sequel.
Thanks to TeachHub for great curriculum ideas