At our Open House this year, I asked the parents to jot down 3 words that came to their minds when describing their child on an index card. I took ALL the words from the cards- even the repetitions-, and created a list in Google Docs. As the final step, using a word cloud generator that I found online, created our unique learning community’s strength-based word cloud, a visual representation of the first 3 words that came to your mind when describing your child.
Word clouds are a way to represent the frequency of a collection of words, not the importance or the exact context. The more often a word occurs, the bigger the word appears. While our word cloud may not tell the whole story, it does paint a picture of the collective essence of our learning community through your eyes.
It’s a beautiful insight.