Wordle , if you haven’t heard of it already, is a great free online tool that takes a piece of text and then creates a beautiful tag cloud out of the most used words. This can be extremely useful if you’re looking at analyzing a speech, a poem or even a student essay to explore which themes and topics are most prominent. It also can help you create some great decorations for your classroom wall!

Here’s how you can do it:

1. To start, go to wordle.net and click on the link that says ‘Create your own’ on the home page.

2. Type in or copy and paste a piece of text. This can be anything from information about your students (favorite things, places they’ve visited, countries they’re from) to a poem by Robert Frost or a speech like the Gettysburg address. Click Go.

3. Wait a few seconds (the java applet can sometimes take a little long to load) and then text, watch as Wordle creates beautiful displays of the most frequently used words. You can keep clicking Randomize to see different styles.

4. Once you see one you like, just click print – it’s that easy! If you’d really like to do something extraordinary, try creating many different “wordless” and then stick them on a colored poster board or a long sheet of butcher paper.

Here’s one that I created out of the Jabberwocky, Through the Looking-Glass and What Alice Found There, 1872 by Lewis Carroll.

Graphic organizers are a useful strategy when teaching students to brainstorm, organize or analyze information. Many teachers are combining the technique of mind mapping or concept mapping with the use of interactive whiteboards to create lessons that are both interactive and engaging. Mind maps can also be a great way to create quick educational posters that will help reinforce certain strategies for your students.

Here’s a sample poster that we created using Gliffy.com – a free online diagramming tool.

You can also use PowerPoint to do this, even though it might be a little harder to keep branches and circles together. There are also commercially available software that many schools have access to.  But if you don’t have Inspiration or Kidspiration in your classroom, there’s no need to despair. Check out this list of free online diagramming tools. Now that will get the job done.

Teachers everywhere go to work every day and literally shape our future. Here are five quotes to remind teachers how important their work is, especially on those days when they feel it is not. Got a friend who’s a teacher? Use these quotes to create a quick card, bookmark or an inspirational poster. They are also perfect for placing on pages of a scrapbook.

1. I touch the future. I teach.  – Christa McAuliffe

2. What the teacher is, is more important than what he teaches. – Karl Menninger

3. Treat people as if they were what they ought to be and you help them become what they are capable of becoming.  – Goethe

4. Education is not the filling of a pail but the lighting of a fire.  – William Butler Yeats

5. A hundred years from now, it will not matter what kind of car I drove, what kind of house I lived in, how much money I had in the bank…but the world may be a better place because I made a difference in the life of a child.  – Forest Witchcraft

Creating an inspirational learning environment in a classroom can be both a fun and frustrating experience for educators. One way to quickly and inexpensively do this is to put up thought-provoking wall art. Here are three ways to decorate your wall space without breaking the bank.

1.  Take a trip to the dollar store – surprisingly, dollar stores can be a great place to find educational posters for your classroom. Often you’ll find posters related to reading and learning basic math facts.

If you teach middle or high school, you can sometimes find posters that include beautiful photographs of nature. Print out an inspiring quote on paper and glue it to the poster to create your own semi-home made motivational poster!

2. Browse through old magazines – another great place to look for wall art is in old magazines. If you’re creative you can even design a collage with images and phrases or even tear out some of the more creative ads that include only text and place them in inexpensive frames. Some magazines like GOOD actually provides free posters with beautiful infographics that would make perfect wall art for a middle or highschool classroom.

3. Look Online – with a little bit of effort you can find some websites that offer free downloadable posters. If you feel adventurous you can even try downloading some free vector graphics or clip art to create your own. Upload the poster to your local print store and then pick it up within 24 hours. Sites like cafepress.com and etsy.com also offer posters that are hard to find and of very high quality.

Got any other ideas for beautiful wall art for your classroom? Share them here.