We are loved!

I have worked hard at developing relationship with my student's families.  It is not something that comes naturally to me- I am not the most outgoing personality and it is often difficult for me to make conversation with new people.  However, I have gotten better and better at it over the years!  One of the things that I love to do is to find ways to let the families know that they are listened to- and also to let the students know that we are all a part of a team. I start this by asking the families to describe their student using three words.  Then I take all the words and compile them into a word cloud.  Have you made a word cloud before?  I find the visual aspect so interesting.  There are a few different websites that allow you to create a word cloud, the ones below are my favorites:
http://www.wordle.net/
http://www.tagxedo.com/
What's neat is that you can see if there are adjectives that are used multiple times and if there are some that can be used to describe the group.  Then, I print it out as a poster and hang it up in our classroom.  Families love to look at it when they come into our classroom and students like having the reminder that they are loved!