You Are Your Words

While on Pinterest (where else would I be?) I came across You Are Your Words.  Can I just say how easy (and cool) it is to use this website?  It really just walks you through it: Create, upload a picture, add some text, and adjust your image.  Save it or share it.

Even though the site is pretty easy, here are a few tips that I did not realize at first (I get overexcited and can gloss over details).  

• It's no joke when they say it works best in Firefox, Chrome, or Safari.  My kiddos tried to use it on Internet Explorer on a variety of computers and it was a huge FAIL.
• Even though it says that it works on Safari, doesn't mean it works on an iPod, iPad, iPhone.  (There should so be an app for this!)
• Make sure you align your eyes and mouth.  This dramatically impacts the picture! 
• You really need to look at the image from a distance or angle to get the full effect.  

When I created mine, I pasted in the text from my resume.  I thought that it would be a pretty cool way to represent myself while I was thinking, "What a great infographic option!"  I threw a printed version of this up on the board, and my kiddos were immediately intrigued and anxious to test it out.  It was definitely an option that afternoon for how they could share information about themselves.  Most wanted to use it display information about themselves to their soon-to-be fourth grade teacher, which I thought was a pretty stinkin' cool idea (and part of my evil plan).  

What are some other ways to use this site?  It would work really well as a beginning of school year activity to get to know each other.  This teacher used it for math. I was also thinking this could be an excellent visual to explain that we are literally what we say, and one way people perceive us.  It could also be used to share information about characters (real or fictional), introduce a guest, engage students in an inquiry about a particular character or historical figure, advertise a particular product, or create a public service announcement.  How about determining what's important about someone based on what pops up in their portrait?  I know that it is a twist on word clouds, but the possibilities are endless (and fun).