Exploring Free Technology for Teachers

I spent some time looking at Richard Bryne's Website and checking out some of his blogs and links.
The first one I found that interested me was called "Making Sense of Spelling." It is about a clever TED-Ed video about why Americans spell the way they do. It might be more for elementary students, so I could share it with my daughter who teaches sixth grade. This blog can be found at http://www.freetech4teachers.com/2013/06/making-sense-of-spelling.html#.Ua_VRPbErU4

A second blog entry I explored was "5 Good Resources for Teaching and Learning About Shakespeare." This would be good since I teach Macbeth in senior English. There are a couple of videos embedded in this post that interested me: one about insults in Shakespeare (a TED-Ed lesson) and one with some humor from an English teacher named John Green. I also found out there is a YouTube channel with animated Shakespeare called, appropriately enough, "Shakespeare Animated."  http://www.freetech4teachers.com/2013/05/5-good-resources-for-teaching-learning.html#.Ua_WOPbErU4

By clicking on some of the links in this blog and the suggested "You Might Also Like" links, I figured out that the John Green guy does a whole "Crash Course" series including one that I viewed on Catcher in the Rye (which I also teach) and The Great Gatsby (Who isn't interested in Gatsby with the new Leonardo DiCaprio movie just out?). It appears as though a person could suscribe to the Crash Course series on YouTube, so I may have to try that.  http://www.freetech4teachers.com/2013/01/a-crash-course-on-catcher-in-rye.html#.Ua_b5_bErU4

One other good link to some Shakespeare teaching resources is from PBS and also highlighted on the Free Technology for Teachers Website. http://www.pbslearningmedia.org/collection/shakespeare-uncovered/1/