Latest Links List

Here's where I post my latest finds, in no particular order and with no particular rhyme or reason. I hope you enjoy them!

August 22, 2009 - Six Word Stories is a collection of short short stories made of just six words. For example: Seeker fails. Hider starves to death. 2/07/2009 —by Graham Edwards (http://www.sixwordstories.net)

July 29, 2009 - Want some help thinking of a title for your action-adventure story? ThrillerWiz uses common patterns to make snappy thriller titles. Drag the blocks ("The" "Word A" and "Word B") into the box (you can drag them in multiple times for more than three words in a title) and click "whiz." If you like a word, you can click on it to freeze it while you experiment with other words. The Monster Angel: Talisman or The Goblin Tumult: Escape are the two I just generated. Watch out because some of the words are misspelled and others use English spelling. (http://www.teachit.co.uk/custom_content/wordwhiz/thrillertitles.html)

July 29, 2009 - Why not type your name or your story title into Spell with Flickr? You can click on individual letters to get better ones. (http://metaatem.net/words/)

July 21, 2009 - Create a word cloud on Wordle from any text (http://www.wordle.net/). You might be surprised by what you find about your favorite poem or story. (Ways for teachers to use Wordle in their teaching are at http://www.slideshare.net/JenniferW/wordle-ideas)

July 21, 2009 - Look up a word on Wordnik and find examples of it from the Web, definitions, latest uses on Twitter, how much this word has been used in past years, and many more things (http://www.wordnik.com/)

July 21, 2009 - Fabelbish - The Spoonerism Generator (http://www.fabelbish.com/). Very handy if you want to mangle the language like the revered Reverend Spooner.

December 6, 2008 - Write or Die! Set yourself a word-count goal and a time limit and start typing. Depending on how you adjust your settings, if you stop, you'll get a gentle reminder, an unpleasant noise, or the systematic backspace deletion of whatever words you have typed so far. (http://lab.drwicked.com/writeordie.html)

November 25, 2007 - The Omnificent English Dictionary in Limerick Form (http://www.oedilf.com/db/Lim.php)

July 17, 2006 - Worldprocessor maps information about the world onto globes so you can see how, for instance, life expectancy maps across the world. Click on "1988-2005" and then "Catalogue" (http://worldprocessor.com/)

July 17, 2006 - If you want a good idea of how the population is growing, click on Worldometers for a bit of a shock. How many births are there in the world in the next ten seconds? (http://www.worldometers.info/)

December 6, 2005 - Freedictionary.com isn't just a dictionary. It has all kinds of word games, quotations, and interesting information. http://www.thefreedictionary.com/

December 3, 2005 - World Wide Words Michael Quinion writes about international English from a British viewpoint. http://www.worldwidewords.org/index.htm

October 24, 2005 - Etymologic is a tough word game. You are presented with 10 random etymology or definition questions and you have to answer them. http://www.etymologic.com/

October 12, 2005 - Adrian Bruce's Symmetry page is a wonderful resource for this. http://www.adrianbruce.com/Symmetry/

August 26, 2005 - Common Errors in English. This site is great. I love the individual discussions. I just had to look up the difference between "less" and "fewer" and the page on that is very nice. http://www.wsu.edu:8080/~brians/errors/errors.html

August 25, 2005 - September 19 is Talk Like a Pirate Day (http://www.talklikeapirate.com/piratehome.html)

August 21, 2005 - I'm learning how to use Flash. The English! It spins!

August 21, 2005 - Watching the time pass (Flash) at http://home.tiscali.nl/annejan/swf/timeline.swf

August 13, 2005 - Lexical Free-Net allows you to find connections between words. All kinds of connections. I might use this to find the right word for a poem, spell something correctly, or just amuse myself by noticing connections I never saw before. http://www.lexfn.com/

July 13, 2005 - Planarity game - arrange the dots so that none of the lines crosses any other line. Warning: Flash. Another warning: Addictive. http://www.planarity.net/

July 13, 2005 - Ever wondered what AFAIK means? Look it up on NetLingo, a dictionary of Internet terms. http://www.netlingo.com/

March 25, 2005 - Don't settle for one definition, especially when you're looking up unusual words. OneLook Dictionary Search will find the definition for your word on many different sites. http://www.onelook.com/

February 24, 2005 - Eggcorns (http://eggcorns.lascribe.net/) are words or expressions which people have heard incorrectly and therefore write incorrectly (but with the wrong words spelled right), such as saying "another words" for "in other words."

November 28, 2004 - Wordcount tracks the frequency of words in the English language. Number one? The, of course. But lizard is number 19181, and wobble is 28168. http://www.wordcount.org/

November 25, 2004 - Confusing Words has over 3,000 words people find confusing, such as they're, there, and their. Use it to look up words you find confusing! http://www.confusingwords.com/

July 17, 2004 - In the fall, the sixth grade visits Hawk Mountain and studies hawks and other birds. The Cornell Lab of Ornithology hosts All About Birds , where you can learn to identify birds and listen to their calls. http://www.birds.cornell.edu/programs/allaboutbirds/

March 5, 2004 - Today in Literature is "a calendar of engaging stories about the great books, writers, and events in literary history." http://www.todayinliterature.com/

October 18, 2003 - In the spirit of the season, I offer ExtremePumpkins.com at http://www.extremepumpkins.com/ - the site owner says, "Welcome to ExtremePumpkins.com where strange pumpkins, pumpkin patterns, and alternative pumpkin carving techniques are developed and demonstrated for you. Pumpkin carving will never be the same."

September 16, 2003 - Create a city at City Creator! You just drag and drop the parts and build a whole city. I love this site. http://www.citycreator.com/

September 14, 2003 - Many of my students are reading or have read The Diary of Anne Frank. The United States Memorial Holocaust Museum has a web site which goes along with an exhibit about Anne Frank the Writer at http://www.ushmm.org/museum/exhibit/online/af/htmlsite/

September 14, 2003 - The Country Western Song Generator will give you a different song every time you refresh the page, and all of them are thoroughly hilarious. http://www.outofservice.com/country/