The Last Lecture

Today, Randy Pausch, a charismatic professor of computer science at Carnegie Melon, died after a battle with pancreatic cancer. If you ever need a little inspiration, a little pick me up (and as the start of school gets closer and closer we all might find ourselves needing this), take and hour and watch the YouTube video of his presentation at Melon's "The Last Lecture Series." It's on pursuing dreams.

Randy Pausch

Chaucer Audio Files

Those teaching English Literature might find this interesting.

Chaucer Metapage Audio Files

Listen to excerpts of the Canterbury Tales, Troilus and Criseyde, and other poems by Chaucer read in the middle English.

Newly added:

Norton Old and Middle English Audio Files

This has Beowulf read by Seamus Heaney, as well as other cool texts.

Newsweek Education Program Discontinued

But I downloaded some resources from the web before they took the content off. I have a PDF file for the 2007-2008 Essay Collection and teacher guide, along with some of their "tool box" documents. I thought I could use them to help teach reading and writing informational text. If anyone is interested in have these documents let me know. I can post them to my Google pages website or to UEN for download.

List of 10 Books to Read Before You Die

Thought this was interesting. On AOL today there was a blurb about ten books people should read before they die. Here is the list:

10. Gone With the Wind
9. The Lord of the Rings *
8. Harry Potter Series *
7. The Stand (by Steven King)
6. The Da Vinci Code (by Dan Brown) *
5. To Kill a Mockingbird *
4. Angels and Demons (by Dan Brown) *
3. Atlas Shrugged (by Ayn Rand)
2. Catcher in the Rye *
1. The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy Series (by Douglas Adams)

AOL didn't say who recommends these books, but I thought it was an interesting list. I've read 6 of the ten (marked by *). Here is a link for the article. The author has explained why each book is listed.

Top 10 Books