Amazing Etymological Site

Free Language Help: Knowing the history and roots of a word often make it easier to remember the word and its meanings. Douglas Harper's Etymology Online is a spectacular resource for learning word origins. I highly recommend this thorough and well-crafted resource.

Free Office Suite

Free Software: Not everybody can afford to pay for Microsoft Excel, Word, PowerPoint and so on. Fortunately, you can download OpenOffice for free, and it's perfectly legal. In addition to a word process, spreadsheet and presentation program, OpenOffice includes a drawing tool, a database and a math editor. Very nice software and easy to use.

Commonly Confused Words

Free Writing Help: I am currently working on a list of commonly confused words in order to help students become better writers. I would appreciate it very much if people would view the current list and make suggestions for additions.

Math Instruction via Radio and CD

Free Innovation Idea: The country of Guyana has found a very inexpensive way to improve math scores using recordings distributed via radio and CD. The details are interesting, and if a country with one-fifth the population of Colorado and a GDP of $827M can produce this kind of material, how easy would it be for a rich country with ubiquitous Internet and iPod availability?

Google Docs and Spreadsheets

Free Tool: Google Docs and Spreadsheets is a simple but powerful way for students to collaborate on projects over the Web. The documents are stored on Google's servers, and multiple students can collaborate on a document simultaneously. The site includes a chat window to allow collaborators to communicate about the documents as they edit them, and students have the option to publish completed documents on the Internet for others to view.

Free ACT Practice Test

Free Tool: Take the official practice test for the ACT. Do not be intimidated by the unfamiliar material in the science; virtually everything you need to know to answer the questions is in the accompanying text and graphics.

Check out ThatQuiz.Com

Free Tool: Andrew Lyczak has produced an amazing site: ThatQuiz.Com, which lets you create custom tests in math topics from simple addition through calculus. Teachers can set up a whole class of students and assign quizzes, which the site automatically grades.

Congratulations to Math Competition Stars

Free Hope: Congratulations to the 8th grade students from Cresthill Middle School, St. John the Baptist and St. Mary's Academy for their performance in the recent Math Challenge.

A Maths Dictionary for Kids

Free Tool: Check out A Maths Dictionary for Kids, by Jenny Eather. Highly interactive, with hundreds of topics from kindergarten through high school math.

Longmont Education Summit

Free Event: The City of Longmont, Colorado will be hosting an Education Summit on Saturday, March 17. More information here. Register to attend here.

Freeing, in multiple senses of the word

This blog is dedicated to freeing education, in several senses of the word free. Nothing can ever be completely free, but we should work toward making education freely available, free of cost, free of unnecessary limitations and free intellectually.

Feel free to post your comments, and let's keep things both respectful and respectable.