When recently looking for electronic resources to add to my short story unit, I came across LearnOutLoud.com where hundreds of recorded works are available free for download. Learn Out Loud doesn’t just have audio recordings of books and stories (though there are plenty of those); they also have podcasts and videos.
Some of the resources cost money, but there are plenty of free downloads (hundreds across all content areas. And, for those ambitious teachers among us, you can even upload your own teaching content (lectures, etc.) and try to sell it through Teach Out Loud. Next time you do a particularly good job of dynamically introducing Romeo and Juliet, maybe you can turn your introduction into some cash. In the Teach Out Loud section, you can also browse content already published from other teachers. Teach Out Loud has hundreds of downloads available including readings from Shakespeare’s Sonnets for $1.99 and a “Introduction to Non Fiction Writing” which is a free download with content from an actual MA course at UCF. In short, this site has a ton of great material to supplement your lessons. Learn Out Loud and Teach Out Loud are excellent examples of the powerful opportunities we educators have on the internet. The more communities we form and discover, the more knowledge we can share. These sites have a wealth of resources for teachers and their students and plenty of it is free or very inexpensive. If you’re on a budget like mine, start by clicking on “free audio & video” on the home page. This will 
bring you to a section with over 3000 free audio and video titles covering everything from Quantum Spirituality (what?) to French I and 987 free Literature titles. To get started, try “Poetry Out Loud: Audio Guide” which includes poetry read by poets, actors, and scholars. These collections are worth your time browsing. When you find good stuff, it won’t hurt if your students like the idea that some of the materials for English class are available to download on their iPods and iPhones too…they won’t even have to unplug.
Enjoy,
Scott
