Wordle and Timetoast

Wordle is an amazing tool for finding themes and major characters in a writing sample. If I were an English teacher, I would have my students use this tool all the time. And although I could theoretically use Wordle with Latin classes, I noticed a potential problem when I pasted some Latin text into the creator box. Latin words actually change spelling based on where they're placed in a sentence--nouns and adjectives change form when they change case. When I created my Latin Wordle based on a sample from the Latin historian Tacitus, I saw the name of the same barbarian king listed several times as key words, simply in different forms. So although I could still probably use this tool for simpler Latin sentences, as soon as I get into subordinate clauses and the like, the Wordle would probably be too cluttered with different cases of the same word.

I've found myself extremely disappointed in Timetoast, a tool that I thought I could use a great deal in the classroom. Since a large part of Latin literature depends on a knowledge of Roman history, I was hoping that my class could create timelines about major events in the periods that we read about. Unfortunately, though, Timetoast does not allow users to post events that fall between 100 BCE and 100 CE, which is a major time of change in the Roman world. Again, I'm extremely put out by this turn of events, because I absolutely love the idea of this tool. Hopefully, though, I may be able to find a similar one that works better.