Posted by
Gabrielle Cusumano on Tuesday, September 01, 2009 5:59:00 PM
DO NOT SEND YOUR KIDS TO SCHOOL ON SEPTEMBER 8th! President Obama’s Address to Students Across America September 8, 2009
"I’m going to keep my kid out of school during this exercise and instruct the teacher that my son is not allowed to write anything that is to be redistributed or displayed." laxcoach on freerepublic.com
Contents:
PreK-6 Menu of Classroom Activities:
President Obama’s Address to Students Across America
Produced by Teaching Ambassador Fellows, U.S. Department of Education September 8, 2009
Before the Speech:
Teachers can build background knowledge about the President of the United States and his speech by reading books about presidents and Barack Obama and motivate students by asking the following questions: Who is the President of the United States? What do you think it takes to be President? To whom do you think the President is going to be speaking? Why do you think he wants to speak to you? What do you think he will say to you?
Teachers can ask students to imagine being the President delivering a speech to all of the students in the United States. What would you tell students? What can students do to help in our schools? Teachers can chart ideas about what they would say.
Why is it important that we listen to the President and other elected officials, like the mayor, senators, members of congress, or the governor? Why is what they say important?
During the Speech:
As the President speaks, teachers can ask students to write down key ideas or phrases that are important or personally meaningful. Students could use a note-taking graphic organizer such as a Cluster Web, or students could record their thoughts on sticky notes. Younger children can draw pictures and write as appropriate. As students listen to the speech, they could think about the following: What is the President trying to tell me? What is the President asking me to do? What new ideas and actions is the President challenging me to think about?
Students can record important parts of the speech where the President is asking them to do something. Students might think about: What specific job is he asking me to do? Is he asking anything of anyone else? Teachers? Principals? Parents? The American people?
Students can record any questions they have while he is speaking and then discuss them after the speech. Younger children may need to dictate their questions.
After the Speech:
Teachers could ask students to share the ideas they recorded, exchange sticky notes or stick notes on a butcher paper poster in the classroom to discuss main ideas from the speech, i.e. citizenship, personal responsibility, civic duty.
Students could discuss their responses to the following questions: What do you think the President wants us to do? Does the speech make you want to do anything? Are we able to do what President Obama is asking of us? What would you like to tell the President?
Teachers could encourage students to participate in the Department of Education’s “I Am What I Learn” video contest.
On September 8th the Department will invite K-12 students to submit a 2
video no longer than 2 min, explaining why education is important and how their education will help them achieve their dreams. Teachers are welcome to incorporate the same or a similar video project into an assignment. More details will be released via www.ed.gov
.
Extension of the Speech: Teachers can extend learning by having students
Create posters of their goals. Posters could be formatted in quadrants or puzzle pieces or trails marked with the labels: personal, academic, community, country. Each area could be labeled with three steps for achieving goals in those areas. It might make sense to focus on personal and academic so community and country goals come more readily.
Write letters to themselves about what they can do to help the president. These would be collected and redistributed at an appropriate later date by the teacher to make students accountable to their goals.
Write goals on colored index cards or precut designs to post around the classroom.
Interview and share about their goals with one another to create a supportive community.
Participate in School wide incentive programs or contests for students who achieve their goals.
Write about their goals in a variety of genres, i.e. poems, songs, personal essays.
Create artistic projects based on the themes of their goals.
Graph student progress toward goals.
Obama to Appear on Back-to-School Program
By SLJ Staff -- School Library Journal, 8/21/2009 http://www.schoollibraryjournal.com/article/CA6678944.html
President Obama will appear on the back-to-school TV special “
The 30-minute documentary, which airs at 8 p.m. on September 8 , highlights the education challenges, life choices, and breakthroughs experienced by Obama’s speechwriter, Sarah Hurwitz; Clarkson’s music director, Jason Halbert; and James’s marketing executive Latesha Williams.
Obama, Clarkson, and James are featured in the show alongside their trusted professional colleagues who work behind-the-scenes but have compelling life stories. Hurwitz chronicles her experience growing up in Wayland, MA, to her days as an undergraduate and law student and her current job at the White House. Halbert, who has been music director for Clarkson since 2003, is a Beaumont, TX, native who has cultivated a life-long love of music to become a Grammy-nominated producer and songwriter. Williams, a native of Brooklyn, NY, combined education, perseverance, and her dream of working in the music and sports industries to land several internships for high-profile business and entertainment figures, which ultimately led to her working with James
The story of these three professionals shows that education is key to living out your dreams, Obama says in the documentary. “So as this new school year begins, I urge you to set goals for your own education: to study hard and get involved in your school; to try new things and find something you're passionate about,” he says on the show. “Don't be afraid to ask questions and ask for help when you need it. That's how you learn. That's how you get ahead. And that's how our nation will get ahead—by ensuring that every American gets a world class education, from preschool to college to a career. So get schooled. Your future—and our nation's future–depend on it.”
“Get Schooled: You Have the Right” will air commercial-free, and kicks off a five-year national initiative co-developed by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation and Viacom that allows the corporate world and communities to address the challenges facing America's public schools.
The program is created and executive produced by Dave Sirulnick and executive produced and directed by Lauren Lazin.
http://www.schoollibraryjournal.com/article/CA6678944.html
Obama to appear in back-to-school program
The Associated Press Excerpted from: http://www.miamiherald.com/news/politics/AP/story/1192282.html
WASHINGTON -- President Barack Obama will appear in a back-to-school television special with singer Kelly Clarkson and basketball star LeBron James next month.
Obama is appearing in a 30-minute documentary that will air at 8 p.m. Sept. 8 on BET, MTV, VH1, CMT, Comedy Central, Spike TV and Nickelodeon, all of them Viacom networks. Obama also plans to deliver a back-to-school speech to the nation's students on the same day.
In the program, the president says education is the key to people living out their dreams.
"So as this new school year begins, I urge you to set goals for your own education: to study hard and get involved in your school, to try new things and find something you're passionate about," Obama says, according to a release issued Wednesday.
"And that's how our nation will get ahead - by ensuring that every American gets a world-class education, from preschool to college to a career," Obama said.
Excerpted from: http://www.miamiherald.com/news/politics/AP/story/1192282.html
Obama’s Address to Students Across America September 8, 2009 (link)
Comment # 10
Some choice quotes:
Why is it important that we listen to the President and other elected officials, like the mayor, senators, members of congress, or the governor? Why is what they say important?
What do you think the President wants us to do? Does the speech make you want to do anything? Are we able to do what President Obama is asking of us?
Teachers could encourage students to participate in the Department of Education’s “I Am What I Learn” video contest.
Extension of the Speech: Teachers can extend learning by having students
Create posters of their goals. Posters could be formatted in quadrants or puzzle pieces or trails marked with the labels: personal, academic, community, country....It might make sense to focus on personal and academic so community and country goals come more readily.
Write letters to themselves about what they can do to help the president. These would be collected and redistributed at an appropriate later date by the teacher to make students accountable to their goals.
Participate in School wide incentive programs or contests for students who achieve their goals.
Write about their goals in a variety of genres, i.e. poems, songs, personal essays.
Create artistic projects based on the themes of their goals.
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Comment # 15
I want to know what “goals” this document is speaking of. What do you want to bet it is going to be some veiled way to organize “children” as his drone army that wants everything he asks them to support.
I’m going to keep my kid out of school during this exercise and instruct the teacher that my son is not allowed to write anything that is to be redistributed or displayed.
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The K-6 document is far more disturbing, but as Bill Ayers says, Get em while they’re young.”
Anybody with children in school should organize with other parents to keep a vigilant eye on what comes out of the Dept of Ed. This is their first year to implement the Bill Ayers School of Indoctrination. This is just the first salvo. And notice that on the Dept of Ed website, these docs weren’t even posted under the “Teachers” link; they were posted under the “Administrators” link.
To most parents this effort will appear harmless at first. It’s the “cook the frog in cold water and SLOWLY turn up the heat” school of methodology.
" Write letters to themselves about what they can do to help the president . These would be collected and redistributed at an appropriate later date by the teacher to make students accountable to their goals.
Disturbing. This is how he ran his campaign and sucked in all the obamanoids!
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