Whitewashing the Obama education speech guides
By Michelle Malkin • September 2, 2009 08:40 PM
Well, well, well.
The White House has re-written its activist talking points for teachers/administrators disseminated by the US Department of Education and removed the language about “helping the president.”
Whitewashing: It’s the Obama way.
What they can’t whitewash is the radicalism of many of the White House Teaching Fellows responsible for drafting the material — or the radicalism of the educational mentors with whom Obama served, starting with Chicago Annenberg Challenge/Woods Fund/neighbor Bill “education is the motor-force of revolution” Ayers.
You can take Obama out of Chicago. But you can’t take the Chicago out of Obama.
Wednesday, September 2, 2009
Tuesday, September 1, 2009
democrats, death panels, and health care by Anne Coulter
Democrats, Death Panels, and Health Care by Ann Coulter
"With the Democrats getting slaughtered -- or should I say, 'receiving mandatory end-of-life counseling' -- in the debate over national health care, the Obama administration has decided to change the subject by indicting CIA interrogators for talking tough to three of the world's leading Muslim terrorists. Had I been asked, I would have advised them against reinforcing the idea that Democrats are hysterical bed-wetters who can't be trusted with national defense while also reminding people of the one thing everyone still admires about President George W. Bush. But I guess the Democrats really want to change the subject. Thus, here is Part 2 in our series of liberal lies about national health care. There will be no rationing under national health care. Anyone who says that is a liar. And all Democrats are saying it. (Hey, look -- I have two-thirds of a syllogism!) Apparently, promising to cut costs by having a panel of Washington bureaucrats (for short, 'The Death Panel') deny medical treatment wasn't a popular idea with most Americans. So liberals started claiming that they are going to cover an additional 47 million uninsured Americans and cut costs ... without ever denying a single medical treatment! Also on the agenda is a delicious all-you-can-eat chocolate cake that will actually help you lose weight! ... These are Trojan Horse bills. Of course, they don't include the words 'abortion,' 'death panels' or 'three-year waits for hip-replacement surgery.' That proves nothing -- the bills set up unaccountable, unelected federal commissions to fill in the horrible details. Notably, the Democrats rejected an amendment to the bill that would specifically deny coverage for abortions. After the bill is passed, the Federal Health Commission will find that abortion is covered, pro-lifers will sue, and a court will say it's within the regulatory authority of the health commission to require coverage for abortions. Then we'll watch a parade of senators and congressmen indignantly announcing, 'Well, I'm pro-life, and if I had had any idea this bill would cover abortions, I never would have voted for it!'No wonder Democrats want to remind us that they can't be trusted with foreign policy. They want us to forget that they can't be trusted with domestic policy."
"With the Democrats getting slaughtered -- or should I say, 'receiving mandatory end-of-life counseling' -- in the debate over national health care, the Obama administration has decided to change the subject by indicting CIA interrogators for talking tough to three of the world's leading Muslim terrorists. Had I been asked, I would have advised them against reinforcing the idea that Democrats are hysterical bed-wetters who can't be trusted with national defense while also reminding people of the one thing everyone still admires about President George W. Bush. But I guess the Democrats really want to change the subject. Thus, here is Part 2 in our series of liberal lies about national health care. There will be no rationing under national health care. Anyone who says that is a liar. And all Democrats are saying it. (Hey, look -- I have two-thirds of a syllogism!) Apparently, promising to cut costs by having a panel of Washington bureaucrats (for short, 'The Death Panel') deny medical treatment wasn't a popular idea with most Americans. So liberals started claiming that they are going to cover an additional 47 million uninsured Americans and cut costs ... without ever denying a single medical treatment! Also on the agenda is a delicious all-you-can-eat chocolate cake that will actually help you lose weight! ... These are Trojan Horse bills. Of course, they don't include the words 'abortion,' 'death panels' or 'three-year waits for hip-replacement surgery.' That proves nothing -- the bills set up unaccountable, unelected federal commissions to fill in the horrible details. Notably, the Democrats rejected an amendment to the bill that would specifically deny coverage for abortions. After the bill is passed, the Federal Health Commission will find that abortion is covered, pro-lifers will sue, and a court will say it's within the regulatory authority of the health commission to require coverage for abortions. Then we'll watch a parade of senators and congressmen indignantly announcing, 'Well, I'm pro-life, and if I had had any idea this bill would cover abortions, I never would have voted for it!'No wonder Democrats want to remind us that they can't be trusted with foreign policy. They want us to forget that they can't be trusted with domestic policy."
pressure true opposition and shut down free airways
Get ready America to lose your first Amendment right of free speech, get ready to live in a Dictatorship...NOT!
Obama's FCC Diversity Chief (Gestapo) Mark Lloyd is ready to lay down the law. He will scourer the airways of all dissent when the next crisis takes place; they will not waste it. Get ready America to lose your first Amendment right of free speech, get ready to live in a Dictatorship. Unless, unless of course you decide to stop it, to fight back. There's a 9/12 march on Washington DC taking place on, of course, September 12th. Be there if you can. If you cannot be there, then support in some way. But do something, dont just sit on your butt and expect everyone else to do all of the work. It is your freedom that is at stake, so get active, do things that you have never done before. No effort is too small. For every action there is an equal and opposite actions, or reaction, which ever it is, what I mean is that your effort will not go unnoticed. One thing that you can do, and what I'm going to do this week, is to write your Senators and your Representative and ask them if they know about these radicals in the Administration. Ask them if they think that it is OK that there is an advisor of the Presidents who is a self proclaimed Communist. Also tell then that this Communist has never rescinded his assertion that he is a Communist. Tell them that you are worried that the President is getting radical council from these radicals. Oh, I forgot to tell you the Communists name, it is Van Jones, and he's Obama's Green Jobs Czar.I think that the tide is turning on Obama and that we have a real chance of slowing, and possibly stopping this march towards Socialism that our country is on, but it will not happen unless every American who believes in freedom, individual responsibility, and our Constitution gets up and fight the good fight. As Edmund Burke said "all that is necessary for the triumph of evil is that good men do nothing."jbranstetter04
Category: News & Politics
GO WATCH THIS VIDEO! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xmUIs4ncmtw
FCC Diversity Chief Mark Lloyd - "Pressure true opposition, the broadcasters" - Glenn Beck
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xmUIs4ncmtw
Obama's FCC Diversity Chief (Gestapo) Mark Lloyd is ready to lay down the law. He will scourer the airways of all dissent when the next crisis takes place; they will not waste it. Get ready America to lose your first Amendment right of free speech, get ready to live in a Dictatorship. Unless, unless of course you decide to stop it, to fight back. There's a 9/12 march on Washington DC taking place on, of course, September 12th. Be there if you can. If you cannot be there, then support in some way. But do something, dont just sit on your butt and expect everyone else to do all of the work. It is your freedom that is at stake, so get active, do things that you have never done before. No effort is too small. For every action there is an equal and opposite actions, or reaction, which ever it is, what I mean is that your effort will not go unnoticed. One thing that you can do, and what I'm going to do this week, is to write your Senators and your Representative and ask them if they know about these radicals in the Administration. Ask them if they think that it is OK that there is an advisor of the Presidents who is a self proclaimed Communist. Also tell then that this Communist has never rescinded his assertion that he is a Communist. Tell them that you are worried that the President is getting radical council from these radicals. Oh, I forgot to tell you the Communists name, it is Van Jones, and he's Obama's Green Jobs Czar.I think that the tide is turning on Obama and that we have a real chance of slowing, and possibly stopping this march towards Socialism that our country is on, but it will not happen unless every American who believes in freedom, individual responsibility, and our Constitution gets up and fight the good fight. As Edmund Burke said "all that is necessary for the triumph of evil is that good men do nothing."jbranstetter04
Category: News & Politics
GO WATCH THIS VIDEO! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xmUIs4ncmtw
FCC Diversity Chief Mark Lloyd - "Pressure true opposition, the broadcasters" - Glenn Beck
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xmUIs4ncmtw
Monday, August 31, 2009
Obama's Advisers Fighting for Revolution?
Obama's Advisers Fighting for Revolution?
September 1, 2009 - 0:03 ET
Watch Glenn Beck weekdays at 5p & 2a ET on FOX News Channel
The most transparent White House in the history of the world still hasn't answered the questions we asked last week. You know, tough questions like: "Why does the president have so many Marxists, socialists, radicals and self-proclaimed communists advising him?"
I'm still hopeful there is a simple explanation. Maybe President Obama just wasn't aware of their radical beliefs. After all, he sat in Reverend Wright's pews for 20 years and didn't catch on to the fact that Wright isn't too fond of America.
But here's The One Thing: This isn't an accident. Obama's radical advisers are there for a reason: They're fighting a revolution — just not the kind with the tri-cornered hats.
So don't expect the White House to apologize for hiring self-avowed communist green jobs "czar" Van Jones. If they did, Van might take offense to that — considering he named his son after a militant Marxist guerilla. Besides, why would the White House waste their time on this when liberal bloggers are doing their best to defend Van's good name and his Wikipedia page is suddenly and mysteriously being updated to call him a "champion of market-based solutions?"
You see, Van Jones can't possibly be a communist. Take it from former colleague Eva Paterson, who is president of the Equal Justice Society. Paterson admits that yes, for a while there Van was running around spouting 1960s rhetoric and romanticizing revolutionary icons (who hasn't?) But that was years ago, she said.
Well, I'm not a mathematician, but remember Van Jones' own description of his conversion to communism?
"In jail I met all these young radical people of color — I mean really radical, communists and anarchists. And it was, like, 'This is what I need to be a part of. I spent the next 10 years of my life working with a lot of those people I met in jail, trying to be a revolutionary'.... I was a rowdy nationalist on April 28th, and then the verdicts came down on April 29th... by August, I was a communist."
That was in 1992 — plus 10 years — that's 2002 — way back in Bush's first term. But Eva, apparently the lone free-market warrior at the Equal Justice Society says she advised Van to: "Rethink his tactics" and to "work for change in wiser ways."
Note: Not denounce or rethink Communism — just change tactics.
Where's the "come to Jefferson" moment in this change? He doesn't have one. Here's about the only transformation he's ever talked about — from a 2005 interview: "I'm willing to forgo the cheap satisfaction of the radical pose for the deep satisfaction of radical ends."
This guy is still a radical — just like Cass Sunstein and John Holdren and Carol Browner and Mark Lloyd.
Some might be uncomfortable calling these individuals "radical" or "revolutionary," but I'm not.
The best thing to do is ask America, are you comfortable with their viewpoints? Like this one: On Friday, Drudge had the story of the 55-page bill proposed by Senator Jay Rockefeller (S.773) that would allow the president to seize temporary control of private sector networks during a "cyber-security emergency."
The bill also proposed a "federal certification program" for "cyber-security professionals," certain computer systems and networks in the private sector would have to be operated by those with that license. And private networks deemed "critical" by the government "shall share" requested information with the federal government.
Ten years ago, I might have been stupid enough to go for this, but not after I watched the Bush administration grab far too much power. And now this administration trying to take control over seemingly everything. We already know how the president's chief of staff feels about "taking advantage of a crisis."
I'm not willing to go down that road and give them any more power.
This is not good Republicans vs. good Democrats — they respect the Constitution. They understand freedom of speech. It's the clowns in Washington.
You clamp down on my freedom of speech, who's next? Republicans, Democrats, Independents, it's time to stop spearing each other in the chest and realize there are enemies to our Constitution both foreign and domestic. And right now, those enemies are taking shape as greedy and power hungry politicians — aided by serious Marxist revolutionaries.
• Is Beck right? Click here and sound off
— Watch Glenn Beck weekdays at 5p & 2a ET on FOX News Channel
Jeb Bush Warns of Obama's Toxic Cocktail
Jeb Bush Warns of Obama's 'Toxic Cocktail'
Monday, August 31, 2009 2:34 PMBy: Edward Pentin
Article Font Size
Jeb Bush has issued a withering attack on the spending proposals of the Obama administration in front of a large crowd of Catholic activists in Italy, warning that the government’s policies will enlarge the role of the state at the expense of personal freedom.
He then suggested viable alternatives to the proposals, and gave as examples three faith and community-based initiatives he developed when he was governor of Florida from 1998 to 2006.
Addressing the gathering in Rimini on Aug. 28, hosted by the Catholic movement Communion and Liberation, the brother of former President George W. Bush warned that the past has shown that such government intervention doesn’t work, but rather leads to a lengthening of a recession and restrictions on individuals from pursuing their dreams.
“There is an inverse relationship between the size, scale, and scope of government and human freedom,” he said. “The bigger the government is, the less freedom individuals have to pursue their dreams, and the pursuit of those dreams is an integral part of our progress.”
Liberty and freedom, he went on, “create more creativity, innovation, and prosperity for more people than any government program ever created. Most, if not all, great advances in life occur by the creative genius of peoples unencumbered by the shackles of the state.”
He added that large government makes people less responsible and engaged about solving problems in their own communities, families, and societies. “People begin to believe that compassion is measured by how much government is expended to try and solve the problem, and we don’t achieve the desired result,” he explained. “In fact, it becomes harder and harder to solve the problems as families, and as individuals in community.”
Bush stressed that the Obama administration’s spending proposals exceed those of the Great Society and the New Deal, and then went on to list them: the $787 billion stimulus package(of which only 15 percent has been spent), the $1.2 trillion healthcare bill, plus hundreds of billions in planned spending for cap-and-trade.
“The debate that we’re having in the United States, and here as well, might be a little different if we actually had the money, but in fact we don’t have the cash,” he said. “Today the budget deficit is $1.8 trillion and the Obama administration expects it to grow to $9 trillion in the next eight years. That is a rosy prediction because it requires economic growth of 3 percent per year for the next nine years.”
Furthermore, Bush highlighted a “toxic cocktail” of government intervention in both financial services and the auto industry which, he predicted, will bring “conflicts with far-reaching implications” beyond just these two sectors of the economy. “Even without a recession and new spending, the cost of government will increase in the coming years,” he warned. “Without a return to limited government and without reform, the cost of these programs combined with the projected debt will sadly exceed our ability to pay without eliminating the funding for our defense, environment, education, and other social services.”
But he stressed there is an alternative: a focus on subsidiarity and the importance of the family. “An alternative approach recognizes that the family is the most important political organization ever created,” he said to loud applause. “Loving parents whose organizing principle is the love and betterment of their children at their own material expense is a powerful force for social progress. In fact, if wholesome family life were the norm in the U.S., a significant amount of the demands placed on government would evaporate.”
Stressing the importance of subsidiarity, he said it was not only an integral part of Catholic social teaching but also a foundational principle in the creation of the United States. “Wherever possible, government should empower individuals, families, and faith- and community-based organizations rather than craft them out with mind-numbing rules, regulations, and command and control policies.”
He then alluded to three programs he initiated in Florida to show the effectiveness of this approach: The first was a community-based childcare system that he said was a vast improvement on a state-run system and led to more adoptions into loving families, better trained foster parents, and fewer abandoned kids. The second was to set up a totally faith-based prison, run by volunteers of many faiths and which has a significantly lower re-offending rate compared to state-run prisons. The third was an award system, with financial incentives, given to schools that showed an improvement in results. Florida schools, he said, now have results that exceed the national average and “lower income students have made the greatest gains.”
Bush said that while he would like the debate to be a “little more civil and substantive.” he said he was “heartened” that a “very lively debate” was now taking place about the proper role of government in society. He said an “emerging coalition” is coming to the fore, one which is increasingly supporting the belief that “government cannot spend its way to our prosperity” and that “strong families and a robust civil society have been, and will be, at the core of our successes.”
How this new coalition emerges in the next few years, he said in closing, “will have much to say about who we are as a nation as we move forward in these exciting and perilous times.”
© 2009 Newsmax. All rights reserved.
Monday, August 31, 2009 2:34 PMBy: Edward Pentin
Article Font Size
Jeb Bush has issued a withering attack on the spending proposals of the Obama administration in front of a large crowd of Catholic activists in Italy, warning that the government’s policies will enlarge the role of the state at the expense of personal freedom.
He then suggested viable alternatives to the proposals, and gave as examples three faith and community-based initiatives he developed when he was governor of Florida from 1998 to 2006.
Addressing the gathering in Rimini on Aug. 28, hosted by the Catholic movement Communion and Liberation, the brother of former President George W. Bush warned that the past has shown that such government intervention doesn’t work, but rather leads to a lengthening of a recession and restrictions on individuals from pursuing their dreams.
“There is an inverse relationship between the size, scale, and scope of government and human freedom,” he said. “The bigger the government is, the less freedom individuals have to pursue their dreams, and the pursuit of those dreams is an integral part of our progress.”
Liberty and freedom, he went on, “create more creativity, innovation, and prosperity for more people than any government program ever created. Most, if not all, great advances in life occur by the creative genius of peoples unencumbered by the shackles of the state.”
He added that large government makes people less responsible and engaged about solving problems in their own communities, families, and societies. “People begin to believe that compassion is measured by how much government is expended to try and solve the problem, and we don’t achieve the desired result,” he explained. “In fact, it becomes harder and harder to solve the problems as families, and as individuals in community.”
Bush stressed that the Obama administration’s spending proposals exceed those of the Great Society and the New Deal, and then went on to list them: the $787 billion stimulus package(of which only 15 percent has been spent), the $1.2 trillion healthcare bill, plus hundreds of billions in planned spending for cap-and-trade.
“The debate that we’re having in the United States, and here as well, might be a little different if we actually had the money, but in fact we don’t have the cash,” he said. “Today the budget deficit is $1.8 trillion and the Obama administration expects it to grow to $9 trillion in the next eight years. That is a rosy prediction because it requires economic growth of 3 percent per year for the next nine years.”
Furthermore, Bush highlighted a “toxic cocktail” of government intervention in both financial services and the auto industry which, he predicted, will bring “conflicts with far-reaching implications” beyond just these two sectors of the economy. “Even without a recession and new spending, the cost of government will increase in the coming years,” he warned. “Without a return to limited government and without reform, the cost of these programs combined with the projected debt will sadly exceed our ability to pay without eliminating the funding for our defense, environment, education, and other social services.”
But he stressed there is an alternative: a focus on subsidiarity and the importance of the family. “An alternative approach recognizes that the family is the most important political organization ever created,” he said to loud applause. “Loving parents whose organizing principle is the love and betterment of their children at their own material expense is a powerful force for social progress. In fact, if wholesome family life were the norm in the U.S., a significant amount of the demands placed on government would evaporate.”
Stressing the importance of subsidiarity, he said it was not only an integral part of Catholic social teaching but also a foundational principle in the creation of the United States. “Wherever possible, government should empower individuals, families, and faith- and community-based organizations rather than craft them out with mind-numbing rules, regulations, and command and control policies.”
He then alluded to three programs he initiated in Florida to show the effectiveness of this approach: The first was a community-based childcare system that he said was a vast improvement on a state-run system and led to more adoptions into loving families, better trained foster parents, and fewer abandoned kids. The second was to set up a totally faith-based prison, run by volunteers of many faiths and which has a significantly lower re-offending rate compared to state-run prisons. The third was an award system, with financial incentives, given to schools that showed an improvement in results. Florida schools, he said, now have results that exceed the national average and “lower income students have made the greatest gains.”
Bush said that while he would like the debate to be a “little more civil and substantive.” he said he was “heartened” that a “very lively debate” was now taking place about the proper role of government in society. He said an “emerging coalition” is coming to the fore, one which is increasingly supporting the belief that “government cannot spend its way to our prosperity” and that “strong families and a robust civil society have been, and will be, at the core of our successes.”
How this new coalition emerges in the next few years, he said in closing, “will have much to say about who we are as a nation as we move forward in these exciting and perilous times.”
© 2009 Newsmax. All rights reserved.
the indoctrination begins
From http://www.susanohanian.org/outrage_fetch.php?id=586
Lesson Plans from the U. S. Department of Education
Below this fatuous letter I’m posting the lesson plans straight from Washington D. C. to the nation’s classrooms. These are prepared by 11 participants selected for inclusion in the Teaching Ambassadorship Fellowship Program. Your tax dollars at work.
Letter from Arne Duncan to site principals
Dear Principal:
In a recent interview with student reporter http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rP-695ATg-c, Damon Weaver, President Obama announced that on September 8 — the first day of school for many children across America — he will deliver a national address directly to students on the importance of education. The President will challenge students to work hard, set educational goals, and take responsibility for their learning. He will also call for a shared responsibility and commitment on the part of students, parents and educators to ensure that every child in every school receives the best education possible so they can compete in the global economy for good jobs and live rewarding and productive lives as American citizens.
Since taking office, the President has repeatedly focused on education, even as the country faces two wars, the worst economic crisis since the Great Depression and major challenges on issues like energy and health care. The President believes that education is a critical part of building a new foundation for the American economy. Educated people are more active civically [sic] and better informed on issues affecting their lives, their families and their futures. Issues like living wage, health care, increasing militarism? torture?
This is the first time an American president has spoken directly to the nation’s school children about persisting and succeeding in school. We encourage you to use this historic moment to help your students get focused and begin the school year strong. I encourage you, your teachers, and students to join me in watching the President deliver this address on Tuesday, September 8, 2009. It will be broadcast live on the White House website www.whitehouse.gov at 1:00 p.m. eastern standard time.
In advance of this address, we would like to share the following resources: a menu of classroom activities for students in grades preK-6 http://www.ed.gov/teachers/how/lessons/prek-6.doc and for students in grades 7-12 http://www.ed.gov/teachers/how/lessons/7-12.doc. These are ideas developed by and for teachers to help engage students and stimulate discussion on the importance of education in their lives. We are also staging a student video contest on education. Details of the video contest will be available on our website http://www.ed.gov in the coming weeks.
On behalf of all Americans, I want to thank our educators who do society’s most important work by preparing our children for work and for life. No other task is more critical to our economic future and our social progress. I look forward to working with you in the months and years ahead to continue improving the quality of public education we provide all of our children.
Sincerely,
Arne Duncan
Ohanian Comment: I am trying to restrain myself from commenting on how boilerplate all these “activities” from the Ambassadors are. Admittedly, for many schools the activities would be a welcome change from the scripts. And how many schools in “those” neighborhoods will feel they can afford to be “off script” for this long–having discussions, making posters, writing poems?
Get real, Duncan.
Just keep in mind the horrible hypocrisy of all this. At the same time Duncan is sending out these flowery suggestions for classroom activities, he’s promoting changes in NCLB: According to an Associated Press story of Aug. 26, 2009, Under the new rules, states are to award the money to districts that take one of these approaches:
Close and reopen failing schools with new teachers and principals
Close and reopen failing schools under management of a charter school company or similar group
So how many schools in districts of desperate poverty are going to provide time for students to write poetry and make posters about their goals in life?
PreK-6 Menu of Classroom Activities: President Obama’s Address to Students Across AmericaProduced by Teaching Ambassador Fellows, U.S. Department of EducationSeptember 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 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.
Grades 7-12 Menu of Classroom Activities: President Obama’s Address to Students Across AmericaProduced by Teaching Ambassador Fellows, U.S. Department of EducationSeptember 8, 2009
Before the Speech:• Quick Write or Think/Pair/Share (Students spend a few minutes Thinking and writing about the question: Paired with another student to discuss, then Sharing their ideas with the class as a whole). What do we associate with the words responsibility, persistence, and goals? How would we define each term? A teacher might create a web of student ideas for each of the words.
• Quick Write or Brainstorm: What are your strengths? At what are you successful as a person/student? What makes you successful at these efforts? List at least three things you are successful at and why you feel successful with these tasks.
• Short readings. Notable quotes excerpted (and posted in large print on board) from President Obama’s speeches about education. Teacher might ask students to think alone, compare ideas with a partner, and share their collaborations with the class (Think/Pair/Share) about the following: What are our interpretations of these excerpts? Based on these excerpts, what can we infer the President believes is important to be successful educationally?
• Brainstorm or Concept Web: Why does President Obama want to speak with us today? How will he inspire us? How will he challenge us? What might he say?
• Brainstorm or Concept Web: What other historic moments do you remember when the President spoke to the nation? What was the impact? Students could create a Cause/Effect graphic organizer.
During the Speech:• Listening with a purpose: personal responsibility, goals, persistence. Teachers might ask pairs of students to create a word bank from the web of any one of the terms (personal responsibility, goals, or persistence) at the top of a double-column style notes page. On the right-hand side, students could take notes while President Obama talks about personal responsibility, or goals, or persistence, trying to capture direct quotations. At the end of the speech, students could then write the corresponding terms from the word bank in the left hand column, to increase retention and deepen their understanding of an important aspect of the speech.
• Listening with a purpose: Inspiration and Challenges. Using a similar double-column style notes page as the one above, the teacher could focus students on quotations that either propose a specific challenge to them or inspire them in some meaningful way. Students could do this individually, in pairs or groups.
Transition/Quick Review: Teachers could ask students to look over the notes and collaborate in pairs or small groups. What more could we add to our notes? Teachers might circulate and ask students questions such as: What are the most important words in the speech? What title would you give it? What’s the thesis?
After the Speech:Guided Discussion:• What resonated with you from President Obama’s speech? What lines/phrases do you remember?
• Who is President Obama addressing? How do you know? Describe his audience.
• We heard President Obama mention the importance of personal responsibility. In your life, who exemplifies this kind of personal responsibility? How? Give examples.
• How are we as individuals and as a class similar? Different?
• Suppose President Obama were to give another speech about being educationally successful. Who could he speak to next? Who should be his next audience? Why? What would he say?
• What are the three most important words in the speech? Rank them. What title would you give this speech? What’s the thesis?
• What is President Obama inspiring you to do? What is he challenging you to do?
• What do you believe are the challenges of your generation?
• How can you be a part of addressing these challenges?
Video Project:• 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 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.
Transition: Teachers could introduce goal setting in the following way to make the most of the extension activities.
“When you set a goal, you envision a target you are going to reach over time. Goals are best when they are Challenging, Attainable, and Needed (CAN). For example, a good goal might be “I want to boost my average grade by one letter grade this year so I can show colleges I’m prepared.” But, every good goal also needs steps that guide the way. These steps keep you on track toward achieving your goal. For example, my first step might be, to improve by a letter grade in all subjects for each report card. My second step: to complete 100% of my homework for all my classes the first week of school. My third step: to study an extra hour for all my tests each marking period. My fourth step: to attend tutoring or get an adult to help me whenever I don’t understand something. My last step might be the most important: to ask an adult in my life to check on me often, to make sure I’m reaching each of my steps. Your steps should add up to your goal. If they don’t, that’s okay; we fix them until they do add up!
Let’s hear another example of an academic goal for the year, and decide what steps would achieve that goal…
Now I want you to write your own personal academic goal for this year and steps you will take to achieve it. We can revise our steps each marking period to make sure we are on track.”
Extension of the Speech: Teachers can extend learning by having students
• Create decorated goals and steps on index card sized material. The index cards could be formatted as an inviting graphic organizer with a space for the goal at the top and several steps in the remaining space. Cards could be hung in the room to create classroom culture of goal setting, persistence and success, and for the purpose of periodic review. (See “Example Handouts”).
• Create posters of their goals. Posters could be formatted in quadrants or puzzle pieces or trails marked as steps. These could also be hung around the room, to be reviewed periodically and to create a classroom culture of goal setting and for the purpose of periodic review.
• Interview and share their goals with one another and the class, establishing community support for their goals.
• Create incentives or contests for achieving their personal goals.
• Write about their goals and steps in a variety of genres, i.e. poems, songs, personal essays.
• Create artistic representations of their goals and steps.
— Arne Duncan & Teaching Ambassador Fellows, U.S. Department of EducationLetter and activities for classroom use
Lesson Plans from the U. S. Department of Education
Below this fatuous letter I’m posting the lesson plans straight from Washington D. C. to the nation’s classrooms. These are prepared by 11 participants selected for inclusion in the Teaching Ambassadorship Fellowship Program. Your tax dollars at work.
Letter from Arne Duncan to site principals
Dear Principal:
In a recent interview with student reporter http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rP-695ATg-c, Damon Weaver, President Obama announced that on September 8 — the first day of school for many children across America — he will deliver a national address directly to students on the importance of education. The President will challenge students to work hard, set educational goals, and take responsibility for their learning. He will also call for a shared responsibility and commitment on the part of students, parents and educators to ensure that every child in every school receives the best education possible so they can compete in the global economy for good jobs and live rewarding and productive lives as American citizens.
Since taking office, the President has repeatedly focused on education, even as the country faces two wars, the worst economic crisis since the Great Depression and major challenges on issues like energy and health care. The President believes that education is a critical part of building a new foundation for the American economy. Educated people are more active civically [sic] and better informed on issues affecting their lives, their families and their futures. Issues like living wage, health care, increasing militarism? torture?
This is the first time an American president has spoken directly to the nation’s school children about persisting and succeeding in school. We encourage you to use this historic moment to help your students get focused and begin the school year strong. I encourage you, your teachers, and students to join me in watching the President deliver this address on Tuesday, September 8, 2009. It will be broadcast live on the White House website www.whitehouse.gov at 1:00 p.m. eastern standard time.
In advance of this address, we would like to share the following resources: a menu of classroom activities for students in grades preK-6 http://www.ed.gov/teachers/how/lessons/prek-6.doc and for students in grades 7-12 http://www.ed.gov/teachers/how/lessons/7-12.doc. These are ideas developed by and for teachers to help engage students and stimulate discussion on the importance of education in their lives. We are also staging a student video contest on education. Details of the video contest will be available on our website http://www.ed.gov in the coming weeks.
On behalf of all Americans, I want to thank our educators who do society’s most important work by preparing our children for work and for life. No other task is more critical to our economic future and our social progress. I look forward to working with you in the months and years ahead to continue improving the quality of public education we provide all of our children.
Sincerely,
Arne Duncan
Ohanian Comment: I am trying to restrain myself from commenting on how boilerplate all these “activities” from the Ambassadors are. Admittedly, for many schools the activities would be a welcome change from the scripts. And how many schools in “those” neighborhoods will feel they can afford to be “off script” for this long–having discussions, making posters, writing poems?
Get real, Duncan.
Just keep in mind the horrible hypocrisy of all this. At the same time Duncan is sending out these flowery suggestions for classroom activities, he’s promoting changes in NCLB: According to an Associated Press story of Aug. 26, 2009, Under the new rules, states are to award the money to districts that take one of these approaches:
Close and reopen failing schools with new teachers and principals
Close and reopen failing schools under management of a charter school company or similar group
So how many schools in districts of desperate poverty are going to provide time for students to write poetry and make posters about their goals in life?
PreK-6 Menu of Classroom Activities: President Obama’s Address to Students Across AmericaProduced by Teaching Ambassador Fellows, U.S. Department of EducationSeptember 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 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.
Grades 7-12 Menu of Classroom Activities: President Obama’s Address to Students Across AmericaProduced by Teaching Ambassador Fellows, U.S. Department of EducationSeptember 8, 2009
Before the Speech:• Quick Write or Think/Pair/Share (Students spend a few minutes Thinking and writing about the question: Paired with another student to discuss, then Sharing their ideas with the class as a whole). What do we associate with the words responsibility, persistence, and goals? How would we define each term? A teacher might create a web of student ideas for each of the words.
• Quick Write or Brainstorm: What are your strengths? At what are you successful as a person/student? What makes you successful at these efforts? List at least three things you are successful at and why you feel successful with these tasks.
• Short readings. Notable quotes excerpted (and posted in large print on board) from President Obama’s speeches about education. Teacher might ask students to think alone, compare ideas with a partner, and share their collaborations with the class (Think/Pair/Share) about the following: What are our interpretations of these excerpts? Based on these excerpts, what can we infer the President believes is important to be successful educationally?
• Brainstorm or Concept Web: Why does President Obama want to speak with us today? How will he inspire us? How will he challenge us? What might he say?
• Brainstorm or Concept Web: What other historic moments do you remember when the President spoke to the nation? What was the impact? Students could create a Cause/Effect graphic organizer.
During the Speech:• Listening with a purpose: personal responsibility, goals, persistence. Teachers might ask pairs of students to create a word bank from the web of any one of the terms (personal responsibility, goals, or persistence) at the top of a double-column style notes page. On the right-hand side, students could take notes while President Obama talks about personal responsibility, or goals, or persistence, trying to capture direct quotations. At the end of the speech, students could then write the corresponding terms from the word bank in the left hand column, to increase retention and deepen their understanding of an important aspect of the speech.
• Listening with a purpose: Inspiration and Challenges. Using a similar double-column style notes page as the one above, the teacher could focus students on quotations that either propose a specific challenge to them or inspire them in some meaningful way. Students could do this individually, in pairs or groups.
Transition/Quick Review: Teachers could ask students to look over the notes and collaborate in pairs or small groups. What more could we add to our notes? Teachers might circulate and ask students questions such as: What are the most important words in the speech? What title would you give it? What’s the thesis?
After the Speech:Guided Discussion:• What resonated with you from President Obama’s speech? What lines/phrases do you remember?
• Who is President Obama addressing? How do you know? Describe his audience.
• We heard President Obama mention the importance of personal responsibility. In your life, who exemplifies this kind of personal responsibility? How? Give examples.
• How are we as individuals and as a class similar? Different?
• Suppose President Obama were to give another speech about being educationally successful. Who could he speak to next? Who should be his next audience? Why? What would he say?
• What are the three most important words in the speech? Rank them. What title would you give this speech? What’s the thesis?
• What is President Obama inspiring you to do? What is he challenging you to do?
• What do you believe are the challenges of your generation?
• How can you be a part of addressing these challenges?
Video Project:• 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 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.
Transition: Teachers could introduce goal setting in the following way to make the most of the extension activities.
“When you set a goal, you envision a target you are going to reach over time. Goals are best when they are Challenging, Attainable, and Needed (CAN). For example, a good goal might be “I want to boost my average grade by one letter grade this year so I can show colleges I’m prepared.” But, every good goal also needs steps that guide the way. These steps keep you on track toward achieving your goal. For example, my first step might be, to improve by a letter grade in all subjects for each report card. My second step: to complete 100% of my homework for all my classes the first week of school. My third step: to study an extra hour for all my tests each marking period. My fourth step: to attend tutoring or get an adult to help me whenever I don’t understand something. My last step might be the most important: to ask an adult in my life to check on me often, to make sure I’m reaching each of my steps. Your steps should add up to your goal. If they don’t, that’s okay; we fix them until they do add up!
Let’s hear another example of an academic goal for the year, and decide what steps would achieve that goal…
Now I want you to write your own personal academic goal for this year and steps you will take to achieve it. We can revise our steps each marking period to make sure we are on track.”
Extension of the Speech: Teachers can extend learning by having students
• Create decorated goals and steps on index card sized material. The index cards could be formatted as an inviting graphic organizer with a space for the goal at the top and several steps in the remaining space. Cards could be hung in the room to create classroom culture of goal setting, persistence and success, and for the purpose of periodic review. (See “Example Handouts”).
• Create posters of their goals. Posters could be formatted in quadrants or puzzle pieces or trails marked as steps. These could also be hung around the room, to be reviewed periodically and to create a classroom culture of goal setting and for the purpose of periodic review.
• Interview and share their goals with one another and the class, establishing community support for their goals.
• Create incentives or contests for achieving their personal goals.
• Write about their goals and steps in a variety of genres, i.e. poems, songs, personal essays.
• Create artistic representations of their goals and steps.
— Arne Duncan & Teaching Ambassador Fellows, U.S. Department of EducationLetter and activities for classroom use
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