Daily Spotlight on Education 09/04/2009
Lesson Planning Information for US Presidential Speech to Students Grades 7-12
Here are the lesson planning guides for grades 7-12.
Grades PreK-6 Lesson planning guide for Obama speech
This is the lesson planning guide for grades PreK-6th grade for the President's speech on September 8th.
I Am What I Learn video competition for US students
Starting on Sept 8, the US dept of education will ask students to respond to the President's Back to school challenge to create videos, up to 2 minutes in length describing steps that they will take to improve their education.
This will be the website for the Iam what I learn website.Sept 8 - Live event where President Obama will speak to Students
This just in my inbox:
"On September 8, 2009 at 12:00 p.m., Eastern Time (ET), President Barack Obama will deliver a national address to the students of America. (Please note that this is a change from the originally scheduled time.) During this special address, the president will speak directly to the nation’s children and youth about persisting and succeeding in school. The president will challenge students to work hard, set educational goals, and take responsibility for their learning.
The U.S. Department of Education encourages students of all ages, teachers, and administrators to participate in this historic moment by watching the president deliver the address, which will be broadcast live on the White House Web site (http://www.whitehouse.gov/live/) and on C-SPAN at 12:00 p.m., ET. We also encourage educators to use this moment to help students get focused and inspired to begin the new academic year."
Take this chance to set up your school (particularly US public schools) to have President Obama encourage your kids to do well in school. It is very important. There is also a facebook discussion about this event.National Science Board - Honorary Awards - Public Service Award
This award is open until November 4, 2009. It is about time that this award goes to some organization (Yes I can Science comes to mind) that has done a great job with promoting science and Engineering. (Of course, if Numb3rs got this award, I could also see Mythbusters getting it as well.)
University of the People > Home
Just got a press release about this "the University of the People" where they say:
"Comprising arguably the most diverse university class, 178 students from around the globe will begin classes next Thursday, September 10, at University of the People (UoPeople), the world’s first tuition-free online university."
I don't know how the accreditation will work. I don't know who teaches or how this works. I do know that this sort of thing is continuing to get press and be discussed as open source hits the education movement full force. There will continue to be shake up and this is only the beginning, and yet we hear more news every day in this direction.
Universities need to understand that at some point someone is going to perfect an open source type model that does have a meaningful benefit for the participants and does receive recognition as being legitimate and when that day happens, education as we know it will transform in ways we do not understand.Love this post from my friend Leon Cych in the UK where they had a Continuing Professional Development Experience in a treehouse in a park in London (yes, look at the pictures, I kid you not!)
They discussed (and documented via mp3, text, and video) the CPD model (and how to fix it), Web 2 tools, how to be more inclusive of all teachers in ongoing professional development, cost effectiveness of CPD options and a quite interesting topic they called "working outside of silos." (Very interesting.)
Perhaps silos most interest me because often I feel I am in one -- so many of us are working on similar things, but how many are truly sharing what they are doing - it is a constant struggle to share what is happening.
Anyway - this post is enough to give you mental cogitation food for the next few weeks AND Leon documents how they documented the experience.
Hmmm... wonder if there will be any trees in Denver.
Posted from Diigo. The rest of my favorite links are here.
