The 44th President

Barack Obama was sworn in as the 44th President of the United States on Tuesday. The changing of power from one president to another goes smoothly and without bloodshed or coup in this wonderful nation of ours, and this changing of power could be viewed as drastic--from one political party to another, with completely different agendas and solutions to the common problems of the people of this nation. Who knows what the future will bring? Our new President takes office with hope, and one can't help but feel excitement and anxiousness to see what will happen in the next few years. Our students will likely remember this changing of power. As they learn more about it, they may appreciate the Constitution which President Obama swore to defend.

This is the best video of the swearing in and the speech that followed. Share this with your students. Discuss the President's message. Help our children participate in this historic occasion. If students learn about their role as citizens while they are young, they will likely be more involved in the world as adults. The future is in their hands, and they are in ours.

1/2 hour activity

Comic Life is one of my favorite programs! Using Comic Life, let the kids use pictures and words to describe their New Year's resolutions or goals. Here's a sample:

1/2 Hour Activity

Need practice typing? Here's a 1/2 hour activity that the students will enjoy!

Baseball typing! Have a line of text on the board that the students must type. Sentences can focus on home row, upper row of letters, lower row of letters, all letters, all letters plus punctuation, symbols, or whatever combination of the above you would like the students to practice. Split the students into two teams. Give them one minute to type the line as many times as they can. Each correct line counts as one base. Three bases counts as one run. Each minute of typing counts as one inning. Play for nine innings, then reward the winning team with free time on the computer. Have the losing team practice their sentences a few more times. Walk around the room and make sure the students are using the proper fingers for this exercise, or it loses its purpose.

Here are some sample sentences:

home row: ask a glad dad

home row plus upper row: i require quiet please

all letters: the fat cat ate the rat and came back to the mat

all letters plus caps: Aunt Lily likes to go to the zoo

all letters plus caps and punctuation: It's time to feed the pigs. Please dump the slop.

*You can play a similar game with spelling words. Have the students type all their spelling words. Typing through the whole list counts as one sentence. The words must not only be typed correctly--with the fingers on the right keys--but all the words must be spelled correctly in order for the base to count. This would be a lower scoring version. For younger grades, each correctly typed & spelled word could count as one base.

Literary activity

Welcome back to school! I hope you all had a great Holiday!

We're kicking off the new year with lots of activities. This is an historic January. We will get a new President this year. Barack Obama will be inaugurated on January 20. The day before the swearing in of America's first black President is Martin Luther King Jr. Day. This nation has come a long way from the days of pushing individuals to the back of a bus because of the color of their skin.

Try this activity with your students--choose a photograph taken during the times of the Civil Rights movement and have your students write a poem or a story about that photograph. The following is a poem I wrote in high school.

Southern Streetcar (After a photograph by Robert Frank)
I
In the first seat
of the streetcar
sits a white woman.
Her cheeks sag
to join her slight double chin.
The blind on the window
covers her forehead.
She holds a book,
a closed Bible,
on her lap.

II
Two children
sit in
the second seat,
dressed in their Sunday best.
The older one looks like a young soldier,
staunch and solid,
with slightly flared nostrils.
By almost arching his back,
he avoids touching
his little brother,
whose fingers
are sticky from his candy.

III
And in the third seat
sits the black man,
with his blazing eyes
turned skyward.
His shirt
hangs loosely
over his shallow chest,
like water
polishing a flat stone.

Amy Maida Young, 1989