Wednesday, January 7, 2009

Inauguration Project Blog

Teachers and students are invited to comment upon the contents of this blog.

The comments will be moderated through the Pennsylvania Department of Education and will be published to the blog as soon as possible. Students are invited to use this blog to communicate with their peers in Washington as well as other students throughout Pennsylvania; thoughtful and appropriate commentary is welcomed and encouraged.

The intention of the blog is to provide a link to students throughout the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania to other schools and with student correspondents from Springfield School District who will be in Washington D.C. from January 17th to the 23rd with the Close Up Foundation. These students will be able to provide a firsthand account of the inaugural events as they unfold; and will be conducting nightly interviews with other students from across the country as well as interviews from the Capitol Mall on Inauguration Day.

Conditions permitting, these events will be streamed live and archived so that, if they choose, teachers may use them as conversation starters with their classes. Dates, times, and websites will be posted to this blog when they become available.

This site will also serve as a resource for schools who are participating in the inaugural lesson plans offered by the Pennsylvania Department of Education.

In addition to the Springfield Student Correspondents in Washington DC, there will also be a student team at the National Constitution Center in Philadelphia who will be broadcasting streaming video from that location on Inauguration Day. This team will be on stage at the National Constitution Center immediately before and after the ceremony and will interview visitors to the building to obtain their impressions on this historic event. Comment and discussion are invited and encouraged for this part of the day as well.

Springfield High School's Broadcast journalism classes will also be running a series of student produced informational videos throughout the day which will be streamed out to the District website. We will have a list of packages and a schedule posted as soon as possible to allow for teacher planning.

Springfield School District would like to thank the following organizations for their support of this ambitious project:
The CloseUp Foundation
The National Constitution Center
The Pennsylvania Coalition for Representative Democracy
The Pennsylvania Department of Education
The Pennsylvania Department of Education - Classrooms For the Future
AT&T

23 comments:

  1. I would ask President Obama to carefully consider the impact of decisions made now on the future of our country and the future of our children. In addition I would ask him to be prudent in making financial decisions and to consider how a strong education system now will strengthen our economy in the future.
    ~Mrs. Roche
    5th Grade Teacher

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  2. I would ask the President what solutions he proposes for failing schools that have been penalized or shut down due to NCLB.

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  3. Dear Mr. Obama,
    I was born in Egypt and I been in the United States for three years. I am excited about your presidency because all of the people in the United States are so excited. How will you help immigrants coming to the United States? How will you help them find work and live a better life in the United States?

    Mariam
    Upper Merion Area High School
    King of Prussia. PA

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  4. Our 11th grade history classes are certainly going to be involved.

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  5. I would like to ask President Obama how he plans to address the "No child left behind" guidelines that have led to the PSSA testing.

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  6. Dear President Obama,
    Congratulations on your historic victory. We are concerned about the enviroment and we would like to know how you plan to overcome some of the problems that are happening today.

    Kappa Team; 7th Grade SS, Pd. 4
    E.T.Richardson Springfield Delaware County

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  7. President Obama,
    I will be praying for you, your family, this country, and our world. Please do your best as a president and remember to use all the resources that you have around you to make the difficult decisions that you will need to make in the next four years. I hope that you will use the power of your office to move us to new energy sources that will be better for the environment and more equitable - this will help us with world peace if we all have equal access to energy resources. Please make politics your last priority. We need you.

    Mrs. Leigh Foy
    Chemistry and Biology teacher
    York Suburban High School
    York, PA

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  8. Dear President Obama,
    Congrats on your victory and I am looking forward to what you will do about the economy and about all the illegal immigrants in the US.

    Kappa Team; 7th Grade SS,Pd.4
    E.T.Richardson Springfield Delaware County
    Dani Mack

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  9. Writing from a school in County Galway, Ireland. We will be watching this important day in American history. Best Wishes to you all!
    Pól, Gaelscoil Riabhach
    Loughrea
    Co. Galway

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  10. dear president obama,

    I congradulate you on your historic victory it is truly a beautiful thing that you are the first african american president elect. i have a few questions; what do you plan to do about world hunger and the polar bears, and what will you do about racisim. these are the many questions that i have. well thank you for your time and feel free to write back

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  11. Dear,
    Obama

    Congradulations on you winning the president election. It must be cool and all but do u get nervous about being president? I wish the best of luck to you and I hope you do a great job.

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  12. does anyone have baking techniques 3rd period?

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  13. Dear Mr.Obama Why did you lie to us? You said the first thing you would do once you get in office you will pull all the troops out of Iraq but then once you got elected you said that you will keep troops in Iraq untill 2011 one year before you get out of office so why? You also said you would create a different tax plan but then once you got elected you said that you are going to stay with bush's tax plan once again one year before you get out of office. You better do really good or you'll be the next Jimmy Carter

    Greg G
    York Sububran High School Grade 11

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  14. I think we should have elected George Bush or a 3rd term

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  15. Tomorrow happiest day of my life no more bush and we get a smart president which we haven't had in the past 8 years. Good luck Obama trying to fix the mess bush left you.

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  16. I think electing obama was a big mistake. What was America thinking?

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  17. Until a few days ago, i was a huge obama supporter. But recently, it seems like he has either been taking back a lot of what he said or saying the complete opposite. Like greg said, he said he would pull troops out, and now he decided not to.
    I wonder what else he's going to change?

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  18. President Obama
    you won the campaign, and you have won the heart of many Americans included mine. We all have our faith set with you. I hope that you continue with your promises and do all that we believe you can. If anyone, YOU are meant and capable of being the hero of the 21st century. I hope that after your term (and 2nd if re-elected) you will become a legend in America, and of course, around the world.

    Robert Banks
    Student
    York Suburban High school
    York, Pennsylvania

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  19. President Obama,
    I am thankful that many Americans have decided to change the ways of our country by electing you to be our 44th president of the United States. I know that you will make right choices for this country and I have faith in you.

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  20. My name is Kaitlyn and I go to Scott County High School. This is the first year I really became interested in the inauguration and actually watched the broadcast. The fact that history was being made today by the first african american president being elected is what really made me become more interested. Also i was more interested bvecause I am older and understand more about what is really going on. I thought the inauguration was very interesting and it really brought out the patriotism my self when I heard the Barack Obama speaking about America's history as well as what a strong nation America is. I am looking forward to seeing what changes a technilogically smart president will bring about.

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  21. My name is Kaitlyn and I go to Scott County High School. This is the first year I really became interested in the inauguration and actually watched the broadcast. The fact that history was being made today by the first african american president being elected is what really made me become more interested. Also i was more interested bvecause I am older and understand more about what is really going on. I thought the inauguration was very interesting and it really brought out the patriotism my self when I heard the Barack Obama speaking about America's history as well as what a strong nation America is. I am looking forward to seeing what changes a technilogically smart president will bring about.

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  22. Austin Mcgowan, what would expect differently out of McCain if he became president?

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  23. Okay, many people have been coming to the assumption that this is going to be the start of a great presidency? Im thinking that many of you are blind to see that mr. big talk himself, Obama, has given us this lecture about how he's going to change this and he's going to change that, but now he decides to stick with a plan that got us into this crisis? Pulling out the troops will do absolutely nothing and correct me if i am wrong, but soldiers go to war because they WANT to, if they pull them out it will only create more conflict, but you want that? Seriously, think about it.

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