Wordle of Obama Speech on Afghanistan

I was working on a couple of projects tonight while listening to President Obama's speech on the war in Afghanistan. It is clearly a critical moment for the United States in this situation. As I thought about the meaning of what the President said tonight, I automatically thought about placing the text of the speech into a Wordle so I could visualize it. I have included the Wordle from tonight's speech on our role in Afghanistan with this post. I think this is an amazing way to reflect on this speech. Look at some of the most prominent words : "security", "must" and the mentions of "Vietnam" and "Pakistan".

There are a ton of ways this could be used in a classroom to start a discussion with students. Incredible. A couple of years ago I would have never used this tool and tonight it was one of my first thoughts as I began to think about the speech.

Obama Speech to Students Wordle

The text for the speech President Obama will deliver to students across America tomorrow was released tonight so I thought I would make a Worlde out of it. (Click to enlarge) What do you think?

Podcast #199 - Students Listening to President Obama's Speech on September 8th, Your Thoughts

Hello. The topic of today's podcast is the upcoming speech President Obama will be making to the students of the United States on September 8th, 2009 (11:00 AM central time) on the Internet and C-Span. This is the first time a sitting President will specifically address students across the United States.

The White House released the following information about the topic of the speech : "The president will challenge students to work hard, set educational goals, and take responsibility for their learning." Some have expressed concern over the president speaking directly to students and the amount of influence the speech could have on a group of young people.

Some thoughts as I try to wrap my head around the issue (or non-issue). Please leave a comment on this blog post. I'm very interested to see what teachers across the country are thinking about this topic.

- Does it surprise anyone else that this is the first time a sitting president has specifically addressed the students of the United States?

- At what point does a speech from a president become more "political" than "educational"?

- How is this situation different than the inauguration speech that many students watched across the country several months ago? Was that speech considered more "historic" and therefore not as controversial when aired in classrooms across the country?

- Is your school planning on showing the speech to all students, none of the students, or based on the decision of each teacher?

(Note : I just read on the Department of Education website that the length of the speech is to be 15-20 minutes. In the podcast I mentioned that I was not sure how long the speech would last.)

Information about President Obama's Address to the Students of the United States on September 8, 2009 (includes FAQ and lesson plan ideas)

Direct link to Podcast #199 - Students Listening to President Obama's Address on September 8th, Your Thoughts

Satellite Image of the Inauguration

Check out this incredible image of the Mall in Washington DC during the inauguration.

Wordle of President Obama's Inaugural Address

I created a Wordle tonight from the text of President Obama's Inaugural Address yesterday. I love Wordle. Great tool to bring text to life for visual learners.

President Obama Taking the Oath of Office

A quick picture of my classroom today during the oath by President Obama. My class was absolutely silent for the oath and the speech - not common in an 8th grade class.

Podcast #170 - Resources to Teach the Inauguration In Your Classroom

Hello. Classrooms across the country on January 20th will be focused on the inauguration of our next president - Barack Obama. Today I would like to share just a couple of resources that you can use in your classroom with your students. There are many, many sites to help you teach the inauguration, those listed below are just a few.

The New York Times has created a rich and interactive site to provide perspective on the inaugural speeches of every president in United States history - see the full text of each speech, a PDF of the New York Times the following day and a word cloud which demonstrates the number of times each word was used. The Times also has an excellent interactive page showing the route Mr. Obama will take during the day, ala Google Earth style. The third site is a link to a cool visual Obama mosaic created from the front pages of over 600 newspapers from the day after the election in November.

- New York Times - Inaugural Words : 1789 to Present

- New York Times - Inauguration Day and Parade Route

- Obama Mosaic of 600 Newspapers From Day After Election

If you have any comments about the podcast or would like to share what your classroom did on Inauguration Day please leave a comment on this blog post.


Direct link to Podcast #170 - Resources to Teach the Inauguration in Your Classroom - MP3 Audio File