I am a parent of a student who attends McDole Elementary School and I am very pleased with the efforts the Kaneland School District has done in educating and safeguarding the students in our community. You should be commended for your fine work. However, I'm extremely disappointed in the decision you have made in regards to not broadcasting our President's speech live an in its entirety. In my opinion, you have found a very convenient way to placate to the lunacy of a few individuals. I sincerely hope that you are not among the people who believes this is a policy speech or a speech intended to spread a socialist agenda as a few of our Congressmen have implied.

In the letter I received from the Kaneland School District, it states, "Once we hear the speech, it may very appropriate for sharing with our students, either partially or in its entirety."

You seem to be taking the stance that you do not trust what will be said by President Obama until you hear the speech. Once you hear the speech it will be up to you on what, if any, parts of the speech will be aired to the students. That is, quite simply, a horrendous and potentially dangerous precedent to take in this situation and one that concerns me a great deal. This is an incredible opportunity and it's an opportunity that "every" school in our great nation should take part in.

From the Secretary of Education:

“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.”

From the Press Secretary of the United States:

"The goal of the speech and the lesson plans is to challenge students to work hard in school, to not drop out and to meet short-term goals like behaving in class, doing their homework and goals that parents and teachers alike can agree are noble. This isn't a policy speech. This is a speech designed to encourage kids to stay in school."

Yes, quite the socialist agenda.

Your decision about not showing the speech politicizes the process whether that was your intention or not. As a parent who understands the incredible opportunity this is, and as a parent who is proud of this great country, I will be pulling my daughter out of school on September 8th so she can hear President Obama's message live and in its entirety. She will return to school when the speech is completed and we have a chance to discuss and reflect on the content of this very important message. I hope you understand my decision in this matter.

Sincerely,

A concerned Parent

I thought it would be fun to get the kids involved in this activity by having them create the synonym word clouds using Twitter and Wordle.

Prior to playing the game, the teacher can send a tweet using a particular hashtag and then have the students submit their synonyms for the word and include the hashtag provided by the teacher.

Students would need to check to make sure they are not duplicating one of the synonyms by searching on the hashtag before sending their tweet.

After a set period of time, students review the synonyms and create a word cloud using correct responses to the original tweet. They send the URL for their word cloud to the teacher via Twitter.

Monday Teachers send Tweet containing main word and a hashtag.

Homework - students search on the hashtag and then send a Tweet containing a synonym that has not been Tweeted yet.

Tuesday Teachers review the submissions and discuss where students found their synonyms.

Homework - students choose appropriate synonyms from the list of tweets to create their own word cloud using Wordle. Students save their word cloud to the gallery and send a tweet to the teacher containing their word cloud URL

Wednesday The students can show their word clouds to the class on Wednesday.

Homework - Students build their own Wordle word cloud using their own word and send their word cloud URL to the teacher via Twitter.

Thursday Students look at word cloud and try to guess the word.

Teachers now have a collection of Wordle word clouds for future lessons.

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