President Obama's Speech: The State of Education

On January 26, 2011, President Barack Obama made a State of the Union speech largely about education.

      

Obama stated in his speech that education is very important and that kids (and adults) need education because education is used for many, many things in life. In fact, life-long education is crucial. Most pressing, however, for the young students is knowing that education can make your future brighter. Education, with determination and hard work, gets people into college and then access to interesting job and successful careers. Everyone needs a job to make a living, buy a home and raise a family.

      

Obama is worried that children are not getting enough or the right education. Children in the United States, he explained, have not been studying the most important subjects enough in school. 

President Obama made the speech in United States' capitol, Washington D.C.

To learn more, go to the White House website or watch the video of the President's speech below. The video is from the White House website and include "extras," such as graphs and images.

We Have to Race to the Top -- Join the Effort

Race To The Top people! We can reform our education program. Last night Obama made a speech about the Race To The Top, a program formed by Republicans and Democrats not by Washington. This program replaces the No Child Left Behind Law. The No Child Left Behind Law is a law designed to ensure that K-12 children receive a proper education but it has had mixed results and been very controversial.

Did you know that less than 1 percent of what we spend on education has led to higher standards of learning and teaching? This is important because as a country we have put less value on education, and Obama says that it is time we shape up -- we should put more value on learning, teachers, and students to get our children a better education! And a better education leads to a better future for each and all of us.

Bruce Randolph, a school in Denver, was one of the worst schools in Colorado; one of the reasons is that there were two rival gangs near the school. Last May, though it was rated a bad school, 97 percent of the seniors graduated and got their diploma.

Obama said, "In fact, to every young person listening tonight who’s contemplating their career choice: If you want to make a difference in the life of our nation; if you want to make a difference in the life of a child -- become a teacher. Your country needs you." 

Obama noted that teachers and parents effect a child's success.

Written by Clara and Anya

Forget What You Know About Good Study Habits

Many parents try to turn their children into study children. But that method is old and boring. Mostly it is because of the rules at home or rules at school. But there are other ways of teaching children to study. ( But you must be motivated).

 Cognitive scientists say that only a couple of good techniques can improve the education of children. You can do something like this: instead of just using one study location, just change the room the person studies in.

Robert A. Bjork is a psychologist at the University of California, Los Angeles. He said about this case " We have known these principles for some time, and it's intriguing that schools don't pick them up, or that people don't learn them by trials and error. Instead, we walk around with all sorts of unexamined beliefs about what works that are examined."

All children have different ways of studying, for example, some children are "Visual learners" others are "Auditory learners". Some are " Left-brain" and others are " Right Brain". " The idea is that forgetting is the friend of learning. When you forget something, it allows you to relearn, and do so effectively, the next time you see it." says Dr. Kornell.

Written by Rubina H.

Does Exercise Make You Smarter?

Student: Rubina

Read this article on The New York Times website. Does exercise make young students smarter? Write a news story that explains how exercise can affect a student's mind.

If you have time, make a Wordle that describes your article. Use a picture of Hillwood students exercising or playing to also illustrate your story. You can look at images on the Hillwood website.

Now, Give that Dog a Vowel

Student: Anya

Now, do I have the assignment for you! Two, in fact! First, read this article on The New York Times about dogs with impressive vocabularies. Then, report on what you learn. Include an explanation of findings from at least two of the studies cited. Remember to include links, labels, images, and a pointer to the video and its source. Next, read about Lily the Pug's hip replacement.

If you have time, you may use the Kindle.