Friday 5: Our Nation's Teachable Moment

My new year's resolution has been to revive the Friday 5. In case you might have forgotten, I used to regularly publish a list of at least five quality sites each week based on a theme. Let's see if I can keep my resolution!

A national teachable moment is coming our way next Tuesday with the inauguration of President-elect Obama. Regardless of how you feel politically, it is a chance for students and teachers to examine presidential beginnings and to contemplate the renewal process involved with a change in administration. I hope classrooms all over America are not just watching the event, but are actively engaged bywriting, discussing and generally analyzing material from this piece of history and beyond. It's a great opportunity for teachers and students to consume and produce media through photos, video, blogs, and podcasts.

Thank you to my Twitter network for suggestions for resources!

Lucy Gray


Here are a few sites for inspiration:

1) NKO Inauguration
http://tinyurl.com/nkoinauguration

This is the site I'm building for one of the campuses within our charter school. We are posting pictures, video podcasts, and web-based resources. Teachers and students are welcome to leave comments to ourblog posts, take a survey,  and to leave a placemark on our special Google Map. Please visit this site!

2)  U.S Presidential Inauguration Group within the Global Education
Collaborative
http://globaleducation.ning.com/group/uspresidentialinauguration

If you're looking to do some sort of last minute collaboration with another school, check out this group!

3) Inauguration is Inspiring Classrooms Nationwide
http://tinyurl.com/axtka3

An article from the New York Times on how schools are getting involved with inauguration activities

4) Obama''s Inauguration: Class Rules the Streets of D.C.
http://tinyurl.com/nationalpostinauguration

Another article showing how schools are taking field trips to D.C and using social media to publish items about the inauguration

5) Presidential Inaugural Committee's Photostream
http://www.flickr.com/photos/inauguration

See photos of inaugural preparations

6) Welcome to Washington DC for Kids!
http://kids.dc.gov/kids_main_content.html

General site on our nation's capitol

7) C-SPAN Classroom Inauguration Day Lesson Plan
http://kids.dc.gov/kids_main_content.html

8) YouTube - 44 US Presidents: Quotes from George Washington to Barack Obama
http://tinyurl.com/youtubepresidents

Nice video that could serve as a model to be replicated for a class project

9) Inauguration Day 2009: Where to Watch on TV, Radio, and Online
http://inaugurationday2009.com/broadcast.html

A great list of ways to bring the inaugural live to your classroom

10) The Library of Congress: "I Do Solemnly Swear...": Presidential Inaugurations
http://memory.loc.gov/ammem/pihtml/pihome.html

Lessons and primary source materials related to inaugurals

11) Inauguration Day 2009 - Mahalo
http://www.mahalo.com/Inauguration_Day_2009

A compilation of media related to this year's event

12) 25 Inaugural Addresses
http://www.hotchalk.com/mydesk/index.php/25-inaugural-addresses

A great source for comparing and contrasting inaugural speeches

13) Joint Congressional Committee on Inaugural Ceremonies
http://inaugural.senate.gov/

Everything you always wanted to know about Tuesday's ceremony and beyond

14) Democracy@Work: Inauguration Timeline
http://teacher.scholastic.com/activities/government/inauguration.htm

A timeline from Scholastic that might help kids visualize U.S history


To see even more resources, join our Diigo group for sharing
bookmarks: http://groups.diigo.com/groups/k12elections


For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/friday5