My sixth graders have been working on writing letters to the president and yesterday, we podcasted them reading them letters (which will be mailed off to the White House). Their writing was very impressive, I think, with topics on the environment, the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, the economy, education and, of course, the Obama girls and their dog.

Here is a sample of a few of the letters.

We were too young to take part in the National Writing Project/Google venture Letters to the Next President that took place during the primaries but I think our students feel as if they do have a voice and they seem realistic about the problems facing our countries and yet, they remain very optimistic that President Obama has the power to rally the nation.

Peace (in student voices),
Kevin

I watched the Inauguration Ceremonies with my sixth graders (on as new interactive board in a colleague’s room — great big screen experience) and the discussion we had afterwards was quite interesting, as they picked up on Obama’s messages of sacrifice, willingness to lead into the future and tying the present and future to our past. A number of them also “heard” Obama directly criticizing former (wow) President Bush for his policies, although we talked about how Obama did such criticism indirectly, thus — a discussion about the power of language and persuasion.

I came across this image via Frank’s blog and it is a wonderful artistic expression of the themes of Obama’s speech. It comes from Brandy Agerbeck’s site. You can download a PDF from her site of this image (as I have done) to share with students.

And, of course, someone over at Readwriteweb popped Obama’s speech into Wordle and came out with this cloud:

Perhaps this is also a good time to re-share a song that I wrote for Obama when it was clear he was going to garner enough votes for president. It is about our expectations of him and my worry that he might succumb to Washington inertia and disappoint me.

Listen to Don’t You Go Disappointing Me

I’ve lived a long life
Oh, the stories I could tell
I hope you don’t go disappointing me

The path is paved
with empty words that they will sell
I hope you don’t go disappointing me

Four years ahead of us — The future’s in our eyes
My baby’s getting old — and the world is compromised

They’d tell you anything
to fill your heart with fear
I hope you don’t go disappointing me

I’d like to take you
for a walk around my town
I hope you don’t go disappointing me

Just stop and listen
to the people all around
I hope you don’t go disappointing me

Four years ahead of us — The future’s in our eyes
My baby’s getting old — I hear it in his cries

You’ve got the power
to change the world that we know
I hope you don’t go disappointing me

Peace (in words),

Kevin

(photo by Getty images)

Here is a poem for President Elect Obama.

To Obama
(listen to poem as a podcast)

I don’t know who they think they are
carrying on about Change
when the reality is that change comes so fast to us
that it’s never visible until the aftermath
when the shadow of reflection is cast upon the landscape
and we understand how everything is different now
and the old order,
come and gone.

Yes, I am one of those,
the guilty many who is doing all of this carrying on,
with hopes in my heart that the course will be altered
by fresh ideas and fresh faces and the intellect
that guides you
even as I refuse to let my dreams shackle you
to my own expectations.

No, it is my children who speak through me
to you
and whose nightly whispers you must heed
in your head as you sit through briefings
and meetings and dinners with dignitaries
and consider the World from your seat up on top of the mountain.

Will others do the same?
Will they temper their expectations
and accede to reality?
Or will they claw at you with visions
of how it should be, how it could be,
how will it never be
even as you hold them off with a misplaced word
to soothe the lions outside the fence
whose only instinct is for blood.

Change us, perhaps, but don’t change yourself
and let us look back in ten years time
to finally understand that our path was forged amidst all of this chaos
in such a way that we never even knew
we were moving.

Here’s hoping for the best in the next four years ..

Peace (in the world),
Kevin