|
  |
|
|
| |
 |
May 2009
Obama's Education Reform Push & More
Welcome to the new issue of ProQuest Teachable Moments. This month, you'll find 21st century classroom-ready lessons focusing on
Asian Pacific American Heritage Month, physical education, International Year of Astronomy, education reform, Older Americans Month,
and more. (Lesson archives.)
Economic Stimulus Act & School Libraries
After years of school library media reductions, there's good news. The federal Economic Stimulus Act includes billions of new dollars of funding for education.
ProQuest has created new tools to help you tap these funds—but hurry, you need to act NOW. Our short video and pair of documents (FAQ and overview) will give you a running start. Act today!
|
|
Enter to win this month's book from Linworth Books!
| |
| |
eLibrary
New Challenges: Baby Boomers
Baby Boomers, as a group, are living longer and enjoying an increased quality of life. Unfortunately, the funding needed to finance a longer life span may not be sufficient to support retirees using traditional financial strategies such as Social Security and Medicare. How will President Obama and Congress create reforms that will be fair to older Americans and also be fair to those whose taxes support these entitlements?
SIRS Discoverer
Get in Shape, Kids!
May is National Physical Fitness and Sports Month. Never before in the history of our nation have there been so many children with health problems. Many of the causes of these problems can be attributed to obesity because of poor diets and lack of physical activity.
Students: How does exercise help you to improve and maintain your health? How does proper diet support exercise in losing or maintaining weight? What form of exercise do you think is the healthiest for you and why? Answer these questions to make the grade with our new SIRS activity.
| |
| |
eLibrary Science
International Year of Astronomy
The world celebrates the International Year of Astronomy in 2009. This celebration of the importance of the science of astronomy coincides with the 400th anniversary of Galileo's use of a telescope to study the skies and Johaness Kepler's publication of Astronomia Nova which validated the work of Copernicus that the Earth and other planets orbit the sun.
ProQuest has created a BookCart learning activity to help your students learn more about astronomy and telescopes for exploring the universe—"Astronomy: Telescopes, and Life on Other Planets."
SIRS Decades
Can President Obama create real education reform?
President Obama's campaign promised major education reform as one of three major initiatives he would undertake if elected. His ideas include merit-based teacher pay, a longer school year, tracking of individual students' progress, and removal of restrictions on charter schools.
Education reform also played a prominent part of President Lyndon B. Johnson's goals for the "Great Society" initiative of the 1960s. Find out more with SIRS.
| |
| |
|
|
|
| |
SIRS Researcher
Obama's Recipe for Education Reform
One of the education priorities that President Obama favors is to reform the No Child Left Behind Act by changing the accountability provisions away from sole reliance on standardized testing. SIRS Leading Issues includes this issue and more than 100 others that help students develop 21st-century critical thinking skills in the context of studying real-world controversial issues.
Assign students either a pro or con position on the SIRS Leading Issue of "Educational Tests and Measurements." It melds both Obama's reform with real-world research and learning in your classroom or library.
| |
| |
|
|
|
| |
ProQuest Platinum
Education Reform—Obama Style
"Despite resources that are unmatched anywhere in the world, we have let our grades slip, our schools crumble, our teacher quality fall short and other nations outpace us," President Obama said in a recent speech.
Students: What are the basic principles of the Obama education reform policy? Which of the Obama policies do you most support and why? Which of the Bush policies do you consider were effective or ineffective and why? What other policies would you propose to the President and why?
| | |
eLibrary Elementary
The New Physical Education
May is Physical Fitness and Sports Month. Enjoying and playing sports helps elementary students form the foundation of attitudes, habits, and skills that will keep them active and fit for a lifetime. To support this timely May theme, ProQuest has created a BookCart learning activity—"Exercise and Health."
eLibrary Curriculum Edition
Celebrate Asian Pacific American Heritage
Students: What are the most important Asian Pacific American (APA) cultural contributions and why? Why did most Asian Americans emigrate to the U.S. (list at least three reasons)? How have APAs distinguished themselves (name two persons in at least five areas)?
ProQuest has created a BookCart learning activity to help your students learn more about this May theme—"Asian Pacific Heritage Month." Each model Cart we provide is a complete and one-stop learning activity for your students.
|
|
| |
|
|
|
| |
Grants for Educators @ Grant Wrangler
Learn how to publish this information on your website(s)
|
| |
Free Online Training Opportunities
Our ProQuest product trainers are standing by to help you get the most out of your subscription. Tap into this month's free training schedules (by class or date) then register for a course today. (Get dates via email.)
|
 |
|
Top 3 Websites
Each month, our SIRS team scours the Internet for top-quality websites for schools and students.
SIRS Spotlights + Challenge Quests
Our world has benefitted from Asian Americans' achievements in medicine, science, and technology.
Our new SIRS Spotlight of the Month focuses on Asian Americans and their rich history and legacy during Asian Pacific American Heritage Month.
During the World Wars, Native American soldiers used various Native American languages to send military messages in code.
SIRS asks: These soldiers created the first military secret code based on what Native American language?
Video Message to Libraries
Marty Kahn, ProQuest CEO
New eLibrary Quick Tour
Resource Overview Video
  
CultureGrams
Race Around the World
During Asian Pacific American Heritage Month, help your students learn about Asian or Pacific countries in preparation for a class "race." To begin, select four or five Asian or Pacific countries you would like the students to study as a class. Then have the students read the CultureGrams Kids Edition reports for those countries.
Have each student create quiz questions about his or her country based on the reading. Compile the questions together and distribute them to the class to allow students to prepare. You may wish to have some as "questions of the day" in the lead-up to the activity.
World Conflicts Today
Obama's War? + NEW Afghanistan Quiz
If Iraq was Bush's war, Afghanistan appears destined to become Obama's. As the president contemplates further escalation of the U.S. war effort in Afghanistan, test your knowledge of the events leading up to the start of the war in 2001.
The answer key is located at the end of the activity page. All the information you need to answer the questions correctly can be found in the World Conflicts Today > Afghanistan report.
Samples: Which two great 19th-century powers fought for control of Afghanistan in what is often called the "Great Game"? Why, in 1978, did the Soviets hesitate in offering Afghanistan's new communist government its total and unqualified support?
After the Soviet withdrawal, who said that "the civilized world" had to fight fundamentalism in Afghanistan and warned that failure to do so would "turn Afghanistan into a center of . . . drugs [and] terrorism."
Explore additional history-related themes inside Retroview and History Happenings, our hands-on social studies newsletters.
ProQuest Historical Newspapers
Back to the Gold Standard?
Some countries and some economists are now recommending a return to the Gold Standard as a solution to control financial risks in the future.
The gold standard is a monetary system in which the unit of currency is a fixed weight of gold. Therefore, the price of gold sets the value for the currency of the nation.
Students: Why did President Nixon favor unlinking gold from the dollar? What advantages did this decision provide for the U.S. and other countries?
What are the advantages of a gold standard? What are the disadvantages of a gold standard?
|
| |
|
|
 |
|
© ProQuest LLC. All rights reserved. Images © Getty, AFP, Magnum
789 East Eisenhower Parkway, P.O. Box 1346, Ann Arbor, MI, 48106, United States |
|
|
