Parents across America learned last week if their public school would pull their students together in an assembly to hear the prepared remarks encouraging students to stay in school, be respectful of their school friends, say no to bullying, respect your teachers but most of all the message was to commit to being a responsible student and to stay in school. Our government policy makers, teachers, parents and our communities are working together to provide the best educational opportunity for the children in their communities. The student is a very big part of the success they reach in school and their commitment to do their best is the first step.

Please leave your comments on this blog and share with us if your child viewed the President's speech. Also, share with use your thoughts on how the speech and the curriculum that accompanied the speech was used. Please consider sharing any comments or thoughts that your child discussed with you about what happened in their day and how it impacted them personally.

If the speech was not viewed at school today, will it be viewed and if so when.

Will you and your child view it together at home? How will you take the message and best impact your child and their commitment to their education?

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Tuesday, May 5, 2 p.m. to 3 p.m. Eastern time

The National Math Panel, a White House-commissioned task force, has called for a new, streamlined teaching approach for early-grades math to better prepare students for algebra. The panel’s report calls for more focus on whole numbers, fractions, and geometry, but it also makes broader suggestions about the work that parents, teachers, and others can do to encourage young students' learning of math. The recommendations made a big splash among educators, but critics say the math strategies outlined by the panel are too narrow.

Join us for a live online chat with two former National Math Panel members about the report’s impact on teachers, curriculum directors, academic researchers, and education publishers.

Guests:
Francis M. “Skip” Fennell, professor of education at McDaniel College, former National Mathematics Advisory Panel member

Vern Williams, math teacher at Longfellow Middle School, in Falls Church, Va., former National Mathematics Advisory Panel member

Related Stories:
• Panel Calls for Systematic, Basic Approach to Math
• Efforts Undertaken to Publicize Math Panel’s Results

Sean Cavanagh, assistant editor at Education Week, will moderate this chat.

Creative Tutors is interested in the school districts that provide the education of the students in their communities across America. Our educational leaders directly impact our feature leaders, students of today. We are interested and are committed to learning about the Educational Policies that are currently unfolding through the economic recovery programs provided through the stimulus package.

Please visit the website below to learn more about how our tax dollars are spent. Use your voice to report back to America on how your experience is with the recovery program and its direct impact on your child and your schools!

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LITTLETON,CO - In her classroom at Chatfield High School, Sharon McManus prepares her students for life.

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In 11th grade, Allante Rhodes spent 50 minutes a day in a Microsoft Word class at Anacostia Senior High School in Washington. He was determined to go to college, and he figured that knowing Word was a prerequisite. But on a good day, only six of the school's 14 computers worked. He never knew which ones until he sat down and searched for a flicker of life on the screen. "It was like Russian roulette," says Rhodes, a tall young man with an older man's steady gaze. If he picked the wrong computer, the teacher would give him a handout. He would spend the rest of the period learning to use Microsoft Word with a pencil and paper.

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GOLDEN - The job of Jan Strand is to make sure all the technology is working at Golden High School. The building and grounds may be new, but the computers are not.

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The A-through-F grading system for New York City schools is billed as a public information tool, helping people sort out which schools are teaching children and which schools are just moving them along. Instead of inscrutable education jargon and endless score charts, the letter grades act like billboards broadcasting achievements and failures.

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