Obama at the Republican Retreat
This video above has received a lot of buzz today, so in case you want to show it to your students, here it is. In it, Obama has an interesting back and forth with members of the Republican caucus in the US Congress. Skip to about 1:15 into the video to see the beginning of the exchange.

State of the Union Interactive
This site has both the speech as well as a tab at the top so that you can see what the general theme is for each part of the speech. I am going to use it to quickly show the students key parts. It also has the text running along side the speech as well as analysis for each part.

Obama's Promises
This has both rollover feature that let's you see the promises Obama made in the campaign, what he has accomplished, what he still has to do as well as the details for each proposal

Explaining the American Filibuster

State of the Union Bingo

Wednesday at 9 pm Barack Obama will give his first official (last year was not) State of the Union address which is required by the Constitution to be done from time to time. This lesson plan includes a history of the event as well as a Bingo card your students can use to follow the speech.

Finance Ruling Impact on the States

Here is an article that details the impact of Thursday's Supreme Court ruling on the states.  It talks about how many states (see graphic above) have bans on corporate financing for their legislative races and even mentions that former House Majority Leader Tom DeLay's (R) lawyers hope that this will allow his pending case to end where he was charged with improperly using corporate donors. 

Video Explanation of the S Court Ruling on Campaign Donations

This is a three minute video which you can use w. your students to explain the ruling today to allow corporations and labor unions to have their own ads in the last part of the election cycles.

Books of the Future or Should I Say the Present
The juniors in my school have been using e-books this year rather than a paper text. Some of them love it and others don't, but for me it is an important step towards what will be a much better product in the near future as you can see above.

Google Docs for Teachers
I can't say enough about how easy it is to have your students turn in work through Google Docs and then grade them. Additionally Google Docs is a tremendous way for students, and teachers to collaborate. Above is a nice how to video.

Town by town election results for MA Senate

Boston.com has a nice election result map that shows how a race can be won or lost based on the geographic differences in a state. You could use this as a launching pad to discuss the geographic differences in your state and how they change over time.

Multiple Ways to Use Wordle
I have used Wordle on this site to show how you can compare two different sources on the same topic to look for bias. But I went to this blog and found the multiple uses you can see above including ways for your students to analyze their own writing and work. It is a great slideshow.

The Ripple Effect of High School Dropouts

The piece from this segment starts around 6:45 into the video.

This One Is For All the Marbles!

Yes, if Scott Brown wins he has said he will not vote for Obama's health care. It still would be a shock if it happens esp since no R has won a senate race in MA since 1972. But he has huge momentum as you ca see from above. It hasn't been announced, but I'm waiting for Obama to fly up there otherwise the D's won't have enough for a cloture vote on the final version of the health care bill. More

USGS Recent Earthquake Data

If you are looking to put the earthquake in perspective you can use the USGS Recent Earthquake Data page and the get background info from the CIA World Factbook.

Debate Prep Website
This site has 528 different topics with arguments written by experts as well as summaries and links to help your debate team do additional research.