Elections Cornucopia

Geek of the Week with Bob Sprankle This week I've put together a "horn of plenty" for your classroom election needs, in time for the US Election. There's something for everybody here, so dig in! Google for Educators' Election Tools for Teachers *http://www.google.com/educators/elections_tools.html* This is a great first stop for resources. Google offers up an embeddable Electoral Map (to put on your blog or website), as well as a "Google Trends" tool to help you and your students keep track of what people are searching for on Google that is connected to the candidates and the issues. There's plenty of other great links at the site, but most notably.... National Parent/Student Mock Election *http://nationalmockelection.org/* Google has partnered up with other sponsors to help the National Parent/Student Mock Election. Get there and register your school in time for the mock election that will take place on October 30th, and your students can give voice to the election. There are plenty of great resources here to let you tailor the experience to your class/school's needs. You can vote online or with paper ballots. Just like the real election, ballots are connected to the state you live in, so students can vote not only on the presidential candidates, but also key U.S. House/Senate and governor's races, as well as key national issues. Practice voting opens up from October 1 October 17th. Time for Kids: Election 08 *http://www.timeforkids.com/TFK/election08/* Time for Kids has an excellent site for upper primary students to understand the election, the issues, and the candidates. There's a great trivia game that students can play, "Electoral College Craze," that will help students visualize how electoral votes count. Weekly Reader Election 2008 *http://www.weeklyreader.com/election/index.asp* Here's another fantastic site for younger students that is chockful of resources to help students understand the election process, the issues, and the candidates. Check out the "Election Word Wheel" for students to use as an election glossary, as well as the "Ask Us Anything" section, where students can write questions in to the "Professor" about anything election-related. PBSKids: The Democracy Project *http://pbskids.org/democracy/* PBSKids brings three great sections on this site: "Be President for a Day" (where students actually apply for the job), "How does the government affect me?" (which lets students explore a "virtual town" to discover the different levels of the government), and "Step Inside the Voting Booth" (which allows students to fill out

a "Future Voter's Card"). Ben's Guide to U.S. Government for Kids *http://bensguide.gpo.gov/* Brought to us by the U.S. Government Printing Office, this site has been around for ages and has excellent information at different readability levels for students K-12. There's a section entirely dedicated to the election process. FactCheck.org *http://www.factcheck.org/* Brought to us by the Annenberg Public Policy Center, FactCheck.org is great for older students to research and discover the truth in the issues and attacks. Also go to FactCheckED.org *http://www.factchecked.org/* for lessons throughout the year on media literacy with the site's "five-step framework for analyzing information and avoiding deception." PolitiFact *http://www.politifact.com/truth-o-meter/* Here's another fact-checking site, this one brought to you us the St. Petersburg Times. Daryl Cagle's Professional Cartoonists' Index *http://www.cagle.com/* Here's a staple site for engaging your students in current events throughout the year, but especially during the election season. Cagle collects some of the best editorial cartoonists here, updated daily, which are perfect for giving life and wit to the issues. There's a teacher's guide here full of "learning links" and discussion questions for class. Google News: Elections *http://news.google.com/?ned=us&topic=el* Google makes it easy to keep up on the news, allowing you access to over 4,500 news sources. Direct your students to the "Election" section and teach them how to subscribe to the RSS feed to help them realize that news can now be "trained" to come to us, rather than have to be "chased down." Enjoy the links and the season!