“First Grandmother” Marian Robinson joins Secretary Duncan for Let’s Read. Let’s Move.
Mrs. Marian Robinson, mother of First Lady Michelle Obama, and over 100 local students from Columbia Heights Youth Club’s Reading is Fundamental (RIF) program, the Alexandria Happy Home Child Learning Center and the D.C. Bilingual Public Charter School joined Secretary Arne Duncan at the Department of Education for the fourth installment of the Department’s “Let’s Read. Let’s Move.” summer enrichment series.
As part of the program, students received free books and healthy snacks, were entertained by RIF’s motivational reading mascot, Riffington, took part in writing and enrichment activities, and participated in a range of fun fitness games like jump rope, hula hoops, basketball, hopscotch and musical chairs.
“Let’s Read. Let’s Move.” is part of the Obama Administration’s United We Serve summer service initiative, a nationwide effort calling on all Americans to make service a part of their daily lives. As part of its role in this initiative, the U.S. Department of Education will invite Cabinet members, public officials and celebrities to read books to children, promote healthy lifestyles and participate in games and fitness activities with children in pre-kindergarten through third grade. The goal of this year’s summer programming, led by the Corporation for National and Community Service, is to get more Americans volunteering to combat childhood obesity and summer learning loss among youth.
The books, refreshments, games, and fitness equipment for “Let’s Read. Let’s Move.” have been donated by Target Corporation, which is one of the organizations answering President Obama’s call to service.
The next session will be held on the Department’s outdoor plaza at noon on Friday, July 30th.
Todd May
Office of Communications and Outreach
Click here for an accessible version of the video.
In a return appearance to ED for this year’s summer programming, Robinson delighted the crowd with an animated read-aloud of Audrey Wood’s The Napping House while Duncan entertained students with Maurice Sendak’s Where the Wild Things Are. Following the readings, Robinson and Duncan participated in a lively discussion with students about topics ranging from favorite books and trips to the library to the size of the White House, the locations of Sasha and Malia’s bedrooms and, most importantly, life with the “first dog”, Bo.As part of the program, students received free books and healthy snacks, were entertained by RIF’s motivational reading mascot, Riffington, took part in writing and enrichment activities, and participated in a range of fun fitness games like jump rope, hula hoops, basketball, hopscotch and musical chairs.
“Let’s Read. Let’s Move.” is part of the Obama Administration’s United We Serve summer service initiative, a nationwide effort calling on all Americans to make service a part of their daily lives. As part of its role in this initiative, the U.S. Department of Education will invite Cabinet members, public officials and celebrities to read books to children, promote healthy lifestyles and participate in games and fitness activities with children in pre-kindergarten through third grade. The goal of this year’s summer programming, led by the Corporation for National and Community Service, is to get more Americans volunteering to combat childhood obesity and summer learning loss among youth.
The books, refreshments, games, and fitness equipment for “Let’s Read. Let’s Move.” have been donated by Target Corporation, which is one of the organizations answering President Obama’s call to service.
The next session will be held on the Department’s outdoor plaza at noon on Friday, July 30th.
Todd May
Office of Communications and Outreach
Data.ed.gov Adds Promise Neighborhoods Applicants
On July 23, the U.S. Department of Education posted a categorized list of all 339 submitted applications for Promise Neighborhoods planning grants ondata.ed.gov. Promise Neighborhoods, a new federal initiative, supports the design of comprehensive education and community programs to improve educational outcomes for students in distressed neighborhoods. Under the program, nonprofits and institutions of higher education are eligible for one-year planning grants. Applicants must focus their efforts on schools in their neighborhood and build services for students in those schools from birth through college to career.
Representatives from nearly every state and the District of Columbia submitted Promise Neighborhoods applications, including 48 rural and 21 tribal communities. Almost 20 percent of communities are working with colleges and universities as their lead applicant for the program.
Applications will be reviewed in August 2010 by impartial and qualified educators, researchers, social entrepreneurs and community development practitioners. The Department will announce up to 20 planning grants of up to $500,000 no later than September 30.
Data.ed.gov is a website that allows the public to view detailed information on all Promise Neighborhoods applicants and run customized reports and summary analyses on subsets of applicants. The website currently has similar data available for almost 1,700 applicants to the Investing in Innovation (i3) program. Additional information about each Promise Neighborhoods applicant will be available at data.ed.gov soon.
To learn more about Promise Neighborhoods, please visit: http://www2.ed.gov/programs/promiseneighborhoods/index.html.
Representatives from nearly every state and the District of Columbia submitted Promise Neighborhoods applications, including 48 rural and 21 tribal communities. Almost 20 percent of communities are working with colleges and universities as their lead applicant for the program.
Applications will be reviewed in August 2010 by impartial and qualified educators, researchers, social entrepreneurs and community development practitioners. The Department will announce up to 20 planning grants of up to $500,000 no later than September 30.
Data.ed.gov is a website that allows the public to view detailed information on all Promise Neighborhoods applicants and run customized reports and summary analyses on subsets of applicants. The website currently has similar data available for almost 1,700 applicants to the Investing in Innovation (i3) program. Additional information about each Promise Neighborhoods applicant will be available at data.ed.gov soon.
To learn more about Promise Neighborhoods, please visit: http://www2.ed.gov/programs/promiseneighborhoods/index.html.
This entry was written by jjohnson, posted on July 23, 2010 at 12:57 pm, filed under Headlines, News. Bookmark the permalink. Follow any comments here with the RSS feed for this post. Both comments and trackbacks are currently closed.