Welcome

Welcome to Room 184In order to provide my students with an opportunity to have their voices heard beyond the four walls of their classrooms and introduce them to another form of communicating, I have created a blog for my students’ work. Room 184 will display some of the work of my juniors and seniors. Because I think a little paranoia is a good thing, especially when dealing with students and the internet, my profile has been left incomplete and only students’ initials will appear on their postings.

Purpose of Room 184

• Provide my students with an opportunity to use technology to communicate their thoughts and ideas
• Provide my students an opportunity to receive feedback from individuals who may or may not be a part of their peer group, a teacher, or a member of their local community
• Encourage my students to put more time and effort into their writing
• Expose my students to the wonderful world of blogging
• Provide my students with an opportunity to brag that their work is on the internet
• Experiment with various Web 2.0 tools
  

Commenting Rules

I encourage you to make comments on any or all of my students’ postings. When you do comment, please follow these few simple rules.

• If you recognize or think you recognize me, the student’s initials or writing, do not use the student’s name.
• All comments must be appropriate in language and tone.
  

Let the Blogging Begin Room 184 - http://room184.blogspot.com/

P.S.: You may want to check out some of my other blogs on education. Teacher Leaders - http://foster-teacherleader.blogspot.com/ Webucation 2.0 - http://webucation20.blogspot.com/~

Student M

Dear Mr. President
I would first like to wish you luck in your term in office, you have a lot of faith from the entire world including myself. I would also like to express my concern with these economic plans of action. I greatly show concern towards these stimulus packages and bailout plans. I understand how they may be used to keep things in balance and buy more time, but I fear they are starting to become abused, driving us further and further into the dark waters of debt. I only ask you take caution with your economic actions, I wish for the best for you Mr. President.


Sincerely yours,

Student M

I am a senior at James Madison High school. I would like to congratulate you on your Historic victory. I voted for McCain but I really hope you do well taking care of our country. Being in scouts has taught me to be ready to defend my country and I have always been ready to do so.

I plan on joining the military after college because I believe it’s every able bodied man’s duty to serve at least one term. But I am concerned about the war in Iraq. What are we fighting for? I do not believe were fight against terrorist or for oil. If we are fighting against terrorist I do not believe we can achieve victory. I like to study military history as a hobby. All through history we have seen guerilla warfare which is a type of war we are fighting in Iraq. My observation in studying military history is that no organized military has ever defeated the military style of guerilla warfare. Guerilla warfare was made so that a smaller military force could stop or slow down organized military. I believe we should change the fighting style of the military. I believe you could utilize the S.W.A.T. team’s around the nation to train the military for urban warfare. You could also use S.W.A.T. to help police the city streets and also train the local police force.

I hope you ponder my ideas and hopefully the war will end sooner rather than later. Again congratulations on your historical victory. I believe you will do the best you can. I believe you have a long tough road ahead of you good luck with your presidency.

Sincerely,

Student A

I am gravely concerned about our current economic crisis in the United States. It saddens me that so many people in the United States are now out of work and that mega corporations that have been around since before I was born are now going out of business. I am also worried that this recession could get even worse than it already is, and that it could even become worse than the Great Depression. I have seen that is extremely hard for former or new workers to find good jobs at all. My older brother has been looking everywhere in Vienna for months to find a new job, but because of the recession there are no jobs he can take. I have seen prices of every conceivable commercial item or service in my town rise with no good end in sight.

I know that there is nothing anyone could do to end this crisis immediately or within a few years, but I dearly hope that you of all people can ease it slightly, Mr. President. I want to see some workers in my community able to keep their jobs, and corporations able to endure for more than a few weeks. I want to see my older brother and others able to find good-paying jobs without having other workers being laid off as a consequence. I want to be able to buy something at the supermarket without having to pay a superfluous amount of money for it.

It would be selfish of me to think that all of my requests would be attainable within a small amount of time, Mr. President. It would also be selfish of my to not to believe that this recession will get worse before it will get better. However I do want to see some kind of improvement of our economy over time. I hope that this recession does not become worse that the Great Depression. I have faith that our economic problems are surmountable and will eventually be overcome. I have faith that life in the United States will become better than ever before. I have faith that you, Mr. President, will be able to help us to overcome this crisis.

Student M

I would first like to take this opportunity to full heartedly congratulate you for your recent induction into the historically rich White House. I am currently a senior at James Madison High school. During your recent campaign I was a very active supporter and volunteer. I would also like to reinstate some ideas on how I would tackle the current economic crisis.
As a high school student I am introduced to multitudes of different people and different situations, and one of those situations is discrimination against homosexuals. In my 18 years I have been privileged enough to grow up in a very tolerant family which has sculpted me into what I believe is a reasonable, logical, and fair young adult. On that note, I have unfortunately witnessed major discrimination and intolerance among adults, teens, and even our own government against the unity of individuals of the same sex. Thought I would not normally concern myself of such government issues I find it a complete disregard for human rights that our government which was founded and conceived on natural rights would go as far as to ban gay marriage. I believe that such opposition stems from both religious objections and ignorance in our society. I am aware that the legislative process for this argument is currently at the state level but I believe that national government should step up and reinforce the theories in which it was created.
I believe that this mass segregation goes beyond individual rights. It is a national issue which effects millions of people. I am not making light of the current economic crisis our world faces but as a nation we must stand together in the immortal words of Abraham Lincoln," A house divided against itself cannot stand." Thought the speech was in context to slavery its wisdom is timeless. Mr. President today the segregation may be different but the outstanding principles are the same. Now I ask you Mr. President will you honor a man that fought for your rights as an American will you honor that age old wisdom? I hope and believe that you will consider the ideals of the many great Americans before you that fought to end segregation however it manifests and end the battle and rebuild that house.

Sincerely,

Student M

Congratulations on winning the election. I am a senior at James Madison High School. I am looking forward to seeing this great country millions call home start to move towards the better path of life over the next four years. In this letter I would like to write you on the issue of immigration.

Over the past few years I have begun to notice that out of all the immigrants I have met, roughly half of them know no more than a few English words. One thing about the immigration issue that just irks me is that there are people that call this country home and do not even spend the time to try and learn English. People always asking me what language I am learning in school, I have taken two years of Spanish and I can read and comprehend other languages such as Romanian and some Turkish. I can understand some of the immigrants do not have the time, but I still think that they should at least know some English upon entering the United States. My proposal is an English literacy test at the border.

This English test would be on grammar, vocabulary, and oratory skills. I am not asking for I gigantic exam upon entering but something like a simple questionnaire. I truly think that a short questionnaire could drastically improve this nation’s literacy rates and stop much of the frustration on the immigration issue. My biggest frustration with this entire issue is there are many younger Americans that can not find a job because there are immigrants in those jobs that know no English what so ever. This is just upsetting to me because people call this the “great” United States of America. Sometimes I am tempted to ask myself, “is it?”


Sincerely,

Student J.

Dear President Obama,
Congratulations on becoming President! How is living in the White House going for your family? You had my vote. I understand that you are a very busy man but I just have some suggestions. I believe we both understand that we (meaning the entire country) have numerous issues that have to be addressed. But the one issue that I am going to address is the environment. Why? Because I have chosen to dedicate my life to saving Mother Nature’s preservation.

As you might know, many forests are being destroyed for the advancement of civilization. Now, I understand that we need lumber and other wood materials and that we are a growing population so I am not saying that we should simply stop cutting down trees. I am suggesting that we expand our use of the “smart wood” method and try and conserve as much wood as possible and try to limit the amount of wood we take down. We should also encourage more people to recycle. Another thing is that we are harming the precious ozone layer with many of our aerosol products and we use so many things that emit carbon dioxide. If we do not do something to control these products, our children and our children’s children may be forced to live in a world where snow almost does not exist and many animals that depend on the snow for their homes (like polar bear’s and penguin’s) will become extinct.

Now, as I am sure no one wants that sort of thing to happen, I have excellent ideas to make sure the ozone is not destroyed without having to make too many adjustments. We can make safer alternatives to aerosol and convince car companies to make more electric cars. Some alternatives for aerosol cans that hold things like bug spray have been invented and are currently in use are pumps and sticks. Another great advantage to electric cars is that people will not have to stop at the gas station so much. There are of course drawbacks to electric cars, one being that they are incapable of going 60 km/h but if we were able to fix that, I am sure we can get more people to drive them and save the ozone layer.

I really hope you consider what I have said and good luck with your job! It is a tough one but I know you are up to it!

Sincerely,