Barack Obama Biography by Katie

Barack Obama was raised by a single mother and his grandparents. They didn't have much mony, but they taught him values from the Kansas heartland where they grew up. He worked for Christian churches in Chicago, helping communities devastated when steel plants closed.

Obama turned down lucrative job offers after law school to return to Chicago, leading a successful voter registration drive. He joined a small law firm, taught constitutional law and, guided by his Christian faith, stayed active in his community.

In the Illinois state Senate, he worked with both Democrats and Republicans to help working families. In the US Senate, he has focused on tackling the challenges of aglobalized, 21st century world with fresh thinking and a politics that no longer settles for the lowest common denominator.

Now Obama and his wife Michelle have two kids, Sasha and Malia.

Barack Obama's Biography by Dani

Barack was born in Hawaii on August 4th 1961. Barack's father (Barack Obama Sr.) was born in a small village in Kenya. Barack's mother (Ann Dunham) grew up in a small town in Kansas. Later in her life she moved west to Hawaii. His parents met at University of Hawaii. Barack's father eventually moved back to Kenya and Barack grew up with his mother in Hawaii and a few years in Indonesia.

Later Barck moved to New York and graduated from Columbia University in 1983. Barack put law school and corporate life on hold after college and moved to Chicago in 1985, where he became a community organizer living to improve poor neighborhoods with lots of crime and high unemployment. He went on to earn his law degree from Harvard in 1991, where he became the first African American president of Harvard Law Review.

Finally his work led him to run for the Illinois State Senate, where he served for 8 years. In 2004 he became the 3rd African American since reconstruction to be elected to the U.S. senate.He became the Illinois State Senate, which meant working with both Democrats and Republicans to help working families get ahead by creating programs like the State Earned Income Tax credit, which in three years provided over one hundred million dollars in tax cuts to families across the state. Now Obama and his wife Michelle are proud parents of two daughters, Sasha and Malia.

Presidential Election Project

With the spotlight on Presidential candidates, now is the time to teach our children about the election process. Every year it seems like fewer people are registering to vote and even though they register, they don’t get out to vote. How many times have you heard “my vote won’t matter”! As we work to educate the future leaders of our country, it is important that we teach them that their votes will count. If students can discover how to learn about the candidates so that they can make an informed decision, they may feel more comfortable with voting. Our first major technology project for this year will focus on the campaign for President and Vice President. Our work will help students to understand things like political speeches, party platforms, and the process of running a major campaign. I hope this work will lead to lots of interesting discussions at home. Obviously, the children will hear about the process because the media is flooded with this information! What a perfect opportunity to teach them how to sift through the information for fact and fiction in order to be better informed.

I look forward to reading their views as they work together to fashion a campaign for the candidate of their choice. Keep watching here in the coming days as their ideas begin to be posted here.