How to do Current Events with Students

I recently attended a  three day workshop called Moving on Up: Setting Learning Goals & Tracking Progress for Student Success at SLL BOCES in Canton.  One of my goals for the year is to help students become aware a national and world issues.  I've used Junior Scholastic magazines for years and for the past two years have shown students the news in class.  I wanted to expand on current events in my classroom so that students would have the background knowledge to connect historical events with what is occurring today.  Our facilitator helped me break my goal (students will have an awareness of the wider world) into success criteria.  I am working on the first criterion, which is that students will be able to access the news.  I was shocked when I introduced the first assignment to students that they did not know how to find the news.  We discussed various ways that they could access the news i.e. television, internet, newspaper.  Students complained about having to find the top two news stories of the day, so I really thought very few would attempt the assignment.

The next day students came to class excited about what they had learned.   As they entered the room they asked if I had heard about the VA withholding survivor benefits, about a New York City detective being arrested in the road rage incident in Manhattan, etc.  I collected their homework and we had a great class discussion about the different news items that they had seen or read about.  One student even watched the BBC!  I feel that students now know where to find the news, so I'll be able to move on to the next success criterion.

Busy Year...

Whew!  The past year has been super busy both on a professional and personal level.  While the personal stuff has settled (we moved and built a new house), professionally it looks like another busy year.  We have implemented the Common Core in New York State, so my partner and I have been working together to integrate our curricula based on the ELA modules.  I thought this would be a challenge, but quickly realized that many of the learning goals in ELA were almost identical to the Common Core Social Studies learning goals.  It was a great relief to say the least!  We also worked to develop Marzano scales to assess if students had mastered the learning goals.  It was daunting, but I think we have a good set of scales to begin with.  Our district has also implemented two new software programs, iObservation and eDoctrina, so we've been working hard to learn how to use these.  We have had summer training as well as training during the school year to help us.  With all of that going on I decided to update my unit plans for both 7th and 8th grades to better reflect the Common Core and align with ELA.  I'm not done, but I think I've got a good start.  Our district also hired a new Global Studies teacher who I will be mentoring.  I'm excited because I always learn something new from the new teachers I mentor.  So I guess I won't be slowing down any time soon, but that's what makes life interesting...