The Newsweek Education Program is an excellent resource for any classroom. The magazine not only sends resources at the beginning of each semester, it also provides weekly teaching guides to each issue of Newsweek. It often has featured articles that are relavent to art, history, science, math, technology, current events, and English. For more information about the Newsweek Education Program, click on the link below.
I have been using current events in my classroom since I started teaching. I have used current events to help students understand what is going on around them in the world. I have also used current events to help students make history relevant to learn. I am always asked, "Mrs. Mitchell, why do we need to learn history?" I find that using current events helps to show students why history is important and relevant to today's society.
I have students keep a Current Events Notebook that I check once a week. This helps students to keep up with current news and with writing skills. As a class, we discuss items in the news two to three times per week. So, many students are improving on their discussion skills as well.
The Newsweek Education Program is a suppliment to my current events notebook. Since Newsweek is published each week, my class can read articles in the magazine that are directly related to the topics we have discussed in class. The following links will take you to the Current Event Notebook directions and a sample Current Events Assignment sheet.
Newsweek Education Program
Current Events Notebook Directions
Sample Current Events Assignment Sheet