Current Event Analysis
I believe that studying current events is vital in a social studies classroom. According to CMAPP, Wake County requires me to complete a two week unit at the very end of the year about "current issues." This was not acceptable to me after my students showed very little understanding of what was going on in the news a year ago. Therefore, my learning team discussed the need to have a current event day every two weeks. Because of this, my students have gained a better understanding of what is happening in the world and how it impacts them, even if it isn't happening in the United States. To further our discussion of current events, my students have been studying human rights violations in recent history and we have been connecting those violations to occurrences that still happen today. Twitter is a program utilized frequently and effectively within my classroom. Before I could even integrate a true example of social media into my classroom, I needed to gain an understanding of how to effectively use social media for educational purposes. During my time in ECI 512, Emerging Technologies for Teaching and Learning, I learned about the importance of developing a solid parent permission form, as well as a contract of expectations students need to follow. Below are copies of the permission forms I now use in my classroom for both mobile devices and Twitter, as well as some images from the discussions I had with my students on appropriate use of mobile devices and social media in a classroom setting.
My students are now well-versed in their use of Twitter as we complete "Twitter Battles" with other classes on the hallway. Our discussions are always centered around current events and our questions encourage high levels of thinking and interaction. We usually incorporate questions about what choices students would make if they were in similar situations, but also questions that require students to consider how or why something could have possibly happened. The level of global awareness has improved drastically once we began using Twitter in our classrooms as my students often take to Twitter to learn about the news and question some of the injustices in the world. Below is an example of one of our recent Twitter battles. Some examples of exemplary student tweets can be found in the image gallery above.