Guest Post from Sarah at Tales of Teaching with Tech

Currently, I teach third grade, but last year I grew as an educator and taught tenth  grade.  (Yes, you heard that right….high school!) So I came up with a list of things I  was going to blog about.  And the one idea that topped my list was CNN Student  News. 

CNN Student News creates a 10-minute  current events video designed for middle school and high school students. And  guess what…. It is 100% FREE! (Which you know we, teachers, secretly do a happy  dance when we hear that four-letter word!)  

So let me tell you how/why I used CNN Student News in my World History class last  year. I taught at a very low socioeconomic school and my students had ZERO  interest in learning World History. For the first month of school, I tried everything  for my students to feel connected to the world and to history. History is one of  favorite subjects to teach and I was completely drained.  I felt that my students were 

  disconnected to the world they lived in. 

So I stumbled upon CNN Student  News late one night and was instantly reenergized to teach.  I made a simple  worksheet for my students to record three items/ideas for each  day. I used it as apart of their participation grade.  The first day, I implemented watching the video and explaining the expectations of  the worksheet, there were a ton of groans and complaints.  But by the end of the  week, my students were asking if we were going to watch Carl (the host) today.   Other teachers asked me often in my district, “If I thought it was a waste of time  because it took 10 vital minutes from instructional time.” My answer was always NO  and I gave this example.  

I had this student that came up to me and said, “I bet I  know what’s going to be CNN Student News today!” Of course I asked how he knew  what was going to be on.  He mentioned that he started watching the news at home,  so he could compare what was going on CNN Student News.  I was completely  shocked and if you only knew this kid… it was a huge accomplishment that he was  making connections. (A totally teacher moment for me!) 

There were countless times a major issue was covered on CNN Student News and it  would perfectly tie in what we were covering as the main lesson.  I usually would  show it at the beginning of class, which in turn led to minimal wasted time.  The  expectation for my students was they had to be in their seat right when the bell rang  and were ready to watch what was going on in the world.  

It also led to great  conversations and extension activities/projects.  Oh… and they have this thing called ROLL CALL! Everyday they do a shout out to  three schools from around the world.  After six months of diligently entering in the  daily roll call, we were mentioned! My students FREAKED out! 

So long story short…. I cannot rave about CNN Student News… go check it out! 

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