How To: Make Current Events A Primary Part of Class

As I am preparing for the upcoming school year, I wanted to use current events from the countries/regions we are studying to be a part of class; either as starters, discussion questions, debates, or report topics.

I have tried to find easy ways to do this several different ways in the past, but I didn't like the look or feel of what I ended up with.  I knew I wanted RSS feeds, and I wanted everything on a single web page (for easy viewing, and to project on the board in my classroom).

If you would like the current events feed for yourself, here it is:

http://www.google.com/ig/sharetab?source=stb&stid=10996885980617846813509f0d4f1a19875168a153c8e9a736970

I finally found a way to make this work like I want it to.  Google - who else?

Here's what I did:

1. You have to have an iGoogle account.
2. I created a new tab (something I forgot about being able to do - Use it or Lose it syndrome).
1. Next to the HOME link, there is a drop down menu that says ADD A TAB.
2. Give the new tab a name - Mine is "World News."
3. Go to this tab (blank page).
3. In the upper left corner of the iGoogle page there is a drop down menu where I selected More > Even More.
4. On the Even More page, I chose Alerts.
5. In the Create A Google Alert box...
1. Type in the search term
2. Choose the Type (News, Comprehensive, Blog, etc.) - I chose News.
3. In the 4th drop-down area you can have the information emailed to your Gmail account OR...CHOOSE FEED.  Choose Feed here.
4. Click Create Alert button.
6. The next page gives a choice of of viewing it in your Google Reader or add to iGoogle.  Add to iGoogle, and it will create a box with the three most recent items.

Very clean-looking page.  A very handy tool, as long as your school district does not block your ability to create an iGoogle page (ours used to).

I plan to use this a starters, fillers, idea generators, and to connect real-world events to the mandated curriculum, so the mandated curriculum doesn't seem so disengaging.

Posted via email from rrmurry's posterous