Chp. 8 and Journalism Revived TED Video

Even as a Physical Education instructor, my co-teacher and I use a current event (almost) every day prior to the start of class. The drug problem in our area has become an epidemic. Therefore, every day we read the drug arrests and court cases from the local newspaper to our students and have a brief discussion about decision making.

As our book says “news makes the unknown known”.  Many students today are unaware of what is going on or happening around them. For example, many of my students were unaware that drugs existed in their area; let alone did they know that they were being sold in their neighborhoods, playgrounds, and even within their schools. Therefore, simply reading one article of the newspaper each day has opened student’s eyes to a WHOLE new world and world outlook.

Students how now become motivated with the news and the drug arrests/drug problem. At the beginning of the school year students were waiting for us to read them the articles or tell them what the latest news was on that particular day. Now, students are coming to us. Students are now taking time and reading the newspaper for themselves. We have students that watch the news and follow the local newsfeeds on social media to keep up. They are taking pride in being aware and informed about what is happening around them.

Students are also now reading newspaper articles and following feeds from other counties within our state to track their drug issues, as well as, what they are doing to help stop the problem. Students are coming to class and sharing the news and issue thoughts on a daily basis. We started the year off allotting five minutes for our teacher led current event and we have now progressed to a fifteen-minute student lead current event discussion.

Place-based education, authentic learning, newsworthy, and most definitely student motivation can all be seen and have taken place numerous times in this evolved start to Physical Education class.