Inspiring a Bigger Picture! A 4th Grade Global Newspaper!

My students come from a wonderful, very small community in a rural part of Michigan. Some have more exposure to the world and traveling than others. I want the opportunity to give all of my students an authentic learning experience that takes them beyond these four walls.

We have started off this year doing current events at the beginning of each social studies lesson. They became so engaged in what was happening in our own community, state, and around the world. When we were brainstorming about what we could do to help or help educate others so they could help, they enthusiastically came up with the idea of producing a newspaper to learn about what is going on and tell others so we can make a bigger impact on others lives. They are so excited and we are integrating so many aspects of real life into this newspaper/website. I can't wait to see what they do!

By having access to digital cameras they are able to record interviews and also take high quality photos which gives those students a chance to use today's technology when they may not get another opportunity to. By providing paper to print our paper on you are providing a resource that we can take to our school computer lab and give them more time using programs that they will need to know how to use in any basic job growing up. They will get hands on time doing something that excites them and gives them a purpose to learn more about our world!

The other part to this Global newspaper would be learning to produce it on the computer and upload articles written by students, pictures, videos, and podcasts to our own classroom newspaper website. We would contact classrooms around the country and world to connect and be a news source for them. As well as have students from other countries be contributors to the paper.

When we were brainstorming about this newspaper I saw my students come alive...that is why I became a teacher. To give them experience....to CREATE experiences that they will learn much more from than just sitting and listening. Please join with us to help us CREATE something that they will remember and grow from!