Bringing Current Events Alive in the Classroom

It’s going to be a fun year in Mrs. Goldberg and Mr. Moran’s 7th Grade Social Studies class at Oak Ridge Middle School.

It all started with an idea.  Mike Moran found a website (fantasygeopolitics.com) that he thought would help inspire students in his 7th grade Social Studies class to pay attention to global current events. The website was created by a teacher, who loved fantasy football.  He decided to incorporate that type of competition into his classes. He began a site to keep track of countries mentioned in the New York Times. Each student would draft a country and the competition would span over a determined period of time. Whoever had the most points would win. Mike saw the potential in this idea and pitched a modified version of this to his colleague Beth Goldberg.  Mike and Beth sat down with their Instructional Strategist (Nicole Redington) and Technology Integration Coach (CJ McDonald) to figure out how this could be implemented into their classroom in conjunction with the curriculum.

After a couple meetings and some negotiation, the teachers and their TIC came up with a plan and created their own website (linked to fantasygeopolitics.com). Mike, Beth and CJ created a trial league to see what the student experience would be like. Encouraged, they moved on with the project tailoring appropriately for the course. During a short series of meetings to collaborate, Beth and Mike diligently planned the modifications, timing and assignments while CJ advised and created a tutorial for students to use to help them navigate the site.

On September 4th, after being introduced to the project concept and getting “teams,” the students were given a class period to begin their research about potential “draft picks.”  Imagine a room full of 7th graders sifting through current world events, strategizing about which countries would be left over and fanatically trying to determine their best pick for the next day’s draft. The buzz in the air was that of excitement and engagement. Yes, excitement and engagement while exploring global current events…by 12 year olds.
On draft day all went well as students passionately picked their countries, prepared to follow the news anxiously hoping to gain points and win the class competition. Small projects will help enhance the learning by formalizing “Get to know your Country,” and “Advise the President,” presentations. At the end of the project they will have a summary assignment where students will present to others about the current events in their country. Maybe it will be a website,  or a presentation.  Regardless of the format, the students are hooked.

This chemistry happened because of a series of events.  To recreate this experiment you will need:  one teacher’s inspiration, another teacher’s willingness to take a chance, and the prudent lesson planning of a team.


This is just one example that demonstrates the potential of teacher leadership.  Our dedicated classroom teachers executed this event with the encouragement and help of our teacher leaders. With continued dedication, collaboration, and expertise of our teaching staff, it is going to be a fun and productive year at Linn Mar Community Schools.