BBC One Minute News

[Rob_Hugo@PortNW]

For my website review I have chosen the BBC Web page One Minute News under the Asia Pacific and South Asia Sections (http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/asia-pacific/default.stm). I chose this web page because it is very handy to my teaching needs, it maintains a multiple perspective, and it incorporates the use of technology in my class.
As a 6th grade social science teacher the greatest challenge I face is the fact that the state doesn't test my students on the information I teach them until the end of their 8th grade careers. This means that any teaching techniques that are good for keeping information in the forefront of the students minds for a couple of weeks so that they can pass a test on just that topic are irrelevant. I continually am looking for new ways to encourage the information to exist all at the same time so that it can be easily recalled more than two years later. One technique I use it to constantly review all of the information, no matter what we are learning, by having the desks sectioned off into groups of four and given the names of the 8 civilizations we study throughout the year. So if we are studying Egypt, there is a group of students who are sitting in "China" and are periodically asked what is going on in China while these events are occurring in Egypt. I have found it is a very useful technique.
Similarly, another useful technique for keeping information in the students brains for more than two years is constantly making connections between the information we are studying and the individual lives of the students. The BBC One Minute News page gives short articles of the top stories coming out of certain regions of the world, like Asia Pacific for example. In less than five minutes I was able to learn that the official report issued by the Chinese government on the events in Xinjiang just a year ago, where a reported 200 people were killed is being challenged, and i learned that the Democrat Party in China is protesting in acknowledgment of the 13th Anniversary of Britain handing Hong Kong back to China. Immediately, I am connected with the people of modern China because I too also believe my government exaggerates the truth for the sake of my faith in it, and I am a registered Democrat. Now, if anyone wanted to teach me anything else about China, I already have an established interest based on these modern connections. On days that we are in the computer lab, the daily journal could be to find an interesting article on BBC One Minute News on something that is happening in China, and then type a quick summary of what it says. This would easily establish connections to all of the students and could be done 10 minutes of class time.
I also like this page because the students love to research on the internet, but often get lost in all of the options and have a hard time really researching information. This web page gives a central location that the students could start at, but is really easy to follow as far as finding relevant sites. Getting the students in the habit of going to the BBC News when seeking information on the world is a good habit to be in, and using the internet to do so makes it that much more effective.

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