Podcasts Offering Insight into Global Cultures and Events
PrimarySource has created What Teachers Need to Know, a podcast series for educators who teach global cultures or world events in their classroom. In every compact episode, the podcast offers vital insight for understanding world cultures and current events so that teachers can facilitate deeper learning about the world with their students. Teachers will meet subject-matter experts and explore online resources that can help make a complex and dynamic world accessible for K–12 classrooms. The first podcast in the series, What Teachers Need to Know: The Middle East, offers insight for understanding the modern Middle East and North Africa. Episodes such as “Underneath the Veil” and “Syria, Explained” explore a range of cultural and political issues. “Media Literacy & the Middle East” discusses the importance of thinking critically about news, information, and stories related to the Middle East and highlights five activities teachers can do to promote media literacy in their classrooms.
January 6, 2021, will certainly be a day for the history books. For all teachers grappling with how to address the day’s events with students, this Teaching Idea from Facing History and Ourselves is designed to help guide an initial classroom reflection on the insurrection at the United States Capitol on that day.
On January 6, 2021, the nation witnessed a grave breach of its democratic traditions. For the first time in American history, supporters of the losing presidential candidate forcibly disrupted the official counting of electoral votes. PBS NewsHour Extra has provided a classroom resource that includes three activities to teach about the breach of the US Capitol.
America’s seat of government has endured bombings, a presidential assassination attempt, and even destruction by foreign forces. There have also been attacks from inside—including a near-fatal attack on one lawmaker by another. National Geographic provides a brief look at the threats to the Capitol over the years.