Local news in the classroom: Weekly roundup Jan. 29 – Feb. 4
Good afternoon,
The new year has gotten off to a busy start, but there’s still time for students to submit their Unsung Hero Journalism Scholarship story! If you know a student who would like a chance to be a published author and win $500 please tell them about this scholarship opportunity. If you are in contact with any parent groups that you think would like to know about this opportunity I’d love to reach out. My email is eetai@lookoutlocal.com.
If you find value in this free newsletter, please share it with your colleagues. Together, we can grow this community of educators and amplify the impact of bringing local stories and media literacy into classrooms. Invite them to sign up using this link!
Finally, there are two new news quizzes from top January stories, both excellent resources for your class. You can find them in the ‘News Quiz’ section of this newsletter below.
Current events to use in your classroom
Explore the linked lesson plans below for simple ways to facilitate reflection on these local events. Interested in more stories? Browse all our recent coverage here.
LOCAL NEWS
Moss Landing battery fire leads to health fears, evidence of contamination and concerns about overreaction
By Dan Gearino / Inside Climate News and Kiley Price / Inside Climate News
Residents around the Moss Landing battery facility in northern Monterey County describe experiences of sore throats and other symptoms. The energy storage industry insists that this incident is an extreme outlier.
Seven years and half a million dollars to renovate part of their backyard: How Santa Cruz’s permitting system became a resident’s biggest nightmare
By Tania Ortiz
Ashley Scontriano and her husband wanted to add a simple staircase and a few terrace walls on the hillside lot behind their home on Santa Cruz’s Westside. But when the city received an anonymous complaint from a nearby resident, the entire project came to a standstill, beginning a yearslong process of going back and forth with the city’s planning and building departments.
Annual point-in-time count sees Pajaro River levee homeless encampments shift from Watsonville to Monterey County
By Tania Ortiz
Santa Cruz County’s annual homelessness count revealed a dramatic shift, with one group of volunteers spotting only three people along a stretch of the Pajaro River levee in Watsonville after most residents moved to the Monterey County side following a July sweep.
Apocalypse When? How Santa Cruz County is preparing for the next disaster
By Wallace Baine
When it comes to disaster preparedness, Santa Cruz County is employing not only a recently established Office of Response, Recovery & Resilience, but also a community nonprofit called CERT that deploys trained volunteers to help where needed. It’s all part of an effort to minimize loss and tragedy in the inevitable situations sure to come.
Fire insurance – it’s getting harder to get, and keep, even in urban areas of Santa Cruz County
By Mike Rotkin
It’s getting tougher for Californians to get and keep fire insurance, writes Lookout politics columnist Mike Rotkin, and it’s not just people living in fire-prone, forested areas like Bonny Doon and the Santa Cruz Mountains. “People living in downtown Santa Cruz and on the Westside and Eastside have recently been shocked to discover that they need to find a new home insurance company – and that they need to do so in a hurry,” he writes.
CALIFORNIA NEWS
Artificial intelligence is bringing nuclear power back from the dead — maybe even in California
By Alex Shultz / CalMatters
Energy demands from big tech, including for artificial intelligence, has elected officials giving an old power source a second look.
Demand for immigration legal services spikes at California colleges
By Delilah Brumer / CalMatters and Mercy Sosa / CalMatters
California’s estimated 100,000 undocumented college students are grappling with President Donald Trump’s plans of mass deportations. Dream centers on many campuses are stepping in to provide guidance and meet the skyrocketing demand for legal services from students.
News Quiz
NEW: There are two new news quizzes for the month of January for students to read and answer questions about. You can find the news quizzes here.
Quick take: Santa Cruz County agents see a glimmer of hope in new state regulations aimed at enticing insurance companies back to the California market, though questions about access and affordability remain.
‘We’re drowning’: Dominican nurses raise alarms over staffing, patient care
Quick take: Nurses at Dominican Hospital in Santa Cruz say staffing levels aren’t meeting the needs of patients who are arriving with more severe conditions than in prior years. They told Lookout that hospital administrators aren’t doing enough to address their concerns.
Student Opportunities
Journalism Scholarship
Our annual Journalism Scholarship is back! Lookout’s journalism scholarship invites all high school students in Santa Cruz County to apply. The top three winners will each receive $500, and the top 10 will be featured on our site. Students can enter individually or as part of a class project if you want to learn more click here. Teachers interested in having their class participate this year should contact me, Eetai Shwartz, at eetai@lookoutlocal.com
Student Stories
Student Stories is a place for students to have their voices heard by the community and the rest of Santa Cruz County. It is designed to showcase stories, events, clubs, and opinions authored by students in Santa Cruz County. Students can either submit ideas or completed stories. Learn more here and reach out if you have any questions.
EDUCATOR RESOURCES
Current Event Discussion Guide
- Our current event discussion guide is a great activity to engage with local news and can be used for any article. Below is the lesson plan and the bilingual guide.
- Current Event Discussion Guide Lesson Plan (PDF)
- Bilingual Current Event Discussion Guide (PDF)
Educator Page
- You can find more resources on our Educator Page, including a media literacy guide, specific new quizzes and more.
Reminder on student access
- If any of your students are having trouble with their free access, have them sign up for their free student membership with their personal email address at this link.
Thank you for all the hard work you do in the community and for supporting our educational programs, helping the younger generations learn media literacy skills, and become invested community members and democratic citizens. If you’d like to learn more about our school programs, get more involved or have any questions, please reach out.
Best,
Eetai