Inspiring Young Minds: Georgia Today Education
As part of its mission to inform, educate, inspire and entertain, the Georgia Today Group presented its new monthly newspaper ‘Georgia Today Education’ (GTE) to pupils and teachers of the St George’s International School / Silicon Valley.
The 16-page full-color newspaper provides schools with a monthly feast of news stories, feature articles and fun language-development activities. Some stories are taken and adapted from the mainstream news, offering its young readers the most recent happenings in and about Georgia, and often demonstrating the connections between their country and the rest of the world. Joint international projects and “hot” social issues are discussed, the government’s latest economy and education-boosting projects introduced, and the latest social research results (good and bad!) revealed. Learning material is written by the Georgia Today journalists or provided by sponsors, including the British Council, which offers two specially adapted reading and learning activity pages per issue.
Each story offers a glossary box for unfamiliar words, an info box for extra information or background on each topic, and a Food for Thought box introducing questions that teachers can use in-class to generate discussion, or which can be set as writing tasks for homework.
Pupils at St George’s International got to read some of the latest stories in a mini demonstration “read, understand, reproduce” group speaking activity. They were then gifted a copy of the newspaper to take home and read in more detail. Hopefully this is only the start of an inspiring journey for them into the English-language media.
Among other educational initiatives it is developing, Georgia Today plans to organize a number of competitions to encourage young readers to write and speak their minds. Winners will be given the chance to interview selected VIPs in the political and entertainment fields.
Georgia Today Education is seeking partner organizations to sponsor educational material for the newspaper. If you are interested, please contact us at: marketing@georgiatoday.ge
Katie Ruth Davies