HOT SPOT Week 4

Summer Readers: Keep Sizzlin'

This week people around the nation will take time from their busy schedules to celebrate Independence Day. This week’s HOT SPOT will take time to honor the important values and rights our forefathers and mothers fought for, including one that is near and dear to every newspaper’s heart, freedom of speech. This week’s HOT SPOT celebrates the United States and its freedoms. Speaking of celebrating, you can celebrate your freedom from school with our HOT SPOT sponsor, Celebration Station.

This week’s HOT SPOT activity

French writer and Nobel Prize winner Albert Camus once wrote, “A free press can of course be good or bad, but, most certainly, without freedom it will never be anything but bad. . . . Freedom is nothing else but a chance to be better, whereas enslavement is a certainty of the worse.”  Camus believed that it is your duty as a citizen to stay informed!

As you read the St. Petersburg Times this week, look for articles that cover issues you need to be informed about. Create a chart listing these issues. Which issues do you want to see elected officials address, and how? Make a list of local issues and state issues. Look for news about political candidates in the Times this week. How do the candidates plan to address the issues you care about? Share your ideas with other students across Tampa Bay. Just click on the comment button below and start blogging!

If you want to participate in the Summer Reader program, go to tampabay.com/nie/summer for details on how to get started.