We recently had a county memo about how we should handle current events in the classroom. My principal said, "I don't envy you Social Studies teachers. You all are in the trenches." And we are. Students want to talk about everything that our country is experiencing. They have opinions (or rather, their parents opinions) and want to talk about them.
As a Social Studies teacher, I want them to get excited about current events, but I also don't want the conversation to get away from our purpose.
The best way I've found to do this is through their Bellwork.
Bellwork in general is a must. It's so important to have something that students are expected to do right away. If they don't have that, then you risk the kids thinking the beginning of class as "hangout" time, and it's hard to get them focused when you're ready to officially start class.
I treat my bellwork as a journal, where they can release all of their ideas, but I still try to relate it to what we're doing.
Describe a time you, or someone you know/learned about, stood up for what they thought was right, even though others might disagree.
In my last block, Kaepernick came up, and the BLM movement. I opened the discussion up, and had students tell their personal stories as well as their opinions. We even got into why people say "All Lives Matter" and one of the students expressed why they believed it degraded the premise of the BLM movement, and how when they say BLM, they're not saying others don't matter. I think it's super powerful when the kids are thinking through these big concepts as a group. I think we underestimate middle schoolers a lot, because they really do have the potential to really think big.
And I was able to go back to the Reformation by comparing the Protestant Reformation to BLM, as a movement seeking social justice. It was pretty incredible.
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