Financial Literacy

I’m back, along with my electricity. Good riddance, Irene, and may the rest of hurricane season be uneventful.

Anyway, another goal of mine this year is to increase the amount of instruction spent on financial literacy. I’m not quite sure how I’m going to go about this yet, but I have some ideas, including the possible use of the following resources.

Stock Market Game

There are many versions of the famous stock market game. Some that I’ve come across include Wall Street Survivor, The Stock Market Game, Virtual Stock Exchange, How the Market Works.com, SmartStocks.com, YoungMoney.com, Kapitall.com and Stock Trak. The Stock Market Game is the most established, but it probably makes sense to check out all of the options to see which one works best for you. Also, The FDIC has an excellent free financial education program called Money Smart, MoneyInstructor.com has some excellent resources, and for middle school students, Cindy Slovacek has written an excellent book entitled Open for Business: A Simulation for Student-Run Enterprises. This one is high on my “need to read” list.

Simulation Games

You might also want to consider economics simulation games. Disney has a great one for younger kids called Hot Shot Business and the Sims series is an obvious classic. (Download Sim City Classic here.) And kids of all ages love the tycoon-style games found at GatorGamez and the time management games found at Big Fish Games.

Elementary School Kids

Lastly, for younger kids, Centsables.com is a great place to start for basic activities on financial literacy. In addition, I came across a collection of economics sites geared specifically towards elementary school students. They include Kids Econ Posters, Economics & Children’s Literature, Online Elementary Economics Lessons, Economics for Kids, Lemonade Stand and MoneyInstructor.com – Elementary.

Economics PowerPoint Presentations

• Eurasian Trade Routes PowerPoint Presentation focuses on the economic impact of the Crusades.
• Portuguese Exploration PowerPoint Presentation focuses on Portugal’s attempt to break the Italian monopoly on trade with the Middle Eastern merchants and introduces the concept of the middle man.
• Alexander Hamilton’s Economic Plan PowerPoint Presentation – Key concepts include debt management, the sale of government bonds and the impact of speculators on the American economy
• Settlement of California and Utah PowerPoint Presentation  – Focus on the California Gold Rush
• Free Enterprise System PowerPoint Presentation – Key concepts include capitalism, private enterprise, competition, private property, profit motive, consumer sovereignty, corporations, shares of stock, dividends, capital
• Impact of the Automobile on the Roaring 20’s PowerPoint Presentation – Key concepts include the “boom cycle” of the 1920’s, the economic impact of the Model-T, assembly lines and the consumer revolution
• Bull Market and Consumer Revolution PowerPoint Presentation – Key concepts include installment buying, advertising, stock market, bull market, consumer revolution, margin buying, stock market crash of 1929
• Farmers and Laborers During the Roaring 20’s PowerPoint Presentation – Key concepts include the law of supply and demand, scarcity, inflation, strikes and collective bargaining
• Causes of the Great Depression PowerPoint Presentation – Key concepts include the stock market crash of 1929, Black Tuesday, Down Jones Industrial Average, philanthropists, buying on margin, foreclosures
• Labor Reforms of the 1930’s PowerPoint Presentation – Key concepts include labor unions, Wagner Act, collective bargaining, sit-down strikes, Fair Labor Standards Act, minimum wage, defecit spending
• Conservative Revolution PowerPoint Presentation – Key concepts include Ronald Reagan’s economic plan (“Reaganomics”), trickle down economics, budget deficits, tax cuts, balanced budgets, recession

The following PowerPoint presentations also deal significantly with economic issues.

• Life in Jamestown PowerPoint Presentation
• New Amsterdam PowerPoint Presentation
• Colonial Regions PowerPoint Presentation 
• Mercantilism and the Navigation Acts PowerPoint Presentation
• Triangular Trade PowerPoint Presentation
• Stamp Act Crisis PowerPoint Presentation
• Boston Tea Party PowerPoint Presentation
• Intolerable Acts PowerPoint Presentation
• Articles of Confederation PowerPoint Presentation
• Weaknesses of the Articles of Confederation PowerPoint Presentation
• Northwest Ordinance and Shays Rebellion PowerPoint Presentation
• Growing Pains: Banks, Tariffs and Rebellion PowerPoint Presentation
• Causes of the War of 1812 PowerPoint Presentation
• Industrial Revolution PowerPoint Presentation
• Cotton Gin PowerPoint Presentation
• Erie Canal PowerPoint Presentation
• Tariff Debate of 1828 PowerPoint Presentation
• 19th Century Technology PowerPoint
• Sharecropping and Jim Crow PowerPoint Presentation
• Boomtowns PowerPoint Presentation
• Transcontinental Railroad PowerPoint Presentation
• Cattle Kingdom PowerPoint Presentation
• Homesteaders and the Growth of Populism PowerPoint Presentation
• The Vanderbilts and the Railroad Industry PowerPoint Presentation
• Andrew Carnegie and the Steel Industry PowerPoint Presentation
• Rockefeller, Morgan and Standard Oil PowerPoint Presentation
• Pullman Strike and Triangle Fire PowerPoint Presentation
• The Spoils System PowerPoint Presentation
• Opening Japan to Trade and the Purchase of Alaska PowerPoint Presentation
• Rivalry Over China PowerPoint Presentation
• Panama Canal PowerPoint Presentation
• Roosevelt Corollary and Dollar Diplomacy PowerPoint Presentation
• Election of 1912 PowerPoint Presentation
• Truman Doctrine and Marshall Plan PowerPoint Presentation
• The Baby Boom of the 1950’s PowerPoint Presentation

Who needs money? Grants are available!

As I continue attempting to hurricane-proof my home, let me quickly share a fantastic site that I need to peruse in greater detail when I have the time. TeachersCount has an excellent compilation of available grants in all subjects. (Info courtesy of my trusty NCSS membership.)

Reading, Reading, Reading

My students rarely do their homework properly, if they do it at all. Chief among their complaints is that the textbook is boring. It would be easy to dismiss their complaints if they weren’t largely true. In addition, I have a significant number of students who simply do not understand the text. Therefore, in their eyes, they are better off not even trying.

I certainly do not have a magic bullet to solve this endemic problem. However, I do have ideas that I’m hoping to put into place, first of which is increase my use of leveled readings and decrease my emphasis on the textbook. Teacher Created Materials have some decent leveled social studies texts that I’ll be using this year. Each topic is written on four different reading levels, so you will need to know your student’s reading levels beforehand. While far from perfect, they are better than the “one size fits all” mentality of the standard textbook.

Obviously the best way to become a better reader is to read. Well, try telling this to the reticent reader. This is why it is so important to have a classroom library with high interest level books on a variety of reading levels. I usually check out the NCSS’s annual list of Notable Trade Books for Young People and order a few new titles every year. (Hopefully there will be money to do so this year, unlike last year.) Graphic novels are always a good choice, especially for the most resistant of readers.

I’ve never used a word wall, but I think I’m going to this year. Has anyone out there ever used one? Are you happy with the results?

Lastly, as always, I’m going to do my best to reference the books read in my student’s English classes. I believe this year Of Mice and Men, The Diary of Anne Frank and Journey to Topaz are on the itinerary.

Please, if anyone else has a wonderful strategy to help their students become better readers, please share your thoughts!

Social Studies Teachers – What we teach vs. What should be taught

September will mark the start of my twentieth year teaching. Besides wondering where the time has gone, I increasingly wonder about the importance of what I teach on a daily basis, year in and year out.  How, exactly, will learning about the particulars of the Teapot Dome scandal help my students compete in an increasingly competitive global marketplace? I know it’s not necessarily what is taught, but how it is taught. The Teapot Dome scandal can, and should, be taught in a manner that fosters creativity and critical thinking. However, with the pressure of standardized testing, teachers more than ever feel the pressure to cover almost every conceivable fact and concept creating an emphasis on breadth rather than depth. This may help students perform better on high stakes exams, which in turn allows schools to trumpet their effectiveness. However, any teacher worth their weight in chalk dust knows that teaching to a test focuses on “memorization and regurgitation” rather than more time consuming teaching techniques that foster real critical thinking and long term comprehension.

As a result, I have decided to approach this school year differently. I will not even attempt to teach all of my usual lessons this year, even if that means skipping some of my favorites. Instead, I have broken down the year into six core concepts that I will focus on – Reading, Writing, Civics, Geography, Economics and Parental Involvement. In short, my focus this year will be quality, not quantity.  Over the next week or so, I will spend some time discussing how I plan on tackling each of these core concepts. If there is anyone out there reading my first ever genuine post as a blogger, I hope you’ll stick around and contribute to the discussion.

Nothing in particular…yet

I have long resisted the urge to start a blog, afraid of the drain it would take on my already precious time. Irregardless, here it is. You can expect posts related to the world of education in general and more specifically on the topics of social studies and instructional technology. Anyway, blogosphere, here I come!