Wonderful Life Presentations

Wonderful Life Presentations - Setting Personal and Financial Goals!

If you and your students have been working on my "Wonderful Life" assignment right about now you are probably putting the finishing touches on the assignment.

A few things I like to do before presentations include...

I ask my students to edit and practice their presentations so they go smoothly.

I give them the option of self-editing or editing with a friend.

Right before presentations I talk about how hard it can be to get up in front of a class and present - just because we don't do it a lot.

I remind them to support each other, and we talk about how they can do that.

I ask students to print 2 copies of presentation handouts - 4 slides on a page.
As each student goes before the class to present they give me a copy of their handouts and keep a copy for themselves.  I use my copy for grading purposes, and they use their handouts as they give their presentation.

I also mention how important it is to speak loudly and clearly so everyone can hear their presentation, and how eye contact helps to hold the audience's attention.

I ask a student from my class, usually the day before presentations, to run the computer that is hooked up to the presentation hardware and software.

I usually project the presentation on the wall behind the student that is presenting. They use their handout notes to set the pace, and the student running the presentation on the computer follows their lead.

Presentations for a class of 32 usually take about three or four days. The first day is usually the slowest, and then the kids pick up speed.

That's about it. Hope you have a great week!

Wonderful Life Assignment

 

A Lesson Designed to get Students Thinking about
Personal and Financial Goals!

I like to start the first week of school with a lesson I designed to get students thinking about their personal and financial goals – “Wonderful Life”.  

This fun, interactive project gives students a chance to get to know each other while creating a presentation that reveals their goals regarding career, wages, and lifestyle.  It also sharpens their communication and presentation skills. As a culminating activity, each student presents their project to the class. It is a great first lesson.

Over 2000 teachers have download this lesson from Teachers Pay Teachers.  If you have not already grabbed it, here is the link... “Wonderful Life”.

Teaching “Wonderful Life”

Now that so many teachers are using this lesson, I thought I would offer a few tips on how I teach “Wonderful Life.”

I like starting the class off with this assignment because it eases the students (and the teacher) into the class, and it is a fun way for everyone to get to know each other.  It gives the teacher a chance to spend some one-on-one time with students.  It also sets the stage for the rest of the course.

Teacher tips

When I begin this lesson I always show students a completed presentation.  My thinking is that students will create something as good or better than the sample I show them.

I review the features of the presentation software students will be using - if needed. 

I stress that students should give plenty of details on each of the topics included the presentation.

Topic: Describe your dream home

Example: My dream home is a log cabin located on a beautiful, blue lake high in the mountains.  Secretly it would be very a high-tech house---but have a rustic look.     

I also spend some time talking about page layout – organizing and designing easy to read headings, subheadings, and text, as well as graphics that drive your point home.  I talk about trapped white space and how to avoid it. I usually steer students away from using clip art - pictures just seem more sophisticated.

I tell students that they will be presenting their project and that it would be to their advantage not to use animations like flash or crawl.  These types of animations are really distracting.  “Crawl” loses the class because it takes too long and “flash” just confuses everyone including the teacher who is attempting to grade the presentation.

Timing

It takes about a week for students to complete this assignment and an additional three days for student presentations. This is my experience with a class of about 32 students.

Every class is different, as is every student. Some will take a little more time to complete the lesson and others will take less time. I ask students who finish early to spend time editing their presentation and adding sound and animation. This gives the rest of the class time to finish up.

Next Week...more on presentation setup for “Wonderful Life”.

Thanks for stopping by!

Strategies for Teaching Personal Finance to Teens

Strategies for Teaching Personal Finance to Teens

Well, the beginning of the school year is just around the corner. I've been thinking about what to blog about this school year, and I decided that it might be especially helpful to new teachers if they had a model to follow - at least starting out.  So this year I will add some teaching strategies to what I am already doing on my blog.

At first glance teaching Personal Finance may seem like it would be a hard class to teach and a little dry, and a little boring for the students. I find this is NOT the case at all. I have taught many different classes and Personal Finance is undeniably the most exciting and rewarding of them all.

My philosophy, when it comes to Personal Finance, is that students have more fun and the lesson sticks better if they discover the answers for themselves. For example, instead of lecturing the students about money and telling them that they need to learn to budget, I designed a budgeting game that the class plays during the trimester. Long before the end of the class students start asking questions like "Why isn't there ever enough money to go around in this game?" My usual reply is that they have discovered the meaning of the game. Often in life many of us live paycheck to paycheck, and sometimes that does not cover all of the bills. And of course, from there the conversation turns to budgeting - so now we are at a point where students are open to discussing budgeting, and they have their own unique ideas to offer on the subject.

With that said, my next blog will be on how I start the first week of school.

See you then. Thanks for stopping by!

Artwork: Ron Leishman Digital Toonage

Rock Stars of Personal Finance

Now some fun stuff for the end of the school year. Rock 'n’ Roll comes to Personal Finance. Check out this cool video published by Period 5 Personal Finance Class on Dec 17, 2012. I don’t know the name of the school that published this video. If you have more information please pass it on to me.  I smile every time I watch it. This teacher really knows how to make class fun. I give her and her students 5 stars on their enthusiasm and performance. If you have a fun personal finance video that your students created and you would like to see it on this blog - drop me a line.

Thanks for Stopping By.

Ohhh, My First Car Assignment

 

A Great Personal Finance Lesson Plan for the Spring!

Ohhh My First Car is a great assignment for keeping kids interested, especially at the end of the school year when the weather warms and their thoughts drift off to summer break.  They may even be thinking about tooling around in their dream car with their best friend or girlfriend.  If you need a lesson to keep your students focused check out Ohhh My First Car.  It’s the kind of lesson that grabs kids’ attention and holds it all the way through.

It is a great lesson for any Personal Finance class, but if you happen to have a class full of rambunctious boys in the Spring this lesson will keep them engaged.

One of the more memorable moments of my teaching career was when a student of mine stopped by after school one Spring day. He had taken my Personal Finance class two years prior, and was now ready to buy his first car!  He remembered learning how to calculate car payments in the Ohhh My First Car lesson.  And now all he needed was a little help finding the on-line payment calculator.

Boy was I beaming – my students were using what I taught them in class to make informed decisions.

As we talked I got the definite feeling that someone at home was trying really hard to talk him out of buying this particular car.  I also got the feeling that he was dead set on buying his dream car.  He was going to prove to himself and his parents that he could afford that car by calculating the monthly car payments.

He sat down at my computer.  I gave him the web address he needed to find the calculator.  He pulled it right up, entered all the necessary information, and calculated his monthly payments without a bit of help from me. Then there was a long silence while he stared at the computer screen.

In this shining moment, I did not say a thing, and after a long, silent pause he looked at me and softly said, “I guess I can’t afford that car.”  How empowering for him! He calculated the car payments, and he made an informed decision that now was not the time to buy that car.  I never felt more proud of a student in my life.  I am sure he has gone on to be very successful in life.

Ohhh My First Car is a bundle of 4 lessons designed to teach students everything they need to know about purchasing a new or used car. It is loaded with hands-on lessons that teach students the ins and outs of selecting a vehicle, finding the best interest rates, and calculating car payments. This unit contains 4 lessons on 64 pages in 13 PDF files all for $12 You can find this lesson at Teachers Pay Teachers by following this link.

Lesson 1 – Buying a New Car

In lesson 1 students will research a new car using the Internet.  They will learn how to select car style, color, and options. They will learn how to find information on: customer ratings and reviews, safety and reliability, mileage and warranty.  They will review the vehicle summary and learn the difference between MSRP Price, Invoice Price, and Smart Target Price.

Lesson 2-Buying a Used Car

In Lesson 2 students will use the Internet to research a used car.  They will learn what certified pre-owned means. They will learn how to find information on seller’s notes, as well as consumer ratings and reviews, safety and reliability, mileage and warranty.  They will learn to research the car’s history including, accidents, recalls and service records. To help determine if they are paying a fair price for the vehicle they will learn to use Kelly Blue Book.

Lesson 3 – Finding the Best Interest Rates

In lesson 3 students will use the Internet to research interest rates.  They will learn how to find a loan from a local bank or credit union that offers the lowest interest rate with the least amount of fees and conditions for the car they selected.

Lesson 4 – Calculating Car Payments

In lesson 4 students use the Internet to learn how to calculate monthly car payments based on the price of the car they chose, and the best interest rates they found in lesson 3. They also learn how to gather additional information by reading the amortization table. By completing this lesson students will learn that the price of the car, the interest rate, and the number of years taken to pay off the car loan all come into play in determining their monthly car payment, as well as the amount of interest paid on the loan.  They will quickly see that loans are not free.

*This unit is aligned with National Core standards for Personal Finance. *It offers options to make the lessons within it easier or more challenging. *Discussion questions for each lesson are included in the teacher notes. *Each lesson is packed with great questions, as well as sample answers. *Detailed student directions and teacher notes are included.

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