Today I decided that if I needed a Total Money Makeover because our media and culture distort money so wildly that most people are completely clueless about how to use it, maybe my students were confused too. If they were confused about money, they might not understand why I get so frustrated and scared for them when they don't want to work.
I decided to teach a mini-lesson about the importance of an education and budgeting given basic average salaries for a minimum wage income, average salaries for a high school diploma, associates degree and a bachelor's degree. They are going to create what they think a good monthly budget should look like. They are then going to polish that plan in a group, and then I am going to tell them how much they are going to make a year and see how well that works in their budgets. We start with minimum wage and then do bachelor's degree. What they realized is minimum wage means you can't afford anything, but when they see the bachelor's degree salary, they are like, "Yeah, that's more like it." Until they start actually plugging in the numbers, then they realize the original budget we created uses up most of our BA salary, living frugally, not extravagantly.
Well, I did it for 5 classes today. It went fairly well. Not as great as I would have expected, but well. I will say that my goal was to convince one previous unmotivated or undermotivated student to try harder to be a learner. I think I achieved my goal. I have had a few kids tell me already (but the proof will really be in the pudding) that they are now more motivated than ever to succeed. I also can say I saw more kids taking notes than I ever have before. I had students raising hands, asking for clarification, being dumbfounded at the numbers I was throwing up on the board.
Some kids were their usual selves and were disrespectful, rude, loud, but instead of being the center of attention, their audience was gone. I had kids telling other kids to be quiet. I saw kids taking notes diligently for the first time all year. I heard kids making comments in support of what I was saying instead of detracting from my lesson. And I saw my most challenging class, 99% wrote down tonight's assignment and 50% finished it before the bell rang.
What did it have to do with my unit on research? Very little tangentially, except to do research before throwing money away. But if one student comes in more motivated, if one kid stays away from the dreaded credit cards and car payments, one kid changes her ways, then taking a day away from English was worth it.
It is hard to motivate kiddos because they can't see the end game. They can't see how things relate to them, to the real world, but this was a way to show them. It took about an hour of research online to get some generic figures, average rent for our area, average salaries, tax rates, etc. But if it pays out in work turned in on time, it was worth it.
I feel pretty good about it. I wish I had had more time to explain stuff. I think most of these kids have no concept about money, expenses, life. A few got it and brought up health care, medicine, car repairs, etc. But most kids had no idea what life costs and how someone isn't going to magically hire them just because they have a piece of paper. They have to be competitively the best for the job, looking at grades, attendance, tardiness, discipline, skills, personality, etc.
In any case, it felt good to teach instead of wrangle cats. Good Monday.
I decided to teach a mini-lesson about the importance of an education and budgeting given basic average salaries for a minimum wage income, average salaries for a high school diploma, associates degree and a bachelor's degree. They are going to create what they think a good monthly budget should look like. They are then going to polish that plan in a group, and then I am going to tell them how much they are going to make a year and see how well that works in their budgets. We start with minimum wage and then do bachelor's degree. What they realized is minimum wage means you can't afford anything, but when they see the bachelor's degree salary, they are like, "Yeah, that's more like it." Until they start actually plugging in the numbers, then they realize the original budget we created uses up most of our BA salary, living frugally, not extravagantly.
Well, I did it for 5 classes today. It went fairly well. Not as great as I would have expected, but well. I will say that my goal was to convince one previous unmotivated or undermotivated student to try harder to be a learner. I think I achieved my goal. I have had a few kids tell me already (but the proof will really be in the pudding) that they are now more motivated than ever to succeed. I also can say I saw more kids taking notes than I ever have before. I had students raising hands, asking for clarification, being dumbfounded at the numbers I was throwing up on the board.
Some kids were their usual selves and were disrespectful, rude, loud, but instead of being the center of attention, their audience was gone. I had kids telling other kids to be quiet. I saw kids taking notes diligently for the first time all year. I heard kids making comments in support of what I was saying instead of detracting from my lesson. And I saw my most challenging class, 99% wrote down tonight's assignment and 50% finished it before the bell rang.
What did it have to do with my unit on research? Very little tangentially, except to do research before throwing money away. But if one student comes in more motivated, if one kid stays away from the dreaded credit cards and car payments, one kid changes her ways, then taking a day away from English was worth it.
It is hard to motivate kiddos because they can't see the end game. They can't see how things relate to them, to the real world, but this was a way to show them. It took about an hour of research online to get some generic figures, average rent for our area, average salaries, tax rates, etc. But if it pays out in work turned in on time, it was worth it.
I feel pretty good about it. I wish I had had more time to explain stuff. I think most of these kids have no concept about money, expenses, life. A few got it and brought up health care, medicine, car repairs, etc. But most kids had no idea what life costs and how someone isn't going to magically hire them just because they have a piece of paper. They have to be competitively the best for the job, looking at grades, attendance, tardiness, discipline, skills, personality, etc.
In any case, it felt good to teach instead of wrangle cats. Good Monday.
Our Consumer Ed curriculum is changing to a FRESHMAN level course. Long story there. So I think the class is going to have to change. I suggested doing the DR program and one of the teachers is looking into it.
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