Teaching Financial Literacy with Technology

The subject of teaching financial literacy is one that has been bandied about for decades in America's schools.  How many times have you heard someone say, "Algebra?  I never use Algebra!  But I was never taught how to balance my check book -- that I need to know!"  Well, some areas are starting to inject this into their curriculum -- and there are some great digital resources to help!

Some states, such as Ohio, have an economic and financial literacy requirement in their Ohio Core state standards to be taught within social studies or another class. In their state, teachers certified in social studies, business education, marketing education, and family and consumer science are all licensed to teach financial literacy. These teachers can help develop a curriculum starting in the earliest grades to make sure these literacies are woven seamlessly throughout the curriculum at all grade levels.

The Council for Economic Education has developed a set of standards for financial literacy that start in grade three.  
These Standards Include:

• Earning Income
• Buying Goods and Services
• Using Credit
• Saving
• Financial Investment
• Protecting and Insuring

Of course, financial literacy standards are also found in the National Business Association’s standards, the American Association of Family and Consumer Sciences standards,  and state standards, such as the ones in Ohio, Oklahoma (7-12), Nebraska (K-12) and New Jersey (4-12). There are even sets of standards, such as the Jump$tart Coalition’s National Standards in K-12 Personal Finance Education that can serve to help you embed economic and financial literacy across the curriculum.

As a great tie-in to these standards, Discovery Education has built a great series of streaming videos that can augment your financial readiness curriculum called, "Financial LIteracy: Teach It!"  Below, I've included some links and descriptions of these videos.  They do require that your school or district be subscribed to Discovery Education in order to view them.

Financial Literacy for Students: K-2

• The Meaning of Money
• Counting Bills and Coins
• Writing Out Money: Decimals and Dollar Signs

Financial Literacy for Students: 3-5

• Earning Power
• Needs Versus Wants
• Saving for a Goal
• What Do Banks Do?

Financial Literacy for Students: 6-8

• Creating a Budget
• Savings Accounts
• Checking Accounts
• How to Use a Debit Card and ATM

Financial Literacy for Students: 9-12

• Security and Banking Online
• Calculating Interest
• Risks and Rewards of Credit Cards
• Loans: Car, School and Home
• Long-term Savings and Investing

Other great resources:

• Money As You Learn: Common Core aligned math lessons that teach financial concepts.
• United States Federal Reserve Bank: Worksheets and lesson plans for K-12.
• Federal Financial Literacy and Education Commission: Information, games, fun facts, curricula, lesson plans and more to aid in teaching financial literacy.
• Your Life, Your Money, What is Financial Literacy? by PBS.

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Bruce has worked in educational technology for over 18 years and has implemented several 1:1/BYOD programs.  He also a lifelong baseball fan who has served as a classroom teacher in Computer Science, History and English classes.  Bruce is the author of five books: Sands of Time, Towering Pines Volume One:Room 509, The Star of Christmas, Philadelphia Story: A Lance Carter Detective Novel and The Insider's Story: A Lance Carter Detective Novel.  Follow Bruce's Novel releases by subscribing to his FREE newsletter!

Be sure to check out Bruce's Allentown Education Examiner Page, his Twitter and his Facebook!

Test Prep and Study Aids from LearningPod

The website says, "Targeted practice questions for student success."  And that is what LearningPod delivers -- not just questions but success.  With a current database of around 50,000 questions in every subject imaginable, LearningPod delivers on their promises to allow students to practice any subject, as much as they need to in order to help build mastery.

LearningPod is a free resource for educators that encompasses practice test questions on everything from Common Core aligned 2nd grade subjects all the way through AP Chemistry, and even some undergraduate level course work!  LearningPod has put together an innovative way to point their students in the right direction to get the practice that they need, when they need it.  They do this by creating "pods" that steer the learning towards the student and their needs.

But you aren't on your own with LearningPod.  In addition to the thousands of questions loaded into their pod database, they also have newly created content that teachers can look to in their premium content area.  LearningPod truly is a one-stop shop for your curriculum, advanced testing and college prep needs!

Interested?  Check it out at LearningPod -- and you can also take a look at this recent article on the Washington Times BLOG pages.

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Bruce has worked in educational technology for over 18 years and has implemented several 1:1/BYOD programs.  He also has served as a classroom teacher in Computer Science, History and English classes.  Bruce is the author of five books: Sands of Time, Towering Pines Volume One:Room 509, The Star of Christmas, Philadelphia Story: A Lance Carter Detective Novel and The Insider's Story: A Lance Carter Detective Novel.  Follow Bruce's Novel releases by subscribing to his FREE newsletter!

Be sure to check out Bruce's Allentown Education Examiner Page, his Twitter and his Facebook!

Common Core Digital Curriculum Mapping with BYOC

Most experts will agree that a quality education within any school is rooted in its curriculum. Most schools continue to create, analyze, update and store their curriculum map in binders that are kept in various places... and each year they pull these out, review and make changes. Some schools do this by a creating a team that has to all come together and meet each time they want to review the information. Sometimes a school will have the key stakeholders review it independently and then get together on it, and others have built some sort of electronic method to store information that can be reviewed and then meet on it.

So how does a school minimize the time and maximize the return on the effort that is put into this all-important part of building the base of what is one of the most important parts of what happens in the classroom? The key to this is having all the information in the same place. That place should be accessible to anyone on the team at any time. And the team members should be able to collaborate and make changes to the curriculum map on the fly, and everyone should always have direct access to the same information.

Enter Build Your Own Curriculum by School Software Group. BYOC (as they call it) is a web-based Curriculum Mapping product that is delivered with State and National Standards pre-populated (if you wish) or not at all. This includes all the Common Core standards, too. And it allows you to build, store and access your curriculum map year-to-year very easily.

Using this approach, BYOC allows teachers and administrators to quickly locate and use resources that will help build and enhance your courses. The product allows you to easily see things like: how well the scope and sequence works, how the school is meeting (or not) the standards, how well the assessments are working within the curriculum and more. One of the greatest things about BYOC is that it allows each district/school to see what other member schools are doing. Need some inspiration? You can easily see how another school, anywhere in the country, is doing it! You can also create public views of your curriculum map for parents to view via the web.

BYOC is a great product for any school looking to move their curriculum mapping into the Internet and Cloud-based services era. On their website, you can get a preview of how it works on their Sample Curriculum pages with live, real schools who chose to share it. Check it out via SchoolSoftwareGroup.Com!

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Bruce has worked in educational technology for over 18 years and has implemented several 1:1/BYOD programs.  He also has served as a classroom teacher in Computer Science, History and English classes.  Bruce is the author of five books: Sands of Time, Towering Pines Volume One:Room 509, The Star of Christmas, Philadelphia Story: A Lance Carter Detective Novel and The Insider's Story: A Lance Carter Detective Novel.  Follow Bruce's Novel releases by subscribing to his FREE newsletter!

Be sure to check out Bruce's Allentown Education Examiner Page, his Twitter and his Facebook!

Common Core Assessments Using Headphones

I have posted a couple of times about things that relate to Common Core.  This post is about assessing students using Common Core standards using headphones.  Why?  It is simple.  Many Common Core assessments will be done on a computer.  And as such, any sound or speaking parts will need to be delivered to students in a manner that only they can hear it -- via headphones.  Headphones are something most schools do not think about until the last minute.

You might be thinking, "Headphones?  What's the difference?  We'll just buy a bunch at Wal-Mart."  It might not be that simple for your school.  Whether you have joined with the Smarter Balance Assessment Consortium or the Partnership for Assessment of Readiness for College and Careers you need to be aware of how different types of headphones can be used and can impact the quality of assessments that your students are taking.  

And now you might be thinking, "Really?  What's the difference?"

The differences between cheaper "disposable" or "bulk" style headphones, and a more durable set of classroom headphones can be striking in the areas of quality, durability and usability.  Did you know that some tests will exit or become disabled if the student attempts to adjust the volume within the computer operating system?  If you are giving a test like this, you may need a classroom set of headphones that features external volume control.  Are you giving foreign language assessments?  Many foreign language Common Core assessments require the students to speak -- your headphones might need microphones built-in!  What kind of connection do you need?  Single plug (like one for a Macintosh) or a dual plug connection with separate headphone and microphone connections (more traditional).

These are just some of the things to consider when you are preparing for your Common Core assessments.  A great resource for Common Core Headphones is a company called Encore Data Products.  They have created this fantastic video below to help you with your Common Core Headphone selection process!

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Bruce has worked in educational technology for over 18 years and has implemented several 1:1/BYOD programs.  He also has served as a classroom teacher in Computer Science, History and English classes.  Bruce is the author of five books: Sands of Time, Towering Pines Volume One:Room 509, The Star of Christmas, Philadelphia Story: A Lance Carter Detective Novel and The Insider's Story: A Lance Carter Detective Novel.  Follow Bruce's Novel releases by subscribing to his FREE newsletter!

Be sure to check out Bruce's Allentown Education Examiner Page, his Twitter and his Facebook!