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!

Help Jumpstart Math Learning with X-Bandz

Math... how much torture do young students go through trying to master things like multiplication tables?  If your classroom is like the average American classroom -- quite a bit.

How do we make learning math easier?  Many teachers are turning to technology and trying to find the perfect app for their iPads that helps kids use and memorize these math facts in a way that is fun and easy for them.  And that is a good solution, but sometimes the best solution is the simplest.  Enter X-Bandz.

X-Bandz are little bands that kids can wear on their wrists that have the math facts literally written all over them.  These wrist bands come in multiple colors and are very affordable, so it is easy for schools and teachers to acquire classroom sets of these.  And they come in versions for multiplication, division, addition and subtraction -- so they fit into several different grade levels of learning.

I think we all want to help students in their pursuit of learning, and we know how being confident in subject matter not only leads to academic success but can also boost their self-esteem.  X-Bandz is a product that can help your students gain this self-confidence and continue building upon these foundational learning block every day.

For more information on these fun and easy-to-use learning aids, click here.



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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!

College Prep for Math and the SAT Online Course

Because I have spent so much time working one-on-one with students who have their eyes on the college prize, I know how important standardized tests are in their world.  A hundred points either way on the SAT can easily mean the difference between getting into the college they have their heart set on, and getting that thin rejection letter in the mail.  That is why taking prep courses can be so important to high school sophomores and juniors getting ready for the application season.  Heck, even I benefitted from such a program.  My scores improved 20% between my first SAT and second thanks to a college test prep course of study.

So today, I want to tell you about Caddell Prep Online.  Caddell Prep was founded by Glyn Caddell, who has been doing this since 2006.  Glyn's vision was to create an easily accessible course of study for students that would pinpoint the areas that they need to work on and enable them to improve those areas as they pertain to their math testing.  And with Caddell Prep Online he has created one of the top mathematics prep courses on the Internet.

The courses center around geometry and algebra skills and not only allow students to work through lessons based on specific skills, but record their sessions so they can go back over them at any time.  One of the great things about the way Caddell Prep Online works is that not only do they address the higher level skills, but they offer reinforcement of lower level skills such as fractions, percents and rational numbers if the student needs to review those.

Caddell Prep is a great resource for that student who needs some math help at just about any level.  And to help show you just how effective it can be, they offer free SAT flashcards and quizzes to help you get your feet on the ground.  Check them out!

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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 Math Standards Testing App for iOS and iPad

Common Core...  love it or hate it, it is here.  There is certainly a wealth of debate on the Internet about whether Common Core is good... bad... or something else.  But, if you have a student in public school today they are being taught from the Common Core.  And even independent schools are taking their cues from Common Core.  So -- when an app (or series of apps) come along that help teachers, students and/or parents with Common Core, that is a good thing!

Enter an app from BrightMinds called Common Core State Standards Grade 3 Practice Math Test.  This app runs on any iPad running iOS 4.3 or above (which is any iPad) and puts the student through a series of grade appropriate, Common Core consistent questions that help prepare the student and asses the students level of knowledge within the 3rd grade Common Core standards.

As you can see by the screen shot above, the app is very easy to use and laid out so that anyone can read the screen and answer the questions.  The skills that are testes are consistent with the standards and tell the student and teacher what needs to be addressed and improves upon before the actual tests are given.  The specific areas that the test hits home on are Operations and Algebraic thinking, Numebers & Operations in Base Ten, Numbers and Fractions, Measurement & Data and Geometry.

This app looks perfect for any school that has iPads and is looking for an easy way to assess students progress in the all important area of mathematics.  And for $1.99 it is positioned in a good place for anyone to give Common Core State Standards Grade 3 Practice Math Test a try.

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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!

What do algebra and QR codes have in common? The answer is Slackmath. Developed by Geoffrey Slack, an innovative math teacher, this site contains dozens of PDFs of algebra, geometry and pre-calculus problems next to corresponding QR codes.  It works well with any iOS or Android device, as well as all computing platforms and browsers.

So how does Slackmath work? Select a topic such as Order of Operations from one of 13 skill categories (i.e. Functions, Equations and Expressions) and access the PDF provided. Once the sample problems on the document are complete, the learner can check responses by scanning the QR code—which will not only reveal the correct answers but better yet, a video explanation of how to actually solve the math problems can be viewed as well.

QR Code readers are freely available to any phone or tablet that has a camera built-in.  Not using a device that has that? No problem! Just open the PDF on any device, then click on the QR code to access the instructional video.

Want to see Slackmath in action? Then check out a sample video below.

Slackmath uses QR codes to teach and learn math in a meaningful and engaging way. It’s a pretty simple yet very powerful tool—one that incorporates math, multimedia and mobile technology. Besides that, Slackmath is perfect for learners to practice a variety of math problems and then obtain immediate feedback.  This is a fantastic website and way to integrate smartphone and/or tablet technology into your class to flip your classroom!

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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!