Activity Idea: Virtual Career Day
Thanks to Maggie Wohltmann, of the Business Department at Livingston High School, for this creative and incredibly timely activity idea!
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May and June are the time of year when teachers are wrapping up instructional content and beginning to roll out some enrichment activities that are real-world applicable. This could include resume writing, mock interviews, cumulative personal finance projects etc, but the most common event that teachers and students enjoy is a career day!...
NEW! NGPF Economics Resource Directory
Thanks to NGPF Fellow James Redelsheimer of Robbinsdale Armstrong High School (Plymouth, Minnesota) for his work creating this comprehensive directory for teachers looking for NGPF resources that weave Economics and Personal Finance together. By categorizing 150 NGPF resources into 11 Economic topics, this directory makes it easy for Economics teachers to find activities that are current, relevant and engaging for students.
Here's the table of contents (click to go directly to the...
NEW! Virtual Version of the Bean Game (and Extension Activity too)
The Bean Game stands out as a definite teacher and student favorite. It has a simple set-up, it's student-centered and applies core budgeting principles such as wants vs. needs and adjusting for financial hardships. Knowing that many of you are now teaching remotely, we developed a virtual map where students make their choices on the map with numbers instead of beans. At the top right corner of the map, students will see their current spending amount. If it surpasses 20, the cell will...
NGPF Podcast: Rob Massimi on the benefits of incorporating personal finance into economics
Rob Massimi is one of those teachers that we all remember from high school. High energy, creative, humorous and someone who believes in giving his students agency to drive their own learning. In this podcast, Rob, an Economics teacher at Bronx High School of Science, describes his favorite activity, the Wheat Market game, shares his students' anxieties about money and highlights his approach to teaching investing. It's clear that he's created an Econ course that his students will remember....
ICYMI: Best of 2019...NGPF Product Releases
Our December newsletter highlighted the NGPF new product launches from 2019 (there were 12 of them!). Thank you to all the educators who tell us what they need as that drives what we build!
Here's a ranking of the 2019 product releases (with links to product release email in case you missed it the first time):
Infographics To Start The School Year
Top NGPF Resources: One Page Guides
New NGPF Arcade Game: Shady Sam
Revamped Semester Course
Just-In-Time: Updated Taxes Unit...
Teacher Tip -- CALCULATE: Completing a 1040
Due to the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act of 2017, no one can complete the 1040EZ anymore. We're all doing the 1040 this year. NGPF Fellow Amanda Volz explains how she uses this essential NGPF resource CALCULATE: Completing a 1040 in her classroom. BONUS: This activity is available in Spanish, too, and if you haven't reviewed the resource lately, we've added a new 5th scenario! Watch for some great tips on how to implement this activity in your classroom.
For all of NGPF's tax resources,...
Teacher Tip -- COMPARE: Tax Forms & Their Purpose
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Mar 17, 2019
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Taxes, Teaching Strategies, Tips for Teachers, Activity, NGPF Fellows
To accompany our newly released lessons on taxes, NGPF Fellow Amanda Volz explains how she uses this popular NGPF resource COMPARE: Tax Forms & Their Purpose in her classroom. Watch for some great tips on how to implement and modify this resource so that it can best fit the needs of your classroom!
For all of NGPF's tax resources, fully updated for 2019 with all changes in effect as a result of the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act of 2017, visit https://www.ngpf.org/curriculum/taxes/...
Question of the Day: What is the most common pay frequency for workers at private companies?
Answer: Bi-weekly (every other week)
Questions:
How do you think the frequency of your pay will impact your budget plans?
Which pay frequency would be most beneficial to you as an employee? Why?
Some companies (e.g., Lyft and Uber) offer same-day pay for employees. Do you think that's a good idea? Why or why not?
Here's the ready-to-go slides for this Question of the Day that you can use in your classroom.
Best Day for Payday (9 minute Indicator podcast): ...
Launching a Topic with a PBS Two Cents Video
Oct 16, 2018
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Lesson Idea, Activity
Over the summer I had posted a couple of Kahoots based on Two Cents videos on the FinLit Fanatics! Facebook Page. These generated some interest, and after an unplanned hiatus, I am finally posting some more. The videos are between 4-6 minutes long, are well researched, entertaining, and they are pitched at an appropriate level for high school students.
This Google Sheet contains the following elements for ten of the videos:
1) The title of the video, which links to...
Investing Activity Idea: How Can a Jar of Jelly Beans Teach Students About the Stock Market?
How can we teach students about the stock market when they have no investing experience?
I listened to this Masters of Business podcast with Barry Ritholtz interviewing investor and author Joel Greenblatt and picked up a few good ideas. Joel is not only a practitioner (a very successful hedge fund manager) but also an educator having spent the last 20+ years as a professor at Columbia Business School. Joel described the challenges of describing the stock market to a group of 9th graders at...
Debate: Is MoviePass Too Good To Be True? [Updated on May 6, 2018]
Update (May 6, 2018): MoviePass changed policy again...From Lifehacker:
MoviePass’s original “see one movie a day, every day” sort-of-unlimited subscription is back for $10. On top of that, the company’s CEO said they plan on keeping it around this time.
Over the last few weeks, MoviePass has sent some mixed signals to both potential future customers as well as current subscribers. For a while, they only offered a package deal that capped out at four movies a month, plus...
Just One Resource - Understanding Amortization
In this new weekly blog post, Jessica will highlight Just One Resource from our NGPF collection that maybe doesn't get the attention it deserves. Use it this week or bookmark it for later.
[The Resource] ANALYZE: Understanding Amortization
The Gist: Young Janet decides to treat herself to 6 weeks of South American travel before starting her first post-college job, and she's going to finance the trip using a $3500 personal loan. Her credit...
Mini-Activity Idea: How To Avoid Financial Pitfalls
A great article from Of Dollars and Data that highlights six of the "tried and true" methods that make us susceptible to financial trickery or just plain bad decisions. On the subject of trickery, be sure to check out NGPF's release of SIX NEW Financial Pitfalls Projects that will increase your student's savviness.
So what are the six ways of influence described in the article (with the tag lines he provides):
Authority: Trust me I'm an expert.
Commitment and consistency: Just say...
What's the Catch?: The Case of Golden Valley Loan Company
If they won't regulate, we better educate.
Listening to Planet Money podcast (20 minutes) last week about an online lender, Golden Valley Loan, Inc. It was being sued by CFPB for "unfair, deceptive and abusive business practices." Under new CFPB leadership, the lawsuit has been dropped.
So, I went to Golden Valley's website to read the fine print of their short-term, high interest loans to see if I could find the "gotchas."
What a beautiful website...
Here's how they...
The "I'm Glad That I Have Renters Insurance" Activity (courtesy of Brian Page)
While on the subject of insurance, thank you to Brian Page for sharing his two-part activity to teach students about renters insurance. Once students choose their policy option they get one of those unwelcome surprises where they get to immediately apply what they have learned.
Here are links to Part I and Part II of the activity.
Renters Insurance has never seemed so exciting, so just remember, stay calm...
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Handout: Renters Insurance
Part I (20 minutes):...
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