The importance of financial literacy in primary classrooms.

Financial literacy is far too often over looking in the primary grades. We tend to push it off until students are older and have more control over their money. However financially literacy is valuable in Primary grades for a few main reasons.

#1. Start young to build into real world problems with more complexity!
When you start young, students can build on their knowledge and we can scaffold them into more complex thinking earlier. The lessons can fit with the math curriculum expectations and incorporate data gathering skills! If we start these young, by the time students are of age to get a job, they will have a much better idea about money management.

#2. This is the kind of learning that engages kids
This is real world learning!!! Students can use knowledge from all around them, from how much their favourite food at the grocery store costs, to learnings transferable skills like making change. This connects to their present and their future!

#3. Family involvement!
Some lessons could be take home! Get some bonding time with someone who does the grocery shopping. Facilitate simple discussions about money management between parents and students. This is a positive way to open up communication with out turning it into financial stress for the parents and students.

Sample Lesson:

GROCERY SHOP TILL YOU DROP!

This can be done in an actual grocery store or in a virtual manner.

1. Each student gets a budget of $10 to spend.
2. They must get something from each food group with their $10
3. The goal is to spend as close to the $10 as possible without going over, while still fulfilling the requirements.

This is just a fun little exercise for students to practice their money management skills!

Pinterest... a Teacher's Secret Weapon

Digital literacy is becoming increasingly importance as electronics and technology stake their claims in our classrooms. Teachers have to constantly adapt and come up with new lessons and new ways to keep their students engaged. One of the best tools a teacher can learn to use for their planning and instruction is Pinterest!

Pinterest is a website that you can create an account and essentially collect or “pin” links and ideas on just about anything and everything. This makes it an elementary school teacher’s secret weapon. Pinterest is a fantastic resource for  teachers for so many reasons…

1. SHARING IS CARING

There is no copy right on pinterest you can re-pin photos and links from other people’s boards as freely as you wish. In fact, this type of sharing and re-posting is actively encouraged. Teachers can collect and share ideas for lessons that other can see, use and add to. Finding inspiration can be difficult half way through the year, or when you have some particularly unengaged students, but with pinterest, you have a plethora of tips, tricks and fun activities right at your finger tips.

2. NETWORKING

Not only can you borrow ideas from other teachers, it is an excellent way to network and collaborate with people you may not have otherwise met. As much as technology has taken over a large chunk of our social realm, our social skills are still as important as ever. Although we may practice them through social media or technological means, the concept is the same. Networking opens up opportunities, for just for career advancement, but for personal growth in your teaching. Could you imagine what a couple teachers from different school boards, provinces or even countries could come up with in an open, fun online setting?

3. IT’S VISUAL

            We learn a lot about Gardner’s theory of multiple intelligences, and how our students have different learning styles. As teachers we strive to reach each student on their terms because we want to see them succeed, but sometimes we forget, teachers have learning styles too! Just because the majority of your students are auditory learners, doesn't mean you are! Pinterest is developed on a visual platform that is appealing to look at and work with. If you like to see your ideas develop on a screen in front of you, Pinterest is for you.

4. ORGANIZATION IS KEY

            Our lives are busy, we can’t deny it. How many times have you seen something online, loved the idea and book marked it, and then it was never seen again. It's hard to keep track of all the articles, and posts we come across on a daily basis. Enter, Pinterest. The functionality of a board is to collect “pins” that you now have access to again later. You can have as many boards as you want, dividing them up by subject, grade, or anything else, and then pin each thing in the appropriate board. This is an organized teacher’s  dream.

5. THERES MORE…..?

Not only can you find some awesome lesson ideas… I’ll link a couple below:

The Lorax Lesson

Adios Textbooks!

Root Beer Floats Matter!

You can find ideas for so much more. Classroom atmosphere, desk set up, decorations and classroom management, the list goes on. You can find all of it on a variety of Pinterest boards. So maybe you're not using a Christmas décor for your room in Decemeber, Pinterest has you covered with other culturally pluralistic ideas. Are your classroom management techniques losing their effectiveness? Take a look on Pinterest for some new techniques to keep your students on task and engaged.

There are so many resources out there for teachers, professional and otherwise. Pinterest is a fun, casual way to enhance your teaching, your classroom, and youre student’s learning!

The Journey Continues...

As a Con-Ed P/J student, we're all in the same boat. This is the final semester of our undergrad before we embark on the year where we are supposed to gain all the practical skills to run a classroom, Teachers College. One of the benefits of the Concurrent program is we have the opportunity to learn select skills before we enter our 5th year through compulsory education courses. One of the most important and foundational skills we have been learning is lesson planning. I am luck enough to have been lesson planning in some capacity for years, but the skill is ever developing. Every lesson is different, every student is different and no two experiences will ever be the same. From teaching a simple camp game, to teaching long division, lesson plans are essential in the effectiveness of your teaching.

Here are some of the key tips I have gathered through out the years:

1. KNOW YOUR STUFF!
The better you understand what you are teaching the better able you are to impart that knowledge on your students. Be able to answer the questions that students more than likely will have. Be prepared with alternative ways to explain concepts. The means understanding the curriculum documents and all of the essential understandings.

2. BE CLEAR
The best advice I ever got on lesson planning came from my boss a couple years ago. He told me to "write the lesson plan, like the person reading it has never played soccer before". I was writing out plan for a drill I intended to run. With out thinking, I made the instructions quite vague, writing under the assumption that whoever read it would know what I was talking about. After a discussion with him, I went back to the drawing board, re-wrote clear instructions on how to carry out each step and included what equipment would be needed as well as diagrams to further show what I had envisioned. Turns out, I was sick the day the lesson needed to be done, and someone else had to work off my lesson plan! The drill may have been a disaster if I had failed to go back and put the time and work into making it user friendly.

3. BE PREPARED
The world isn't perfect. You could have the best math lesson lined up, where you planned to use lego to teach addition. It was going to be fun, hands on and effective. The day comes... and you realize you don't have enough lego for everyone, or the teacher down the hall needs it at the same time. This is when my nature as a planner gets tested. There are two options here:
Option 1. Go back in time and ensure you have all the lego you need, and you have made sure it's all yours for the period OR
Option 2: IMPROVISE. Work in partners, combine classes, move the lesson! The possibilities are endless for you to be flexible and prepared to change your plan and adapt to the curve balls life in the classroom is sure to throw at you.

4. ADAPTATIONS 
Wouldn't it be nice if every single student learned exactly the same way as you. They had the same strengths, understood things in the same ways? I think we all know this is unrealistic, and to be quite frank, boring. Every person you encounter has a different set of strengths, understandings and weaknesses. In your classroom you are sure to encounter some exceptionalities that may make it difficult for that student to complete your lesson in the way you had hoped. These could range from a learning disability to a language barrier to a physical limitation and beyond. Be aware of these exceptionalities and be ready to adapt your lesson plan.


5. BE EXCITED 
The more excited you are about the lesson, the more the students will buy into it!