Using Infographics for Personal Finance Lessons

I have a confession, I am an infographic junkie. I can't get enough. I love the visual represenations they provide. I love statistics. Combining catchy pictures and statistics, well that is just a dream come true.
This week in my Economics classes we are starting, in my opinion, the most important topic I teach, Personal Finance. We are beginning to talk about the labor market, and I have found some great infographics on the topic.
Here are a few of my favorite.

Stressful Jobs
Men and Women in labor Market
Educating the workforce
Jobs of the future
Jobs of the future
Those are just a few. I will keep adding to them this week. I love using them and having the students come up with inferences and essential questions based on the information. It is amazing to see how much they understand by using these sources.

Women's History Month

It is almost Women's history month, or as we know it around here, March. Last night it was #sschat and #engchat monthly meet up for #engsschat, and it was centered around Women in History. It was one of the most riveting chats I have  participated in. I was so enthralled in many conversations I didn't realize the hour was over. It flew by, as per usual for #sschat nights. But this one was a little different. I started off the chat thinking it would be another great night of crowdsourcing lesson plans, which it was, but it also had another element.

The discussion turned to women in the media, politics, stardom etc. After the chat was over I kept thinking about it. @EDSITEment brought up Seth MacFarlane's Oscar hosting, and all of its offensiveness. I woke up this morning still thinking about this, and was even more bothered that more people are not commenting on it. Why are we not in an uproar? Have we become desensitized to this behavior? Are we saying this is ok? Are we expecting this treatment now?
Why is it that we don't mention singers like Adele, without discussing her body? Why don't we comment on the pant suit that Lindsey Graham is wearing like we do Hillary Clinton? Why is it that women are striving to "have it all" with a career and oh my, a family to boot, when we never hear about men striving for this feat of "having it all."

I think one of the main things that has been bothering me is I am struggling to see how we make this change. I am also struggling with the fact that women are not helping the case out. When we look at women's magazines, ads, tv shows, etc, it keeps painting the same picture of what we "should" want.  I know it has been 50 years since Betty Friedan's Feminine Mystique, but at times it doesn't seem that long ago.

I see this in my own life. My husband and I are not having children, shock, gasp, what. Any time someone hears this, because they have continuously asked me when the kids are coming, they resort to "you might change your mind." And yet, my husband does not get asked when the kids are coming.

I know having this month dedicated to Women's history is a great start. But we need to focus on the equality issue all the time. When there are only 4% of CEOs that are women, and women only make .77/1.00 of men, (and that number is even worse for women of color) we have an issue. When there are only 97 women in Congress, or 18.1% and yet women are over 50% of the population, we have an issue. When Congress won't vote for the Equal Rights Amendment, or the Violence Against Women Act, or the politicians (male) keep speaking about a women's right to choose, we have an issue.

How do we stop having a need for a Women's History Month and just have women taught throughout the year? How do we get the media to get on board with this idea? How can we convince our young girls that they need to be strong and have celebrated women heroes? I would love some feedback on this topic. Am I going overboard?

Big ideas and essential questions

Throughout my teaching I have been striving to make sure my students are engaged and that the learning is meaningful to them. As is true for any teacher I want to avoid the dreaded:"why do I have to learn this" question. I have been focusing on essential questions and sweeping big broad ideas that can be connected to their immediate lives.
For example, instead of teaching WWII by focusing in battles I found these big ideas and Essential Questions that can lead to more student led discussion. (https://docs.google.com/document/d/1YB79j7UBaeq0_3ZzaReLe5_QAR5rpV1WMc_GrI5thaw/edit?usp=sharing)
By doing this I can focus on the broad picture and make sure students have authentic reasons to learn the material. Then I can focus my lessons on keeping students involved and not just passive learners soaking in a lecture. We were able to have some great discussions based on these ideas and the students are able to draw there own conclusions and more questions from these sentences and questions.

Defeatist Attitude: I don't think so.

It happens in education. People get defeated. This can be teachers, students, parents whomever. It happens. We feel we have lost. We give up. We don't feel like trying anymore. We run out of time, energy, patience whatever.

But here is the thing.  We can't. We can't give up. If it isn't working, we must fix it. If we run into a wall, we need to go over it, around it or if nothing else through it. We can't stop working to be better. This means as teachers, students or parents, we must always be reaching for more. We can't stop because it gets hard, or we're tired of hearing the excuses. Those are just excuses in themselves. We must push through.

Teachers, we must not get caught up in the bureaucracy of our career field. We must not take no for an answer when it means the engagement, education and betterment of our students. We have to be always advocating for our students.

I know it is frustrating trying to change something and not getting a response, but really every time we push forward we get a little farther. Change will not happen overnight. You have to work for it. And believe me, the accomplishment will be worth working for.

Students, don't give up. You will get it. You will feel accomplished when you do. That feeling of accomplishment will stay with you and will push you through your next big challenge. Persevere.  Nothing worth getting isn't worth fighting for.

So don't give up. We can't. We won't. We must go.

Students can adapt

This past weekend I went skiing for the first time, yep you read that right, a 31 year old out on the slopes for the first time. My knees are intact, my pride-not so much. I did realize a few things though, as the young children were flying by me. Children have less fear. They haven't been corrupted by all the thoughts of what could go wrong, torn ACL, brain injury and what have you. They just think of the fun. I saw 5 year olds learning to ski for the first time that morning, and then later that day, they were like pros, as I, and some of my friends were pizza wedging the whole way down the green hill.

I realized, kids will adapt, because they are not guided by fear so much as the shiny newness of something. When I try a new lesson in class, I may be hesitant, but the students will dive in. They want to be the first to understand something. When I give them a new website to try, it doesn't take long to they become pros at it, and learning more about it then I ever dreamed of knowing.

My students have been working on a few new projects, some that I have never done before in class. I have been throwing new things at them all year, and they pick them up and run with them. In years past, I was afraid to try new things. What if it failed? What if they didn't get it? What would other teacher's think?  Now, I have started the lesson planning process with less fear, and more results in mind. I have taken on some of my student's fearlessness-some, I repeat, some.

I have been in meetings with other teachers who are hesitant to try new things, especially technology in the classroom. They come up with all the excuses I did. I want them to know that it is ok to be fearless. If you have the intentions of what is best for the students, and want to create engaging lessons that reach them, it is ok to fail sometimes.

The students may surprise you though. They are truly fearless. Let's keep inspiring them to be this way, pushing them, challenging them to work hard and work outside their comfort zone. Don't stop with a small resistence, believe in your cause, your lesson, and make it work.

State of the Union

Tonight my classes are going to be having our first live tweeting session while watching the State of the Union. We are going to be doing this while working with our new friends at McKeel Academy in Lakeland, Florida. I am so excited to have this opportunity to inspire the students to branch out, and to also be able to comment on something so important.

I am excited to see what they will think about the President's address tonight. It is so important for them to start paying attention to the world around them, and by adding this fun element, I hope that it is the push they need. Plus, it'll be great to hear (read) different regional views on this topic in real time.

This is just one more instance of how much I have gained from being a teacher on twitter. I am so grateful that I took the very small leap to branch out and collaborate with such wonderful educators around the globe.

Getting excited

We are moving forward with our class collaboration with McKeel Academy in Lakeland, Florida. My students are so excited about the new relationships they are forming nits amazing how small this world can be. More importantly they are excited about learning which is so contagious. When they are excited other students are excited. And then I get excited. What could be better than that's

Great day!

Today my students were able to Skype with Dennis Dill's (@dennisdill) classes in Lakeland Florida. It was so amazing. The Students were so excited and a little nervous to "meet" these students. I loved hearing the questions that both sides had for each other. The excitement from the room is still resonating. This was the first time all year none of my students were absent. They were so excited to be doing something new and exclusive to their class that they had to be there. It was incredible. It just goes to show you that we need to come up with interesting interactive lessons like this across the board to keep students engaged.

I am excited to start the next step of the process. We are going to team up our students to complete a pbl on the Harlem renaissance. The possibilities are endless with what we can do. The students could participate in a twitter chat with each other. They are going to be sharing documents via schoology (@schoology) and perhaps google drive. The lessons they can learn are countless. I love knowing that this use of technology can open them up to parts of the world they never have been before.

Skype: Mystery or not

As a high school teacher just outside Chicago, I often lose track of how much my students have not been exposed to. After participating in many twitter chats, I have heard a lot of teachers talking about using Skype in the classroom. Most of the teachers I have heard (read-feels like I am really talking to people on twitter, not just typing at them!), are elementary teachers. I would love to be able to do this in my history or economics classes.

So I need some help. Are there any high school teachers out there that are located around the world, even in other parts of the United States that would be interested in Skyping during the school day? I was thinking of some ideas that could be discussed, but I would be open to almost anything.

I would love to get opinions on the 2nd amendment/gun control. I wonder how students in rural areas see this as compared to inner city.
I would love to talk about legalization of marijuana, would be interesting to talk with students in areas it is now legal, or border towns.
I would love to discuss immigration policies. We are almost 40% Hispanic, so I think this could be useful.
It would be great to talk to international students about any of the topics in history, and how they learn about them. For instance, I would love to skype with students in Germany or Japan about WWII.
I would love to talk to other Economics classes about the current state of the economy and how the recession has effected them.

These are just a few ideas. If you are a teacher, or know a teacher that would be interested, please let me know. I also would be interested in talking to other adults in the different regions of the world about these issues, and experiences.
Lets collaborate and open the world up for our students!
I'm on Twitter @NaughtonBecky.

How far we have to go

Today in economics we were earning about the black market. To get us started, I posed questions about the black market for body parts. I posed a series of ethical questions and we had some great discussions. Then I asked the question about having a global market for trading body parts. In all 3 of my classes I received the same responses. They were all against it, but to for ethical or human rights reasons, but because they didn't think we'd have compatible organs because they may eat differently. They all said we looked different so the organs would be different.
It really made me realize how little Americans know about other cultures and how I have to do abetted job of openings their eyes.