Family And Consumer Sciences Lesson Plans

100 teachers train here in personal-finance instruction

The University of Arizona is hosting more than 100 teachers from 33 states at a local resort for training on how to teach personal finance to kids and teens.

The training is being provided by the Take Charge America Institute for Consumer Financial Education and Research., based at the UA's Norton School of Family and Consumer Sciences.

"Our goal is to provide educators with free curriculum and the skills and confidence to effectively teach personal finance," said Nicole Wanago, Take Charge America assistant director for outreach.

There's a special emphasis on how to teach about spending and saving decisions in the family budget and how to make personal-finance topics relevant to students, Wanago said.

The training began Monday and runs through Thursday at the Omni Tucson National Resort.

Here's how teachers will put the lessons of the recession into their lesson plans to promote financial literacy.

"If (students) learn budgeting, if they learn how insurance works, how investing works, how to avoid the pitfalls of debt … that will put them far above what even their parents know and hopefully will save them lots of grief in the future.

"There are things that students need to be taught about what mortgages are, how they work, the pitfalls of certain mortgages. There's a lot of educating that needs to happen so students can protect themselves."

- Eric Ewing, math teacher at Marana High School

"You have to keep it relevant to what's happening right now, otherwise the students won't stay engaged. You have to stay on top of what's happening, read your current events, watch the news, and then just adapt your curriculum to that. Get new statistics. For instance, the median incomes for certain occupations, or whether an occupation is on the rise or on the decline."

- Sherrille Gooch, a cooperative-education teacher at Pearl/Rankin Career & Technical Center in Pearl, Miss.

"(I teach) budgeting, definitely. Credit card debt and how that can be a very negative thing. And really, at the most basic, needs versus wants. A lot of these kids, at 17, think their cellphone is a necessity. Well, not really. You could live without it. So that's what I like to stress."

- Stacy Brown, economics teacher at North High School in Phoenix

Did you know

The Institute for Consumer Financial Education and Research was established at the University of Arizona in 2003 through an endowment from Take Charge America, a nonprofit credit-counseling agency based in Phoenix.

Colorado Family & Consumer Sciences Blog: FCCLA Membership

Integration of FCCLA STAR events into each course offered within the FACS department hopefully will increase membership and provide members with opportunities for leadership and recognition. I have been working on finding the fit of events with classes: Relationships- Interpersonal Communication, Career Pathways- Career Investigation and Job Interview, Catering and Nutrition & Wellness- Food Innovations. Developing a cocurricular approach is a win-win situation. Less projects and rubrics to develop for the class, students have a STAR event well on its way to completion for competition and FCCLA is promoted in the classroom. This past year my officer team often met during lunch as our school has open campus and a 55 minute lunch. Sometimes it was bring your own and other times I provided lunch. I found that being creative with meeting time was essential to keeping the chapter active. The officers also texted information and I found that texting reminders was beneficial. School display cases are a great way to promote my chapter. I have a lighted six foot display in the hallway within my department. It is amazing how many visitors to the building stop and read the information displayed during the evenings and weekends when community athletic events are being held in the building. School websites are also a great way to promote the success of your chapter.

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