Coach Steve Kautz and his Waynflete School Students Win the Federal Reserve Bank of Boston Reserve Cup Challenge

Steve Kautz is a Math teacher who teaches both the Business Finance and Personal Finance courses at the Waynflete School in Waynflete, Maine. Steve was a retailer, marketing specialist, and employee recruiter before going into teaching. He draws on his business, as well as his Peace Corps experience , in developing and teaching finance courses. Steve guided and supported a group of his students in preparing for the Federal Bank of Boston Reserve Cup Challenge, a popular and challenging competition, in which students must demonstrate sophisticated understanding of the world of banking and Economics.

In this episode, Steve explains the competition, as well as the experience of preparing for it and competing in it. Waynflete won The Challenge over some 60 other schools in the region, a magnificent performance. Mr. Kautz is active with Jumpstart Coalition financial literacy programs and activities in the state of Maine and nationally.

LINKS

• Website for Federal Reserve Bank of Boston Reserve Cup Challenge
• http://www.reservecup.org/pastchampions/index.html

• School articles about Team Win
• http://www.waynflete.org/podium/default.aspx?t=204&id=742719
• http://www.waynflete.org/podium/

• Newspaper article on Waynflete team and their experience in winning the Reserve Cup Challenge: “Waynflete team wins Federal Reserve challenge in Boston”
• http://www.theforecaster.net/content/pnms-waynflete-students-win-finance-competition-120711
• 
  

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(C) Talking Financial Literacy is copyrighted by The McGraw-Hill Companies, 2008 – 2012. All rights reserved.

See TransformationEd.com for full details of speaking engagements and opportunities to meet Dr King and Mark.

John LeFeber  is the Director of Instructional Technology for the Council for Economic Education and the Project Manager for EconEdLink. Affiliated with Thinkfinity, EconEdLink, the Council for Economic Opportunity’s premier resource, is a rich source of classroom-tested, Internet-based economic and personal finance instructional materials. It offers over 700 lessons and a variety of other resources targeted for K-12 teachers and their students. Each of the lessons includes a teacher’s version as well as a student’s version and is designed to be delivered in a variety of formats and classroom settings.

John has been the Project Manager and Curriculum and Instructional Developer for the Council for Economic Education since 2000. Prior to that, he served as the Director of Social Science Education for the Nebraska Department of Education. He was instrumental in developing a Strategic Plan for Social Studies, a Framework for Social Studies and the Nebraska Social Studies Standards. He came to the Department of Education from the classroom where he had taught social studies in elementary, middle school, high school and college environments. He presently teaches social studies methods at Doane College in Crete, NE.

Links for this Episode!

• EconEdLink
• www.econedlink.org

and

• About John
• http://www.econedlink.org/about-us/about-EconEdLink-team.php?tid=8

Leave a comment for the Talking Fin Lit hosts

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Or

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(C) Talking Financial Literacy is copyrighted by The McGraw-Hill Companies, 2008 – 2012. All rights reserved.

See TransformationEd.com for full details of speaking engagements and opportunities to meet Dr King and Mark.

By Kids for Kids and the Secret Millionaires Club

Join us for a resource packed interview with Laura Ploss! 

Laura Ploss is the Chief Operating Officer of By Kids for Kids, one of the partner organizations involved with Secret Millionaires Club. These intriguing groups are really instructional resources that provides a variety of Financial Literacy content for school age students.

Be sure to explore each of the links listed below because there is a wealth of information and resource available. These are topnotch in respect to curriculum, but also in FUN!

For example students play games, but also hear other students speak about financial literacy.

Whether you are a teacher, parent or both, don’t miss out, dig in to discover the wealth of resources available here.

Links for this episode:

The Secret Millionaires Club site:

www.scmkids.com

Learn and Earn:

http://www.smckids.com/learnandearn/

By Kids for Kids:

http://www.bkfk.com/

Links for SMC’s Grow Your Own Business Challenge

• http://www.smckids.com/learnandearn/aboutthecontest#

• http://www.smckids.com/learnandearn/content/get-thinking

Leave a comment

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• Or by e-mailing us at  podcast@talkingfinlit.org

• (C) Talking Financial Literacy is copyrighted by The McGraw-Hill Companies, 2008 – 2012. All rights reserved.

See  TransformationEd.com for full details of speaking engagements and opportunities to meet Dr King and Mark.

Who can resist Elmo, even when teaching Financial Literacy?

That was the brilliance behind the plan when the Sesame Workshop contacted Karen Holden, Professor Emerita of Public Affairs and Consumer Science at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. Ms. Holden was one of six advisers invited to discuss with Sesame Workshop what the fundamental lessons are for very young children in Financial Literacy – lessons that could be and should be taught to preschool children, especially from diverse families and communities. These six experts produced a body of professional content and opinion to inform Sesame Workshop in Financial Literacy.

What a great way to help youngsters grasp fundamental concepts of Financial Literacy Sesame Workshop developed!

And… maybe there will be some fabulous discussion in their families as they ask questions….

Links related to this episode:

“Karen Holden advises Sesame Street financial education initiative” (Article) – University of Wisconsin – Madison News (Online Magazine) http://www.news.wisc.edu/19344

(Recommended by Karen)
The National Endowment for Financial Education
http://www.nefe.org/?gclid=CPmfkeT9wK0CFRBb7AodJHxYBw

After the interview, Karen shared the following links and information concerning the piece that led Sesame Workshop to contact her:

“I suspect Sesame Workshop found the following, the final report of the first phase of the study we were doing”
http://www.cuna.org/newsnow/09/system060209-8.html?ref=hed
A news article on the study:

http://www.cuna.org/newsnow/09/system060209-8.html?ref=hed

The cognitive development part of that report is now a separate article:

Scheinholtz, Laura., Karen. Holden and Charles. Kalish (available October, 2011) “Cognitive Development and Children’s Understanding of Personal Finance.” In Douglas Lamdin (Ed). Consumer Knowledge and Financial Decisions: Lifespan Perspectives. New York, NY: Springer.

Karen explains who her coauthors are: Laura was a graduate student working with us, one of Chuck’s students. I might have mentioned another study of teachers, survey results I inferred to mean that teachers were thinking of “financial education” as too complicated, making a link to their more complex financial lives than the basic tools students need to learn. That study is:

Wendy Way and Karen Holden. (2009). Outstanding AFCPE Conference Paper – Teachers’ Background and Capacity to Teach Personal Finance: Results of a National Study. Journal of Financial Counseling and Planning, 20(2), 65-79”

Video Content for Young Learners – Sesame Street® “For Me, for You, for Later”

http://www.sesamestreet.org/parents/topicsandactivities/toolkits/save

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– Emailing us at podcast@talkingfinlit.org

See TransformationEd.com for full details of speaking engagements and opportunities to meet Dr King and Mark.

(C) Talking Financial Literacy is copyrighted by The McGraw-Hill Companies, 2008 – 2012. All rights reserved.

Mike  Fladlien: Masterful Financial Literacy Instruction in the Heartland

Mike Fladlien is a teacher at Muscatine High School in Muscatine, Iowa. Mr. Fladlien teaches Business, Business Law, Economics, Computer Applications, and (Business) Logistics there. Mr. Fladlien blogs on Finance and Economics Education: Micro-economics at http://www.mikeroeconomics.blogspot.com/ and at http://teachingapeconomics.blogspot.com/. He has had 8 lessons accepted and published on the EconEdLink web-based resource.

Mike’s Materials at EconEdLink
http://www.econedlink.org/about-us/about-EconEdLink-authors.php?aid=272

Mike’s Blogs

- Mikroecomonics: www.mikeroeconomics.blogspot.com

• AP Economics: Resources for Teaching Advanced Placement Economic: http://teachingapeconomics.blogspot.com/
• Mike’s Profile: http://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Store/Mike-Fladlien-16/Teaching-Experience

Article about Mike in The Muscatine Journal: http://muscatinejournal.com/news/local/article_96dbe4d4-299f-11e1-94f4-001871e3ce6c.htm

We enjoy meeting our podcast community!

Leave a comment

• Here on the blog/site

• Emailing us at  podcast@talkingfinlit.org

• (C) Talking Financial Literacy is copyrighted by The McGraw-Hill Companies, 2008 – 2012. All rights reserved.

See  TransformationEd.com for full details of speaking engagements and opportunities to meet Dr King and Mark.

Mack Lewis: Creator of the Checkbook Project

Another exciting Talking Fin Lit episode with vital free resources as we interview Mack Lewis, a board certified teacher working in Oregon. Mack describes her development of Class Money: The Checkbook Project, a unique model for using the Micro Society instructional context to model and teach Financial Literacy. It is a free resource, a complete guide for teachers with support materials, available in downloadable format online.

Links for this interview:

• Mack’s link and profile at Teachers Pay Teachers: http://www.teacherspayteachers.com/search?keyword=Checkbook+project&subjectarea=0&startsearch=1 http://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/Class-Money-The-Checkbook-Project-class-economy-financial-literacy
• Mack’s professional profile:  http://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Store/Mack-Lewis/Teaching-Experience
• Mack’s own website with Checkbook Project resources: http://macklewis.com/checkbook-project/

Leave a comment here on the blog/site

• emailing us at  podcast@talkingfinlit.org

• (C) Talking Financial Literacy is copyrighted by The McGraw-Hill Companies, 2008 – 2012. All rights reserved.

See  TransformationEd.com for full details of speaking engagements and opportunities to meet Dr King and Mark.

We enjoy meeting our podcast community!

Contact Us

You may contact Mark and Kathy by emailing us at podcast@talkingfinlit.org

Podcast Feed:

Our podcast feed is:  http://feeds.feedburner.com/talkingfinlit

An Interview with Prolific Curriculum Writer for Financial Literacy, Mickey Ebert.

Join us for this stimulating interview with a prolific curriculum writer for early elementary Financial Literacy, Mickey Ebert is an award-winning retired Blue Springs, Arkansas teacher. Mickey has had unique education experiences as a result of her 34 years in education and has studied School Administration as well as Teaching. She has written and published the astoundingly large body of 42 lessons for EconEdLink.

She currently works as an Education Specialist for the National Archives, applying her deep knowledge of Education to its extraordinary collection of resources made available for teachers.

Mickey’s page at EconEdLink:

http://www.econedlink.org/about-us/about-EconEdLink-authors.php?aid=786

Mickey’s page at The National Archives:

http://www.archives.gov/central-plains/kansas-city/education/

Leave a comment here on the blog/site

• emailing us at podcast@talkingfinlit.org

• (C) Talking Financial Literacy is copyrighted by The McGraw-Hill Companies, 2008 – 2012. All rights reserved.

See TransformationEd.com for full details of speaking engagements and opportunities to meet Dr King and Mark.

We enjoy meeting our podcast community!

Contact Us

You may contact Mark and Kathy by emailing us at podcast@talkingfinlit.org

Podcast Feed:

Our podcast feed is: http://feeds.feedburner.com/talkingfinlit

Talking Financial Literacy is produced in collaboration among Dr. Kathleen King and Mark Gura  and The McGraw-Hill Companies.

An Interview with Jennifer Allen, Jump$tart Teacher of the Year

Jennifer Allen was selected as the first State of Kentucky, Jumpstart Financial Literacy – Teacher of the Year. She is a teacher at Madison Southern High School in Berea, Kentucky where she teaches Business and Marketing courses and runs the school bank and school store programs. She has presented to colleagues on using free resources for teaching various aspects of Financial Literacy (see her presentation PowerPoint below). Ms. Allen’s work as a Financial Literacy educator provides an important model, as she teaches both formal classes, and runs school-based activities (the bank and store) that provide important opportunities to apply what’s learned in the courses as well as other content, hands-on. In this interview Jennifer describes how she runs her program, identifies important free resources she’s found for it, and gives important advice on how to run a highly successful Fin Lit program on the high school level.

Links:

• Kentucky Teacher – (Posted November 2011)
  http://www.kentuckyteacher.org/news/2010/11/ky-jumptart-names-financial-literacy-teacher-of-the-year/
• If It’s Free, It’s For Me (PowerPoint) attached
• Junior Achievement http://www.ja.org/
• The Economics of Seinfeld (Yada Yada Yada Econ.com) http://yadayadayadaecon.com/
• National Endowment for Financial Education (Nefe) http://www.nefe.org/

Leave a comment here on the blog/site

• emailing us at podcast@talkingfinlit.org

• (C) Talking Financial Literacy is copyrighted by The McGraw-Hill Companies, 2008 – 2011. All rights reserved.

See TransformationEd.com for full details of speaking engagements and opportunities to meet Dr King and Mark.

We enjoy meeting our podcast community!

Contact Us

You may contact Mark and Kathy by emailing us at podcast@talkingfinlit.org

Podcast Feed:

Our podcast feed is: http://feeds.feedburner.com/talkingfinlit

The Centsables

Mr. Mark DiPippa is the President of The Centsables, a rich, comic book themed, multi-media instructional resource for Financial Literacy Education. The Centsables website is a comprehensive source of instructional materials and bears the tag line, “The Centsables, A NEW BREED OF SUPERHEROES!: Helping kids overcome obstables, soar toward goals, and achieve financial fitness!” This episode gives the history and background of The Centsables and offers insights into what it offers educators and how they may best make use of it.

The Centsables Website: http://centsables.com/

http://centsables.com/lessons/

Leave a comment here on the blog/site

• emailing us at podcast@talkingfinlit.org

• (C) Talking Financial Literacy is copyrighted by The McGraw-Hill Companies, 2008 – 2011. All rights reserved.

See TransformationEd.com for full details of speaking engagements and opportunities to meet Dr King and Mark.

We enjoy meeting our podcast community!

Contact Us

You may contact Mark and Kathy by emailing us at podcast@talkingfinlit.org

Podcast Feed:

Our podcast feed is: http://feeds.feedburner.com/talkingfinlit

Economic Education: Picking up Steam in the Old South

Listeners from around the world will benefit from learning about the model used by Mississippi Council on Economic Education (MCEE)  to take advantage of the many ideas and highly useful resources available through their website and its subsidiary links. This interview with Ms. Swartzfager gives the insider insight that will make the huge array of resources very accessible to the listener.

Ms. Selena Swartzfager is the President of the Mississippi Council on Economic Education. Before assuming the responsibilities of President of the MCEE, Selena was a second career teacher, having earned degrees in business and having spent 15 years in the corporate world before entering the classroom. She was a High School teacher of Business and Personal Finance. Thus, she brings a perfect body of experience to her current work. As this interview reveals, the Mississippi Council of Economic Education offers a broad and well balanced program for teachers and students.

Links to items referenced in this episode:

• Mississippi Council on Economic Education (MCEE) www.mscee.org/programs.html

• YouTube VIDEO “Mississippi Economics Challenge 2010” http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1oy-pB52ceo

• Mississippi EconChallenge ONLINE!
  AND
  Mississippi Finance Challenge ONLINE
  http://www.mscee.org/challenge.html

• MCEE Links Page www.mscee.org/links.html

• Compound Interest Calculator
  http://www.myarmyonesource.com/data/Calculators/Compound_Interest/CompoundInterest.html

  TalkingFinLit Recommendation: M&M INTERESTING
  http://ecedweb.unomaha.edu/lessons/M&M6-8.pdf
  From Personal Finance Economics, 6-8: Money in the Middle, © National Council on Economic Education, New York, NY

• Self-Sufficiency Standard (and related materials and resources)
  http://www.mscee.org/programs.html

• Self Sufficiency Calculator
  http://www.mepconline.com/self-sufficiency-standard/your-standard.php

• (National) Council on Economics Education
  http://www.councilforeconed.org/

• Missouri Council on Economics Education & Personal Finance Challenge
  http://cas.umkc.edu/mcee/studentprograms.html

• International Economic Summit
  http://www.econsummit.org/

Leave a comment here on the blog/site

• emailing us at podcast@talkingfinlit.org

• (C) Talking Financial Literacy is copyrighted by The McGraw-Hill Companies, 2008 – 2011. All rights reserved.

See TransformationEd.com for full details of speaking engagements and opportunities to meet Dr King and Mark.

We enjoy meeting our podcast community!

Contact Us

You may contact Mark and Kathy by emailing us at podcast@talkingfinlit.org

Podcast Feed:

Our podcast feed is: http://feeds.feedburner.com/talkingfinlit