Hello all,
April is National Financial Capability Monday! The official blog of the U.S. Department of Education had a posting this week, http://1.usa.gov/1VMPae1. As an instructor, it seems that learners will understand a concept better if I use money. This got me thinking about the importance of money in teaching and wondering why we don't incorporate more opportunities for learners to learn about the money. Learners seem to be more engaged in discussions and lessons that involve money, whether it be budgeting, planning for retirement, saving for the future, managing debt, etc. There is a lot of math competencies that can be taught using money!
Recently, I was teaching about the power of compound interest. I made a worksheet that asked the following questions:
1. How much money could you save right now? (This can be the money in your pocket)
2. How many years is it until you turn 65 years old?
3. How much money would you like to have when you retire?
Then using this information, we used both current interest rates and higher rates to "see" if the learners would get to their retirement goal. If they didn't, I asked them to figure how much more money they would need to save and how often. The learners really liked the activity, one commented: "I only invested $100 dollars at 12% interest and I almost made it to $10,000 and I didn't do anything but put in $100!"
Does anyone else have any other lessons they use? I am interested in teaching more classes like this because of the interaction and the knowledge that learners gain about the power of saving, too!
Brooke