Students Build Success in Financial Literacy

My Students

My classroom is scheduled as a math class, but I tell my students that it is not a math class, but a class in success training. I believe Financial Literacy is a big part of being successful in life. A student Design Team, composed of six students, has helped me create the vision for this project.

My class is full of energetic 6th graders.

They are in a transition year, coming to the middle school from three different elementary schools and are beginning to learn to be responsible for their own education. My students are from an area that is economically challenged and are working against a culture that at times doesn't value education. Students in two of my classes applied for the six spots on the student Design Team. Applicants wrote about things that worked well for them in an educational setting and also gave suggestions to improve activities that they have done in school in the past. Multiple members of the Design Team expressed the ideas of building things to help students learn and engage with the content - their excitement for this project is contagious! My students are an inspiration and will lead their current and future families successfully as they apply the knowledge and skills they gain throughout their education.

My Project

My students will use the PwC's Earn Your Future curriculum to learn about Financial Literacy. My student design team discussed all the options for middle school students within the curriculum and decided which areas of study they felt were most applicable to them as middle school students. They want to study Career Exploration and Spending and Saving. The student plan for the materials is to create an interactive town for other students to experience. They will have instructional stations and storefronts where students can complete transactions that pertain to the lifestyle of a selected career field. Two classes of students (about 44 students) will go through the curriculum themselves and then create the town experiences for the other (approximately 250) sixth-grade students. The town they build will act as a culminating activity for the two classes and as a "stay-at-school field trip" for the others.

Understanding personal finance and knowing how a budget can enhance rather than restrict your life are life skills that will impact the entirety of my students' lives.

Being financially literate will allow my students to start their lives off on a solid foundation, a foundation on which they can build strong financial lives that will help their families and enhance their community. My students need art supplies to create storefronts and informational displays to showcase what they have learned about Financial Literacy.