The real lesson on finance

As I look through our mandated outcomes for finance and the monetary system, we have outcomes such as:

"Use the compound interest formula......"

"Calculate the simple interest.........."

I was searching for some application and stumbled over a blog by Jason or FrugalDad.  After reading his blog I decided to share his ideas about "10 things students should really learn about money".

1. No one owes you a thing. Too many people go through their entire lives with the expectation they are owed something. This is not the case, or at least it shouldn’t be. All you should ever expect is to be judged, compensated and respected based on your work ethic and your ability to create, inspire and hustle.

2. Debt is a cancer. Debt is a cancer on our society, on households, and on us as individuals. It saps creativity. It creates pessimism. It robs your future dollars. It limits your freedom. Avoid debt like the plague. Remember the old adage:

“He who understands interest – earns it. He who doesn’t understand interest – pays it.”

3. Save for emergencies…big emergencies. When you are young and many years from considering retirement (and not earning much), it’s tough to save money. But I have discovered no softer pillow than having money in the bank for emergencies. Aim to save about a year of your basic living expenses in a simple savings account (no risky investments here). With a one-year cushion, you’ll be able to weather storms many others will not.

4. Live simply. In 2011, life seems pretty complicated. By the time you are adults, I imagine it will be even more so. There will be new gadgets and toys and cool services and “got to haves.” The problem is, all these things compete for your earnings. I’m not advocating living like a pauper, but limit yourself to only a few of life’s luxuries.

5. Sleep on big financial decisions. When it comes time to buy a car, or a house, or book your first major vacation as a family, sleep on the plans for a couple nights. People selling you these things want you to act immediately to lock in their commission, as I would expect them to, but remember that you are the one who has to pay the bill. Some of my biggest financial regrets came because of a knee-jerk reaction. Be slow. Be methodical. Listen to your gut.

6. Protect your credit. Not because you hope to borrow money, but because you may find people extending a service to you may do so for less cost if they think you aren’t a big risk. And if those people don’t know you well, your credit score may be their only determining factor. It’s not necessarily fair, but it’s a part of life. Credit blemishes can hang around for a decade, so it’s best to avoid them in the first place.

7. Learn to do things yourself, but don’t be afraid to call in the experts. You may remember the time your dad rescued a toy from the toilet trap, saving us an expensive plumbing repair bill. Or the time I climbed up in the attic to unclog the air conditioner drain. But your dad knows his limitations, and calls in the experts when necessary. That’s what emergency savings are for.

8. Shallow people judge your things, real friends judge your character. Some of the saddest, loneliest people I’ve ever known have been surrounded by the nicest things money can buy. They often acquired these things to impress people they thought mattered, and in many cases it did – temporarily. Meaningful relationships are based on things money cannot buy: trust, respect, integrity, compassion, love.

9. Don’t trade the things you care about for a big salary. Remember what mattered to you most when you were a kid: Family, fun, dreams. These things should remain important to you as a grown-up, but often adults sacrifice these things to earn a big salary. Now, everyone has to sacrifice some to earn a living, but by learning to be content, you may be able to earn a comfortable living while still enjoying other things.

10. Start saving early. Remember those money games we used to play when you were a kid? One of them was an attempt to get you to understand one of the great financial wonders of the world: compound interest. You see, when you save money you earn interest on it. The next month you earn interest on the money you first put in, plus the interest you earned the month before. That’s right; you earn interest on interest. Now carry out that example for many years, even decades, and you can understand how some people are able to accumulate wealth. The trick is, you have to start early.

Parents, consider opening a kid’s savings account to get them started early. Our kids deposit a portion of allowance earnings every couple weeks and it has taught them a lot about the mechanics of banking – completing a deposit slip, balancing their savings register, etc.

Finally, keep in mind something your great grandfather taught your dad about finding balance. Be frugal, but remember to occasionally stop and smell the roses. Life is short, and it is meant to be enjoyed. Take an expensive vacation every now and then. Buy something of your “heart’s desire,” even if it doesn’t make sense financially. Be frugal in other areas of your life to make room for things you truly enjoy.


Click here to see what a trillion dollars look like.

Resignation from teaching

I Resign From Teaching

Josh Stumpenhorst wrote an amazing letter.  Made me reflect on my own classes....After reading this I have decided I am also resigning from teaching in the tradtional sense.  Maybe it is time for more of us resign from teaching.

To Whom It May Concern:

Consider this my letter of resignation from teaching. After much deliberation and intense research, I now see the futility of teaching my students. I have found that telling my students what to do does not make them learn. I discovered that when I told them what projects to do, they didn’t produce high quality work. I now see that when I give them a test they might do well but can’t talk to me about what they learned. It has also come to my attention that when I tell them something will impact their grade and they need to do it, it doesn’t motivate them. So, I am giving it all up. I am done teaching my students. I will no longer give pencil and paper tests. I refuse to tell my students what projects to do. It has become increasingly clear to me that the less I teach, the more my students are actually learning. Clearly that means I should give up teaching…although this is a painful decision for me.

Now, even though I am resigning from teaching, you will still see me in my classroom. If you look in my open door you will see me at my desk with my feet up more than likely. My students will not be quiet and certainly will not be doing the same thing. Some of them might not even be sitting in chairs and none of them will be sitting in rows. It will be chaotic and kids will be all over the place. But I ask you to take a closer look.

As I am sitting at my desk I am no longer teaching but guiding. I have carefully constructed learning questions and activities for each student. The students are working collaboratively with each other on differentiated learning activities and producing a variety of evidence. They don’t look to me to tell them how to show they are learning but choose how to learn and how best to show me they are learning. They no longer seek me for the answers but look to the array of resources I have provided for them. I am no longer the source of knowledge but merely another learner in the room. Soon I will become invisible and the students will take complete control over their learning. My life as a teacher will cease to exist and a whole new one will replace it.

Please respectfully accept my resignation from teaching. However, I will stay on board to be a guide, a provider, a supervisor, a friend and a learner.

Respectfully Submitted,

Josh Stumpenhorst

The do(s) and don’t(s) for putting your feet up in the classroom:

Do:

• Construct meaningful work for students to be doing; boredom and disinterest leads to disengagement and behavior issues.
• Allow students to choose how they show their learning. Don’t use a cookie cutter approach to activities or assessments.
• Let kids work in groups to collaborate and share ideas. Two heads are better than one and four heads are really good.
• Have a comfortable chair! :)

Don’t:

• Assume kids can do this without some level of modeling and preparation.
• Close your door and hide what you are doing. Be proud of work student’s work and share it with others even if they are not ready themselves.
• Grade everything your students are doing. Grades do not motivate students so don’t use it as your motivator. Students will be motivated by learning if the activities are relevant, active, and collaborative.
• Think that you can always put your feet up. There will be a time when direct instruction will be needed.
• Think you can actually put your feet up! :)

Outcome based assessment first, high stakes second.

Today I asking for any opinion of what I am trying to implement as my new assessment and teaching strategy.  First, I will talk about how I am assessing currently and problems I see, then I will introduce my policy.  I will be bringing this forward to my administration, but I would like some input before I do that.  The course I will be implementing this in is “Math 30 Applied”, where there is a standardized exam at the end the course worth 50%.

Currently, my marks have been based on the picture to the right.  Students are also given the chance to write a replacement exam, once at the midterm and once at the end of course.  If students achieve better than their lowest mark they can replace this mark with the mark they achieved on the replacement exam.  As you can see 95% of their mark is based on how they achieve on exams. 

3 large problems:

I am assessing student achievement and not student learning. 

I am promoting the idea of memorization for an exam, regurgitate then forget the learning.

I am forcing students to learn outcomes on my strict schedule.

I am tired of grades being sticks and carrots for students.  Students are scared of writing high stakes exams where they have to demonstrate their learning in this one “snapshot”, and if they don’t demonstrate learning this bad mark will haunt them for the remainder of the course [a stick].  I am also tired of students completing assignments only for marks.  [a carrot]

The new strategy: based on here

Students, at the beginning of the term, will receive a list of the 25 learner outcomes required by the course.  The list will also have one illustrated example of what a student should be able to do to demonstrate an acceptable standard of understanding.  I have supplied a picture of the first couple of outcomes.  This list is based on the mandated outcomes from my provincial government.  I will be teaching at the same pace and will still be teaching through discovery learning.  The assessment, however, will not be the same.

On Thursdays, students will be given a set of questions based on 4 outcomes.  3 of these outcomes will be chosen by the students, where the 4^th outcome will be one chosen by me.  This 4^th outcome will be one that has already been demonstrated by the student.  Each student will receive their own personalized assessment.

I am giving one mandatory demonstration a week; however I am allowing my students unlimited demonstrations of any concept. They can demonstrate their learning at lunch, before or after school, or during their prep.  Also keep in mind, when they want to demonstrate an outcome of their choosing, there will also be an outcome of my choosing.

The questions will not be marked in the traditional sense.  Using a holistic approach, on each question, I will assess the student on the outcome out of 4. 

Mark 4 - Student has shown full understanding of the concept with support of reasoning.

Mark 3 – firm grasp of the concept.  Demonstration of some of the concept, with your reasoning not shown to its full extent. 

Mark 2 – Some grasp of the concept.  Did not completely answer the question, and used some inconsistent notation or reasoning.

Mark 1 – Weak of very little understanding of the concept. Confusing reasoning, with very little support algebraically.

Mark 0 – Not at an acceptable level of understanding.

If I was to compare my marks with how our traditional percentages are, mark 1 would be a 50%. 

The mark that goes on student’s rubric will always be the LAST demonstration of the outcome a student completed.

For example, in the second week Sally chooses outcomes 5, 6 and 7.  After assessing, Sally receives a mark of 4 for outcomes 5 and 6, and a 2 for outcome 7.  Three weeks go by and Sally wants another chance for outcome 7.  She chooses outcomes 7, 12 and 13.  As my outcome, I also put outcome 5 on the assignment.  If Sally can’t demonstrate outcome 5 again at a level of full understanding, her rubric will be go from a 4 on outcome 5, to the level of understanding she is currently at.

I am trying to promote the idea of truly understanding a concept, not just memorize, spit it out and forget about it.

Also, at any time during the course a student can create their own project, question, assignment on any outcome.  They can bring the completed item to me, and after a discussion with the student, I will assess their understanding based on the discussion with the student according to the rubric above.  Students can be responsible for their own learning.

This is truly at a beginning level of planning as I have not executed any of this, so please post any comments or problems you may see arise.

Resilience first, zeros second.

I want to talk about one of the largest assessment malpractice that I have witnessed.  The idea I am addressing today is giving a 0 for an assignment/homework/etc. which is not completed.  When you give a student a grade of 0 for something he/she did not complete you are actually assessing behaviour and not learning.  I used the word “malpractice” because very few program of studies actually have student behaviour as an outcome.

When you allow a student to receive a 0 for work not done, a different lesson is taught than the intended one.  Students are being taught that is actually ok to pick and choose which assignments they are allowed to complete.  Is this the lesson we want our students to learn? 

Here is a solution.  If a student does not complete an assignment, inform the student “WHY” it is important he/she completes it.  Teachers must also realize, the reason of “You must know this for the exam”, actually devalues the importance of students learning “this”.  If that is the ONLY reason why a student is completing the assignment, maybe you need to rethink the assignment itself.

Assuming now there is an actual reason why a certain assignment is being completed, we want our students to learn resilience.  When a student fails to complete a certain assignment, teachers should be taking this time to teach resilience.  Giving them a 0 gets them off the hook, while sitting down with them, talking about the importance of the task and having them complete it allows for the true learning objective to be attained. 

Teachers need to make sure students complete all required tasks given to them.  I would even go as far as saying that teachers need to make sure these tasks are also completed at an acceptable standard.  Not only should the students who not complete the task be required to do it, but also the students who complete the task at a level where understanding is not demonstrated. 

Students are going to hate this, and most likely end up saying “Just give me a 0”.  If we teach students that if your best is not shown then you will complete it again, we are teaching students to always show their best.  Once resilience is taught your students, you will stop needing the number 0 as a grade.

Learning first, ranking second.

I have addressed how teachers and students can look past grades, marks and other extrinsic motivators, however there is another group that needs to get on board and they are parents.   Some of my friends, who teach the younger grades and are trying to abolish grades and homework, have informed me there is a pushback from parents. 

First, there is not one shred of evidence that supports the idea of homework in elementary grades.  Parents need to be aware of this fact.  After watching the movie “Race to Nowhere”, and reading many research papers, it has become very evident that elementary kids should not have homework stress outside of school.   Unfortunately, homework is not the only thing adding stress; grades create stress as well.

The truth is that for most students, the above picture is actually their life outside of school.  Your high achievers are becoming stressed to maintain their high grades, while your low achievers are stressed in keeping their head above water.

How do we cut down this stress?  Parents need to stop asking the following questions:

“What did you get on your test?”

“What is your mark in the class?”

“Do you have any homework?”

“When is your next report card?”

The questions should be replaced with:

“What did you learn today?”

“Is there anything you are not understanding in class?”

“Did you have fun today?”

"Is there anything else you would like to learn about what you learnt today?

 Society needs to start focusing more on the learning occurring and less on the ranking of students.  In reality, what do marks really do? RANK students!  Do parents send their children to school, to be ranked or to learn?  I hope the latter is the answer, and if so why are the questions about school focusing on the ranking and not learning?

Learning first, marks second

"what mark do I need on the final so I end up with an XX%?" This was a common question in my classes over the past week. As finals come closer and closer students become more and more concerned with their final marks. This saddens me greatly. 

Educators need to stop the perpetuation of marks being the gate keepers of a course. Students should not be concerned with their marks but actually their learning.  As we change the focus from marks to learning I hope the question will turn into "what learning should occur so I am successful in this course?". 

To illustrate my point greater inform your students that the failing mark in your class is 0. I guarantee, most students will cheer. Now if you informed your students they will learn nothing this year, most will be confused. 

Students crave knowledge but teachers give marks. There is a great disconnect. Next year, i am trying to test drive a new "no-mark" system in my high school math course. This should demonstrate that learning outcomes are the priority and not the mark or grade you receive in a course. 

Failure first, shame second.

We crawl before we walk, and usually our first attempt to walk is not when our first step occurs.  I recently watched a child try to take their first step.  She tried and fell.  The parents congratulated her and started to cheer.  This made me question my own values when it comes to failure in my class.

Many times I have heard “Failure is not an option”.  We need to, as a society, realize that failure is not a derogatory word.  The English thesaurus claims that synonyms to failure are, “Breakdown”, “Disappointment”, and “closure”, while “success” is the antonym. 

This disappointments me greatly.  If you are scared of failure then you will NEVER try anything new.  We need to embrace failure and realize that if you are unsuccessful at something true learning can occur.  To believe that everyone will succeed at every game, task, or job they try is ludicrous.

Most conventional teaching methods empower failure by deducting marks, lower grades, and teaching students that when success is not met you will be judged accordingly.  In my classes, I empower students by allowing them take chances, to fail, and then reason as to why their method was not correct. 

So why does society treat failure with such disgust?  I believe the root is “shame”.  In my career, I have seen students who are scared to take chances, due to the possibility of embarrassment.  If you administer exams in you class, watch the face of the student when you hand back an exam that is a failing grade.  Almost every time this student will lower his/her head and either crumple the exam up or hide it immediately.  Is learning from failure really occurring? I think not.  This perpetuation must stop!

Classes should be a safe environment where students are allowed to be vulnerable, where shame is left at the door and failure is a learning word not a derogatory one.   

Real teaching first, real learning second

I was asked what is real teaching?

Here is my response:

Real teaching is allowing students to discover and create their own ideas in a classroom. It is no longer being told, provided or informed of information, but actually having students takes risks and venture down new "educational" roads towards a product they can call their own. Teachers should no longer be heralds of facts, but actually facilitators of learning.