Lesson Plan reflection

I guess it's been awhile since I've posted a blog. I actually thought that the lesson plans were very interesting. I had no idea that I had the ability to come up with a lesson plan from scratch. Maybe I'll be ok with this whole teaching thing! I did the lesson the way I did because I want the students to keep track of their own actual expenses over a short period of time. Studies show that the average high school student spends over a hundred dollars a week. I want the students to understand the effects of their own earning and spending right now.

The biggest problem I had with the lesson plan example was that there are no computers on campus that have the Quicken program, so my file would not show up. Other than that, I found that it was interesting to actually have to complete the task I ask my students to do. It only seems fair to do so. Being a teacher will definitely have it's trials, but it will be extremely rewarding, I can tell!

Lesson Plan Overview

Proposed Lesson Plan
* After a discussion about budgeting, savings accounts and checking accounts, the students will experience making a budget and tracking spending, earning and saving on Quicken. After creating a budget, using the amount of money "given" to them, the students will track their real spending and earning habits on Quicken. When the week is over they will evaluate how well they followed their budget and plot the amount in their account each day and create a graph using Excel.

* This plan is appropriate for Juniors and Seniors at the high school level who are taking a Family and Consumer Science Exploration class.

Utah Core Curriculum Standard
* Standard 20.0101-01Students will identify and discuss social and financial skills need to develop personal independence and interpersonal relationships.

Technologies
* Quicken
* Microsoft Excel
* Power Point

Example
* I will create a Power Point presentation to demonstrate to the students how to use Quicken and Excel and make an example of what their budgets and graphs should look like. I will also include several links, such as http://www.bankhs.com/ to help the students understand how to make their own budget plan.

Video Modeling Assignment

My group's review is found on Katy's blog on the sidebar of my blog. Please go there to find our response to the videos that we watched.