Week Nineteen - End of Our Class :(

This Semester:

It's been a really fun semester and I'm really sad that this is the last time I'll have this group of students before they graduate. Students have learned about the basics of micro and macroeconomics, traveled to the Wright State College of Business, created personalized budgets, planned their dream vacation, and interviewed local people about our economy. Most upsettingly, this is the first group ever where everyone beat me in the Stock Market Simulation! That one will hurt for a while.

Students met Dean Li of the College of Business!

We wore some cool outfits on Halloween...

And I got crushed on the OH Stock Market Challenge... congratulations to all!

Upcoming Semester: 

Obviously I won't have these students anymore, but I did want to encourage you to subscribe to our DRSS Local Economics Podcast Project on iTunes. I'll be releasing the podcasts on a regular basis over the next few weeks, so I would love to continue building the audience for this project with each successive group of students. Please check it out on iTunes, subscribe, and 'Like' us on Facebook at www.facebook.com/DRSSPodcastProject.

If you have any questions about grades or the class, please don't hesitate to reach out to me at arch.grieve@wright.edu.

Have a great break!

~Mr. Grieve

Week Eighteen - Almost Done!

This Week

Today, student podcasts are due! Students have been working hard on these for three weeks now and many interviews have taken place. Some students who have asked for an extension have been granted it, but only for circumstances outside their control. All other students should have their podcasts submitted by the end of class today.

Upcoming Week

Due to the fact that I've lost the stock market simulation (largely thanks to some bad investments in two energy sector ETFs early on in the simulation, one of which tanked over 30%), it looks like I will be buying donuts for the entire class next week, all of whom beat me! If nothing else, hopefully I've taught the students the "risk-reward relationship," which states that "with high risk comes the opportunity for high reward, (and a higher risk of loss)."

Barring a last-minute rally for energy sector stocks, my current -6.75% loss is unlikely to change enough to beat any of the teams, even those who ended up negative. Still, it's been a good experience! There are over 500 participants and currently the winner is up over 30%, so it's a tough competition!

Next week students stock market simulation essays and stock market tracker sheets will be due, so those will need to be turned in by Monday. I'm undecided as of yet whether we will have a final exam, but much of it will depend on how long it takes (and the quality level) of the podcasts that we will be listening to next week. If students demonstrate mastery of the economic concepts I'm looking for through their podcasts, there is a chance I may have an alternative (easier) assignment for the final day. Otherwise, look for the exam to take place on Thursday or Friday of next week.

Have a great weekend, and look for the podcasts to be posted starting next week!

~Mr. Grieve

Week Seventeen

This Week

My apologies for missing the last update for the two-day week we had, but time has flown by! This week students are working hard on their final project, which is the Local Podcast Project. Students have one more week to work on this project, and it is going to be a tough deadline to meet, so please encourage your son or daughter to do whatever they need to do over the weekend and for homework to get this assignment done by the due date next Friday!

Also, today students took a pop quiz... be sure to ask them about it. It was only one question, and it's probably the most valuable lesson they will learn during the class!

Upcoming Week

This upcoming week is also the last week for the Stock Market Simulation and it looks like I may be buying donuts for everyone after some of my investments took a nosedive! Below are the scores for the teams. Unfortunately my overall return on investment right now is -2.17%!

Everyone but Team 4 is beating me!

Sadly, the semester is rapidly drawing to a close. Be sure students are checking ProgressBook to see where their grades stand going into the final quarter. Also, there is a final (cumulative) exam, so students should start reviewing their notes now (as well as previous tests) to refresh their content knowledge.

Have a great weekend!

~Mr. Grieve

Week Fourteen

This Week

This week is our last in our study of macroeconomics. Students covered unemployment, types of money, and looked at different sectors of the economy.

Upcoming Week

Next week is an important one as students take their final unit quiz on macroeconomics. Mr. Grieve gave them a review sheet today to take home and study this weekend, and next Monday we will have an entire day for review of the material we've covered thus far by playing Jeopardy! Then, on Tuesday, students will take the test.

After the test students will begin our final project, which will take us nearly to the end of the year, although there will be a comprehensive final exam the last week of the quarter. Please check out the DRSS Local Economics Podcast Project Facebook page for more information on what they'll be doing for the final weeks. Again, if you can help us with our interviews, please fill out this form.

As an aside, we are one month out from the end of the stock market simulation and the breakdown as of 9:30 this morning was as follows:

Mr. Grieve is up 4.14% overall, the rest are displayed here:

Any teams who finish with an overall higher score than me at the end of the simulation get donuts!

Have a great weekend!

~Mr. Grieve

Week Thirteen - Macroeconomics

This week

We finally began our last big unit this week as students began studying Macroeconomics. So far, we have talked about GDP, inflation/consumer price index, and taxes. I have also graded and entered into ProgressBook students' scores for their budgets and their budget essays. For the most part students did a great job on this and learned some valuable personal finance skills. I'd encourage you to talk more with them about their future career aspirations and how they want to further their own education after graduating from DRSS.

Upcoming Week

Next week students will continue our study of macroeconomics as we explore macroeconomic indicators like unemployment and balance of payments. After our third test (which will take place sometime towards the end of this week or the next week), we will conclude the content side of the class and students will finish up the year by working intensively on the DRSS Local Economics Podcast Project. Please check out the Facebook page to learn more about this project and if you or someone you know may be interested in being interviewed for it, please fill out this form.

Check us out on Facebook and on iTunes as well!

Have a great weekend, and don't forget there is a PD day for teachers next Monday, so no school for students!

~Mr. Grieve

Week Twelve

This Week

Today was the day that budgets were due! Students had until 2:15 to upload their budgets and the essays that are supposed to accompany them. I hope to have them all graded by the end of next week.

The stocks simulation is still going on and Mr. Grieve is catching up! Students should remember to fill out their weekly updates on the gains (or losses) in their portfolios each Friday. As of now I would only have to buy donuts for teams DRSS1 and DRSS6!

Upcoming Week

Next week we begin studying Macroeconomics. Students will learn about GDP, Unemployment, Inflation, Taxes, and the Federal Reserve system next week.

One more thing... Happy Halloween!

Happy Halloween from the 11th Grade Econ class!

~Mr. Grieve

Week Ten

This Week

This week students continued working on their budgets. I explained to them the project, which will take approximately three weeks. Part of the project is the actual creation of the budget itself, but the other part is an essay explaining how well they have accomplished certain aspects of "good budgeting," which I have identified as accuracy, specificity, and thriftiness. I defined/explained these components to students as follows:

Accuracy - A good budget will accurately reflect current market prices for the goods/services you are researching, which means you will need to do your homework to figure out how much everything costs. For example, if you choose to purchase a 3000 sq. ft. home, your heating bill will be much more expensive than an 800 sq. ft. apartment.

Specificity - Good budgeting tries to get a realistic estimate down to the last penny, so if you simply say "movies - $14 per month" as opposed to "1 movie per month at $12.50 plus Netflix account subscription at $8.99" you will receive a 3/4 instead of a 4/4.

Thriftiness - Good budgeting helps you avoid spending too much (never pay more than you have to for something). This category is not the same as being "cheap," instead this looks at whether or not you have compared prices. You can buy a Mercedes from different dealerships, and one may cost more than the other. In this way, comparison-shopping helps you get the best deal possible, and you are still being "thrifty."

Students were also given a link to the Bureau of Labor Statistics so they could understand how much they could realistically expect to earn coming out of college. I advised that they look at the state data and take the low end of the salary range, as they will most likely earn at the low end (or below) when starting out.

Going into chemistry? This is the kind of information you can find on the Bureau of Labor Statistics Occupational and Employment Wage Statistics

Mr. Federinko also came today to discuss how to research which college students wish to attend so they can get an idea of how much they will owe in student debt (if any) after graduation. If you plan to help your son or daughter by paying for any of their education expenses or if they have a College Savings Plan, now is a great time to talk with them about this so that they can be as realistic as possible in how much money they will need to plan to set aside for student loan repayment.

Upcoming Week 

Next week is parent-teacher conferences. If you would like to meet and talk about your son or daughter or are concerned about your student's performance and would like to schedule a meeting, please use the pick-a-time website that the school is using for scheduling conferences. I'm always happy to meet with you if you'd like to discuss your son or daughter's performance or learn more about what goes on in the class, or would just like to walk through their grades in more depth. I also like having the students be a part of the conference as well, so please know that they are welcome to join us if you would like.

We will be continuing to budget for the next couple of weeks, and students continue to work on their stock market simulations.

Have a great weekend!

~Mr. Grieve

Week Nine - End of the Quarter!

This Week

This was an exciting week as students were invited to visit the Raj Soin College of Business trading room. They saw the trading room up close and heard from current students about what the college of business has to offer. They also sat in a lecture with two finance professors who explained to them things like the benefits of diversification, how to interpret financial data, and much more. Students even met the Dean of the college, Dr. Li, who thanked them personally for being there, which is quite an honor! Many thanks to Franchesca Alford and D.R. Fannin for arranging to have the college sponsor the students' trip and organizing the event. The pizza was delicious as well!

Students hear about career options from College of Business professors

Dean Li addresses the students

Students were given the star treatment as they were welcomed to the Raj Soin trade room

Also this week, students started participating in the actual stock market simulation, so they are now competing with over 350 teams across Ohio to earn the highest returns on investment. They have 9 more weeks, and with the stock market's wild fluctuations this week it should be anyone's game at this point. The students have been given an incentive whereby I will buy donuts for any students who beat me, so good luck to them!

This was a good quarter in terms of grades, with a high class average of 89.5%. Nice work everyone!

Upcoming Week

Next week students will begin to create personal budgets. For this project I have students design a budget with an actual place they want to live, what car they want to drive, and the lifestyle they want to have after they finish any additional schooling they will pursue in order to get the job they want to have as they start their careers. We had hoped to start this week but had to push this back a bit, so we will begin this on Tuesday. 

One opportunity I would like to make everyone aware of is a budgeting challenge from H&R Block. This will likely not be a part of regular class time, but I will be creating accounts for all of our students to login with to participate in this challenge. From the website:

"Over the course of the H&R Block Budget Challenge, launching in September 2014, H&R Block Dollars & Sense will give away $3 million in scholarships and classroom grants. The 20 top-scoring students in each simulation will be awarded a $20,000 scholarship to help pay for higher education costs – resulting in 120 scholarships total. The top five classrooms in each simulation can win up to $5,000 in grants. At the end of the 2014-2015 school year, the highest scoring student will receive a $100,000 scholarship in addition to the $20,000 they’ve already won." - H&R Block Budget Challenge

Many of the skills students are learning now in personal finance will be helpful as they compete. Most importantly, if you would like for your son or daughter not to participate, please let me know ASAP. There's a letter from H&R Block that you can download here and let me know if you want to opt out.

As always, if you have any questions please feel free to email me. Have a great long weekend!

~Mr. Grieve

Week Eight

Past Two Weeks

I can't believe there's only one week left in the quarter! Time flies.

I made it my goal to blog at least once every two weeks. I missed a week for the first time for week seven, but students have been busy working on their vacation projects for the past two weeks anyways, so there wasn't much to report until Wednesday when students began their presentations. It's been fun as they have presented their projects, taking us to various vacation destinations around the world. I wanted to share these with you so you could see how much effort many of them have put into the projects. Students are being given an opportunity to revise this project up to 95% (instead of the usual 90%), so hopefully they will take advantage of this opportunity, as it is weighted at 5 times the normal grade for this class due to the length of time they spent working on it. These are due next Monday, so please encourage your son or daughter to work on this over the weekend.

Here are their links - 

• Trip to Chile
• Trip to Jamaica
• Trip to Ireland, the UK, and France
• Trip to South Korea
• Trip to Italy
• Trip to the Czech Republic and Slovakia
• Trip to Japan

Again, here were the vacation project requirements. 

Also, don't forget to check grades for your son or daughter this weekend. There are only four more days left in the quarter, and only two quarters in the class, so we are nearly halfway through this subject! As a benchmark, the class average is 86% right now.

Upcoming Week

Next week students have been given a great opportunity to see the investment world up close by traveling to Wright State's Trading Room! This field trip is being paid for by the Wright State College of Business. Students will also be provided lunch (it's not free, of course, but it is being paid for by WSU!) This will kick off the actual start to our stock market simulation project, where students will be competing with students in other schools around the state to achieve the greatest returns on their investments. We will be out of the building from 10:30-1:45. We have two students who have yet to turn in field trip forms, so if they don't get those in before Tuesday morning they will have to stay back. Please email Karen Poston (karen.poston@wright.edu) for a form if you don't have one.

This is a picture from the field trip students took to the trading room last year. Should be fun!

Next week students will also continue the pursuit of practical knowledge in personal finance
by creating budgets for when they graduate from college or enter into their lifelong career of choice. Students will research statistics about how much they can expect to earn in the career they want to pursue, find out how much they can expect to pay at their college of choice, and begin figuring out the answers to questions like "What kind of house do I want?" or "Where do I want to live?" As we go through this project, I'd encourage you to talk with them about the not-so-riveting but vitally important topics of paying bills, mortgages, car loan payments, and other costs of living. Conversations like these will really help students learn how economics truly shapes our everyday lives.

As always, if you have any questions, please feel free to contact me at arch.grieve@wright.edu.

Have a great weekend!

~Mr. Grieve

Week Six

This Week

This week we finished up our personal finance unit material and began working on our first project after taking our second test over personal finance. Overall, students performed well and demonstrated a high level of comprehension of the material covered. Students also gained access to their stock market challenge portfolios and have begun practicing for the stock market simulation challenge, which officially starts in October.

We are now working on our vacation project, whereby students plan a trip to a non-USA contiguous country. A handful of students have asked if they can stay in vacation homes or time shares owned by their family members or friends. As this is a fictional trip, and those experiences are possible, I am telling them they may do so. I would encourage you to have them talk with those family members so they can get a fuller understanding of what travel outside the United States entails and how to become successful travelers, particularly in the area of trip planning and budgeting. This will help make this experience more authentic, and who knows, maybe your family can take the trip together some day after the students do all of this planning!

Read more about the project on the project website, which serves as a template for students to model their website after.

Of course we will be out for Plan E tomorrow. Students are continuing their work on their own individual portions of the assignments during this time period.

Upcoming Week

Students are working on the vacation project for the next two weeks. When they're finished, they will be presenting to the rest of the class in order to allow us to experience their vacations. Below are the due dates associated with the project:

Complete the "Before You Go" page and designate roles for ALL group members on this page. Fill out the Vacation Planner and submit for approval to Mr. Grieve (by Thursday, 9/18/14) 
 
Creation of website and send the URL to Mr. Grieve (by Thursday, 9/18/14)

Website should be finished and ready to present before class on (Wednesday, 10/1/14) 

Have a great weekend!

~Mr. Grieve

Week Five

This Week

This week we began our look at stocks. Students have now been exposed to stocks, bonds, and mutual funds, as well as an overview of what ETFs are and how they work. Students have been given the opportunity to learn about these securities through the GeniRevolution game or through more traditional worksheets. Students have also learned about how to place stock orders, both market orders and conditional ones. Finally, students were given access to the Ohio Stock Market Challenge website and may now to practice growing their portfolios. The competition doesn't start until October, so students are encouraged to try out different investment strategies and experiment now before the simulation begins. As we prepare for our tests next week, students will need to complete the Review Sheet they were given today and study for the second test and study this over the weekend.

Upcoming Week

Next week students will take the test on Monday, but after that we will begin our first major project - the vacation project. Students will be working on planning a vacation to the destination country of their choice (in groups), so students will be assigned roles within their groups and given a budget to plan their trip. The project will last for at least two weeks and students will create websites for their trips. This project is always a lot of fun, and hopefully students will be able to take these trips some day! To check out more about what this project entails, see the website I have created to serve as a template/directions.

Check out the travel site to see what the vacation project will look like!

Don't forget about the Plan E on Friday of next week.

Also, next week an informational meeting is scheduled for Monday for all 10th and 11th grade JCOWA students. Seniors would be invited, but they have a Jostens meeting they have to attend.

The meeting will take place at 12:15 in my room and we will be going over the recently released study guide. If you'd like to take a look at the study guide, you can find it here.

There are four JCOWA events this year:

• Oct. 29 - International Career Day at Sinclair CC
• Dec. 2 - Youth Forum at Wright State University
• February 9 - Academic Quiz Bowl at the University of Dayton
• April 2014 - Geography Bowl at the University of Dayton

Due to the large number of students who have joined (over 50!) we will have to be selective this year in terms of who goes to which of the first two events. We may or may not be able to attend the Geography Bowl. We will be going over who gets to attend which event on Monday at this informational meeting, so it's important that students attend.


Have a great week!

~Mr. Grieve

Week Four

This Week

This week we learned about what APR means, why it matters, and what places don't have to tell you APR - Rent-to-Own stores. Students learned about the dangers of doing Rent to Own and why it's almost always a better idea to save up for something instead or (if that's not feasible) to put something on a credit card, where you know the APR and it's (hopefully) much lower. We also learned about mobile apps and how to use them safely by creating complicated passwords. Finally, we began our study of stocks and investments as we started playing the investment game, http://www.genirevolution.org/, where students participate in personal finance scenarios and get to play games while learning along the way.

Next Week

Next week is all about investments, as well will continue learning about stocks, bonds, and mutual funds. Students will be introduced to the Ohio Stock Market Challenge simulation they will be participating in this year, where they will be "given" $100,000 to invest in real stocks, bonds, and mutual funds. This is a fun simulation where students get to compete with other students around the state, and the winners get a lunch that is not free, but is paid for by the Wright State University College of Business as well as a field trip to visit. Learn more about this competition at http://ohiosmc.stocktrak.com/.

Check out the simulation here

Have a great weekend!

~Mr. Grieve

Week Three

This Week

This week was a good one as we really delved into personal finance. Students learned how to balance their checkbooks, how to compute compound interest, and heard from a real-live insurance agent (Gabe Landes of State Farm of Beavercreek) on what types of insurance policies are available to them and how to make sure they are properly insured as car owners, homeowners, and renters. They also heard about life insurance and how it works. Finally, we learned about credit and how to use it responsibly so that they stay out of trouble and use debt responsibly when they do things like open credit card accounts or take out home or car loans.

We talked today about ways you can improve your credit score. If you or your student is interested in some additional reading, check out this Forbes article on the topic.

Students asked what a good credit score was in class. This graphic does a good job explaining it.

Next Week

Up next week we will continue learning about credit and may begin looking at how to invest our savings as we discuss stocks, bonds, and mutual funds, although this may wait depending on when the Ohio Stock Market Challenge takes place. This is a fun opportunity that we do each year where students can manage $100,000 (fake) dollars in a real portfolio, buying and selling real stocks, bonds, and mutual funds.

We will have a test either next week or the week after on personal finance depending on how quickly we move through the material. Tests are always announced and we always do a review beforehand.

Have a great long weekend!

~Mr. Grieve

Week Two - Also finished

Week in Review

Week two saw our first test on the basics concepts of Economics on Wednesday. Students did fairly well overall, with the average class score slightly above 85%. We also began our study of personal finance as we move now into the Microeconomics portion of this class. Students began by looking at human capital on Thursday and FICA taxes on Friday. What a fun way to end the week, I know! Here's a good video on human capital if you are unfamiliar with the term.

Upcoming Stuff 

Next week we will have our class's first guest speaker - Gabe Landes of State Farm Insurance. Gabe is a personal friend and insurance agent who has volunteered to speak to my class for the last three years and comes to talk to the students about the different types of insurance coverage they can get. We will also be diving into how to balance your checkbook and the different types of accounts you can open up at a bank, as well as other personal finance topics next week, so students should come away from the class with a good start in understanding how to manage all of the money they will be making in their high-paying STEM field jobs once they graduate from college!

I'm looking forward to next week, and as always please feel free to email me with any questions at arch.grieve@wright.edu.

~Mr. Grieve

Week one is done!

Update

The first week is finished and we are hitting the ground running in our Econ class. This past week and next students are learning about the basics of economics; Supply and Demand, the "Rational Man," incentives, and more. Students had an assignment due Friday (which is already in Gradebook) whereby they created Demand Schedules and Curves based on surveying the quantity demanded from their classmates (and perhaps even some of you) at five different price points in order to gain an understanding of how Demand differs from quantity demanded.

While we only talked about Demand and factors that influence it this past week, tomorrow we will look at Supply and Market Equilibrium. If students are having difficulty with these concepts, I'd recommend checking out Khan Academy's tutorial, which I think is really helpful.

Upcoming stuff

Next Wednesday (or Thursday at the latest) we will be having our first test on the basics of Economics.  Topics covered will include:

• Economics, basic definitions (Micro vs. Macro, types of economics, 'The 3 Questions')
• Demand
• Factors influencing Demand
• Supply
• Factors influencing Supply
• Market Equilibrium

Please take a minute and subscribe via email to the blog by typing your email in upper right-hand corner of the page, as this is the last post I will send out via email.

I hope you all are having a great weekend and look forward to our next (full) week at school on Monday!

Sincerely,

~Mr. Grieve
arch.grieve@wright.edu

Welcome/Who Is Mr. Grieve?

Welcome to Mr. Grieve's Economics blog! With our class sizes growing at DRSS, my goal for the 2014-2015 school year is to update this regularly with some of the cool stuff we're doing so that parents have an idea of what is happening in our Economics class. I also hope to use this blog to give some shout-outs to students who have done a great job on assignments or in their demonstration of comprehension throughout the year.

We have an exciting semester planned, and if you don't know anything about me, allow me to provide a brief bio:

• I've been teaching at DRSS since 2010 and am in my fifth year of teaching.
• I also teach Modern World History, so many of you already know me from last year.
• I teach the STEM On Wheels (biking) STEMmersion with Mrs. Curran. 
• I've been married now for 10 years to my wife, Amanda, and have a dog named Jetti.

  

  I'm on the left, next to wife Amanda. My dad is in plaid, who is also named Arch and is often a sub for me. My mom Tammie (also a teacher) and brother Patrick are also pictured along with their pugs.

• I'm an advisor for JCOWA, the Junior Council on World Affairs, which is a student organization that learns about world affairs and competes in two annual competitions. Last year we got to go to the national competition in Washington, D.C.! I hope some of you will consider joining, we have a lot of fun. Check out this student-produced video to see why others have joined!

  

  The 2014 Dayton JCOWA Team in DC for the national competition

• I'm a student at Wright State, where I'm pursuing two master's degrees, one in International and Comparative Politics and another in Public Administration.
• I'm a member of the Xenia School Board.
• You can learn more about me on my digital portfolio.

I encourage you to reach out to me with any questions or concerns you have throughout the year regarding your student's performance and/or the class in general. You can reach me at arch.grieve@wright.edu, and I am very responsive to email. I also hope you will subscribe to the blog so you can get the updates whenever we put out a new post. I'm looking forward to an exciting year!