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