We're Finished!!!

This YEAR!

We're finished! This has been a fun class and I've truly enjoyed teaching all of you for another year. My hope for each and every one of you is that you are able to successfully navigate financial challenges in life better prepared than you were when you started this class this past January, and I believe that you will be able to do so. You can now balance a checkbook and a budget, you understand how credit works, you can make investments in the stock market, and you can even plan an international vacation! I'd encourage all of you to continue studying how to be responsible with your money as you go forward in life, and when you're rich and famous some day, just remember your alma mater and the lessons you learned here!

In all seriousness, I do hope to improve my class each year and would very much appreciate your feedback on the course. Please fill out this anonymous survey and let me know what you think is good about this class, and what needs to be improved upon. You can find the SurveyMonkey survey here.

On a more urgent note, please remember that emails to your interviewees must be sent by the end of the day tomorrow, and that you must copy or forward the emails to me so I can read them at arch.grieve@wright.edu. Also, your podcast revisions (and any remaining submissions) must be turned in by midnight Thursday, 3/21/15.

Next Week

I hope you have a great STEMmersion course or internship! If you want to keep up with the biking STEMmersion's trips (and maybe get a few ideas of places to ride around Dayton), you can follow us on http://stemonwheels.blogspot.com!

Have a great STEMmersion and an even better summer. See you all next year when you're seniors!

~Mr. Grieve

Week Nineteen - Wrapping Up Podcasts

This Week

We are finishing up podcasts this week. As you can see, students are at various stages of the podcasting process, but all podcasts are due at the beginning of class on Monday, May 18. Looking forward to hearing them next week!

Students are at various stages of the podcast project, but many of them will need to be working this weekend on editing or even getting their interviews finished.

Today was also Bike to Work Day, so after pancakes I got to ride to work with some fellow teachers and students. Fun times!

Rode to work with the Bollingers, Ms. Poppaw, and Ms. Schultz!

Upcoming Week

Next week we will begin class on Monday by listening to podcasts as a class while I grade them. That's the last big thing we have, so only one more grade for ProgressBook!

Have a great weekend!

~Mr. Grieve

Week Sixteen - Podcast Project

This Week (and Last Week)

I apologize I didn't get an update posted last week, but I was in Washington DC with my JCOWA students for the annual Academic WorldQuest Competition, put on by the World Affairs Council of America. We had a lot of fun, and you can check out our picture album on our Dayton JCOWA Facebook page.

This is our team with the European Union Ambassador David O'Sullivan! We got to visit the embassy.

Throughout this short week (no school for students Friday!) students have been working on their podcast projects. You canfind stories and links to our continuing podcast on our Facebook Page and listen to them on iTunes. The exciting thing this year is that we are continuing their work from their Government class from last semester as many groups are researching what the economic impact of Matthew's Bill will be on families, small and large businesses, and the greater economy in Ohio. I'm excited to have students working on this project and to be able to have Ms. Helton in the classroom to work on this with the students! Please check out their Facebook page and Website to learn more about the legislation that they wrote!

Today we were also very lucky to have with us Lewis Wallace of WYSO, NPR's only news station in the Miami Valley. I'm a big WYSO fan, so it was an exciting visit for me! He is an economics reporter for WYSO whose stories on the rollout of the Affordable Care Act won two 2013 Public Radio News Directors Incorporated awards for continuing coverage (first place) and best news feature (second place). We can't thank him enough for speaking to the kids today and sharing his "tricks of the trade" with the class!

Students today had an awesome opportunity as they listened to Lewis Wallace of WYSO (91.3) speak to them about how to turn their podcast ideas into stories. Thanks so much to Lewis for coming in and sharing his knowledge with our class!

Students also had to submit their long-term and short-term portfolio trackers (Parts I and II) today and their essays (Part III) to my Dropbox or turn-in tray today. This will wrap up our stock market simulation.

 

Upcoming Week

Next week students will continue working on their podcasts and scripting what they're going to say. Lewis also gave us some insight into research that I've not previously known to tell students about, which is the American Community Survey from the US Census Bureau.

As we are continuing our research, please consider filling out the form below if you're willing to talk to students about an Economics topic. Students are encouraged to talk to experts, but I'm also looking for people who have experience in a variety of ways, including people who have been (or are) unemployed, have gone through the process of purchasing a home, have experience working in a certain sector of the economy (like service industry or manufacturing), or some other experience that might be useful in their stories. The most important thing is that you're willing to talk with our students. I can't guarantee the students will choose to reach out to you, but it's always helpful knowing who they could talk to about something they're interested in. So please fill out this form if you're willing to be interviewed.

You can find the help form here. You just need to be willing to talk to students. We all have had some kind of experience with Economics.

Have a great weekend!

~Mr. Grieve

Week Fourteen - Macroeconomics

This Week

We covered a lot this week in our unit on Macroeconomics, looking at the Federal Reserve, GDP, Unemployment, Inflation (and the Consumer Price Index), and the supply of money. More importantly, however, today is the final day of our stock market simulation! As of noon, Mr. Grieve was behind many teams, although still beating a few. Markets close at 4:00PM. Those students who end the simulation with a higher return on investment than Mr. Grieve will receive donuts, which I will pay for, because THERE'S NO SUCH THING AS A FREE LUNCH!!!

Here's where we're at around noon today ~

Upcoming Week

Next week the portfolio assignment will be due on Friday. This is what students will be working on during their Plan E time on Monday (don't forget there's no school Monday, 4/20/15!). When we return, we'll finish up macroeconomics on Tuesday by looking at the Balance of Payments, then we'll have a review period on Wednesday and a test over the unit on Thursday.

After we end Macroeconomics, we'll have our final project, which is the Local Economics Podcast Project. For this project, if you're interested in helping our students out I would love for you to fill out our volunteer form here. You don't have to be an economic expert - that's the task of the student! We just want to know what you do so if they have an idea of a question they want to research (like the WPAFB, or US Military Employment, or manufacturing in Dayton, or anything really) they'll know people who work in that field who are willing to be interviewed. Honestly, the only thing that matters is if you're willing to be interviewed, as we have an actual podcast (which you can download and listen to here), so you have to be willing to let us post it online. Be sure to subscribe as well!

Please check out the project Facebook page too and 'like' us so that you'll see when your son or daughter's podcast is published.

Also, I'm excited to announce that I'll be gone (that's not why I'm excited) next Friday because my students placed 1st for the second year in a row in the annual Junior Council on World Affairs competition, so we'll be traveling to Washington DC next week!  Here's the team, wish them luck and 'like' our Facebook page if you want to follow our travels next week/weekend!

Have a great weekend!

~Mr. Grieve

Week Thirteen - Finishing up on budgeting

This Week

Students today submitted the essays about their budgets. Yesterday they turned in their actual budgets, which should be graded by the end of next week. I'm letting students revise up to 100% on the budget portion of this project for the full 20 points possible.

With just one week to go, this week's stock market simulation is starting to look like a race! Unfortunately it's a race I'm losing right now to many, as my portfolio value is only -.33%. One more week to go!

Group 7 is running away with it on the final stretch!

Upcoming Week

Next week students will begin our final unit on Macroeconomics as we seek to understand the larger economy and how it works and is measured. We will also wrap up our stock market simulation and see who the winner is. Don't forget too that next week is tax day!

Look out for an email soon on registering for parent/teacher conferences. I'm making myself available during the day and after school since we have 10th grade job shadowing on April 15th, so if that's more convenient for you then you can schedule a time to meet with me then.

Have a great weekend,

~Mr. Grieve

Week Twelve

This Week

We spent the week continuing to work on our budgets, with students looking up information about where they wanted to live and what they wanted to do. Special thanks to Mr. Federinko for coming in as well and talking about Naviance with the students so they could understand how to look up the information they would need about the colleges they wanted to attend in order to make their student loan payoff portion of their budgets more accurate.

Upcoming Week

Obviously next week is spring break! When we get back from that, however, students will continue working on their budgets for that week. We also are coming towards the end of the stock market simulation, and unfortunately I am falling behind. It's looking like I may have a lot of donuts to buy with the nosedive my portfolio took. The only good news for me is that many of the students portfolios did as well! I'm at -2.22% right now. See how the groups were before market open today below.

I'm at -2.22%... The competition ends on 4/17/15!

Have a great spring break!

~Mr. Grieve

Week Eleven

This Week

With all of the testing going on and the quarter wrapping up, I apologize that I haven't updated the blog recently. This past week though students presented their vacation projects, so I'd encourage you to check them out! I have some of them added to the website, although not all of them yet. You can check the ones I have posted so far on the Student Work page or ask your son or daughter to show you theirs. Students have until this upcoming Friday to revise anything I asked them to fix.

Check out the student work here!

Upcoming Week

Next week we will continue working on our budgeting project, which we also started this week. Special thanks to Ms. Helton for coming in and talking about the importance of budgeting with the students. She explained to them how she has one simple document outlining her budget based on past expenditures. I explained to students that, because they don't have prior spending history, they will need to research the prices for everything from where they want to live (renting or owning?) to how often they want to go out to the movies. Students will be working on this until early April. When they get done with the project they should have a good financial picture of how they want to live when they enter the work force, whether that be after pursuing an M.D. or entering the workforce right out of high school.

Here's to a great week next week, and Go Flyers!

~Mr. Grieve

Week Nine

This Week

This week students are continuing to plug away on working on their trips. Spotty Internet has made this difficult, but really we only lost one day because of Internet difficulties, so currently we are continuing with the plan and every day we lose students get an extra day to complete the work. The day that Internet went out, I used the time to begin our unit on Macroeconomics and began lecturing on taxes. Hopefully, however, we'll be able to finish with this project without further interruption.

Upcoming Week

Next week students will have all week to complete their projects, which are now due on St. Patrick's Day, March 17th. Students will then present to the rest of their class. If you're interested in taking their trips, ask them to show you their completed website when we're done!

Here's a snapshot as of 3:00pm on Thursday of where we're at in the stock market challenge. Group 4 has maintained its sizable lead, and (sadly) I have have dropped down to just 1% overall return. Hopefully I'll catch up so I don't have to buy too many donuts...

At just 1% overall return, I'm falling dangerously behind... that's 4 groups for which I must buy donuts right now!

Have a great weekend!

~Mr. Grieve

Week Eight

This Week

This week has been somewhat chaotic, with a Plan E, Internet going down, and starting a new project, then deciding to hold off on it, then (possibly) deciding to move forward with it again! Thank you weather and state testing!

Today, I decided to wait on completing our vacation project due to the lack of reliable Internet (due to PARCC testing). Then, as I was typing my update, I heard an announcement that the Internet was back on (tentatively). So, we will likely try to continue this next week.

So, here's what we did this week:
Monday: Plan E day, I put up a short quiz on an assignment we didn't have time to do last week on mobile banking, which students should have completed on Pilot

Tuesday: Introduced the dream vacation project and began working in groups

Wednesday: Worked on the project in groups

Thursday: Internet went out, we watched Rick Steves' Europe to get ideas about "places of interest" and how to plan your trip

Friday: I lectured on Taxes, thinking I would start teaching my macroeconomics unit

Students, do not forget you must look up the value of your long-term and short-term portfolios at home since we don't have Internet access at school! Today is Friday, which is the day you look at the value of your portfolios each week, don't forget!

Screen Shot of portfolios at 1:45

 

Upcoming Week

Next week we will see where we are at with the project and decide whether to try and move forward or not!

Have a great weekend,

~Mr. Grieve

Week Seven

This Week

Calling this a "week" is a bit generous! Students got an extra day to study for a test this week, then they took the test, then we had an E Day where they looked over the next project we'll be doing! Now, Friday, it's our first ever snow day! Hope everyone has a nice day off and gets some rest.

Rankings as of Thursday evening - I'm only at 1.64%... way to go Team 4! Currently they're placed 15th out of 448 teams!

Upcoming Week

Next week we'll begin our Dream Vacation project. I've asked teachers who are interested in having students plan a trip for them to give me a destination, so students will have a chance to play the role of travel agents.

Have a great snow day and a great weekend!

~Mr. Grieve

Week Six - Stock Market Simulation

This Week

This week students began investing in their portfolios. I've had them create two separate portfolios, a short-term and a long-term one. The short-term portfolio is an exciting one, as students are participating in a competition with students all across Ohio. There are over 400 teams, and as of market open this morning one of our teams is in 6th place! Let's hope they can keep it up, as I've promised that any group who ends the 10-week simulation with a greater return than me will be awarded with donuts at the end of the competition.

At market open today my overall return was 0.51%, so groups 4,5, and 3 are currently ahead! Find out more at http://ohiosmc.stocktrak.com/

Upcoming Week

Next week we be taking our second "Quest" on Tuesday when we get back. Students were given a study guide to complete this weekend, which gives them an additional 2 points extra credit on the quest. After this, we will begin working on our vacation project! This year I have some teachers who are interested in taking a trip out of country, so students may be able to act as travel agents for these teachers! If you have some ideas about a trip you'd like to go on, send me a destination and a budget and I'll see if I can arrange to have students personalize a trip for you!

Have a great weekend!

~Mr. Grieve

Week Five - Personal Finance Continued

This Week

This was a short week with Plan E today and no school tomorrow! 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. Finally, we began our study of stocks and investments as we started playing the investment game http://www.genirevolution.org/, where students can engage in personal finance scenarios and get to play games while learning along the way.

Upcoming 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 Four - Personal Finance continued

This Week

Monday of course was a Plan E day, and students were provided with a video that I had actually made on the exact same day a year ago for another Plan E day going over how compound interest works. Students were asked to turn in this assignment on Wednesday after we heard from Gabe Landes on Tuesday. Mr. Landes is a local insurance agent who speaks to my students each semester about auto, home, life, and disability insurance by explaining that the purpose of each of these wealth-protecting tools is to collect a small amount of money from a lot of individuals in order to pay for the unexpected claims of a few. Students asked lots of questions and he had an answer for all of them. Thanks for coming again, Gabe!

This was Gabe Landes' 8th time speaking to my Econ class - thanks Gabe!

On Wednesday we continued our look at personal finance. Because students have had so many great questions, we are taking things slowly as we work through the unit, so we are still talking about credit and what it is, how it works, and how to increase your credit score. As two teachers verified for the class on Thursday, this is the kind of stuff they didn't hear in high school that they wish they'd known before entering college!

Upcoming Week

Next week we will be continuing our look at personal finance before eventually moving onto our dream vacation project.

Have a great weekend!

~Mr. Grieve

Week Three - Personal Finance

This Week

Students are continuing their study of personal finance after having taken the first test over the basic concepts of Economics. Students did well, with an 85.33% class average (and no failures!) Nice work to everyone. I also explained how to do revisions for future tests and urged students to take advantage of the review sheet opportunities in the future, which only one student did this time. 

Our studies this week have included human capital, personal taxes, and checking. The homework assignment today focused on how to keep a checkbook and how to reconcile your checkbook register with your bank statement. Students may need help with this over the weekend, so it would be a great "bonding" opportunity for the two of you!

Today's homework (front side)

Upcoming Week

Next week we'll be continuing our discussion of microeconomics with more personal finance topics, looking at things like how credit, credit cards, and credit scores work. It should be fun!

Have a great weekend,

~Mr. Grieve

Week Two - Economics Basics

This Week

This week we wrapped up the "Basics of Economics" unit, finishing up by explaining how market equilibrium works and how "ceteris paribus" is rare in the real world - the economy changes rapidly and different parts of the economy affect one another. Students saw this today by graphing supply and demand for their own product and creating scenarios in which supply and demand would shift one way or another.

For those who are still having trouble, I would recommend checking out the website linked under the picture below.

Check out this website for a place where you can go to see an interactive supply and demand curve.

Upcoming Week

On Wednesday, we will have our first "Quest," which is what I call my quizzes/tests, as they're generally longer than quizzes but shorter than tests. This one will cover everything we've learned to date, and there is now a review sheet posted online for students to study. When I return students' work next Tuesday, they will be able to review that as well before we begin.

Aside from that, we will begin our study of microeconomics by beginning to study personal finance next week. Students will be learning how to balance their checkbooks, boost their credit score, and more during this unit.

Have a great weekend!

~Mr. Grieve

Week One - (Semester Two)

This Week

This was a unique first week for my Economics class! I admit to struggling with figuring out what to assign students given that they only had one day's worth of class time with me to introduce the course before having three days' worth of successive Plan E days, but I hope that the assignments provided helped them practice the skills they would need to be successful in the class (such as learning about how to make up assignments) and that they were able to get an understanding of some new concepts, like Opportunity Cost and the Production Possibilities Frontier.

Today, we went back over both of these topics in class before moving on to what I had initially had planned for Tuesday, which was talking about different types of economic systems, how economies answer the "three essential questions" differently, and how to create a demand schedule and a demand curve. Students had a fun homework assignment that they may need to interview you for in order to complete it (if they didn't do so while in class today).

Upcoming Week

Due to the Plan E confusion that always happens as a result of Plan E, I am not counting anything late until next Monday so that students have time to make up assignments that they may not have had given the high work load assigned by many teachers. I hope this helps.

In terms of content, next week we will continue with our unit on the "basics of economics," looking at how supply curves are formed and how shifts in supply and demand curves are different from movement along those curves. In short, we will learn the foundational concepts of the study of Economics.

Depending on how quickly we move through the material, we may have a test next Thursday. Otherwise, it will likely be the Tuesday after Martin Luther King Jr. Day, as I need to re-assess how my plans were impacted by the weather. Hopefully the bitter cold is over, *knock on wood*!

If you have any questions, as always, please feel free to email me at arch.grieve@wright.edu.

Have a great weekend!

~Mr. Grieve

Plan E Day Announced (Early!)

Students and Parents,

If you'd like to get a head start on tomorrow's assignment for Econ, it's already been posted. Check out my Pilot Page. You are not required to attend my Pilot Live session, but if you have questions I will do my best to make sure I can make it work this time! I've worked with Mr. Slone today to try and troubleshoot the problems I've been having with it and I think it will work now.

Either way, have a great Thursday!

~Mr. Grieve

1/7/15 - Pilot Problems

All,

I am having Pilot Live problems. As a result, there will be no Pilot Live session for class today. Please complete the assignments as listed on my Pilot News Feed today. Please email me if you have any questions at arch.grieve@wright.edu.

Have a great day,

~Mr. Grieve

Plan E!

Students and Parents,

Please check my Pilot Page for Plan E instructions. I did not have a Pilot Live session, but assignments have been posted since 5:30AM.

Thanks, and enjoy the "day off"!

~Mr. Grieve

Welcome to 2nd Semester!

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. For those of 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. 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.! The quiz bowl is coming up soon in February, so hopefully we can go back. I hope some of you will consider joining next year, as 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 graduate 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 I put up a new post. It's a two-step process, starting with the "Follow me via email" box at the top right of this page. If done correctly, you should receive an email asking to join and then a confirmation email letting you know that you've done so correctly.

I'm looking forward to an exciting year!

~Mr. Grieve