Take Charge Today Teacher Highlight
Joey Running, West Albany High School
Albany, Oregon
Posted on Nov. 1, 2018 by Take Charge Today
Oregon TCT Teacher Helps Students See Real World from Inside Her Classroom
For Joey Running, a 26 year education veteran of the classroom, giving her students a glimpse of the real world is central to her teaching practice. Running, who teaches at West Albany High School in Albany, Oregon, employs a lot of different strategies to reach her students and one of her go to favorite lesson resources is Take Charge Today (TCT). “I feel it is important to prepare students for success in many topics, but personal finance is a topic that affects all aspects of their lives...having some pre-knowledge and application will only provide students with a strong foundation in which to build. They leave my class with a lot of tools in their toolbox!”
Students at West Albany High take courses in a 90 minute, semester block schedule; her course where she uses TCT’s curriculum is called Personal Finance. She first learned about Take Charge at a Jump$tart Conference. In addition to using a variety of TCT lessons, Running also relies on Take Charge Today’s Active Learning Tools (ALT’s) which provide additional activities and ideas for engaging students in her classroom. Running uses TCT’s movie ALT’s and also utilizes TCT’s Lesson Plan Demonstrations located in the Video Library section on TCT’s website.
“Life In” Simulation
One of Joey Running’s favorite Take Charge Today lesson is actually the simulation called “Life In ...United States”. “Life In” is a family finance simulation experience for high school students. The simulation is designed to emulate the budgeting constraints typical households encounter when managing their finances. During the budgeting process, students first receive a paycheck for their new career area representing the average pay with taxes deducted. Students are provided with a spending plan worksheet to guide them through the decision making process for choosing housing, utilities, transportation, insurance, food, and other expenses such as personal care and entertainment for their new identity.
Backward Design
When Ms. Running uses TCT’s Life In simulation, she is using the “Backward Design” method of teaching which involves three stages: 1) Identify the results desired; 2) Determine what the students should know; and 3) Decide what should they be able to do? “My absolute favorite Take Charge Today lesson (because it is my students' favorite as well) is Life In...United States. This simulation allows students to ‘experience’ how life happens, and how it affects the financial aspect of their lives. I choose to use this as a culminating, hands-on activity at the end of the semester. Students use the skills they have developed throughout the course and apply them to a spending plan for their ‘family.’” The “Life In” simulation provides lots of presentation tools and information for the teacher. The complete “Life In…” set has twenty‐five individuals in eighteen households with data from the U.S. Census and other government websites used to create the family household profiles. Power Points are helpful at the beginning and the end of the simulation to help students anticipate learning and then review concepts at the end.
“The real life obstacles experienced in the simulation are a great reminder to expect the unexpected. I truly believe students respond to stories and situations, some of which they have encountered in their lives and are able to identify on a level that might not otherwise happen through lecture or worksheet activity. This simulation is very engaging and encompassing with highly- and thoroughly-developed lesson plans, presentations, assessments, and review for the teacher and student.” Joey Running, Oregon HS Teacher
Running incorporates a variety of teaching strategies and tools in her personal finance course: Digital Escape Room from BreakoutEdu activities to promote problem solving and Plickers for student assessment to name a few, but she also believes students need to be strong in a skill prior to advancing to an electronic form...budgets on paper before spreadsheets, etc.
Making a FinLit Difference
Joey Running also works hard to make sure the content she teaches in her classroom doesn’t just live there! She enjoys hearing stories of students learning skills and taking them home to help reconcile checkbooks for grandparents or paying credit cards on time for a family that did not have a payment system in place...each and every one of them a success.
“What I am trying to do is to reach more students than just my own. It is important for all students in Oregon to have this information so I am working behind the scenes to help with that delivery.” Last year, Running won an award as a Local Impact Educator recognition from Financial Beginnings Oregon: They recognize a local impact educator who goes above and beyond for their local community. Joey goes even further! She is also extremely involved in helping to expand financial education across the state. She is passionate and dedicated to bringing personal finance and CTE topics to her students, and makes sure her students are well-prepared to graduate and enter the real world. She has since joined the board of this organization to help make a difference.
If you ask Joey Running if this course is important to help grow her students’ tool kit before they leave high school, she’ll be the first to tell you YES!
