Financial Responsibility... Say What?

Back again and made it to the gym again, I feel like it might be too early to call it but this week is looking like an success.
 
First and foremost I must share the most wonderful dinner recipe. This evening I decided to venture from the menu plan and make something I saw on pinterest this morning. Yes I check pinterest at 6 am everyday. Don't judge me!

Momofuku Miso Butter Poached Eggs and Green Beans
 
First I take no credit in this photo, its straight from the pinterest link, mine sort of looked like a sloppy mess. But doesn't it look amazing! So I threw the recipe together in like 20 minutes tops and it was finger licking wonderful!  Holy moly, where has miso butter been all of my life. Its salty and yummy, and even better when poured over toast with a drizzle of honey. My willpower of just one piece is diminishing as I write this. Definitely a new recipe to throw in the mix. 
 
Here is the recipe if you are interested: Poached Egg and Green Beans with Miso Butter.
A couple of small notes, I didn't have Sherry Vinegar so I substituted rice wine vinegar/sherry wine combo. And if you dislike salty I would suggest a 2:1 ratio of the butter to miso, it was pretty salty. But I HEART salty flavors.
 
Back to the post at hand. A good chunk of my TEKS are directed at financial responsibility/literacy. When I first read the TEKS last year my response was pretty much, SAY WHAT?!? I am pretty sure I didn't know what a credit score was until I was in my early 20's and you want me to teach it to 11 year olds and keep them interested. Phew, you crazy.
 
And truly it was the hardest section for me to teach my students last year. 
 
I have three really good projects that incorporate the TEKS, which I will share in my next couple of posts. But it was the day to day teaching of the topics that was difficult.  But then after way too much time searching the google lesson planning
 
I stumbled across a few sites that are really amazing tools to assist in teaching financial literacy. 
 
So I thought I would share!
 
1.  http://themint.org/  this website can be geared at any grade level and can work in a few different subjects as it incorporates relevant tools for calculating, managing and understanding money and fiance.  Today we practiced writing checks and balancing checkbooks, there is also a neat exercise that will show students how much they would pay over time if they purchased something on a credit card. What I like about this website is it is written in kid friendly language with activities that are quick and are great for warm ups.
 
2.  http://www.practicalmoneyskills.com/  this website is AMAZING and also geared at all grade levels. It has financial football and soccer games which my students really get into. The games will ask questions about financial topics and they have to answer to get a new play in the game. There are a bunch of over fun games on the site, as well as lesson plans, worksheets and powerpoints. One thing I saw this year was the Spiderman comic which deals with financial responsibility. Can't wait to read this with my class.
 
3.  http://www.moneyskill.org/  this website is my last new find for the year. It is geared towards high school and middle school and its crazy easy to use. All you have to do is set up your students, which you can do by mass import, and they can log in and take a pre test, complete assigned modules for grades and final a post test to see what they learned. There is sound combined with written words, great for my ELPS and questions along the way to keep them engaged and applying what they are learning. I feel like it is really able to offer my students real world examples in a much more meaningful way than me just talking.
 
My students this year seem to be more engaged and better able to discuss the terms than my students last year. A sign my resources are paying off! Proof, students were able to tell me the difference between a debit and credit card today with very little prompting from me.
 
And that is it! I swear I don't mean to write so much! I have some fun projects to share that incorporate financial literacy, my "angel" class actually jumped up and down they were so excited about the project. But another post, another day.
 
The Babbling Box!

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