*start with title board
Kate- Hi I’m Kate de Steuben
Maria- I’m Maria Liberi
Gabbie- And I’m Gabbie Scudder
Maria- Why did the man put his money in dry ice?
Gabbie- Because he wanted cold hard cash…fast!
(kate flips over board)
Maria- When we saw these statistics, we were very surprised! These statistics
inspired us to give accurate information to the students to prepare them for all
the money expenses they’re going to be obligated to pay for later such as college,
and utilities.
Kate- We are from Loudoun County, Northern Virginia. We are all freshmen at
Stone Bridge High School. Stone Bridge is located in Ashburn, Virginia on the
eastern side of Loudoun County.
Gabbie- Loudoun County has a population of 312,311 citizens and Ashburn takes
up 43,511 of the population. Ashburn’s average household income is just above
$100,000 and most residents are primarily middle or upper class.
Maria- Loudoun County is the fourth largest, and the fastest growing county in
America. We are in competition for the most affluent county in the United States
with neighboring county, Fairfax.
Kate- Loudoun County is also home to many large employers such as; AOL,
Verizon, United Airlines, Toll Brothers, Telos, Raytheon, and used to be home of
the Washington Redskins.
Gabbie- Kate, Maria and I are all new members of the large and influential, Stone
Bridge DECA community.
Maria- The Stone Bridge DECA chapter is very active within our county, region,
and state. With over 300 active members, we are the largest club at Stone Bridge.
Kate- We have 12 chapter officers and 1 state officer who represent Virginia
DECA.
Gabbie- At first, the thought of teaching financial literacy seemed like a daunting
task, but we knew it would be a learning experience.
Kate- We started our project in late September when the marketing teachers
asked us specifically to educate middle school students on financial literacy.
Maria- We spent countless hours on our project whether we had to stay late after
school, come in early or meet at each other’s houses on weekends and after
school to finish our script/presentation.
Gabbie- For our project, we chose to teach the eighth graders at Belmont Ridge
Middle School, where we graduated from last year.
Maria- There were certain things that we wanted to make sure were included in
our presentation to the students. We chose to include the most important
aspects of financial literacy.
(Gabbie flips board over)
Kate- You can’t buy everything you want; skipping one purchase allows you to
save for another, Learn about financial literacy at school and home.
Gabbie-The many different ways to pay for college and How to Avoid Debt.
Maria- In October, we started to get our project up and running. We focused on
what middle school students should know about financial literacy.
Kate- Our teachers provided us with a helpful fifty two page packet called “A Road
Map to Financial Literacy 2014.”
Gabbie- It was a helpful resource because it was specifically written for people
participating in the Financial Literacy event. It included lesson plans, information,
and ideas for our presentation. Plus we loved reading all 52 pages….
Kate- We utilized the DECA Financial Packet 2014 because it had curriculum based
on what eighth graders should know regarding financial literacy.
Gabbie- October was dedicated to research and for the further understanding of
financial literacy. November was focused on planning and practicing.
Maria- We had seven activities in total. Two truths and a Lie, Ice Breaker, Wants
and Needs, Ally’s Expenses, Financial Literacy Football, Pop Quiz and a Survey.
(Kate Flip Board)
Maria- Our first activity of the presentation was two truths and a lie. This activity
was not related to financial literacy, but we needed a way to make the
presentation fun and interactive.
Gabbie- As previous eighth graders, we know from experience that we needed
the students to get to know us before we taught them information.
Maria- Which is why we brought in candy as an incentive for the students to
answer, ask questions and participate.
Kate- We tried to trick them with unusual things about ourselves for example that
“I had lived in Australia,” and “I am class president,” and that “I read the entire
Harry Potter series in less than a month.”
Gabbie- Our second exercise was our Ice Breaker. We had all the kids go on the
stage. We started out by telling them we gave them each two hundred dollars!
Kate-Then we picked on a few volunteering kids and asked them what they would
personally buy with the money they just received.
Maria- We heard answers from buying a car to buying a cow to even buying a
light house. And of course with the immature students, buying people. After, we
asked the students to come up on stage and gather themselves in the middle.
Gabbie- We asked the students questions and had them go to the designated side
of the stage based on their answers.
Kate- some of the questions included, save more/ spend more, New TV in your
room/go out to eat, would you rather put the money on a debit/credit card.
Gabbie- We also asked them where they got their money from and why. For
example, if they got money from their parents for getting good grades, or possibly
from their grandparents for holidays.
Maria- we learned that girls would rather spend more and go to the movies while
the boys would rather spend more but go out to eat.
Kate- Our group tried to mold the questions to go along with a poster we brought
and to see which item or habit was more popular with the two genders.
Gabbie- The purpose of the ice breaker was to get the students to start thinking,
get up and moving and to learn more about middle schoolers and money
ourselves.
Kate- The next activity we did was something our business and marketing teacher
did with us at the beginning of the year to introduce an important topic: wants
and needs.
Maria- They had to write down the last ten things their parents bought them or
they bought themselves.
Gabbie- Afterwards, we asked a few students to give examples of what they
wrote on their list, and tell us if they thought if it was a want or a need.
Kate- Most of the answers we got were wants. These “wants” surprised us
because we were expecting to hear about clothes, the movies etc.
Maria- Many of the students were confused if clothes were classified as a want or
a need after the activity.
Gabbie-We then proceeded to explain that you defiantly need to have clothes but
buying the latest, trendiest clothes is a want and not a need.
Kate- We gave them the example; “Is electricity a want or a need?” We explained
to them that “electricity” can be classified as either a want or a need because you
don’t necessarily need electricity to survive but you do need it to some extent if
you’ve been living with it for your entire life.
Maria- The purpose of this activity was to teach the students that wants are less
important than needs and should be approached as such. That they should buy
needs first than wants.
Maria- Our next activity was “Ally’s Expenses”. This was a verbal activity that
required everyone in the audience to fill in the blanks as we read “Ally’s” story
aloud.
Gabbie- Learning about financial literacy we figured a little math should be
sprinkled in as well. We exposed them to all of Ally’s expenses that she was
obligated to pay: a house, car, insurance, taxes, groceries, utilities, and gas.
Kate- We defined the term “disposable income”. We quizzed them and asked if
Ally made $100,000 per year and presuming that taxes cost her $30,000, what
would be her annual disposable income?
Maria-We also asked them what Ally’s monthly income would be, along with her
monthly disposable income. We had them predict how much money Ally would
have left over after paying for her insurance, electricity, phone, television,
internet or natural gas bills.
Gabbie-Then the students guessed what other needs and wants Ally would have
to pay for including a pet, groceries, clothes, and etcetera.
Kate- With this activity we were not planning to scare the students into thinking
they need to save all the money they earn, but to know what you have to pay for
first, then buy the things you would like to have otherwise known as paying
yourself first.
Gabbie- The purpose of this activity was to show the students all the things they
need to buy when they’re older and to again teach them about “paying yourself
first” or buying your essentials first.
Maria-The final activity we incorporated was called “Financial Literacy Football”.
We had all the students join us on stage again. We had several questions that the
students had to answer based on their opinion.
Gabbie- some of the questions included, if you were a millionaire what would you
buy and what’s one thing you could cut out of your daily budget.
Maria- The purpose of this activity was to get the students out of their seats and
to see if they learned anything and incorporated what they learned into their
answers.
Kate- Then we just handed out a survey with questions asking if they learned
something new, whether they liked the presentation and if they have any
suggestions.
Gabbie-Some questions asked what they learned or even if they though the
presentation was informative. We mostly received “yes” answers.
Maria- We had many good responses from our surveys and constructive criticism
from the students.
Maria- At the end of the survey, we asked “Do you have any suggestions to make
the presentation better?” We mostly received positive responses, but there were
suggestions for us to work on maintaining eye contact, standing tall and
remaining confident.
Kate-We taught four blocks, each block an hour and thirty minutes. We made sure
to utilize the feedback from the surveys to improve our presentations for the
upcoming blocks.
Gabbie- There is little to no doubt that our DECA Project was indeed successful.
We not only promoted DECA to future Stone Bridge High School students, but
also exceled in teaching students the responsible way to save, manage, and
budget finances.
Maria- Although our project was ultimately a success and was filled with countless
positives, there were also simple things that we could have improved upon.
Kate- We learned these helpful hints from the surveys and our own thoughts.
(Gabbie flips over board)
Maria- We definitely had positive aspects to planning, writing and presenting. We
had a very good work ethic throughout the entire project.
(all explain poster)
Kate- Teaching financial literacy to eighth grades was a success although; there
are some things that we could have improved.
(Gabbie flip over board)
Maria- The accessories we are bringing to this competition to better our
presentation include our poster boards and a poster summarizing the surveys the
eighth graders gave back to us.
Gabbie- We have a total of six double-sided posters that we had professionally
made.
Kate- we had a great time planning our project and teaching the 8th graders!
Gabbie- We feel as though we learned just as much about confidence and
teamwork as the eight graders learned about financial literacy.
Maria- Our hard work made the presentation worthwhile for the students. They
most definitely learned new things about saving, spending and budgeting money,
which was our main objective in the beginning.
Gabbie- There is a secret psychology of money. Most people don't know about it. That's
why most people never become financially successful. A lack of money is not the problem;
it is merely a symptom of what's going on inside of you.
~ T. Harv Eker Quotes
Kate- Do you have any questions?