Homestretch

So you are back from spring break. Tan, rested and ready right? What do you have left, like 35 days? You can do it. Eyes on the prize. You have turned the corner and you are heading for home. Summer vacation is so close you can almost smell it.

Whether you are gearing up for the EOCT or the CRCT the state has plenty of helpful information that is worth a look. Look here and here for some handy study guides.

If you are reading this and you have any test prep ideas you would like to share please pass them along.

Weekend Reading (with microfiber technology)

Tired of talking about Bill Gates and Ray Kroc when giving examples of entrepreneurship? Now you can point to Kevin Plank. Chances are good that someone in your classroom is sporting some of his gear right now.

Masters 101

Last week I was in Augusta doing some Council work and I could sense the building excitement that surrounds the Masters golf tournament. To many of us the Masters is a tournament that we follow for three or four days each April. We talk about the sandwiches, the jacket, and even a little golf, then we move on. For the residents of Augusta it is way more than that. Our Econblog Augusta correspondent Amy Hennessy files this report on what the Masters means to her.

The azaleas are in full bloom at Amen Corner, the Masters’ traffic signage is in place, and the houses are clean and ready for their temporary inhabitants! Masters week is upon us! Having prepared my home for my mother-in-law and her disabled siblings who stay with us while she rents her home to the executives of CBS Sports, I know she is feeling more fortunate than most. The recession and the perception of corporate excess has extended a menacing tentacle toward Augusta.

The Masters Tournament brings thousands of fans and millions of dollars into the Augusta economy each year. I am a product of such largess. Every year my mom farmed us out to friends while she rented our bedrooms to sports writers from around the country to earn some extra spending money. I worked as a gallery guard for five years because my best friend’s father was the manager of this group of mostly older men who wanted a chance to play the course for their week’s work. My oldest daughter served the likes of Tiger Woods and Jack Nicklaus as a waitress for a local caterer who did all the PGA social events. Yet as I have made my way down Washington Road recently I have known things were looking bleak. Where are the normal badge seekers? And what has happened to the hottest ticket in sports? Never fear though, we are resilient and things will look up again. After all we made it through the Martha Burk year!

Thank you Amy and best of luck to all of our friends in Augusta!

From the Classroom volume 16

As I get ready to begin my personal finance unit, I find this activity, "Job Jungle", to be helpful in teaching my 18 year old students (who tend to have a pretty high regard of themselves) that workers are only worth what someone will pay them. The point of this simulation is to demonstrate that a firm will hire them only if they contribute marginal product and that their pay increases only if they become more productive.

Can you think of a more important lesson to teach young people who are about to enter the workforce in times like these?

Growth

I can think of one business that is booming. Facebook is signing up nearly a million new members a day. Now if they could only find a way to employ those 663,000 people who lost their jobs last month.

The Picture Project

A picture can be worth a thousand words. Maybe that is why I like photography so much. This morning I came across this article in the NYTimes that combines economics along with photography.

If I was still teaching I would ask my students to go out into their communities to take pictures of subjects that document the current economic times they are witnessing. I would then compile the photos into some sort of art exhibit that could be displayed somewhere in the school.

Have your students write an explanation of each photo and how it relates to economics and you have yourself a nice little project that many of your students will really enjoy doing.

Are You Smarter Than A Fed Chairman?

It sure is easy being critical of Bernanke and Greenspan. Anyone could do a better job than those two guys right? Here is your big chance. You may find that this simulation is rather addictive so do not start unless you have a few minutes to kill. This would look cool projected on the big screen in your classroom. Put it up and let your students decide what to do with the Federal Funds rate.

*Props to Chris Cannon for alerting me to this.

From the Classroom volume 14

It’s getting close to the end. Not much time left before the EOCT, even less time before Spring Break. Is there a more perfect time for a student centered cooperative lesson?

I open my discussion of exchange rates with a small auction using two currencies (an example can be found in the Capstone book, Lesson 42) to get the students familiar with the concept of floating exchange rates. Then, I reinforce this with a lesson based on “Foreign Exchange Rates” in International Economics.

Although I have updated much of the material and strengthened the section on why currencies appreciate/ depreciate, what appeals to me (the guy lucky enough to be paid to teach international trade to seniors counting down the hours ‘til graduation) is the idea of declaring some of them “experts” and making them responsible for disseminating that info.