Financial Literacy in Content Area (Chad Thomason)

Financial literacy is a topic that is near and dear to my heart.  I teach high school mathematics (mostly geometry) and the question I get the most from my students is, "When am I ever going to use this?"  Since I have been teaching for a while, I can answer the question pretty well for my other classes.  But very rarely do I get this question when I am teaching our financial literacy course (we call it Consumer Math).  I really like teaching it, mostly because I feel I am better preparing our students for their real life.  I teach at a rural high school, which consists of a lot of future farmers.  So when they can take this class as JR's and SR's, they can see how it can relate to their real lives.  I feel like a lot of people take this kind of mathematics for granted, but I always want to know where and why my money is going to different places.  

I like to teach it with PowerPoints and activities.  At the end of each couple of chapters we work on a project.  I let them pick their future job, but they pick their other aspects of their future life out of a hat.  Out of the hat are spouse/children, where they live, etc.  The kids really like doing this and it's always good to see how it relates to their real lives.  

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