Financial Literacy in my classroom

As a special education teacher and parent of a special education student myself, financial literacy is a subject that I really would like to see taught more explicitly in schools. By taking this course, I hope to incorporate it more fully into my classroom in the special ed/resource setting and pass along what I've learned to others as well. I occasionally have parents of special education students express a concern that their child will not be "ready" for the "real world" (meaning handling their own financial affairs). Often times we work more on math skills, or I pass along what I know about the financial world to kids from my experiences as an adult and former employee in a finance-related business. I would like to take that further, and that's why I took this course.

The way I picture this coming together, and this may change because of things I pick up during this course, is a systematic, topic-by-topic format I can facilitate with my students all year long. I plan to have a lesson perhaps every week or couple of weeks while students are in for their designated support time with me covering all of the topics from this course, along with any tangents we can explore that arise from the given topics.  I think the bulk of the instruction will come in the form of small group or individual discussion, supplemented with relevant activities/videos when necessary.  The important thing that kids understand from this instruction is that we care about them and don't want to see them being taken advantage of financially. Money (or lack of it) can be a big stressor in people's lives, so we want to see them be able to take care of themselves to be happy and healthy. It is also important that they understand that we don't think they are helpless; rather that they, like any other citizen, can be preyed upon by unscrupulous lending practices or financial "tricks" if they aren't aware of how things work and how to advocate for themselves.

I'm looking forward to getting this going in my classroom in a more organized, systematic way!