Transitioning into BUYING A CAR!

Woooooohooooooo!!!  Cruising down the freeway, top down, wind blowing through your hair!  You and your friends are off to Santa Cruz for a day on the beach!  Well ... if you have a car anyways!  Buying a car is a big decision at your age.  There are definitely things that it will make easier in your life but other things it might make more challenging.  For your blog post today, discuss all of the benefits of having a car and all of the problems that having a car can create for you.  In addition, discuss your knowledge of the pros and cons of owning a new car vs. a used car!

Thanks a bunch for your thoughtful, thorough response!  We will get started shortly!!

Earth Day!

Good Morning and Happy April 22nd, 2014!  Today is Earth Day!  While I promise not to harp on it being Earth day, today seemed like a great opportunity to consider both the Environmental and Economic benefits of shopping at local stores.  Below is an image and a series of questions.  Please look at the image and then respond as best as you can (3-4 sentences each) to each question posed.

Question 1: What does it mean to you to shop locally?

Question 2:  Looking at the image above, what are some of the primary reasons it benefits your local communities economy to shop at locally owned and run businesses?  Give specific examples from the chart that highlight how much of your money stays nearby, where your money goes, etc.

Question 3:  Although it is not specified in the image (and, of course, because today is earth day) what do you see as the environmental benefits of shopping at locally owned and operated businesses? You can take a second to do a quick online Google search for an answer ... you'll find plenty of sites with ideas! 

Remember, your response to each question should be 3-4 sentences ... yes, a little bit longer of a blog post but a good opportunity to do some critical thinking about economics and the environment on earth day!

Thank you!

The Final Chapter!

Good Morning and Happy Monday!  Welcome back from Spring Break 2014 and the beginning of the final stretch of the school year!  We literally have 6 weeks or 23 days of class left until you begin your senior activities and step on the stage for graduation!  I am very excited and proud of all of you and your accomplishments to date but it is important to finish out the school year strong, motivated and ready to take your next step forward.

As we ease into today, how was your spring break?  Did you work a lot?  Play a lot?  A little of both? How did you spend your spring break?  What was your favorite activity over the break?  In addition, what are you looking forward to as we approach the end of the school year?  Are you simply excited for graduation or are there other things you are looking forward to during these last few weeks?  Finally, what is one thing you need to do/accomplish this week that has been troubling you/making you anxious that if you take care of, you will feel better!

Thanks for a great response!  We'll get into our groups shortly and continue with creating our personal budgets!

Your Life Situation Card and A Budget

Good Morning! Happy Friday!!  Happy Spring Break (almost)!!  I hope you have a fun, relaxing week ahead of you!!  Don't forget to come back to school recharged and ready to finish the school year on the strongest note possible.

The past 2 days of class we have been working with a life situation card and developing a budget for that individual/family.  This has included you determining your Net Monthly Income, setting budget guidelines, and looking for housing!  A few questions:

1. What did you notice about your Gross Annual Income and the Net Monthly Income.  Were you surprised and/or disappointed at the amount of taxes taken from your paycheck each month?  What was your Net Monthly Income and do you think it would be realistic to live on that type of budget with your current lifestyle?  Explain!
2. What was your impression of the Budget Guidelines worksheet.  Which of the categories listed seem most important to you to budget for and which categories seem least important?  Do you think the breakdown of how much you can spend in each category works well for your envisioned lifestyle?
3. Lastly, in looking for housing, what did you find your adjusted monthly mortgage payment to be if you bought a home vs. the amount it would cost you each month to rent?  Does this make you reconsider the possibility of purchasing a home vs. renting one?  What are the pros and cons of renting?  What are the pros and cons of owning a home?  In filling out the home buying sheet, what would appear to be the biggest barrier in your purchasing of a home?

Thanks and we will get started shortly!

Reasons You Need a Budget

Good Morning and Happy Wednesday!  One last block day before we head out on Spring Break!  Spring Break should be great!  For some of you it will be an opportunity to catch up on your sleep, for others of you it will be an opportunity to earn a little extra money by working some extra hours, others of you might catch up on your school work and my guess is that a few of you will plan to have fun, shop, go to the movies, etc.  As you are now moving towards the end of your high school career it is a good time to start establishing some good spending habits so you can ensure you can get what you want.  With that in mind, please read the following article:

http://money.usnews.com/money/blogs/my-money/2012/01/18/5-reasons-you-need-a-budget

After reading the article summarize why it is of critical importance for you to begin budgeting your money now.  Be sure to include examples from the article itself.  In addition, please discuss the likelihood of you beginning to budget your money now.  Have you already?  Do you know anyone who is either very good at budgeting their money or someone who could use some help in that department?  Which of the 5 reasons listed is most convincing to you in terms of the need to begin establishing a budget?

Thanks for your thoughtful, thorough 6-8 sentence response.  We will begin with our lesson shortly which, yes, continues with the idea of budgeting :)

Wrapping Up Yesterday's Discussion

Yesterday we had an in-depth discussion on the importance of furthering your education and the benefits it can bring over the course of your lifetime.  Finally, as we close out today's class period, please write a call to action using both articles that we read today.  Within this call to action you will need to:

• Analyze the importance of an education
• Discuss what you believe the state's role in that process should be
• Use very specific statistics to further your argument
• Ensure your paragraph would be motivating to yourself, your neighbor or anyone else moving forward in their academic career
• Within this paragraph I would also encourage you to use first hand examples including:
• your personal experiences and/or those of people you know and how their education (or lack thereof) has affected their daily lives.
• Your thoughts on how a free education may change one's outlook on furthering their education as we move forward.  
• This final paragraph should be thorough, thoughtful and should also include some statistics from the articles you read that strengthen your argument.

The Importance of Professionalism, Responsibility and the College Education!

Good Morning and Happy Monday -

We are just 5 short days away from Spring Break which I am sure everyone is excited about.  Today, however, we are going to take a moment to read two articles and reflect both individually and as a class on your thoughts regarding the two.

The first article we are going to read discusses the rising cost of not going to College.

Article can be found here: http://www.pewsocialtrends.org/2014/02/11/the-rising-cost-of-not-going-to-college/

This article discusses the importance of furthering your education and gives detailed statistics and facts that will surely either curve or reinforce your opinion about a college education.  As you read the article, please take notes on a piece of paper and then share the five most interesting facts you learned or that stood out to you as you read this article on your blog.  Be sure to include an introduction of what the article was about before discussing your five chosen pointers.

The second article we are going to read is on Tennessee's plan to approve free community college for all high school graduates.

Article can be found here: http://goo.gl/WUsQac

This article, as the title implies, discusses the motivation behind Tennessee's plan to offer a free community college education to its residents.  In addition, it explains how a state like Tennessee would fund such a plan.  As you read the article, please highlight the following:

• What does the article discuss
• What are the benefits of a plan such as this one
• What negatives can you envision about putting a plan like this into place

Finally, as we close out today's class period, please write a call to action using both articles that we read today.  Within this call to action you will need to analyze the importance of an education and the state's role in that process.  As part of this, I would imagine you might discuss your experiences personally and/or those of people you know and how their education (or lack thereof) has affected their daily lives.  One discussion point could certainly be on how a free education, such as the one that Tennessee is proposing, may change one's outlook on furthering their education as we move forward.  This final paragraph should be thorough, thoughtful and should also include some statistics from the articles you read that strengthen your argument.

Thank you.