7 minute read
Session 1 : Introduction and Pre-Assessment
• Explore the concept of budgeting and learn the differences among Fixed Expenses, Variable Expenses, and Occasional (or Periodic) Expenses, which are the key terms for this session.
• Understand how to read a pay stub (i.e. earnings statement) and become familiar with the various types of deductions that typically factor into an employee’s amount of take-home pay.
• Apply your newfound knowledge to create a budget for Janella Sims, a fictional 28-year-old woman for whom your group will provide financial planning services.
• Work with your group to finalize your recommendations for Janella’s budget.
• Understand the key terms relating to the concepts of banking, loans, investing, and volatility.
• Discuss the effects covid-19 had on the capital markets and what personal finance lessons can be learned from this financial crisis.
• Evaluate group budgets for Janella, including how fully their plans might help her reach each of her financial goals. • Learn important concepts relevant to saving and investing, including “risk vs. reward” and the power of compound interest. Explore some of the best ways to save and invest. In the process, students should learn these related key terms: Investment Risk Tolerance, Mutual Fund, Exchange Traded Fund (ETF) and Venture Capital.
SESSION 5: Post-Assessment and Financial Plan Presentations
• Complete the RTSWS post-assessment to help us evaluate the impact of our program and see how much students have learned in Sessions 1 through 4.
• Present your group’s completed financial plan for Janella to the entire class.
• In anticipation of the upcoming field trip, explore and discuss possible future career paths in the world of finance and the strengths the students could bring to the industry as women.
A field trip to a local financial services firm will also be scheduled during the coming weeks. There will be a tour of the facilities and introduction to personnel, followed by a panel discussion with three or more leading females from the firm.
OBJECTIVE
Introduce the girls to each other and to the mission of Rock The Street,
Wall Street. Assess their baseline financial knowledge with the pre-assessment, then introduce them to the concepts of saving and investing, and the stock market.
SESSION PLAN
KEY TERMS FOR SESSION 1
• Saving
• Investing • Stock
Volunteers introduce themselves
• Exchange-Traded Fund
Volunteers introduce themselves, including a bit of information about your personal money management and your career in finance. Read aloud the RTSWS mission statement below. (5-10 minutes)
“Rock The Street, Wall Street inspires and equips girls with skills to succeed financially throughout their lives and potentially pursue careers in finance. Girls learn about savings and investment, budgeting, the capital markets and their role in maintaining the welfare of their families and the economy, while simultaneously helping them see the real-world application of the math content they learn in the classroom.
Rock The Street, Wall Street believes to close the gender gap in the financial services sectors, we have to inspire girls to pursue the M in STEM, finance, by exposing them to real life role models. We engage financial professionals and executives to teach and motivate the next generation. Our instructors, guest speakers, and mentors are leaders in their fields, working in posts our girls can aspire to.”
Before you begin, please be sure you have the following:
Sufficent copies of the Pre
Assessment and Student Workbook
Have the classroom’s wifi
network name and password
on the board before class begins
Survey Monkey attendance link can be found at: surveymonkey.com/
Welcome students to the class
Welcome students to the class and ask each girl to share her name, school, grade level, and why they are at this workshop with the class. (5 minutes)
Take weekly attendance
Take weekly attendance via Survey Monkey link sent from RTSWS. One volunteer should take attendance on the survey link we send through email and text as the girls share their names in the welcome activity. The attendance can be submitted multiple times. If student or students come in late you can resubmit just their names on the same attendance link. You don’t need to re-submit the entire list of students again.
Administer the Pre-Assessment of basic financial terms and concepts. Explain to the students that this is simply a way to assess their levels of pre-existing knowledge coming into the program and that their scores will not be shared in class or in any way impact their participation in RTSWS.
By now, the students should have received a text message with a link to the pre-assessment.Please also write the link on the board so students can type this in their phone if they don’t receive the text. Hand a paper copy of the pre-assessment to girls without a smartphone. Ask them to begin the test and tell them they have 7-8 minutes to complete it. Announce when there are 5 minutes and 1 minute remaining. Make sure those taking the test on their phones press the “Submit” button at the end of the test when tim is up.
Collect the completed paper copies of the pre-assessment, making sure each student filled out her name, school and the date clearly. As soon as possible after class, please scan the paper tests and email them to your RTSWS Program Coordinator. (12 minutes total)
Distribute a Student Workbook to each girl.
Distribute a Student Workbook to each girl. Remind them to bring this to every session, as they will be doing exercises in them each week. Direct them to turn to the Agenda for Workshop Sessions.
Briefly touch on the highlights of what will be covered in this semester’s workshops. Have the students write in the date/time/location for each of the 5 sessions. Ask the girls to read through the agenda fully on their own later. (5 minutes)
Go over the expectations for the classroom sessions, learning objectives, and key terms. Make sure students are on the correct page in the student workbook. Read through the classroom expectations together and let students ask questions so they are clear on the expectations.
Then turn to the next page and go over the learning objectives and the key terms for session 1. Have students take turns reading the key terms out loud. For the key terms that are difficult to understand, explain these in more detail to students and provide examples if possibl (5-7 minutes)
Continue on to the Personal Finance Activity
Continue on to the Personal Finance Activity. Read through the directions and then have the students brainstorm in each section for 30 seconds. One volunteer should keep a 30-second timer on their phone and tell students to move to the next section after 30 seconds. Repeat until all three sections are complete. Once they have finished brain-storming, come back together as a group. Go over each of the three questions and write down 5-8 student answers for each.
Point out the obvious- that jobs are the primary source of income to be used towards the items the clas identified. Ask the class: What is the difference between saving and investing? Have they thought about having their money do the work for them? (5-7 minutes)
RTSWS Program Coordinator email:
Introduce the students to the sample stock portfolio they will follow this semester: Amazon (AMZN), Netfli (NFLX), Clorox (CLX), and the iShares Nasdaq Biotechnology ETF (IBB).
Explain that a stock is a unit of ownership in a publicly traded corporation. Explain the concepts of portfolios and stock watch lists. Direct the class to turn to the Yahoo! Finance screenshot (or one of the instructor’s choosing) of the portfolio and explain that the group will be using the Yahoo! Finance website to follow the prices of the three stocks and one ETF in the portfolio during this semester’s five work shop sessions. (7 minutes)
9.
Follow RTSWS on social media platforms
Have the students take out their phones and follow RTSWS on the following platforms below. Acknowledge that social media is how high school students receive the news and relate to the world at large, and encourage them to cultivate their interest and show the relevancy of finance throughout their lives through these portals.
Also, let them know that we send internships and other opportunities to students who connect with us on social media, especially LinkedIn. (5 minutes)
Twitter: @girlsrockwallst
Instagram: girlsrockwallstreet
LinkedIn: Early networking and internship opportunities are available and posted via the RTSWS Students & Alumnae Group in LinkedIn.
Facebook: facebook.com/girlsrockwallst
YouTube: youtube.com/channel/UCUKCvfew0BGIoA1iaqmjviw
