12 minute read
SESSION 2
CLASSROOM MANAGEMENT
We understand that it can be intimidating or nerve wracking to lead a classroom of high school students. The good news is our students have signed up for our program so they want to be there! However, they are still high school students. Below, we have provided classroom management tips to be able to handle disruptive classroom behavior like a pro.
In volunteering with RTSWS, if you experience any classroom management issues, please reach out to your RTSWS Program Coordinator. We are happy to help provide additional classroom management support, as well.
CLASSROOM MANAGEMENT
Set Classroom Norms and Be the Leader
At the beginning of each RTSWS session, students and volunteers will review and discuss the RTSWS cohort norms. Norms are the behavioral expectations or rules of the class. Classroom norms inform us how we are expected to behave towards each other and towards the materials we use. They’re generally positive, inclusive and productive. Here are some classroom norms you can share with the students:
• Come prepared to be a part of RTSWS with your handbook, a writing utensil and a positive attitude. • Set Classroom Norms
• Be the Leader • Be Authentic • Share Your Story • Show You Care • Build Relationships • Have Fun!
• Be kind and encourage one another - we are all in this together!
• Ask questions, share your opinions and let the volunteers know when you do not understand something.
During session #1, students and volunteers will come up with the final two norms together. We want you and the students to establish the tone for the fall sessions and allow the students to take ownership of their RTSWS cohort.
Ensure the RTSWS cohort knows the significance of what you are asking them to do. They are helping to establish the tone for how RTSWS will run for the fall sessions! You care about them. You want their ideas. Their voices matter. Including them in the creation process means they will remember these norms and act upon them more regularly.
Asking students to help define the learning environment in a way that supports their own self-advocacy skills is powerful.
Be Authentic
• Be yourself! High school students can smell someone being inauthentic from miles away.
• Be honest! If you are nervous, let them know you are nervous or if you make a mistake, own up to it.
• Tell them stories about the things happening in your life (as appropriate, of course) and make connections between your own experiences and what we are learning about in RTSWS.
• Incorporate some comedy! Studies show that students who are having fun learn more effectively.
What do you call a liability without any friends? A loan
Share Your Story
• The more you share your story the more students will feel comfortable opening up about themselves and really engaging.
• Telling your story allows students to connect with you over related experiences and to learn from you in the areas that they differ.
• Often the feedback we get from students is that they love to hear how our volunteers started their careers, what they love about their jobs, what challenges they’ve faced and where they’ve traveled to for work (or pleasure!)
Show You Care & Build Relationships
• Nothing is more valuable for effective classroom management than building genuine relationships with students.
• While you are there to teach the session, being in high school can be challenging and students’ personal lives can sometimes creep into the classroom. If you see a student who is upset or seems to be dealing with something (if you are comfortable and able to) ask her if she is okay and if she wants to go talk just outside the classroom. If the student is facing something serious please let the RTSWS School Champion or your RTSWS Program Coordinator know and we will take it from there.
• Pro tip: If a student is talking about a big test they are studying for or a sports game they are looking forward to, remembering this and asking her how it went in the next session always scores major points!
• Be a good listener. Listening to their stories and learning more about who they are shows them that you care and develops a relationship.
Just because they may look uninterested, bored or not listening doesn’t mean that’s the case
• High school students are social creatures so it’s hard for them to resist the urge to talk to their friends or to remember not to have their phones out unless needed for an activity. Please see the next page for some tips on how to deal with these!
• Students have a range of personalities. Sometimes students are shy and may take a couple of sessions to open up. Sometimes, they may just be tired! If they are showing up, they want to be there.
• The more you are enjoying yourself the more they will. Our lessons are guidelines so feel free to add your own spin on something or some personal flare.
• It is important to remember that high school students are going through some tough, real-world issues outside of the classroom. Sometimes a reaction they have in the classroom may stem from stress or a situation going on outside of school. Show them
grace and presume positive intent.
Notes:
Why did the tightrope walker go to the bank? To check his balance.
TEACHING TIPS
If students are talking while you are talking or looking at their phone, you can...
• Just wait! If a student or students are talking while you are, wait them out. Stopping mid-sentence and waiting for students to stop talking will let them know you are waiting on them.
• Walk closer to them. Proximity will often bring attention to this so they will stop.
• Quietly remind them of the expectations (try to say it so only they can hear as to not embarrass them)
• Try not to call students out publicly. Often, students find this embarrassing and do not react well to this.
If students are talking at the beginning of the session, to quiet them you can…
• Come to the front and begin your greeting. Make sure to wait until everyone is listening. If you keep talking while they are talking then they will think this is okay.
• Ask a question out loud “Who here currently has a job? Raise your hand.” “Who saw the new Brad Pitt movie this weekend?” Now that you’ve got their attention you can begin.
• You can set up a call and response with them. Having them offer suggestions makes it more likely they will do it. “When I say fierce you say females” - “Fierce” - “Females”
• Flicker the lights
• Countdown 5-4-3-2-1 or 3-2-1
ADDITIONAL TIPS
• Turn a blind eye occasionally. High school students sometimes act for attention or to test you. Try not to be phased by things they are doing just to get a reaction. Ignore what you can and reward the positive.
• If a student looks tired or puts their head down on their desk, ask them if they would like to go get a drink of water. It gets them out of their seat, wakes them back up and shows them you care.
• Avoid loading time. If there are links you know you want to pull up during the session, have them ready to go before the session starts. Down time will lead to distractions and get students off task.
HELPFUL TIPS TO KEEP IN MIND
• When you are explaining something new, especially a challenging topic, make sure to go slow, repeat yourself and consistently ask if anyone has questions. There are no dumb questions!
• Often, you can plan the perfect lesson and it either doesn’t go as expected or the timing is off. We try to make sure there are enough activities, but don’t feel pressure if you don’t get through everything. If you need to have students complete something on their own time or you need to push something to the next session you can definitely do that.
• It’s important to be at the session 5 minutes early. This allows you to be able to get any last thoughts together before the lesson and do any prep work (writing something on the board, passing our name tags, pulling up Yahoo! Finance on the projector). This also helps with management and keeping students orderly.
• Greet students at the door so they feel welcome and know that you are excited to be there! It sets a positive tone for the session.
• Write the agenda on the board if possible. Students like to know what’s going on.
• Try to get them involved in the lesson as much as possible. Whether this is by asking questions, having students explain the key term in their own words or sharing their initial thoughts on a topic. No one likes to be talked to for an hour straight so try to involve their voices as much as possible.
• Students like to be positively reinforced so if they are doing something great or had a really thoughtful answer let them know! The more specific you are the better so they know exactly what they did well so they can do it again.
• If a student is being disrespectful or making you uncomfortable, have one of the volunteers reach out to or find the School Champion or reach out to your RTSWS Program Coordinator.
Green Curriculum Workshop Sessions
Green Curriculum Learning Outcomes:
• To play the role of a financial planner for Janella Sims, a 28-year-old female. Create a budget for her, keeping in mind her short-term and long-term goals.
• To define basic investment terms.
• To follow the price movements of Apple (AAPL) and the SPDR S&P 500 ETF Trust (SPY).
• To understand and be able to explain where their tax dollars go.
• To become familiar with the various types of careers in finance.
Session Topics and Key Terms:
Please write in the day, time and location of each session.
Be sure to add these dates to your phone calendar as well to set reminders. The session dates and times are also available in your RTSWS app.
XXIII
Green Assessment Questions
In order to measure students’ growth in financial and investment literacy over the course of the 5 RTSWS sessions, students will take a pre-assessment during session #1 to establish their baseline. During session #5, students will be tested on the same financial and investment literacy questions to measure their progress and growth over the course of RTSWS. The assessments are not graded on an individual basis. RTSWS will use each RTSWS cohort’s pre- and post-assessment data to determine the cohort’s financial literacy growth and measure the success of our curriculum. The questions below relate to topics within this curriculum set. Part of the questions are specific to the RTSWS curriculum topics and the final 5 are determined based upon national FINRA standards. Please do not share these questions with students or review answers with them ahead of the pre-assessment. Remind students to just do their best on the assessments. Volunteers should use the questions below to be aware of the topics that students will see during the post-assessment and to take time to review these topics over the course of the fall sessions.
Curriculum Specific Questions:
A) Saving is setting aside money you don’t spend now for a future purchase or emergencies, that is easily accessible. Investing is when you put money into your savings account.
✔ B) Saving is setting aside money you don’t spend now for a future purchase or emergencies, that is easily accessible. Investing is buying assets such as stocks, bonds or mutual funds for the purpose of long-term goals.
C) Saving is setting aside money you don’t spend now for a future purchase or emergencies. Investing is when you spend money on fixed costs and variable costs.
D) I don’t know
Which of the following is true of stocks and bonds?
A) Stocks are where shareholders are guaranteed a dividend payment. Bonds are high-risk debt investments.
B) Stocks equate to partial ownership of the company and guaranteed voting rights. Bonds are issued for an indefinite period at a variable interest rate.
✔ C) Stocks are a purchased stake in a company when a business or corporation raises capital through the issue and subscription of shares. Bonds are sold by companies or governments, where the purchaser acts as a bank for the issuing entity, and the asset has a fixed interest rate and maturity date.
D) I don’t know
What is the difference between gross pay and net pay?
A) The gross pay is your take home pay or the amount that has already had any withholdings and taxes removed. The net pay is the total amount that you earned before any withholdings have been taken.
B) The gross pay is the total amount of withholds and taxes. The net pay is your total amount of take home pay.
✔ C) The gross pay is the total amount that you earned before any withholdings have been taken. The net pay is your take home pay or the amount that has already had any withholdings and taxes removed.
D) I don’t know
Which of the following is important to know about risk tolerance and investing?
A) Risk tolerance is how much of a loss you’re prepared to handle. Your goals, investing timeline and comfort level all factor into the equation.
B) Knowing your risk tolerance will drive how you invest.
C) Every investment has some level of risk. The more risk you take, the greater the potential returns are - and the greater the potential for losing money.
✔ D) All of the above
E) I don’t know
Investment Literacy Questions:
The main difference between an ETF (exchange traded fund) and a mutual fund is…
A) An ETF is only one stock, while a mutual fund is a group of stocks
✔ B) ETFs can be traded throughout the day, while mutual funds can only be traded once per day
C) ETF are traded within the stock market, while mutual funds are not publicly traded
D) ETFs and mutual funds are the same
E) I don’t know
A symbol in which stocks are identified.
A) Broker
✔ B) Ticker
C) Stock acronym
D) IPO
E) I don’t know
The benchmark index that tracks the stock price movements of the largest U.S. publicly traded companies.
A) Fortune 500
✔ B) S&P 500
C) S&P 1000
D) The New York Stock Exchange
E) I don’t know
