??????????????

A math teacher at a recent Tabor Rotation training session came up during the break and began sharing her frustration with me,

“I’m just learning the CCSS (Common Core State Standards) that our state recently adopted. Now our district is mandating small group instruction, math workstations, and regular intervention.

The latest? They’ve decided that the math department needs to fix the economy by incorporating personal financial literacy into the curriculum. I may even have to teach financial literacy next year. Of course, they want me to make sure that every student passes the end-of-course exams, too.

I’m sorry my students can’t balance a checkbook, but I only have 60 minutes or less in a class period. How am I supposed to do all of it?”

Over a decade ago, Lewis Mandell, Dean of the UB School of Management, made a similar poignant statement in his Final Word Editorial. The title of his piece sums it up, “Why Johnny Can’t Balance a Checkbook.” Mandell wrote that,

“Millions of American teenagers graduate from high school every year without a basic understanding of how to manage their money. As they venture out from under their parents’ protection for the first time, what awaits these young adults is an increasingly complex society that asks that they make immediate and sometimes irreversible financial decisions- decisions that will likely impact their livelihoods for years to come. Unprepared by teachers or parents to make those decisions, the consequences can be quite severe.”

After sharing some of the content of the articles linked to this blog post, I shared news from other states who are designing and requiring year-long financial literacy courses. Virginia is one of them. Vivian Paige says that a course in economics and financial literacy was a long time in coming and has been greatly needed by students who graduate not even understanding what a mortgage is and how credit cards calculate interest. Her brief article is worth the read.

As the discussion continued, I assured this teacher that Common Core was actually going to be an incredible tool for helping her and her students accomplish the goals set out by their district. I also assured her that putting a structure or framework in her classroom that would assist her students in becoming mathematically proficient would provide for complete exploration and in-depth understanding of the CCSS, a great passing rate on the EOC exams, and address personal financial literacy. In fact, I told her she was in the right session to find some answers. All she had to do was hang in there for the second half to learn how Tabor Rotation, Common Core State Standards, and Meaningful Math Management would fit together beautifully.

As she shared her concern about teaching personal financial literacy with the entire group, many other participants shared the same concerns. Wanting the financial crisis to remain in the past, many states are looking at what they can do to facilitate financial literacy.  The state of Maryland, who was one of the first states to adopt Common Core State Standards in June, 2010, has sought to write their own financial literacy standards since these are not specifically written in Common Core.

“Today’s students need a strong foundation in personal finance to help them budget and manage their money. Many students work during high school; some even have credit cards in their own names. After high school, young people often make uninformed decisions that can negatively impact their credit ratings and their ability to gain security clearance for employment. With the nation currently in the midst of a financial crisis, far too many people are deeply in debt and are faced with the reality of losing their homes and their financial security…the state curriculum lays the foundation for a new generation of competent, confident, and financially literate adults.”

Other teachers were concerned about the fact that Common Core asks teachers and districts to find a balance for mathematical content in the combination of procedures and understanding.  The next statement,

“There aren’t any personal financial literacy standards in Common Core. They want us to find ways to combine math standards with social studies and reading/English language arts standards.”

Yes, I told them, that’s true, but the clustering of the CCSS is an amazing way to make learning meaningful. Even Tony Wagner, author of Creating Innovators: The Making of Young People Who Will Change the World, would probably agree that clustering standards from different disciplines is a way to encourage students to find purpose and passion about what they are learning. This has been of great concern to Georgia as well. The Georgia Performance Standards Mathematics Curriculum, mirrored in the CCSS, is designed to achieve a balance and a connection among the disciplines and emphasizes rigor and relevance.

“The Georgia Performance Standards Mathematics curriculum is designed to achieve a balance among concepts, skills, and problem solving. The curriculum stresses rigorous concept development, presents realistic and relevant tasks, and maintains a strong emphasis on computational and procedural skills. At all grades, the curriculum encourages students to reason mathematically, to evaluate mathematical arguments both formally and informally, to use the language of mathematics to communicate ideas and information precisely, and to make connections among mathematical topics and to other disciplines.”

I shared that the state of Pennsylvania is asking their state department of education to develop cross-curricular materials that would take the Common Core Standards for Math and incorporate the state’s academic standards in arts and humanities with the Common Core Standards for ELA to help develop financial literacy skills.

At this point, the body language in the room indicated they had had enough of the facts and wanted more–a plan that would work. We had explored The Tabor Rotation Framework for several hours, but they wanted to know about the connection or clustering for financial literacy. I shared Meaningful Math Management with them. Meaningful Math Management was an instructional tool I created at the same time as Tabor Rotation. It was developed as an answer to cultivating classroom communities with my students, providing real-world application of math concepts while teaching financial literacy and personal accountability. All of the information is available on the FREE RESOURCES page of my website. There is a slide presentation and all of the materials you need to put this incredible structure into place in your classroom. But, rather than explain it to you myself, I’d like to share a teacher’s experience that she sent to me in a recent email.

“One of the most exciting ideas we gained from the Tabor Rotation workshop in June was the management system.  For years we had complained about our students being irresponsible with their work, supplies, and behavior.  Using manipulatives was such a disaster that we seldom used them, knowing the importance but not willing to deal with the chaos.  Many students didn’t have pencils so time was wasted as they borrowed or teachers furnished them. Neither solution was acceptable and only facilitated dependency. Obviously, you can’t do math without pencils, at least with all the paperwork we did before Tabor Rotation. Every six weeks we agonized over all the students who had missing work, newsletters that weren’t returned signed by parents, behavior problems, lack of supplies, etc.

The change in all these areas has been phenomenal since using the Meaningful Math Management system.  Students are caring for their supplies and responsible for purchasing pencils rather than borrowing, which really means taking.   Just the stress and time involved in this alone has been unbelievable.  It may seem like we’re overstating this, but believe me we are not. As the math inclusion teacher, I volunteered to oversee the store.  Students can buy supplies and snacks from me between classes or before school.  If they go to class without necessary supplies, the teachers sell pencils at double the price.

Using this system is what makes the rotation stations manageable.  The students have their jobs and are rewarded for working together as a group appropriately.  I especially love the emphasis on positive behavior.  It’s a big change in mindset for our grade level from the past system of giving marks for misbehavior.  After a few negative responses, that system becomes ineffective.  As Glenna demonstrates in the workshop, a positive response, such as “every one at that table gets $5 for….” makes an immediate improvement in the entire room’s behavior.  This is exactly what I learned in my classes 38 years ago at TWU.  Unfortunately, it’s much easier for us to respond negatively, but  research has proven that behavior improves more effectively from positive reinforcement than negative.

Learning to write checks, balance check registers, and make spending decisions is providing a lifelong benefit.  If students do need to pay a fine and have no funds, they go to our assistant principal. Rather than receiving a punishment, he discusses the value of money management and doing what is necessary to earn money rather than paying fines.

Because of students managing themselves, using Tabor Rotation has made for much happier students who are enjoying math rather than dreading it.  In the past we have bombarded them with worksheets, which also caused stress from grading and pleading for missing work.  Now, we have fewer worksheets but are using them more effectively with more direct teacher interaction.  I actually heard two students today say, “I love math! Yes, it’s work, but Meaningful Math Management is worth it!”

As Vivian Paige said,

“And we expect everyone to save for their own retirement, use credit wisely and manage their money.  How do we get there from here?”

Simple—create the perfect storm in your classroom.

Common Core State Standards + Tabor Rotation + Meaningful Math Management