This week I’m teaching a Mutual Funds class for teachers interested in using the Stock Market Game program in their classrooms or are simply interested in the information for their own use. After a short introductory lecture and discussion about mutual funds in general, I gave an in-class assignment to write an answer to the question, “What is a mutual fund?” I always encourage creativity. This time it came in the form on Old McMutual.
This week I’m teaching my Intro to Stocks class to 19 great teachers who are planning on using the Stock Market Game program in their classrooms. Yesterday we began at 4:30 p.m. and were to quit at 8:00 p.m. I happened to look at the clock at 8:05 and then around the room; it was a buzz with stock analysis conversation as they collected data on their individually chosen companies. I heard remarks of pleasant surprise and utter dismay concerning what they were finding out about their companies. Thank you, Alaska Council on Economic Education for underwriting this endeavor.
The Stock Market Game Program: Introduction to Stocks
1 Graded Graduate Credit: $85 September 13, 15, 17, 2011
Tuesday and Thursday evenings 4:30 – 8:00 p.m. and Saturday 8:00 a.m.- 4:00 p.m.
Acquire a better understanding of stocks and the stock market and the basic economic concepts—opportunity cost, supply and demand, competition, profit, economic growth—that drive the market. Using computers, online sites, and specific guidelines, learn how to choose quality stocks. Obtain specific suggestions for implementing the Stock Market Game in your classroom—an innovative way to enhance and reinforce your core curriculum (math, language arts, social studies, economics) using an online simulation tool. Receive a $40 stipend at the end of the semester if you actively use the Stock Market Game in your classroom with at least 3 student teams.
I am struggling with writing the lesson about stock exchanges for my online class-to-be. As usual, I have written it in sections and was fairly satisfied with each section. However, yesterday I read it as a whole, and oh my goodness, were there ever holes, bumps, and jolts. In addition, it was out of balance—too heavy in the middle and too light on each end. Today, I’ve worked on tearing apart, rearranging and adding to the first section—the overview of stock exchanges. I have also tried to cut some from the NYSE section. I am finding it difficult to deal with the feeling that every little piece of info is vital to anyone’s needed and desired information about the NYSE. How can they possibly live without every tidbit? On the other hand, I want the NYSE section to be less than 5 pages with 1.5 spacing.
I have the greatest clients. I worked with Rohan one summer on composition, and he is now in Surmang, Tibet, with his parents. In March he sang the part of the boy soprano in the Anchorage Concert Chorus production of Leonard Bernstein’s Mass.
Now, Rohan is on a year-long working and travel adventure with his parents. His father, Tim Silbaugh, an emergency physician, has taken a year off to travel and work in remote areas. Right now they are in Surmang, Tibet, helping with the Surmang Rural Health Festival.
Here is an article from last week’s Christian Science Monitor about the Surmang Rural Health program that could be a model for many other rural areas. Check out Rohan’s daily adventures and pictures on his blog Rohan’s Geography. Read about his travels before arriving in Surmang, Surmang, and where he and his family will go after they complete their work in Surmang.
I met Rohan’s mother, Cat Coward, when she sang at Daughter’s wedding. Each summer we have enjoyed her two or three gigs at Bernies’ Bungalow Lounge.
I’m working today. I’m thankful I have good clients, people have signed up for next week’s Intro to Stocks class, and registrations for the Stock Market Game are drifting in. (Besides it’s raining today.)
Take a break from stock market watching and worrying. Take a break from watching the price of gold go up and agonizing about how much longer to let those gold investments soar.
Go to Intrade and buy or sell shares on whether Gaddafi will no longer be leader of Libya before midnight ET on August 31, 2011. Or how about buying or selling shares on whether any country currently using the Euro will announce their intention to drop it by midnight ET December 31, 2012. If that doesn’t catch your investing fancy, consider whether the monthly house price index for Vancouver, B.C. will be 121 or less before the end of 2013. Maybe your would like to buy or sell shares on whether Apple iPad unit sales will be 35 million or more in fiscal year 20011. There is something for everyone—business, climate and weather, construction and engineering, current events, entertainment, financial , legal.
When I teach, whether it is reading, writing, and spelling to dyslexics or about the stock market and how to determine quality stocks, bonds, and mutual funds, my goal always is to make a positive difference in the individual’s life through his or her increased skills and knowledge. Teachers often receive little fed back after the fact. The following excerpt is from an email that made my day yesterday:
“Greetings Nancy, I am one of your former stock market class students (2x actually) and am still proud to this day that my partner and I in your class won the stock market game one year in the adult division. What I really want to tell you is my daughter’s personal finance class (high school), her group also won their class stock market game. Just want you to know, your teachings are being passed on down to the next generation!”
