McKenzie’s Blog

So I had my fourth observation this week in addition to my most teachable moment to date. It was a great Thursday I tell ya. First of all, we are talking about credit in my 2nd period Personal Finance class. Earlier in the week I had a guest speaker come in to talk about loans and credit cards, we read and completed activities in the Financial Planning workbooks the students have, and then we did a few internet activities to take a look at just how much it costs to use a credit card. On Thursday I had planned to teach 3 methods of calculating finance charges, and in the middle of the lecture, the students began asking a string of questions. They took a detour from the specifics of finance charges, but their questions were intellegent and valid. It was great. I would answer one question (or pose my answer as a discussion for other students to help answer, which ended up getting even more students involved) and another student would follow with another scenerio. (Why would someone transfer a balance from one card to another? Can you build credit if you open a card and never use it? Why do retail stores offer their own credit cards?) I could just tell that they were genuinely curious and we were covering issues that they will most definately deal with in the near future. Other students shared personal experiences they or their parents have had. It was so great, and even though we didn’t make it through my lesson plan, my supervisor even comented that I handled the conversation perfectly. He told me I had a teachable moment and I was wise not to pass that by. Its days like these when I truely know this is the place for me.