When it comes to teaching responsibility and financial literacy, there are so many great ideas online to choose from! I have adapted what I have viewed online and witnessed in classrooms to suit what I think I would like to do in an elementary classroom when I have my own group of students.
I would like to have assigned “jobs” that rotate every month which I might detail in a future post. This post will address only how I see myself running my “online banking” platform.
Online banking is how most of us manage our money now, but personally I find that there have been learning curves when it comes to managing my own monthly expenses and spending. This is why I believe it is important to implement some sort of financial literacy/responsibility programs into elementary classrooms so that students can practice responsibility while the stakes are low.
Introducing Miss Stadnyk’s Class Bank! The way I think I would go about this banking system is to have a shared document with each student which only I can edit, but that they can view. This enables students to access their banking information, so that they can learn to plan how they want to spend their money.
How do the students get money? Students will be paid a specific amount of money each week if they successfully complete their assigned job. It is important to note that “successful completion” of each task and what that looks like for each student is going to vary. Students may potentially earn “bonuses” for academic assignments that exceed expectations (again, what constitutes exceeding expectations will be different for each student).
How will the students spend their money? Students can purchase a variety of activities/opportunities with the money they have remaining at the end of the week. I think my list will include: lunch with a friend, lunch with Miss Stadnyk, work with a friend, choose the gym warm up, etc. I want kids to be able to purchase (earn) privileges through hard work, as opposed to being able to purchase trinkets that are eventually going to end up lost.
What do you mean “remaining” money? Students will be “working” to earn their weekly wages and bonuses, but they will also be responsible for paying taxes and rent. They will be renting their desk/chair, laptops, etc., and those will be a fixed cost per week/month. While it may seem slightly excessive to some to charge the kids rent, this will provide students with the opportunity to learn how to budget. Students will have to ask themselves if they can afford to buy lunch with a friend if they have rent due on the first of the month. Providing students with the opportunity to ask these questions of themselves and of a teacher can plant the seeds of responsible spending and encourage students to work hard and put effort into their responsibilities in order to receive benefits.
I have no idea if this setup would work in a classroom, but it might be worth a try and I now have a template to use when I do find myself in a classroom!