Rounding out a year of personal finance education...

Today is the last Monday of another school year for many educators. As the years pass, it is surprising how quickly the school days pass. When looking at the area of personal finance education, we sometimes only have 180 days (or less in many states) to teach our students everything they need to know to be able to conduct a financially responsible life. When you look at it that way, it seems daunting, huh?

That is why we must engage ourselves in content-area appropriate professional development and explore all of the unique and useful resources that exist to help us bring the best learning experience to our students. I found a great website developed by CollegeInvest, a division of the State of Colorado Division of Higher Education, called EducationCents. This website provides a financial education program that includes worksheets, calculators, and videos on a variety of personal finance education topics. Plus, it's all free! You can visit the site at http://www.educationcents.org. Something I found interesting as I visited this website was that one of the colleges in Colorado actually uses the online EducationCents curriculum in lieu of a textbook for a one-credit financial literacy course. I wish more colleges would pick up on this and build in financial literacy learning into all degree programs!

How are you wrapping up your school year with personal finance education? Have you brought in some summer activities into your final lessons, such as vacation planning, planning for college in the fall, and working a summer job? These are great ways in which you can ensure your students are well prepared as they leave school either for the summer or to head off to college or to work following graduation.

As for professional development, what are you doing this summer to bring your own personal finance education learning full circle as you prepare for a new school year? Several organizations offer summer programs or workshops that can offer you some content-specific professional development that can really have a positive impact in the classroom. One such valuable program is the Insurance Education Institutes offered by the Griffith Insurance Education Foundation (Link: http://www.griffithfoundation.org/k-12/institutes/). Check out this wonderful opportunity for junior high and high school personal finance educators to take part in a three-day, action-packed learning experience! Another valuable and inexpensive opportunity is the EconIllinois and North Central Business Education Association Summer Workshop to be held in July (Link: http://www.ncbea.com/). This workshop is a one-day professional development workshop designed for business educators in the windy city of Chicago, IL. Be sure to check this opportunity out as well!

I hope these ideas have sparked in you both some exploration for new material for your students as well as excited you to take part in some valuable professional development opportunities with fellow colleagues. I find professional networking to be one of the most important and valuable ways in which to get new ideas and meet new like-minded professionals.

Please share your ideas for summer professional development here - I look forward to seeing all the different ways in which you have stayed up-to-date with personal finance education!