Poplar Bluff High School sophomores will be taught personal finance slightly different this year after teacher Pamela Davis was awarded a grant.
The $500 grant, from the Missouri Retired Teachers Foundation, is going toward supplies for students to compile interactive folders of their notes.
Davis, who took over the class last year, said when she asked students who had a checking account or a part-time job only three or four would raise their hands.
As such, the topics she was covering in the class weren’t things the students could apply in the moment.
“They’re not driving or have checking accounts or anything like that,” Davis said. “So, they’ll make it as a book, so that they have all this information when they get to that point in life, so they can go back and reflect and make a better decision about how to spend their money.”
Throughout the class this year, the approximately 90 students will use file folders, binding rings, play money, hole punches, writing utensils and other material to keep their notes together in an organized manner to be referred to later in life.
Along with information about checking accounts, Davis said, the plan is to include links in the books where students can apply for scholarships, ways to check if they can afford a house they’re looking at, tips for budgeting or advice about buying a car.
“I thought if they could take it with them, and then they can hopefully use them to make better decisions than what I made,” Davis said.
Davis was among seven regional recipients chosen in the association’s annual classroom grant program.