Thanks to a very generous scholarship from NextGen Personal Finance, I returned to the Jump$tart National Educator Conference for the fourth time this past weekend! It is the premier conference for financial literacy, but it is so much more than just a conference. The entire weekend is a community building event. Jump$tart leaves no stone unturned and treats the teachers like complete rockstars. I can’t quite describe the deep appreciation I have for this organization and all they do for us. The coalition truly cares for the attendees, but more importantly, cares for our common goal of educating our students to become financially literate.
On my first day, I attended NextGenPF’s FinCamp. It was a great day, jam-packed with turn-key financial literacy professional development. We participated in lessons as students, did team-building activities, reviewed curriculum on the NGPF website, and tested out new and existing interactives: Payback, FICO score simulator, Think you can beat the market?, and FinViz, to name a few. We also had plenty of time to network and collaborate, an essential part of any workshop. It was a fantastic day and set the stage for the rest of the conference ahead!
The next two days made up the official Jump$tart National Educator Conference. We attended sessions presented by national partners and teachers sharing best practices. The sessions I went to were fabulous. I am very confident teaching financial literacy, but there’s always something to learn and lessons to update. That’s why I love coming to this conference year after year! Here are some of the things I learned and will be implementing soon:
- I will definitely be sharing IdentityTheft.gov with my students in case they are ever victims. I had no idea that if you sign up for an account, you’ll be given form letters and reminders to follow-up for corrections.
- The Federal Reserve has great materials for the classroom. All of the materials from the various branches are curated in one location here: Federal Reserve Education.
- Centsai Adulting has fun videos that can be used to introduce topics to students. They can be found HERE.
- BONUS (not learned at this conference) If you’re looking for some awesome decor for your classroom, the Federal Reserve of Atlanta will send you FREE infographic posters! They are AWESOME. I have been rotating them outside of my classroom. Fill out the order form HERE.
The conference had some amazing speakers and entertainment throughout the weekend, all centered around the importance of financial literacy. I had a little bit of a fangirl moment when hearing Annamaria Lusardi speak. If you don’t read her blog or follow her on Twitter, START. We heard the band Gooding perform (I actually saw them in NYC last month, too). We saw a great skit by the National Theatre for Children that kept us laughing all night. We also had a tailgate-themed dinner one night. Don’t worry, Patriots Nation was well represented! The conference wrapped up with two inspirational speakers. First, we heard from Janet Bodnar, editor of Kiplinger’s, regarding the gender gap and how it affects financial literacy. We then heard Alicia Rainwater, from the Center for Generational Kinetics, address the importance of understanding generational differences.
If you missed this fantastic weekend, be sure to check out #JSNEC17 on Twitter! Some of the presentations are available online as well (visit HERE). Next year’s conference will take place in Cleveland. I hope to see you there!
