Creating a Budget: Part 1 of the Major Project Name: Subject: Semester: Todd McLauchlin Personal Finance 30 Winter 2014

Date: Grade: Lesson Length: TBD 12 60 min

Content Identification: This class and the following class will serve as the introduction to the major project for the unit. These projects involve creating two budgets, one individual (and based on real world figures) and one with a partner (based on theoretical household numbers). Today we will look at the individual portion of the budget project. However, before we can begin that, we will spend the first 20 minutes going over the scenarios from the previous class. The students will be invited to share, as groups, the needs/wants they identified in the scenarios and the long-term/short-term goals. Each group will share at least one scenario. We will discuss each scenario; however, I will push the students to drive the discussion, it is their ideas that are important. After the discussion concludes, I will break down the first portion of the assignment, taking the students through the actual assignment (which is located at http://goo.gl/Bt8bqA), the rubric, which is also attached to the assignment and finally how to use Word Press. As part of the budgeting assignment, the students will be required to reflect on their budgets each week/month, comparing the budget to the actual real world numbers. They will also consider how the budget has changed or grown, based on real world events and new knowledge from the class. I am suggesting Word Press as a great home for these reflections; however, other sites work as well. The students are also not limited to text reflections; video/audio is acceptable as well. However, It will be Word Press that I focus on, in this lesson. I will also upload a few videos that will help guide the students through using these tools, which will be found on the student portion of the course page. Outcomes (Objectives): Indicators (Assessment): a. Describe budgeting and explain how it relates PF(L) 5-Demonstrate understanding of personal to financial problem solving and financial budgets and their importance for financial responsibility. planning. d. Explain considerations that must be made when developing a budget, e.g., income, prioritizing, recurring and unexpected expenses and using them to help prioritize personal and financial goals. e. Monitor spending behaviours and income streams (monthly or quarterly) f. Create, modify and maintain a personal budget for earning, spending, saving and investing. The students will be able to explain the goals and reasoning for financial decisions, as based on their scenarios. The students will be able to analyze a financial problem and propose an answer. The scenarios will serve as a formative assessment for the students understanding of financial goals and problems.

The students will be able to create a personal budget, which they will track, modify and maintain throughout the semester. This budget will include, income, expenses (fixed, variable, required and optional), savings and investments, as well as, personal financial goals. This assignment will serve as one of the two summative assessments for the unit.

Common Essential Learnings: Personal and Social Values and Skills, Numeracy Critical and Creative Thinking, Technological Literacy, Independent Learning Cross-Curricular Competencies: Developing Identity and Interdependence, Developing Thinking, Developing Literacies Prerequisite Learning: An understanding of budgets, budgeting terminology and layout, needs vs. wants and long-term and short-term goals will be required for this lesson. Equipment/Materials: The Creating a Budget: Personal Budget assignment and rubric, the scenarios from the previous class, Google Drive access, internet/computer access and access to Word Press will all be required. Set: (20 min) 1) The lesson will begin directly where it left off in the previous class. The students will be invested to share the solutions to their scenarios, in a group context. Each group will share at least one scenario. I will push the students to lead the discussion, which will be critical in developing a sense for solving financial problems. Development: (15 min & 15 min) 1) I will begin by directing the students to open the assignment, Creating a Budget: Personal Budget, which can be found both on the student portion of the course webpage and shared to them through Google Drive. We will discuss the assignment in detail, as well as, the rubric. 2) The assignment will be a semester long assignment, and require the students to create a budget for their own financial position. They will create a budget for each month, breaking it into weekly portions, as we did with the simple budget assignment. They will include all income sources, including any variable or unexpected income. They will include all expenses, fixed, variable, required and optional. They will also examine their own savings/investments. The actual spending will be recorded in the budget sheet and compared against the budget numbers to determine variances. The students will also revise the weekly/monthly budgets, based on what they experience in the actual weekly/monthly numbers and the new information they gain from class. This assignment will have several "check-in" points, where they need to show the budgets that they created and revised for a month. The students will also have to reflect on the budget vs. the actual numbers each week, which will be done using a blog/vlog. The blog will contain a weekly post that will answer how the budget compared with the real world data over the week and why the variances may have occurred. They will also explain how they changed the budget for the upcoming week and the remainder of the month, based on the real world

information, as well as, the new in-class information. The final portion of this assignment will involve setting short and long-term goals. The short term goals can be a week long, but less than a month, while the long-term goal is a semester long goal. The goal statuses will also need to be commented on in the blog posts. (15 min) 3) In order to complete this assignment, the students will need to use Word Press. I will walk the students through setting up an account and creating a blog post. I will also post a couple videos on the students section of the course webpage, where they can reference how to use Word Press. Closure: (10 min) 1) The remaining time in the class will be provided for both questions on the assignment and Word Press, as well as, time to work on creating the blog. More time will be provided in the coming classes.