Name: Sabrina Taylor
School: Dubiski Career High School
Grade levels: 9-12
Subjects: Personal Financial Literacy
Years as an educator: 8
Making Money Matter
Jump$tart Staff: “How do you make money matter to your students?”
Sabrina: “I cross-teach with other subjects like math and history and we watch segments of the news in class and have a debate on how those current real-world events affect our personal finances.”
Financial Education Requirement
Jump$tart Staff: “What is the financial education requirement in your state?”
Sabrina: “Not required in Texas. The elective course only but I think it’s possible that personal financial literacy will be required in a couple of years.”
Called to Teach
Jump$tart Staff: “Can you describe your calling to teach?”
Sabrina: “Everyday I ‘choose to teach’ because you have to really care about kids in order to reach them. Also, I want to break what call “generational brokeness.” Notably, brokeness is not a word in the dictionary but it’s a word I’ve created and used to reach my students about “generational poverty” and then I use my made-up term “brokeness.” Primarily, this term “brokeness” causes real damage (hence the vernacular term brokenness) to people and their families. Additionally, I’ve witnessed the power of knowledge that my students learned in the classroom and how they’re able to apply it towards purchasing a car because they’re familiar with what they need to do and say when making a purchase. They understand amortization charts, interest rates, credit cards, and other financial terminology. Overall, I’m encouraged when parents send notes or call to tell me that their child understands the value of money and is helping me to understand their paycheck, budgeting. savings and investing.”
Go To Resources
Jump$tart Staff: “What are your go-to resources for teaching personal finance?”
Sabrina: “NGPF, EverFi, Jumpstart, the news, financial market sites like Yahoo, CashApp, Banzai and ICEV are among the resources I use.”
Teaching Remotely During Pandemic
Jump$tart Staff: “What are some unique ways you have taught over the challenging past two years?”
Sabrina: “I mostly taught via virtual learning, but I also used Canvas and Google Classroom where I uploaded a video recording of me teaching each lesson which included guided practice. Also, I made sure the students could access the translation option so the could hear the information in their native language but provide answers in English. Last, NGPF (I believe it was Tim) submitted my lesson plan to Texas Jumpstart and my lesson plan was selected to present to the 2020 Texas Virtual Conference. My lesson plan was for students to answer the following question: How has COVID-19 Impacted Your Personal Finances? — and I gave my students the option to submit a report, multimedia presentation, a theatrical presentation, a recorded presentation, a sketch similar to Sunday Comics in a newspaper, a sketch, painting or artist interpretation and etc.”
