Christmas Break Countdown

Only a few days left before Christmas break!

Changing Education Paradigms

Someone posted this video on facebook, and I thought I would pass it along. It's a pretty interesting clip about how the world of education is changing:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zDZFcDGpL4U

After I watched that clip I clicked on another video that youtube suggested for me, and I happened to watch this:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=endscreen&NR=1&v=9aGuLuipTwg

I was so interested that I spent the next couple hours on this website:
http://fi.ncsu.edu/project/fizz/

I'm pretty excited to try this in my classroom. Although I don't think I will completely dive into it all at once, I do plan on testing it out in just one class for now. What teacher wouldn't want to differentiated instruction to every student?

Free Work Day

During my economics class I came across the idea that if you give your "employee" a free day to work on whatever project they so chose, they will produce results you wouldn't imagine. So, I decided to give my computer classes a "free work day" so they could show me their computer skills on something that they were passionate about. Some students wrote a story, some made a powerpoint, some made creative signs, while others made greeting cards. Overall I was quite impressed with what some people accomplished, and I didn't have any complaining! At the end of the class period I simply had the students tell me what they wanted to be graded on - all of them got full credit.

Accounting Monopoly

This entire week in Accounting we are playing Monopoly!!

Once students have learned the entire Accounting cycle, a great way to review the accounting cycle is to play Monopoly - only the students have to keep track of how their property business is doing. The idea is simple - have the students record everything that they do in their own journal. After so long you can have them complete the other steps in the accounting cycle such as posting, preparing the worksheet, preparing the business statements, adjusting/closing entires, etc. You can really change the game to include the things you want to practice. For example I have the students practice writing out checks, filling out deposit slips, and receipts as they transfer money.

Here are the rules I chose to follow (*Note the formatting of my word document did not transfer to google docs very well, so if you want a copy of any of my materials email me at jpost@westwood.k12.ia.us):
https://docs.google.com/document/d/10La2QHXHk1yNvwThYEcD244nzrUUgGVMDswFUPBsU7c/edit
I have also prepared the "answers" which includes what the journal transaction should be for the majority of things that could occur during the game:
https://docs.google.com/document/d/1GbB1hPlF9LG6GSQ2zPaLWMvUElS3wSy9VAJzsrzfeLU/edit

In order to prepare for this activity, each student should receive a manilla envelope that includes the following:
- Set of instructions (including Chart of Accounts)
- Checks
- Receipts
- Deposit slips
- Journal
- General Leger
- Worksheet
- Income statement form
- Balance sheet form
- Post-Closing trial balance form

I have all of these forms prepared, however they will not transfer into google docs very well, so if you want them, email me! (jpost@westwood.12.ia.us) I even went so far as to create personalized checks, deposit slips, and receipts for my account class.

Example of a check:

NO. ___

$

Date

20

Westwood Rebel

NO.

63-109

To

100 Rebel Way

631

Sloan, IA 51055

Date:                                             20

For

PAY TO THE

$

Bal. Bro’t for’d……………………

ORDER OF

Amt. Deposited

Dollars

Subtotal…………………Date…..

Other:

Monopoly State Bank

For Classroom Use Only

Sloan, IA 51055

Subtotal…………………………….

For

Amt. this check…………………

Bal Car’d For’d………………….

97-3589 5687

Receipt Example:

	Westwood Rebel				Receipt
	1000 Rebel Way			No.
	Sloan, IA 51055			Date
	Received from			$
	For		Received by

Deposit Slip example:

	Westwood Rebel				Deposit Slip
	1000 Rebel Way			Cash
	Sloan, IA 51055			Checks
	Date
		Sign for Cash Received
	Monopoly State Bank
	Sloan, IA			Total
		32437705		557481

At the end of the game the student that wins is the one with the best income statement and balance sheet!