Eisenhower High School Economics
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Friday 5/3/2013
May 3rd
- Passed out Budget Reflection assignment.
- Explained the purpose and importance of completing a budget.
- A budget is a tool for financial freedom so you are free to spend without guilt or worry.
- A budget helps reduce financial stress and anxiety!
- Went through the major categories to explain some reasonable amounts for students to spend on their budget.
- Students were allowed to pair up or work individually to begin working on their Monthly Budget situations assignment.
- Time will be given on Monday to finish the budget and complete the budget reflection as well as debrief the difficulties students had balancing income with spending for both situations.
- We used the information below to help with mortgage amounts.
Thursday 5/2/2013
May 2nd
- Students had time to complete Life Event: Purchasing a Home and Purchasing a car financial calculators.
- Debriefed students about the importance of each situation they were given and its importance. Our focus was:
- You will save over $100,000 if you get a 15 year mortgage rather than a 30 year mortgage. Buy a home you can afford the 15 year payment for.
- The monthly payment on a $300,000 home.
- Looked at the record high interest rates from 1981 so students understood how interest rate can affect your payments. Also looked at how few homes were built during that time period in Macomb County.
- The savings you can attain from refinancing with one simple phone call when rates go down.
- How much time can be shaved off a mortgage by paying $200 extra a month.
- The house an average American can afford.
- How much a car payment would be on a Ford Fusion financed over 4 or 5 years.
- To take low financing or a dealer rebate.
- Vehicle that can be afforded with a $400 a month car payment.
- Lease or Buy?
- Collected Life Event assignments.
Wednesday 5/1/2013
May 1st
- Correct & collect Dave Ramsey questions from Chapter 2 video: Investment Options
- Assigned and explained the purpose for each question in the Life Event: Purchasing a Home & Life Event: Purchasing a Car financial calculator assignments.
- Students had the remainder of the hour to work on this assignment.
- Time will be given in class on Thursday to complete this assignment, it is NOT homework.
- As you complete this assignment think about the answers you see. Notice how much more interest you pay on a 30 year loan and put in your memory bank that you need to get a 15 year home loan!
Tuesday 4/30/2013
Apr 30th
- Finish Dave Ramsey Chapter 2 Investment Options video & complete video guide.
- After part 4 I shared examples of mutual funds I have invested in with one of my retirement accounts.
- Looked at 10 year return on an initial investment of $10,000.
- Looked at how many companies each mutual fund invests in.
- Looked at the goal of each fund. Each fund within my account has a different focus. Example: I have a biotechnology company mutual fund and a transportation company mutual fund.
- After part 5 I showed how to select a fund by filtering investments on the Fidelity website.
- Narrowed criteria by 10 year returns over 10% and looked at other criteria that helps you find an investment. We look at 10 year return because we are using this for retirement and want to look for long term growth.
- Completed part 6 verbally together.
- Passed out Chapter 2: Money in Review assignment.
- Students each hour had varying amounts of time to work on this.
- Assignment is due at the beginning of the hour on Wednesday.
Monday 4/29/2013
Apr 29th
- Passed out Chapter 8 Text
- Passed out Dave Ramsey Chapter 2, Investment Options video guide
- Began watching Dave Ramsey Chapter 2. Absent students will not be able to make up what they missed while absent. They should write absent and the day they were absent on the front of the packet to explain why it may only be partially completed.
- Some statistics & information about spending in America…
Friday 4/26/2013
Apr 26th
- Time to finish group work on Determining Market Structure chart. Group members should share their two industries with the rest of their group so each student ends up with a complete chart. If you were absent, please turn in your sheet with your two industries you were responsible for.
- Went over answers to Determining Market Structure Chart as a class and for review prior to test.
- Collected Determining Market Structure chart
- Collected Chapter 7 What happens when markets do not work perfectly chart & questions.
- Students took CHAPTER 7 TEST
Thursday 4/25/2013
Apr 25th
- CHAPTER 7 TEST tomorrow (12 questions)
- Time to complete Chapter 7 Market Structures chart & questions.
- This assignment will be collected on Friday before the test.
- When finished with assignment and waiting for others to finish use mobile device to submit examples of positive and negative externalities.
- Reviewed market structures & discussed examples of externalities
- Passed out Determining Market Structure assignment.
- Broke students up into groups for this in-class activity.
- Each row was given 4 sheets of paper (one for each person in the row), each piece of paper had 2 industry descriptions on it.
- Broke up into specialty groups so all students with cereal industry were together, etc.
- Specialty group should determine market structure for each of the 2 industries and provide 2 market characteristics and evidence for each that helped them determine the market structure.
- We will return to our rows tomorrow at the beginning of the hour to complete the chart with the remaining 6 industries.
Wednesday 4/24/2013
Apr 24th
- 10 Things You Might Not Know About Wal-Mart article
- America’s largest retailer is almost bigger than its next 5 competitors combined.
- 7% of U.S. retail sales are from Wal-Mart.
- Wal-Mart accounts for 2.2% of U.S. GDP, meaning one out of every $45 is spent at Wal-Mart.
- The point is that markets are rarely perfectly competitive.
- Competition and Market Structures interactive
- Discussed perfect competition, monopolistic competition, oligopoly, & monopoly with examples.
- Oligopoly example of car companies
- Passed out Chapter 7 text. This is a class set and will be collected back at the end of the hour.
- Passed out Chapter 7 What happens when markets do not work perfectly? assignment.
- Students were given about time in class to work on this assignment. Additional time is necessary to complete the assignment and will be provided at the beginning of the hour on Thursday.
- This assignment will be collected on Friday when we take a 12 question test about market structures and market failures before we begin chapter 8.
Monday 4/22/2013
Apr 22nd
- CHAPTERS 5 & 6 TEST TUESDAY
- I will stay after school today to help people prepare for the test if needed
- Checked to make sure Activity 1-Markets Interact packet assignment from Friday was complete
- If you were absent be sure to show me this assignment so I can give you credit for completion.
- Went over correct answers for this assignment. They are as follows:
- Page 1
- #1 Increase in demand
- #2 Decrease in supply
- #3 Increase in demand
- #4 Decrease in demand
- #5 Decrease in demand
- #6 Increase in supply
- #7 Increase in supply
- #8 Decrease in supply
- #9 Increase in demand
- Page 2
- #1 Decrease in supply
- #2 Decrease in supply
- #3 Decrease in supply
- #4 Decrease in supply & Increase in demand
- #5 Increase in demand
- #6 Decrease in supply
- #7 Decrease in supply
- #8 Decrease in demand
- #9 Decrease in supply
- Page 1
- Reviewed some of the concepts from chapters 5 & 6
- Supply video clips
- Law of demand video clip
- Price video clip- Equilibrium price is hard to determine, markets situations are always changing.
- Passed out Governmental Controls in the Market: Price Floors & Price Ceilings learning
- Explained a price floor using minimum wage as our example.
- Minimum wage keeps wages artificially high and creates a disequilibrium in the marketplace. Specifically it creates unemployment in this example.
- A price floor doesn’t allow the price to go below what the government says.
- Showed John Stossel minimum wage video clip
- Explained a price ceiling on milk and rent control.
- A price ceiling is the government keeping prices artificially low so more people can afford the item.
- Unfortunately this creates a shortage which can result in lower quality products and black markets developing.
- In the example of rent control it keeps rents lower to make housing more affordable, but it creates a lack of housing available. The people who do get apartments get lower quality apartments and unresponsive landlords because they have many people that want the apartment so they don’t fix things when they break.
- Passed out Price Floors & Price Ceilings assignment
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- Students had about 10 minutes to work on this assignment at the end of the hour.
- Due Tuesday at the beginning of the hour. We will go over it prior to the test.
