With over 60,000 personal finance teachers already using NGPF materials in their classrooms nationwide, we've been excited to push into math classrooms as well. What better way to teach algebra fundamentals than putting them into a context students are so curious to learn about -- money! So, this past week we made our NCTM Virtual Conference debut, and the math teachers attending did NOT disappoint. I wanted to share some amazing insights these educators had...

In Thursday's workshop, The Perfect Math Credit: NGPF's Financial Algebra, teachers in the live session looked at Lesson 3.7: Solving by Substitution, and then I asked them, if they were using the lesson, "What pieces would you use, and what pieces would you modify?" NGPF curricular resources always exhibit the 4 Cs by being Current (up-to-the-minute), Comprehensive (everything you'll need for a successful lesson), Curated (by our expert team of curriculum designers), and Customizable (you should never feel beholden to what's written on the NGPF lesson guide -- you're the captain of your class, so make whatever changes you need!). You can check out how the experts in Thursday's session said they'd customize Lesson 3.7. How would you use or modify this same lesson? 

In Friday's workshop, NGPF Math on a Mission: Finance Knowledge for All, educators in that session were given this Application choice board: 

I asked, "How would YOU use this Application in YOUR class with YOUR students?" and there were some excellent ideas posted for all 4. You can explore their ideas on this copy of the Nearpod Collab Board. And, if you're interested to try any of these 3-tiered problem sets in your own class, these are the direct links to the activities and their answer keys: 

1. Calculating Taxes Using Rational Numbers
2. Expected Value, Insurance, and the Lottery
3. Graphing Functions to Analyze a Paycheck
4. Exponential Change in Investments and Cars

NGPF is thrilled we'll be at the NCTM Annual Meeting & Exposition, live in Washington DC during the month of October. Hope to share with and learn from lots of amazing math teachers there as well!

About the Author

Jessica Endlich

When I started working at Next Gen Personal Finance, it's as though my undergraduate degree in finance, followed by ten years as an educator in an NYC public high school, suddenly all made sense.