Teaching+Strategies+for+the+Business+Education+Classroom

Please share strategies that you use in your Business Education classroom:

Activating Learning in the Business Education classroom: No matter what business subject you are teaching, you can use the Internet and events in the world of business to make connections to the lesson of the day. In Accounting you can find financial documents on the Internet or explore corporate websites in addiditon to using references to the economic health of our nation. In Business Law, I will often activate learning by having students look up a vocabulary word on the Internet in 3 different web sites. When you cut them loose on the Internet, they quickly get engaged in learning and they want to share with others what their assigned term means. ~EEG

I recently used the new healthcare reform bill as an activating strategy in my insurance unit. I spent one class having students research the bill, form opinions on the bill, and answer questions. The second class I had them debate whether or not the bill was positive or negative for the country. The students got really into the debate and most were engaged. ~GRL

Extending Activities give students the opportunity to explore subject matter deeper than direct teaching allows. Currently, my Consumer Skills class is learning about Credit--the good and the bad. We __learn__ how to get credit and __focus__ on how to maintain good credit but often times __skim__ over what can happen when your good credit goes bad. Bankruptcy is never an ideal place to be and in fact can be a maze of confusing information. The assignmet given asks students to go out to the internet to research the difference between filing for Chapter 7 and Chapter 13 (chart of similarities and differences) and then to bring into perspective (summary paragraph or bulleted list) the legislation approved by Congress and signed by President Bush in 2005.~ DMS

I used a podcast to engage my 9th grade students in their learning activity for today's lesson. They have never been more focused than working through that lesson! I nailed it -- used a piece of technology that appeals to their learning style. Creating the podcast was really very simple. I wrote a script...talking just like I do in a lesson--asking questions such as "Do you see on p. 5 there are red circles with numbers?" They were instructed to read, write, complete a worksheet, and create a Publisher document. Not one person had a question. They could go back and listen to the podcast as many times as needed to hear my instructions. It sure took a lot of strain off of me because of the repeated questions that typically occur because students can't remember everything the teacher says and they don't always read the directions. Wow! This was great. ~EEG