This spring, Charles Schwab Foundation teamed up with DonorsChoose to inspire and uncover teachers’ best-in-class ideas for helping students strengthen their financial literacy skills. We called on teachers across the country to submit a long-term plan or idea for inspiring a more financially literate student generation, and a panel of financial literacy champions chose the most innovative projects.
Now, they’re calling on you to vote for your favorite project, and the winning teacher will receive $1,000 in DonorsChoose to put toward their next great idea! Check out the finalists’ projects to learn how these teachers are bringing financial literacy to life for their students. Once you’ve reviewed the projects, vote for your favorite.
Top 10 Projects
Vote for One
Entrepreneurs in the Making
Ms. Bains | Grades PreK–2 | Sacramento, CA
Ms. Baines is helping her kindergartners build an even brighter future by providing a strong foundation in basic financial literacy principles.
Making Sense of Money And Becoming Financially Responsible
Ms. Trochez MacLean | Grades PreK–2 | Los Angeles, CA
Ms. Trochez MacLean is helping her students develop coin recognition, understand the importance of saving, learn how to determine the values of different coin combinations, and grasp the difference between wants and needs.
Roller Coasters + Rube Goldberg = Financial Literacy!
Mrs. Martel | Grades PreK–2 | Toccoa, GA
Mrs. Martel is engaging her students in a combination of science and financial literacy as they budget for, plan, and will ultimately build model roller coasters in class.
Teaching Money Skills and Inspiring Kindness
Ms. R. | Grades PreK–2 | Tucson, AZ
Guided by the belief that children often learn best by following the examples of others, Ms. R. will create math and financial literacy lessons based on engaging books with characters who use money to help others and promote kindness.
Classroom Transformation: Classroom Economy!
Ms. Witherell | Grades 3-5 | Greenfield, MA
Ms. Witherell wants to turn her classroom into an economic learning center with several stations for students to work on financial literacy. At the end of each activity, the class will debrief together on what they learn from each station, how they were able to save money, and the economic challenges they faced.
Entrepreneurial Skills With Osmo Pizza Co.
Mrs. Brown | Grades 3-5 | Van Buren, AR
Mrs. Brown will use her Osmo Pizza kit to teach her students real-world math, financial literacy concepts, and emotional intelligence.
Sustainable Financing
Dr. Robinson | Grades 3-5 | Raleigh, NC
Dr. Robinson will engage her students in developing a business plan for creating sustainable products in class, which they’ll then learn how to market. Their proceeds will ultimately go to support real-life international micro-loans students will help select through the nonprofit KIVA!
Creating a Mini Classroom Economy
Ms. Posluszny | Grades 6-8 | Union City, NJ
Ms. Posluszny is bringing real-world scenarios into her classroom, such as, performing jobs to earn (pretend) money to help her students experience first hand the impact of their decisions to save, spend, and budget.
Tales from the Crypto (Currency) Keeper
Mrs. Novicky | Grades 9-12 | Akron, OH
Mrs. Novicky's students will experience how blockchain and cryptocurrency work through the development of a token economy, where students will create a cryptocurrency, and then utilize that cryptocurrency in class to manufacture product, ultimately demonstrating cryptocurrency's roll in the transfer of goods.
The Big Deal Behind the New Deal!
Mr. Barbosa | Grades 9-12 | Mission, TX
Mr. Barbosa and his students will explore the different ways the New Deal provided for improvements and infrastructure in our National Parks and how the New Deal attempted to address and provide for the different budgetary needs of individuals during the Great Depression.
Help the teacher who created your favorite project do even more for their students by submitting your vote now. Voting will be open from September 2 to September 24 at 11:59 pm EST. You may only vote once.
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