Period 6: What Is Economics? Day 1

As part of my letter to the class, I mentioned that I went to the Olympics in London last summer. This is a picture of my view for the Opening Ceremony. I have this framed on my wall. :-)

Hello everyone!

Thank you for a great first class. Obviously, we had quite a lot to go over. I appreciated your attention during the syllabus and letter reading, and I hope it was somewhat interesting! I am really looking forward to learning all of your names and getting to know you a bit better. On to the recap:

Soundtrack: “Changes” by 2Pac. Lyrics here. I always use this song for new classes, because I hope that my classroom is at least a little bit of a change from what you are used to.

AGENDA 2/5/13:
Introduction to Class
Course Syllabus
Letter to Class/Mr. Fritz
What is Economics?

Homework: Have your syllabus signed by parent and returned. Get a spiral notebook for class. Check the blog, post a comment!
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Introduction to Class: I went over how the class will run, including the fact that you will now have second lunch after our period meets. On most days, that means you will come directly to N116 after Period 4, and our class will start at 11:30 AM. We made this change because many of you have early release from school - meaning you will be free to go after our class meets. That saves you a whole 32 minutes. It also means that Economics is harder to skip. :-)

Course Syllabus: I read over the course syllabus, which we would like you to have signed by a parent/guardian. Especially have them note the blog address, so they can follow along if they want to. If you somehow lost the paper, you can download and print off another here:

Google Docs: Economics Semester 2 Syllabus

Letter to Class/Mr. Fritz: I always start my classes off with a letter from me, so you can get to know a little more about who I am as a person and a teacher. I also had you write back to me - I asked for around a page. As I said above, I am really looking forward to reading these and responding! I really appreciate your effort here.

What is Economics? For the last part of class, I had you respond to this question: "Why are there more students in each class this year?" I really enjoyed the brainstorming of responses. We did not quite have enough time to talk through it all, but I did mention that economics can be divided into two main areas of study: microeconomics (smaller in scope) and macroeconomics (bigger). The study of both of these provides the answer to everyday questions such as the one I posed. Look forward to more of this type of questioning during our warm up time.

Please remember to bring a notebook, your signed syllabus, and post a comment here on the blog for next class! Let me know if you need help with any of these. Thank you again for a great first day!