Period 6: Financial Collapse, Day 6

The warm up question today was about the tuition rates at really excellent universities. This is a picture I took at Princeton University, where my brother went to college. This was actually his dorm building!

Hi everyone,

A fairly good work day in class. I do think many of you need to manage your time a bit better, because many students were not able to finish the financial crisis paper today. Please get it in to me ASAP.

Soundtrack: “I Want You Back” by *NSYNC. Selected for today because Chapter 3 is about Demand (what people want). Lyrics here.

AGENDA 4/8/13:
Warm Up
Financial Crisis Final (Due at end of class)
Chapter 3 LTs

Homework: Finish Chapter 3 LTs for notecard on test. Check the blog!

Warm Up #14: Why don’t top-ranked private universities charge higher tuition than many of their lower-ranked counterparts?

If the question is confusing, think: why doesn't Harvard charge double what Princeton charges for tuition?

Financial Crisis Final: In case you spaced on this and need to see the assignment again, here it is:

Google Drive - Financial Crisis Final Essay/Visual Assignment

This was due at the end of class. If you did not finish, please turn it in to me ASAP (it will go on your third quarter grades).

Chapter 3 LTs: We are moving on to a new chapter in the textbook! If you missed class, please download the Chapter 3 Learning Targets and complete them for Wednesday:

Google Drive - Chapter 3 Learning Target Assignment

Be ready to go on these next class! We will review them with the PowerPoint and start studying up for the Chapter 3 test, which will probably be next week.

Period 6: Financial Collapse, Day 5

Part of the podcast we listened to today had to do with the housing market in New York City. I took this picture in 2011, of some apartments in NYC. I really like the black and white here!

Dear students,

A day of finishing and moving on. Plenty of stuff to go over, so read on!

Soundtrack: "In the Deep" by Bird York (from the Crash soundtrack). Selected because it is nice and calming and because it has to do with crash (like the financial crash). Lyrics here.

AGENDA 4/4/13:

Warm Up

Capitalism: A Love Story

Financial Collapse Final

Finish Bad Bank

Homework: Finish one page of the Financial Collapse final project (a two page written paper and visual representation). Be ready to complete the rest within 30 minutes or so during class on Monday.

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Warm Up: This should be warm up #13 in your notebook. The question was: "Why is the proportion of aluminum cans recycled in Brazil much higher than in the United States?"

Great to get back in the swing of things with this. Lots of great possible answers thrown out, as usual!

Capitalism: A Love Story: We finished the movie (there was only about 5 minutes left) and went over the answers on the worksheet. If you lost the worksheet, here it is to download. If you missed some or all of the movie, you can watch it online here.

Financial Collapse Final: Before finishing with the NPR podcast, I passed out the assignment for the end of the financial collapse unit, which you can download here:

Google Drive: Financial Collapse Final Assignment

Basically, I want you to write a two page paper (it is okay if it is typed, two pages, double spaced) about the financial crisis in 2008. What happened? Use at least five of the terms we defined in class. You should also give your opinion on the 700 billion dollar bailout at some point.

Finally, you should make some sort of visual representation of what happened in the crisis.

Try to have the majority of this done by Monday, so you can finish it in class!

Finish Bad Bank: For most of the rest of class, we listened to the last part of Bad Bank, the NPR podcast that helped to explain the crisis. Check it out here, if you missed it (transcript also available at the site):

ThisAmericanLife.com - "Bad Bank" Podcast

It appeared to me that most of the class was paying attention to this, instead of writing (which was fine), so I decreased the homework for a bit.

Next class, you need to bring in your economics textbook, as we are going to start Chapter 3! Have a great weekend!

Period 6: Financial Collapse, Day 4

One of the places that Michael Moore goes in Capitalism: A Love Story is here, the National Archives building in Washington DC. I took this picture on Spring Break in 2010.

Hi everyone,

It was so nice to have you back in class today! I hope your breaks were nice and positive. Hopefully you are rested and ready to finish out the semester!

Soundtrack: "Welcome Back" by Ma$e. Selected today for obvious reasons. Lyrics here.

AGENDA 4/2/13
Spring Break Report
Capitalism: A Love Story

Homework: Read the blog! Turn in any missing work!
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Spring Break Report: Instead of a warm up, we went around the room and said one thing we liked about the break and one thing we didn't like. It was great to briefly hear about what you were up to!

I also updated all of the grades on the board. The notebook check #2 and Chapter 2 Learning Targets were the newest entries. You should know exactly where you stand in my class! Third quarter grades are due next week.

Capitalism: A Love Story: We just about finished the movie today in class (we maybe have 10 minutes left). Again, so many of the themes and concepts that we have been talking about with Chapter 2 (on free enterprise) and with the NPR podcasts were referenced! In case you missed today, here is a link to watch the movie online.

Your worksheet should be just about complete at this point. If you somehow lost your worksheet, you can print off another copy here:

Google Drive - Capitalism: A Love Story Worksheet

See you on Thursday!

Period 6: Financial Collapse - Day 3

Today, we continued watching "Capitalism: A Love Story" in class. I took this picture in Love Park, Philadelphia (known as "The City of Brotherly Love") in 2011. 

Hi everyone,

Welcome to Spring Break - for some of you, the last Spring Break of your high school career! We had a nice and easy class before the break. Here's what happened:

Soundtrack: "Love Lockdown" by Kanye West. Chosen for today because of the word "love" in the title and the lyrics, which are about a dysfunctional relationship ("Capitalism: A Love Story" has a similar theme).

AGENDA 3/22/13

Grades Talk

Bad Bank, Continued

Capitalism: A Love Story

Homework: Make sure to complete any missing work, because once break is over, we will come back and start in on Chapter 3. Have a great and safe Spring Break!

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Grades Talk: I posted updated grades in the classroom. You should know where you are at! Notebooks were due to be checked today.

Bad Bank, Continued: We listened to another 15 minutes or so of the NPR podcast, while I explained some of the terms.

Capitalism: A Love Story: We continued watching this documentary.

Period 6: Financial Collapse - Day 2

The US Capitol building in Washington, D.C. - where Congress voted to provide bailout money to banks during the financial crisis we are learning about in class! I took this picture during Spring Break of 2010.

Dear class,

I really enjoyed the discussion and questions today! My biggest fear with teaching is that the content is too boring. Hopefully, we managed to make it so that learning about all of these terms and new information was interesting. Read on to see what we did!

Soundtrack: “Is This Love?” by Bob Marley. Selected for today because of the film we started watching. Lyrics are here.

AGENDA 3/20/13:
Warm Up
Bad Bank
Capitalism: A Love Story

Homework: Check the blog!

Warm Up: (#12 in your notebook) Why do budget airlines charge for onboard meals (which are typically free on luxury airlines), while luxury hotels charge for Internet access (which is typically free at budget hotels)?

Again, a really good discussion of possible reasons for this in class. Lots of great economic thinking! This is a situation that I frequently encounter when traveling, so it is interesting to learn about the reasons behind the different marketing choices.

Bad Bank: The last NPR podcast about the financial crisis! In class, we went through the main terms - I had students write down the definitions from the top of this paper:

Google Drive: "Bad Bank" Definitions and Transcript

During the middle of this, a great conversation came up about where the United States gets oil. Here is a great article, with a graph that is somewhat more recent than the chart I showed the class: NPR.org: Where Does America Get Oil? You May Be Surprised.

After the definitions, we started listening to the (really excellent, in my opinion) podcast about the financial crisis and bailout. Here it is if you wanted to listen again or preview next class:

ThisAmericanLife.org - 375: "Bad Bank" Podcast

During the podcast, I paused and showed the class how to make a bank balance sheet with the information that was being given. The podcast uses the funny example of a dollhouse mortgage at a bank to show how the real life financial crisis happened. I stopped the episode about 15 minutes in, to move on and stop everyone from being bored. We will come back to this next class.

Capitalism: A Love Story - Next, we started watching this film by Michael Moore. I made sure to note that the film has an obvious bias to it, and that we will discuss what this is as we watch. To not mention this would be basically showing propaganda as fact, haha. It really is a great film to watch and discuss, especially at the end of the Free Enterprise chapter. Here is the worksheet that I passed out:

Google Drive: "Capitalism: A Love Story" Worksheet

We stopped about 15 minutes into this, as well. We will return to it next class!

Please make sure to come and take the Chapter 2 test if you have not taken it yet. Also, please turn in the Chapter 2 review packet. I will post updated grades on Friday. :-)

Period 6: Financial Collapse - Day 1

The now famous ball of yarn, all wrapped back up!

Hi everyone,

Today was a pretty laid back day. We did not really get to any new content, but that is fine. It was mostly reviewing the answers from the test and the yarn activity.

Soundtrack: “We Belong Together” by Mariah Carey. Selected for today because of the class unity activity. Lyrics here.

AGENDA 3/18/13:
Warm Up
Test Review
Class Unity Activity
Bad Bank

Homework: Check the blog! Make sure your notebook is ready to be checked!
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Warm Up: (#11 in your notebook) Why is milk sold in rectangular containers, while soft drinks are sold in round ones?

At first, it seemed like the class had no clue, but with the help of both of these items being in class (!!!) we were able to figure out possible answers. Thanks for the good discussion!

Test Review: As it sounds, we went over the answers to the Chapter 2 test. Unfortunately, this meant that many of the students that missed last class (and the test) had to go study outside. Thus, I tried to be somewhat quick in my explanations.

Class Unity Activity: This was to get away from the usual dynamic of me up in front of the room, talking. We passed a ball of yarn away and connected to each other using our family backgrounds. Economically, the world is increasingly become a global competition of markets, because of the internet and air travel (among other inventions). This was a fun way to think about those connections. We finished right at the end of class, so we will come back to the financial collapse podcast next time.