One of the top complaints people have about school is “I never learned about the important things like taxes, budgeting, loans, credit cards, etc.” Luckily for you, creating a classroom economy in your math class can alleviate that.
However, starting and maintaining a classroom economy is a huge undertaking. That’s why I suggest using an online platform, like Stash 101 to host it.
What is Stash 101?
Stash 101 is an online simulation that helps students become financially responsible. It’s totally free and provides space for students to practice with checking accounts, credit cards, and even investing.
You can create classes and have students sign up with a unique code. This allows you to have easy access to each student account. Plus then students can check their own account balance at any point.
In addition, it provides you with a “how to” course and a financial literacy course you can implement with your students.
The Teacher Dashboard
Once you have created your account, this is what your teacher dashboard on Stash 101 will look like. This is where you can see the overview of how much each student has in their account, their net worth, and even access their accounts if needed.
In the blue menu bar, you can move through students, classroom, economy, investments, and resources.
Classroom
Under this tab, you will be able to change the announcement that each student sees when they log in. I use this for a reminder for upcoming bills, assessment days, or a joke of the day.
One of my students’ favorite features can be found in this tab as well: the 101 Wheel.
The 101 Wheel is a way to integrate the unexpected costs of life, both positively and negatively. You get to choose the frequency of which students can spin the wheel. I did it daily, but I might change that in the future.
Some of the items I had on the wheel were “Vet Check up-75”, “Birthday Check +10”, “Fell for an Internet Scam -50”, etc.
One glitch that happened for me and my students was sometimes some students wouldn’t be able to spin the wheel. It would show that they had zero spins available. My suggestion is this: Once you set the days and frequency, DON’T CHANGE IT. Once I started changing things, it caused issues for students that I couldn’t fix.
Economy
Under this tab, you will find some exciting things that bring the classroom economy to life. There are more items, but these are the ones I used frequently.
- Action Items
- This is where you can allow extra money to be deposited or withdrawn. I used things such as “Daily Attendance +1” or “Bathroom Pass -30”
- Assets
- This is where you would add “Desk” for students to purchase. Part of the classroom economy is students paying rent for their desk. Once they have enough money saved up, they can purchase their desk.
- Bills
- This goes along with the assets. My students paid rent and utilities on the first of every month. In this “Bills” tab, I set it up to automatically deduct from their account.
- Jobs
- The “Jobs” tab is where you will add the student jobs. This is how students will earn their paycheck. You have to add each job and their hourly pay. I go more in depth about how student jobs work here.
Resources
Under this tab you will find two important items: Lesson Plans and Training.
The lesson plans are the financial literacy course. Stash 101 has recently expanded it to include levels for primary, secondary, and young adults. I sprinkled these lessons in once a week for about 15 minutes or whenever I had extra time in the class period.
The training is mostly how to use the software and platform to its full capacity. It covers everything from how to add students, add bills, to inspiration from other educators.
The Student Dashboard
You can see that it has similarities to the Teacher Dashboard. Students, when they log in, can see the announcements, the financial tip of the day, and their account overview.
Here is where students can purchase their desk, transfer money between classmates, pay off their credit card and spin the 101 Wheel.
When students scroll down further, they can see all of their transactions. Whether that’s automatic bills, transfers they have made or received, and any money won or lost from the wheel.
One thing I want to call attention to the Money Overview section. My students had a hard time grasping what the different ones meant.
The Assets is the cash students have in their checking accounts plus their desk if they have purchased that. If you have the investments feature on, this will be calculated in the assets value as well.
The Liabilities are the bills students have. I used rent and internet; you can do the same, or make different ones. This is also were credit card debt will show up.
Monthly Income is the amount the student makes from their job(s) each month.
I had it scheduled to have students receive paychecks every Monday, but the overview merges them together to show a monthly total.
Monthly Expenses is the bills that will be taken out over the month.
The Net Income was the one my students would struggle with. They’d see a small or negative number and panic. The net income shows their monthly income minus their monthly expenses. It does not factor in the cash in their checking account.
Summary
Using Stash 101 was a life saver for my classroom economy. It allowed me to focus on the implementation of the classroom economy rather than the clerical aspects.
If you believe in or use PBIS, this is a great tool to help give those positive incentives for students that aren’t candy or toys.
Overall, I will continue to use Stash 101 for my classroom economy. Please send me your questions here:
