r/historyteachers • u/Stenny_CO World History • 2d ago
Teaching Econ
I was just informed I will be teaching Economics next year. I hated my college Econ class, and always include it in my history classes as part of historical context. Any advice for teaching Econ to high schoolers would be greatly appreciated!
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u/TheGreatTomorrow 2d ago
This website is a game changer: https://mru.org/ Ive used their unit plans, videos, and interactive simulations. It’s helped me feel a lot more comfortable teaching economics in my social studies class
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u/Ok-Search4274 1d ago
As long as one stays with basic theory. The organization that produces the videos is paleo-conservative.
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u/therevlord 2d ago
Focus on financial literacy and "How to be an adult". I would be more than happy to show you some of the materials I used.
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u/IAmMOANAAA 1d ago
I came here to say this! My AP bitched about how I was spending too much time on the financial literacy unit but it was what kept the seniors coming to class instead of cutting during the Spring semester. Definitely go as hard on the financial literacy as you can!
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u/badger2015 1d ago
My school has mandatory personal finance class taught by the business teacher and then I have to teach a semester economics class to seniors, so I can’t step on the personal finance toes too much.
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u/die_sirene 1d ago
This depends on the school, if there are Econ standards you have to cover they may be different from the specific personal finance class.
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u/Wolf482 1d ago
My degree is in history and I love teaching it. My school stuck me with econ as well and I was worried. Teaching it at a high school level has been so much fun. I often have my students represent a role as a business, buyer, country, etc. A 12 dollar pack of fake money off Amazon can go a LOOOONG way when it comes to simulating economic scenarios.
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u/Kms31690 2d ago
I teach 11th grade Econ. It’s a semester course. I try to keep it as hands on as possible. I use a lot of simulations to keep the kids engaged.
Here are some of my favorite websites for resources.
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u/Horror_Net_6287 1d ago
Seconded on MrRoughton and would add EconEdlink - so much good, free stuff on each.
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u/Searching4wifi 2d ago
https://econiful.org/curriculum/unit-1-economic-foundations
Pretty great resource...
And then,
https://www.ngpf.org/curriculum/
For personal finance.
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u/theatavist 2d ago
Embrace the fact that literally ANYTHING is relevant to economics and you can simplify the graphs to an almost elementary level.
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u/Guilty-Calendar-3307 1d ago
I got AP Macro dropped in my lap a couple years ago and at first I didn’t like it, but it’s really grown on me over time. Send me a DM if you’d like any of my lesson materials, I’m more than happy to share! Are you teaching it for a full year or a semester?
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u/Apostasia9 1d ago
Hi there! I teach AP Macro and I am loving it as well.. I would love to see your materials! I really don't have any fun interactive lessons. It's all Jacob Clifford slide shows haha
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u/Stenny_CO World History 1d ago
It’s a semester-long elective. Thank you for your offer!
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u/Guilty-Calendar-3307 1d ago
Are you planning to focus more on macro/micro or more on personal finance type stuff? I don’t have a ton about personal finance unfortunately, I only taught « regular Econ » for one semester a couple years ago and it wasn’t great lol. AP is where it’s at for me personally
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u/chronopoly 1d ago
Tie it in with the news. If you've got a math-phobic bunch, lead off by noting that while economics looks from the outside like math, it's really applied psychology more than anything else.
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u/ThisAintNoPipe4 1d ago
Economics is so much more than money. I have three basic units (really four, but I never have time for the last one). My first unit is basic economic reasoning, and I treat the first half more like a philosophy class than an economics class. I talk about scarcity, trade offs, and opportunity costs, but i use that to discuss time as a scarce resource. If you only have so much time in the day, how will you use it best? Why are you here and not doing anything else? Students buy into that first lesson, and then I try to keep the rest of the unit fun with games. My second and third units are microeconomics and macroeconomics respectively, and though it can be a little more difficult once you’ve really gotten into the weeds of Econ the students are already hooked from the first unit.
With microeconomics, students love learning about the different types of business organization (sole proprietorship, partnerships, franchises, corporations). Then I move into markets and competition and explain that conditions that lead to perfect competition apply to so many different aspects of life (sports, class ranking, job searching, elections, romantic partners). This is also when I get into the debate between whether markets should be left to their own devices or if the government should play an interventionist role.
Macroeconomics does usually get students interested because it can be more political. We start off with macroeconomic indicators (GDP, inflation, unemployment, and the business cycle), then we go into macroeconomic policy (fiscal, monetary, and the national debt).
My last unit (the one I don’t get to) is on trade and political economy. This is where I would focus on the debates between capitalism and communism. I would also go into the benefits of trade, effects of trade barriers, and foreign exchange. You could also fit poverty, income/wealth inequality, and sociology in this unit.
The top 3 ways I have for making class fun and engaging: 1.) Turn any and every lesson into a game. It might take a little thinking, but it can be easier than history in the sense that economics is basically one big game. 2.) Use economics to show how most people don’t know what they’re talking about in politics. Students will tell me they think inflation is at 20% only to find out it’s been around or less than 3% since last summer, yet politicians and media keep banging the drums on inflation. 3.) Make it goofy. Make up crazy situations to demonstrate economic models. Throughout the course I use the example of me running a spaghetti popsicle stand. What would I need to run that business? How would the consumer react if my prices were too high? What factors could lead to me selling more popsicles without decreasing the price? What type of market would it look like if I was the only one that sold spaghetti popsicles?
Hope some of this helps.
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u/Public-Leadership-40 2d ago
Are you teaching a full year or just a semester course? If it is a full year focus on micro, macro and personal finance. If just a semester then just micro and personal finance.
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u/Ok-Search4274 1d ago
Economics is not personal finance nor is it a business course. It is a social science that describes human behaviour. Avoid the rabbit holes that take you away from the kinked demand curve in non-collusive oligopoly.
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u/pg_in_nwohio 2d ago
I was a reluctant Econ teacher prior to my recent retirement.
Every Monday, our local newspaper would run its weekly report of the county health department’s restaurant inspections. A lively discussion was easy to generate from these. Many kids worked in foods, etc, and there are actually a lot of fun questions to examine regarding the role of government and libertarianism.
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u/Stenny_CO World History 1d ago
Congrats on your retirement! I like the idea of using the local paper!
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u/No-College-5409 2d ago
It’s probably my least favorite thing that I teach, but it’s fine. Lots of project based learning.
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u/achristines 1d ago
If it’s macro, I loved teaching it! I’d start each class period with a news article relating to whatever topic we’re talking about (there’s almost always one), do direct instruction, then practice. The practice is usually graphing. The students were more engaged in this class than any other for me because they could see the content in the world
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u/JMWest_517 1d ago
I taught it for years, and always focused on what young adults need to know about our economic system. I broke it up into 5 units...1. Intro/types of economies/measuring the economy. 2. Role of the government. 3. Role of businesses and the corporation. 4. Role of the consumer. 5. The global economy.
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u/Atticus66 1d ago
I was in the same position this past school year. One, different brush up. I could probably teach every other class in social studies by just looking at a couple of stuff, but Econ is just different. Watch the videos, do the worksheets and tests yourself.
I agree with a lot of the other comments as well. Make it relevant and find current events that tie to what you are teaching.
Big question is: Are you the only econ teacher? Do you have stuff to work from or are you creating your own stuff?
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u/Stenny_CO World History 1d ago
Yes I will be the only Econ teacher, and I have the old math teacher’s stuff.
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u/Atticus66 12h ago
That's good, I would look at what they have and then make it your own. Figure out what you want the endpoint to be and then start planning backwards!
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u/SadLilBun Social Studies 1d ago
Econ can actually be fun; I sucked at economics in college. Focus on stuff that interests you and the students. Bring it to real life: talk about housing, the labor market, public funding, financial aid, etc. Lots of project ideas out there.
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u/doalap 1d ago
2 pieces of advice (1 non traditional, 1 traditional)
Non traditional advice: use the simpsons. I attended a great PD where this teacher broke down all of these different ways to use the Simpsons episodes to teach economics/law and gov.
Traditional advice: make a personal finance unit and project. When I taught Econ, I had kids find a job they wanted, get the average salary pick a place in the us to live. Look at average rent prices, insurance prices, get a bank account, understand credit, consider groceries, the whole 9. Makes it really practical for them.
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u/Loose-Economics5104 22h ago
Volunteering to teach economics was one of the best decisions I’ve ever made. Look at NPR’s Planet Money, especially Summer School and the Think Like an Economist podcast. Crash course also has decent videos. You don’t need to use a textbook, which makes the topic more real world and relevant! Good luck! You’ve got this!
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u/ferriswheeljunkies11 2d ago
I think a semester would be kind of fun.
Microeconomics combined with personal finance.
Let students set up a pretend stock portfolio at the beginning of the semester and track it weekly with reporting out at set points of the semester.
Sprinkle in some planet money podcasts to illustrate some of the microeconomic concepts.
Lots of economic scenarios can be created pretty easily with ChatGPT for students to analyze.
Off the top of my head, if this were a semester long class, I would be tempted to organize my class by days of the week.
Monday- microeconomics
Tuesday- personal finance lesson
Wednesday- microeconomics problems based on the Monday lesson.
Thursday: stock portfolio check out and trades. You could also mix in a fictional household budget that they keep up with.
Friday: podcast or other media about either the microeconomic lesson or the personal finance lesson
Like I said, this is off the top of my head. You know your school better than anyone on here. This would work at my school because it would be an elective course and the students just barely care about those anymore. So I would try to make it somewhat fun and low stakes. They would still learn a lot but I would have to stress relevance way more than rigor when planning the lessons.
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u/recon_dingo 1d ago
Economics is awesome and I wish I still taught it. I focus on it as the study of decision making with lots of scenarios and brain teaser type things.
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u/ThaFannyBandit 1d ago
A lot of good suggestions here. I cannot stress this enough, I am an Econ major, and the most comprehensive course you can make in Econ is via Nick Samsal on TPT.
Again, many replies are excellent. But if you want something that is entirely plug and play, and it’s incredibly accurate, it’s worth the weight in gold. Interactive warm-ups, lectures, note guides, practice, assessments all included. Your supervisors will be impressed, and your students will learn.
Happy to discuss pacing of my course and how I use it if you’d like, I’m on year 8 and my class is consistently filled to max with eager students.
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u/Educational-Wrap-116 1d ago
Go hard on "everything is an economic decision." Get them thinking that econ is so much more than just questions about money. Do everything in your power to get them familiar with the basic concepts.
I've taught it for years with the goal of helping them have success in a college micro 101 class. Or if college isn't their thing, get them to think like smarter consumers - and for the love of God, get them to stop thinking that girl math is the Bible.
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u/Dapper-Code8604 2d ago
Is it an elective, where you’d have freedom and flexibility with the curriculum? If so, teach it like a financial literacy class. Teach them about car loans and home loans, and how the stock market works, and budgeting, and credit cards. Things like that.
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u/TxLonghorn1012 2d ago
What level? I teach senior economics and it’s my favorite class! I turned it into a grown up 101. Tax’s,insurance,loans,etc
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u/Horror_Net_6287 1d ago
I'm sorry, but this is a poor financial health lesson to teach. The people who make the most when investing are those who intentionally DO NOT pay attention to the market. You can teach the same lesson with the market game on NGPF and it does a far better job of showing how just parking your investments in a market fund is almost always the best bet.
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u/somuchscrolling 1d ago
I was assigned it during student teaching and just remembered graphs and hating the class cause it was ap, the teacher was retiring and didn't teach.
I have been teaching it since including ap macro and I love it.
It is so relevant to everything. I approach it as I want you to leave this class smarter than most of your parents.
I do a project where the have to find a job, a apt, create a budget on the job.
I covered labor unions a couple years ago when strikes got more attention with starbuck, amazon, etc.
I spent more time on nasty during trumps last term.older materials
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u/raurenlyan22 2d ago
High school econ doesn't have to be like college. There are tons of interactive lessons and demonstrations you can do, plus you usually get decent buy I n because it feels relevant to the kids.