Personal Finance Syllabus

Course Content

Personal Finance is a one semester course designed to inform students how individual choices directly influence occupational goals and future earnings potential. Real world topics covered will include income, money management, spending and credit, as well as saving and investing. The NEFE (National Endowment for Financial Education) High School Financial Planning Program will be used.

Unit topics are:

1. Your Financial Plan: Where it all Begins
2. Budgeting: Making the Most of Your Money
3. Investing: Making Money Work for You
4. Good Debt, Bad Debt: Using Credit Wisely
5. Your Money: Keepint it Safe and Secure
6. Insurance: Protecting What You Have
7. Your Career: Doing What Matters Most

Learning Expectations

Students will design personal and household budgets; simulate use of checking and saving accounts; demonstrate knowledge of finance, debt, and credit management; and evaluate and understand insurance and taxes. This course will provide a foundational understanding for making informed personal financial decisions.

Course Standards  

Analyze factors affecting income throughout the life span.
Evaluate practices for successful money management.
Analyze the risks, costs and benefits of financial management decisions.
Investigate opportunities available for saving and investing.
Apply employability skills as an integral part of the personal finance curriculum.

Grade Components

General Procedures and Guidelines

1. Have your student guide, paper, pencil or pen and your pocket folder at your seat when class begins.
2. Respect the people, equipment, and furnishings of the lab (no writing in books or on equipment or desks). It’s inappropriate to move, deface, or tamper with equipment; put down classmates; use profane language; or roughhouse.
3. Don't login unless asked to do so.
4. Do not change the background on your desktop.
5. Don't use gum, candy, food, or drink other than water in the lab.
6. Don’t leave class without permission. Complete the hall pass page of the CA handbook and bring it to me to sign before you leave. Be back ASAP - not more than 5 minutes.
7. Do your own work and nobody else’s. See CA’s cheating policy in the bulletin.
8. Don’t do work for another class without permission. If you finish your assignment early, you may do work for another class.
9. Be an active participant in group work.
10. Push chair in before leaving, and put away your pocket folder and papers.
11. Stay in your own seating area until the bell rings – don’t wait by the door. Use the front door only when coming to class.
    
    Class participation points will be lost for not following classroom procedures given above.

Handing in Papers and Filing Procedures

A. When you come in to class, pick up your pocket folder from the file box on the table .

B. What you’ll find in your pocket folder:

(1) Graded papers or your student guide: Look them over and then file them in the filing cabinet in your manila folder.

(2) Papers returned with more to do - If there’s no grade on a paper we return, but you find a note asking you to complete an assignment and hand it in again, don’t file it in the filing cabinet. Instead, complete the work and hand it in again, placing it in the Lessons basket on my desk.

(3) Work in process - papers you need to complete before handing in that you left there last class period.

C. Papers you've completed that we need to grade: Turn them into the Lessons basket on my desk

Attendance Policy  

Attendance in high school is very important, especially in a class where you are learning a skill. Regular practice helps master a skill. Furthermore, in the Business Education Department, most class periods students work at their own pace and the instructions are given at the beginning of class. If a student is tardy to class, he or she will miss vital information which can make completing the assignment difficult.

ABSENCES:

 The following absences are excused through the office:

Illness, medical or court appointments, death in the immediate family member, counseling (must pre-arranged with the teacher), authorized school trips, and family days pre-arranged and approved through Administrative Council.
You should take your excuse to the front office as soon as you return from being absent or have your parent call the front office the morning of the absence. The excuse must be in to the office within two days from the time the attendance is posted in the school office.

TARDIES:

1. Tardies must be excused by teachers or staff in writing. Bring it with you to class.
2. If you are not in the room when the bell rings, you are tardy.
3. Emergency tardies must be pre-arranged with me (e.g., restroom trips).
4. If you come late, leave a note on my desk saying you’re tardy with your full name on it as a reminder for me to change your absence to a tardy.
5. Three unexcused tardies equal one unexcused absence.
6. The school’s announced attendance policy will be applied as unexcused absences and tardies accumulate. Avoid these at all cost. Your attendance record follows you when you go on from CA. See the CA Handbook for consequences of poor attendance.

MAKE-UP WORK:  

1. Make-up work will only be accepted for excused absences.
2. Deadlines for make-up work are at my discretion, with one class period given for each period missed, generally speaking.
3. Please see me the day you return to school to get assignments and due dates.
4. Check my assignment page for assignments, test dates, etc. Be prepared to make up a test missed on the first day you’re back in class, unless previous arrangements are made.

To Contact me:

If you need to call me at home in the evening, please call before 9 p.m. My number is in the CA Handbook. If you have questions about assignments missed if you were absent, refer to my assignments page.