WeSeed to Teach the Stock Market and Kidblog to Process

I might sound a little bright eyed but I had another fabulous week at school with the kiddos. I do think that blogging about my experiences puts me in a different mindset and I look at every unit as an opportunity to spread my wings.
We received new NH State Social Studies Standards about 6 years ago and we finally completed them about three years ago. I threw myself into aligning and reworking and at the end of every year I skipped the same unit: the stock market. We have a singleton set of standards on personal finance and my grade received the standard that has students creating and implementing an investment strategy. Interesting? Yes! Fascinating? Sure! Do I understand the stock market.....heck to the no!
Don't get me wrong.,,, I understand the basics of the stock market but I really like to be an expert when I teach. I made the decision that this would be the year I did the stock market and I even signed up for the national stock market challenge.... and chickened out. Before he became an amazing math teacher, my husband actually worked in finance so I finally went to him with a list of about thirty questions and he remediated me through the process. Now I just had to find the right vehicle for our challenge but I was having no luck.
About three years ago I found this amazing stock market simulation website but my hard drive blew and all my bookmarks were lost. I was strolling in the Edmodo chat rooms, about a wee ago, when I saw someone mention the fabulous website I lost three years ago. Its called WeSeed. This website is amazing!

It is made for anyone who is interested in learning to play the market. It is perfect for teachers because you can have the students join your group and you are able to track them. It also offers lesson plans and printables. Students are able to make a portfolio.

They can also do research on companies, read the most recent news on them and chat with other faux buyers of the stock.

I took the lessons and tweaked them to fit what I needed (Click here for the activities). Students were exposed to activities that immersed them in both the stock market and this particular website. We spent about four days in the computer lab and completed the first third of the packet. We will be going to the computer lab in two weeks to check in and the winner, at the end of June, is going to get a pizza party.
The kids adored this unit. They seriously couldn't get enough of it. Because the website did all the work for me, I could focus on talking to the kids about things like stocks splitting and penny stocks. One of my paraprofessionals (who started her own account:) ) said her favorite part was listening to the conversations. She said she loved hearing them talk about stuff they were learning!

Kidblogs....
In order for them to process and act as guinea pigs for next year's class, my students created Kidblog accounts and wrote their first blog entry on their initial investment experience.

I love Kidblog! It is easy to use and seamless since you can upload from Google Drive. The kids needed limited directions to sign up and were writing their first blog entry within 10 minutes (if they werent spending 20 minutes on finding the right avatar). The kids loved that they could personalize it with backgrounds and avatars, I love that they could personalize it with MINIMAL backgrounds and avatars. What I really love is that at the end of the year, I will have a a writing portfolio that I could easily share with the high school when they are considering placement.
I'm on to Andrew Jackson, but I'm really happy I left my comfort zone and did this unit. It was one of the best ones I did this year.

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