Final Post: Reflection of Course

Howdy Folks, 

I had to add in my adoration for country music and lifestyle in these blog posts somewhere! In all seriousness, this post is simply my reflection of the course. 

First and foremost, the importance of collaboration in this course is something that I will carry with me throughout my teaching career. The Unit Plan is the perfect example of the importance of collaboration, without my colleagues all working on this together, the task would have been overwhelming and our ideas wouldn't have been as enriched and integrated as they became! 

This course, while supposedly by the course title is specifically Social Studies it became, in fact, more than just Social Studies in the sense of the Ontario Curriculum, but more importantly about how to integrate subjects and hidden curriculum cross-curricularily effectively and while engaging our students. On a weekly basis, all of the resources that we engage with provide the opportunity to engage with insightful and self-reflexive opportunities, and these various methods that I reflected upon are ones that I will truly utilize in my future classroom. 

Additionally, I deeply appreciate the various online components of this course as they can be easily integrated into the Junior/Intermediate Classroom. As educators, we're always modeling behaviour for our students, and experiencing the online component through this course can be effectively integrated into our own classrooms. The online component gives everyone an opportunity to be heard, promoting an inclusive and equitable classroom environment. Some students inherently dominate classroom discussion with their thoughts and opinions, and the more quiet students who need time to think about what they would like to say will be successful with this strategy. I have personally had students who are naturally quiet, and I can guarantee that all students would like to have heard each other's opinions respectfully, and this strategy is a great method for ensuring all voices in the classroom are heard. The online quizzes are also an effective assessment tool for ensuring students are keeping up with their weekly readings and activities. The blog posts, in addition to the required online components, have allowed me to engage self-reflexively with the materials presented in this course, and would be excellent to incorporate into my classroom. 

I appreciate you taking the time out of the day to read my final reflection post to this course! Now it's time to transition to my summer career, which is entirely different, but I'll share this picture with you as inspiration to make it through the rest of the school year and hopefully to set the tone for summer!

Unit Plan Reflection

Hi Everybody!

I have to admit, I am not a huge fan of late nights and copious amounts of coffee, however sometimes it just has to be done to get the work completed! This is exactly what happened with this Unit Plan, my group and I have been working diligently to ensure that this document we've worked so hard on is complete.

I'm very proud of what we've accomplished and I hope that everyone who accessed this also finds our material useful in the Grade 8 Intermediate Classroom!

Our PowerPoint Presentation can be accessed here.

Our Unit Plan can be accessed here.

The fundamental components behind our unit revolve around Grade 8 Geography Curriculum Strands A and B:

• A: Global Settlement: Patterns and Sustainability 
• B: Global Inequalities: Economic Development and Quality of Life 

The main idea behind our unit is What is a liveable city? and to allow students to think about the factors surrounding the quality of life and economic development locally and globally.

The culminating task behind this unit is to allow students to demonstrate their understanding of key topics within the unit by creating their own neighbourhood and presenting their neighbourhoods to the class. This task involves extensive reflection and planning! You'll be able to see how through the Unit Plan Overview once again provided here.

Please feel free to post any questions or comments below! This unit is something that I believe to be relevant to current conversation, and I hope you find it equally as beneficial and applicable to the classroom.

Innovative Lesson Plan

Hello Everybody,

Have you ever wondered how to engage your Intermediate, Grade 8 Students with the topic of Social Studies and Financial Literacy? Working with a few of my colleagues, we have discovered one simple lesson to do just that!

Below, you will see our lesson formatted specifically for students that are in our Geographic Region of Ontario: it is so important to have our students relate to the material that we're teaching them, and bringing the material and information close to home will allow them to experience the reality behind our topic:

• Divide the class into four different groups.
• There are four different profiles that describe a living and financial situation. Each group will receive their own profile.
• After reading your case profile, you are expected to determine which of these four cities would be the best for you to live in: Barrie, Hamilton, St. Catharines/Niagara, and Toronto. The question you are expected to answer is:

Which of these four cities best accommodates your budget?

• Go to the google doc https://goo.gl/AKyh5p and you will find your own profile along with a list of  various living expenses for these four cities: housing costs, gas, cellphone, food and leisurely activities.
• After comparing your total monthly income to the listed living expenses for each of the four cities,  determine which city would best accommodate your budget.
• After determining which city would be best to live in, you can use the chart provided to input the cost of each of these necessities and how your budget allows for it.
• Finally, group by group, we will review why each city was chosen and your justification.

Our point of the lesson is:

• As demonstrated through this activity, you can all see how difficult budgeting can be, especially when there are a variety of economic, social and other limitations involved.
• You can also see how being financial stable and secure is a real concern for families.
• Global economies impact everyone, and depending on a variety of economic and social factors, you can see how various human settlement patterns are formed when people feel stuck in their situations. This is how we get areas of low and high socioeconomic status, depending on cost of living and total expenditure.

Remember: Financial literacy is more than just money, it's about geographic, social, physical and environmental factors. This is something we will get into next lesson!

Our link to our presentation is included in this post here.

I hope everyone finds this useful, testing it on our colleagues they were very much engaged with the task at hand. Please feel free to post any comments or questions below.

Married Family Profile

You and your spouse have two children and are expecting your third. You both work full time jobs and make a combined monthly income of $12,500. You both have your own vehicle and your kids are active in extracurriculars therefore you eat out about three days a week. You both own your own cellphones to keep in contact with the grandparents who live out East, and you both have gym memberships. Since you’re expecting your third child, you are looking for a more spacious place to provide for your family. Your costs will have to go towards rent money, cell phone bills, food and leisurely activities. Which of the four cities would be the most ideal to live in based off of this information? Do you have extra expenses to put towards other costs such as college funds or family vacations? Justify your answer.

Expenses	Actual Cost	Your Budget
Housing
Gas
Cellphone
Food
Leisurely

Total Monthly Income:_____________________

Extra Money for Expenses:_________________

Which city did you feel was accommodating with your budget?

What other important expenses could your extra money be used for? How would debt affect your decision?

Student Profile

You’re currently enrolled in your second year of University with a full course load. You’re working part time at a retail store minimum 16 hours a week, making $12.00 an hour. At the end of each week, you’re taking home $192.00 per week. Based off of this information, how much do you earn per month? You don’t have to worry about the cost of transportation as your bus fare is included in tuition and you don’t have a vehicle. Your costs will have to go towards rent money, cell phone bill, food and leisurely activities. Which of the four cities would be the most ideal to live in based off of this information? Do you have extra expenses to put towards other costs? Justify your answer.

Expenses	Actual Cost	Your Budget
Housing
Gas
Cellphone
Food
Leisurely

Total Monthly Income:_____________________

Extra Money for Expenses:_________________

Which city did you feel was accommodating with your budget?

What other important expenses could your extra money be used for? How would debt affect your decision?

Single Parent Profile

You are a single dad to two young boys. The mother of your children was incarcerated after conspiracy to drug trafficking charges. You work two jobs, earning $9,000 per month. You have your own vehicle to travel to your job as well as a cellphone to keep in contact with your parents. Your boys are too young to be involved in extracurriculars, however this is something that you would like for them to do once they are older. Your costs will have to go towards rent money, cell phone bill, food and leisurely activities. Which of the four cities would be the most ideal to live in based off of this information? Do you have extra expenses to put towards other costs such as extracurricular activities for your boys or their college funds? Justify your answer.

Expenses	Actual Cost	Your Budget
Housing
Gas
Cellphone
Food
Leisurely

Total Monthly Income:_____________________

Extra Money for Expenses:_________________

Which city did you feel was accommodating with your budget?

What other important expenses could your extra money be used for? How would debt affect your decision?

Retiring Couple Profile

You and your spouse have been retired for just over a month now. Combined you both receive $3000 monthly from your retirement fund. You share a vehicle and a cell phone plan as you are looking to cut costs so that you can start travelling.  Your costs will have to go towards rent money, cell phone bill and food. Which of the four cities would be most ideal to live in? Do you have extra expenses to put towards other costs such as grandchildren’s birthdays or vacations? Justify your answer.

Expenses	Actual Cost	Your Budget
Housing
Gas
Cellphone
Food
Leisurely

Total Monthly Income:_____________________

Extra Money for Expenses:_________________

Which city did you feel was accommodating with your budget?

What other important expenses could your extra money be used for? How would debt affect your decision?

Housing Costs

Private Row (Townhouse) and Apartment Average Rents Per Month $
	Bachelor	1 Bedroom	2 Bedroom	3 Bedroom
Barrie	$ 749	$ 983	$ 1,116	$ 1,261
Hamilton	$ 643	$ 810	$ 1,003	$ 1,119
St. Catharines/ Niagara	$ 585	$ 763	$ 910	$ 1,006
Toronto	$ 902	$ 1,085	$ 1,267	$ 1,495

Gas Costs Average

	Regular	Midgrade	Premium	Diesel
Barrie	85.0 cents/litre	96.6 cents/litre	99.6 cents/litre	85.0 cents/litre
Hamilton	86.6 cents/litre	97.6 cents/litre	104.6 cents/litre	86.6 cents/litre
St. Catharines/ Niagara	87.8 cents/litre	97.9 cents/litre	102.9 cents/litre	87.8 cents/litre
Toronto	86.9 cents/litre	94.4 cents/litre	101.9 cents/litre	87.5 cents/litre

Average Food Cost

	Walmart	Sobeys
Barrie	$55.00 per week	$90.00 per week
Hamilton	$52.00 per week	$87.00 per week
St. Catharine’s /Niagara	$45.00 per week	$80.00 per week
Toronto	$65.00 per week	$100.00 per week

Cell Phone Costs

Monthly Cell Phone Costs
Rogers	$80.00 1 GB of Data Unlimited Messaging Canada Wide Calling	$90.00 2.5 GB of Data Unlimited Messaging Canada Wide Calling PLUS 1 Choice of the following for 24 Months Spotify, Shomi, Texture	$105 5 GB of Data Unlimited Messaging Canada Wide Calling PLUS 1 Choice of the following for 24 Months Spotify, Shomi, Texture	$125 9 GB of Data Unlimited Messaging Canada Wide Calling PLUS 1 Choice of the following for 24 Months Spotify, Shomi, Texture
Bell	$70.00 300 Anytime Local Minutes Unlimited Local Nights (6 pm-7 am) and Weekends (6pm Friday-7 am Monday) 1 GB of Data	$80.00 300 Anytime Local Minutes Unlimited Local Nights (6 pm-7 am) and Weekends (6pm Friday-7 am Monday) 2.5 GB of Data	$95.00 300 Anytime Local Minutes Unlimited Local Nights (6 pm-7 am) and Weekends (6pm Friday-7 am Monday) 5 GB of Data	300 Anytime Local Minutes Unlimited Local Nights (6 pm-7 am) and Weekends (6pm Friday-7 am Monday) 9 GB of Data
Koodo	$35.00 200 Minutes 100 MB of Data Unlimited Message Unlimited Evenings and Weekends Call Display, Voicemail, Call Waiting, Conference Calling and Unlimited Canada Wide Family Calling	$40.00 300 Minutes 300 MB of Data Unlimited Message Unlimited Evenings and Weekends Call Display, Voicemail, Call Waiting, Conference Calling and Unlimited Canada Wide Family Calling	$80.00 Unlimited Minutes 3 GB of Data Unlimited Message Unlimited Evenings and Weekends Call Display, Voicemail, Call Waiting, Conference Calling and Unlimited Canada Wide Family Calling	$95.00 Unlimited Minutes 5 GB of Data Unlimited Message Unlimited Evenings and Weekends Call Display, Voicemail, Call Waiting, Conference Calling and Unlimited Canada Wide Family Calling
Telus	$25.75 For 30 Days 50 Anytime Local Minutes Unlimited Canadian and International Messaging 100 MB of Data	$35.75 For 30 Days 100 Anytime Local Minutes Unlimited Canadian and International Messaging 250 MB of Data 350 SCENE points towards FREE movies	$45.75 For 30 Days 150 Anytime Local Minutes Unlimited Canadian and International Messaging 500 MB of Data 450 SCENE points towards FREE movies	$65.75 For 30 Days 300 Anytime Local Minutes Unlimited Canadian and International Messaging 1 GB of Data 600 SCENE points towards FREE movies

Leisurely Activities

	Movies Based off General Admission for one person at Cineplex Theaters	Gym (Goodlife) Based off Multi Club Membership Per one person biweekly	Restaurants / Bars Based off Trip Advisor’s Top 10, We Averaged the Cost per one meal per person
Barrie	Average Rate: $10.50 Senior’s Rate: $7.99	Student Rate: $15.00 Average Rate: $30.00	$24.70
Hamilton	Average Rate: $11.99 Senior’s Rate: $9.50	Student Rate: $15.00 Average Rate: $30.00	$24.50
St. Catharine’s /Niagara	Average Rate: $9.50 Senior’s Rate: $8.25	Student Rate: $15.00 Average Rate: $30.00	$17.10
Toronto	Average Rate: $12.99 Senior’s Rate: $9.50	Student Rate: $15.00 Average Rate: $30.00	$45.80

PowerPoint Presentation:
https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/1EWomJnO6UePzzc0dP-u983m8YMRjhxi0B8VEV6kQxp8/edit#slide=id.p

References: See Document.