Students need Financial Literacy skills

Recently in a discussion with a student about his future beyond high school, he commented about the Personal Finances/ Financial Literacy class. The student indicated of all the classes he had taken at Sorenson’s Ranch School, he believed Financial Literacy was the most beneficial. Research has indicated that students who have access to quality financial education will have better financial outcomes as an adult. Students learn how to spend and save wisely, showing them a way to living with less debt and a higher quality of life. Our Financial Literacy class at Sorenson’s Ranch School can help our students understand the concepts of how they can reach their individual goals. Students learn about making career decisions, money management, and financial security. Students also learn about credit, resource management, risk management and insurance. When students move forward in life, they may reflect on how the Financial Literacy concepts can help them understand compound interest, the cost of borrowing money and the way to grow savings or investments. It may help them identify and then reach financial goals. I believe Financial Literacy has been taken for granted in the past, but now more states are starting to see the importance of financial skills and are passing legislation that requires students to have Financial Literacy as part of graduation requirements. Financial Literacy only makes sense since money affects every aspect of an individual’s life. If we don’t teach our students about money and the economy, how can we expect them to manage their own money as they become adults? In my opinion, it is dangerous to our youth to take the next steps in life without understanding the function of money and how to manage credit and risk. At Sorenson’s Ranch School we have a class that helps our students understand these concepts so much better. It helps them transition into independent living which is coming quickly in their future.

Gamification to Increase Student Motivation

I love games, perhaps maybe even a little too much. Not only did competition take place every day with my siblings growing up, but some of my best memories of games include those that took place during school. I will never forget winning one event in particular—the Utah Bee. It was an exciting competition throughout fourth grade between different classes in my area. It tested our knowledge of everything about Utah. So I guess when I started teaching English and Spanish at Sorenson’s Ranch School, I naturally looked to see ways I could add healthy competition into the activities. I have tried many different things in hopes of improving engagement. It can be hard to find the perfect activity that matches the content with something that interests the learner. In addition, some students may feel left out or bored if they do not know a lot about a specific topic. Admittedly, for various reasons, I have not done as well as I had hoped in creating a classroom that regularly uses student gameplay. In any regard, I believe that when I can effectively weave components of games into learning, students increase their participation, motivation, and social skills. a One aspect of class where I have tried to include games is during our daily starter. In English, our “Gotcha Grammar” accompanies a challenge to see who can be the first to complete the corrections needed. It adds a bit of excitement, and it helps kids into their seats to do schoolwork at the beginning of class. It also helps captivate students who maybe would not usually do the starter or be a disruption. Ultimately, I found these little grammar games are most effective when there is something to win. A small treat has done wonders in helping students give their absolute best effort. It naturally creates an environment where students look to work together to find an answer. Another occasion I have tried to add movement and fun activities is near the end of class. Researchers analyzing the average teenager's attention span, do not appear to be unanimous in their research. But, I believe that if a student can achieve roughly thirty-five minutes of studying, they deserve to have some fun. I have tried to include fun activities that have a Language Arts twist. One game is where we take a ball and play hot potato, but in this version, each student has to come up with a part of speech and not repeat what has already been said. If we are playing with verbs, one student may catch the ball and yell "to run," and the next student may catch the ball and yell "to fly" until a new verb is not thought of or repeats itself. In that case, the student leaves the game. Most students like playing these games at the end of the class, as it is a relief from studying and other stressors. It also creates a sense of community among the students and builds relationships. Teaching Spanish at Sorenson’s Ranch School has also brought many opportunities to engage students in fun activities. One lesson which I thought did well to motivate students was “Simon Says” or “Simon dice”. In this classic game, students follow the orders but with the newly learned Spanish vocabulary. Again, it has some goal resulting in a prize, like the last one standing gets a sucker. A game like this is great because it is familiar to everyone and can bridge the gap between languages. It also requires a lot of physical movement, which works as a great brain break and engages the kinesthetic learners in the room. Overall, gamification is a tool that creates a vibrant class culture and suits my teaching style. Classroom instruction should include a variety of methods to engage all types of learners. One of my challenges now is to find ways to motivate those students who perhaps are not as excited about competing over school topics. The question is if I am doing everything possible to get as many students participating and motivated as possible. It is a never-ending quest, but the more I connect school topics with the love of the game, the more motivation learners can find to succeed.

March Happenings

The middle school is starting new classes for the second half of the school year here at Sorenson’s Ranch. We finished Modern History and are moving into Geography. We also finished Our Nation/Utah History and are moving into the Careers class. We are continuing with PE and Math that are full year classes. Geography is the first and second class of the day. The students are curious about what to expect from the class. We did a pretest to see how familiar the students are with Geography. Some of the students know a lot about it and some need to learn more. We will be discussing the different areas of Geography here at Sorenson’s Ranch throughout the next 6 months. The students will be designing maps to show countries, cities, topographical and political maps. The other new class that we are starting at Sorenson’s Ranch is Careers. The students will learn all of the different aspects of finding a career. We started the class with an interest survey to help them decide what career they will do well in. Students will learn about what the job entails, salary, availability by area, and other details about different careers that may be of interest to them. They will learn how to present themselves during the interviewing process. During Math class we have been working on several different concepts. Some of the students have been learning about graphing, others have been working with solving inequalities. We will also incorporate worksheets that are based around St. Patrick’s Day. At Sorenson’s Ranch there are different ways that Math can be approached. Each student has individual ways of learning and the concepts are adapted to real world situations when possible in order to make them more understandable. Here at Sorenson’s Ranch we use a lot of adaptive learning approaches in order to help each student become successful. Peer tutoring, one on one tutoring, group learning among other approaches are being used on a daily basis.

Social skills training, in a therapeutic boarding school.

Sorensons ranch has recently undergone a change in the program that encourages positive reinforcement, teaches social skills, and gives responsibility to students to acknowledge how to improve behavior. Where points were mostly used as a negative consequence to correct behavior, the emphasis on the new program is recognizing positive behavior and awarding points accordingly, when negative behaviors must be addressed, students are given the option of recognizing how they could improve and minimizing point loss. This makes every staff and teacher a partner of the therapist, and encourages all interaction to tie back to the therapy. Positive reinforcement increases an individual’s tendency to adopt a new practice over time. This conditioning method has gained popularity over other operant conditionings, because it creates a positive learning environment preferred by therapists, staff, and teachers in the classroom. Students are also encouraged to do behavioral role play, which involves practicing new skills during therapy in simulated situations. Social skills training is not a specific curriculum, but rather a collection of practices that use a behavioral approach for teaching age-appropriate social skills and competencies, including communication, problem solving, decision making, self-management, and peer relations. As staff and students readjust to a different way of helping clients the effectiveness of the program will continue to improve.

Introduction to Business and Financial Literacy

Often Sorenson’s Ranch School (SRS) students complain that business and financial literacy classes are hard and not required in their home state, but taking the classes in high school can give students a competitive advantage in the college admission process. If college is not in the student’s futures, at least business and financial literacy classes give them an understanding of the function of commerce in society and a basis for becoming better employees and citizens of their communities. In Addition to expanding students’ knowledge about business, entrepreneurship, and personal finance, these classes teach students many crucial life skills, including leadership and time management. Using this foundation to build on, SRS students begin to understand how personal financial responsibility will touch all aspects of their lives. Business classes introduce students to what it takes to make it in the business world. We are introducing information students can use to help them decide what they are going to do with their future. With changing regulations in society, children today are not given the opportunity to work and learn with hands on experience as did past generations. Today’s children have been immersed in technology and crave interaction in a different manner than past generations. As our society and business adapts to an ever-changing world, these students will become the new business leaders. Business and finance classes at SRS give students those first steps, and insights about what to do next in life. If students decide continuing education is not for them, SRS can still give them the basics necessary for everyday life, no matter what path they choose to take. High schoolers’ hardly know what direction to go, or what skills to build on when they are getting ready to go to college. If we start teaching them skills in high school, they will have a better understanding of the path they can take for the future. By teaching SRS students solid life skills, we are helping all of our futures.

Recreational Education

At Sorenson’s Ranch School we understand that all learning does not take place in the classroom. We approach education with a more holistic perspective. We strive to expose our students to a wide variety of activities that they may or may not have participated in before. Some examples are: camping, fishing, cooking, hiking/exploring, horseback riding, ranch work and participation in organized sports leagues. Our staff routinely take groups of our students, who qualify by meeting behavior goals, off campus to participate in these activities. We see these activities as being beneficial for our students in a variety of ways. Just taken at face value, exposing our students to new activities, broadens their minds and thought processes in positive ways. When students become better acquainted with the world around them, they see and tend to think of all things differently. Many students find activities that specifically and even intimately appeal to them. Participation in these activities serves as a motivator to improve some of the behavior problems they may have exhibited in the past. These activities are natural and healing. Typical young people of similar ages participate in many of these activities outside of this concentrated setting. Outdoor activities are often lower stress in nature and allow our students to think and feel positively. Replacing old habits and thought processes with new activities has proven to be effective in helping our students “heal” from past experiences that have been less than appropriate or successful. Hands on learning opportunities seem to be the most successful for our students. Learning by doing allows our students to learn through all of the senses, which helps them to assimilate or “digest” the information and then remember the things they learn. Students are able to learn where they can see, hear, feel, smell, and in some cases taste, things in their immediate environment. Learning by doing also allows our students to create some positive memories with peers they can relate to, and to learn that there are positive things you can do with “leisure” time. It should be noted that at Sorenson’s Ranch School classroom education is important to us. We have a fully accredited high school on site, and our campus is conducive to learning. Our educational faculty occasionally add field trips to the classroom experience to better help our students understand what they learn. Our mission, through a variety of means, is to help our students understand where they are with regard to grade level expectations and to experience academic success, in many cases for the first time in their lives. Ross Franks