2022 Education magazine

2022 Education Magazine LINCOLN DAILY NEWS February / March 2022 Page 17 Ag class - winter floral design In addition to this elective class, Mrs. Naughton is teaching the kindergarten through fifth grade once a month and introducing them to agriculture. It is important for the young students “to know where their food comes from and how they can be involved in agriculture even if they do not live on an operating farm.” Mr. Curtis Conrady is the sixth through eighth grade Social Studies teacher. When asked what elective class he would like to teach, he chose Current Events. Mr. Conrady shared, “I taught Current Events at my last school and the students there loved it. You would be surprised how many students actually pay attention to the news on a daily basis. By teaching Current Events students have a better understanding of what is going on around them.” In this elective class, students talk about local, national, and world news. One day a week is spent learning about world geography. Mr. Conrady thinks it “is important for students to know how to read a World Atlas Map and be able to find different locations without using Google Maps.” Mrs. Jessie Gephart teaches Junior High Math and created Number Crunching in the Real World for her elective class. In this class students discuss “real life” math: “how to balance a checkbook, invest in 401Ks and the stock market.” They, also, learn “the difference between different types of bank accounts, taxes, and how to calculate all of those things. “Students need elective classes that teach them life skills. In this class “all of my students have “jobs,” which gives them different responsibilities within the classroom. I expect them to complete their jobs independently every day and to practice skills which they will be using within the workplace. They learn how to work together and cooperate, as well as how to manage the money that they are earning through their work. They have the opportunity to buy fun things, but also must ensure their account has enough money to pay monthly bills. As the year continues, we add more pieces to the information that they know, and they have the opportunity to make more money, but also incur more bills,” Mrs. Gephart said. Mrs. Kari Froebe does not teach a core class, but does see students in Junior High for 45 minutes each day for the newly formed Science-Technology-Engineering-Mathematics (STEM/Technology) class. Continued p