After so many years of teaching high school Economics, I’ve developed the habit of integrating real world events into my lessons as much as possible. I even mix-and-match units to best fit whatever economic news is relevant, like covering tariffs the week those are in the news, or covering anti-price-gouging laws in the aftermath of a hurricane. I look at the schedule for mainstream IPOs and attempt to time the lesson to the day of a noteworthy launch. This makes things more difficult, because it means I’ve never taught the class the same way twice and students have to get comfortable jumping around a little, but my philosophy of education tells me that the “perfect” semester differs each time, and sometimes even varies substantially from one period to the next. For example, last fall I had a first period Economics class with 25 sophomores, and a second period Economics class with 9 seniors. You cannot walk into both environments with a one-size-fits-all plan and expect the best results. Coaches don’t go into every game with the same strategy, do they? If you want my in-depth thoughts on who the opponent is in a classroom setting, read this: My bad.
Since this has been my approach for so long, one of my first reactions to big economic events is imagining how it fits into my big-picture plan for the semester—how can I use this as a teaching tool, and how can I explain it using terms and concepts we’ve already learned? Do I need to tread water and spend time in related areas so we have our bases covered before the next pitch? [Did you even recognize that “covering your bases” was a sports reference before just now? Does “treading water” count for anything?] One of the challenges of being a teacher is not knowing what your students don’t know, and introducing current events is a good way to shock the system and assess how much is translating from the textbook into real life. Economics, more so than most classes, is capable of translating clearly and immediately. It can help you understand the world we live in AND help you make better decisions, right now, today. That’s one of the reasons I love teaching it.
With all this in mind, I have really struggled to figure out how to win at “remote teaching”. Every day, things are happening that I want to talk about with my classes, that I instinctively work into a lesson plan in my head. But, I haven’t been sure of the best way to deliver that information in a timely or efficient manner, remotely. My initial idea was to send out news articles and get feedback, then type up some sort of lesson addressing it, but the lag time just doesn’t work. Assignments have to be given multiple days before they are due, and if there’s a 3 or 4 day delay from when I send an article then send a follow-up, then we’ve missed the window of relevancy and haven’t covered much material, either. I can’t expect everyone all to be online at the same time, so I can’t do any sort of live lesson or Q&A. If I try to record myself teaching, that quickly jumps into the realm of marginal costs being greater than marginal benefits. I’m better at explaining things in writing, irregardlessly. Also, plot twist, roughly half my students have a textbook. Long story.
If I’m so big on adapting to fit the environment and striving for the perfect gameplan, then what’s my answer to COVID-19? This is already the wildest economic event of our lifetimes, and it’s not going away anytime soon. The ultimate curveball.
So, team. Here’s the plan.
I’m going to post a lesson on this blog every weekday [Wednesdays may be less formal] before noon as long as remote learning lasts. These posts will be a mix of current events and the economic concepts you need to understand them, and the “big picture” goal by the end of the fourth quarter is the same: a basic understanding of macroeconomics (we covered micro in the third quarter). I will supplement the lessons with links to other sources I trust and find helpful, or just interesting. Per my usual teaching style, I’m going to keep it apolitical make fun of everyone equally, while also trying to encourage a culture where it’s healthy to ask questions and have disagreements. Since this approach to this material may be able to benefit a bigger group of people than current students in my Economics class, I’m going to keep the posts public.
If you have questions or thoughts about the actual lesson, you can comment right on the post! If you have questions just for me, you can contact me through whatever medium seems best (except for students: you can use Jupiter!).
