Sunday, October 27, 2013

MOTI (Moment of Teacher Impact)

I coined a new phrase this week. I experienced a "MOTI" otherwise known as a Moment of Teacher Impact.

Not long ago I wrote here about how proud I was of the debate my Economics students did. Well, this past week it was my Intro to Business students that just blew me away and left me laughing.

We started a new term a week ago and since it technically began on a Friday and finals had just ended the smart folks in my department planned to get students involved in the term "activity" right off the bat. There is an investing game teachers (and anyone) can play at http://www.marketwatch.com/game and a classroom of students can compete to earn the most money. So last Friday I set my two Intro classes up with $100,000 in investment "Cash" and let them loose picking stocks and learning the ropes of the stock market. [Side note: I meant to do 10,000 but the extra zero butted itself into the game...results should be the same, although perhaps a bit more dramatic and varied depending on what really happens to the market].

Anyway, by Wednesday of this week, my students were SO competitive! Most of them went for stocks of corporations they were familiar with. The two biggest purchases were for Google and Chipotle. Turns out, both of those companies saw massive jumps in the market earlier this week after releasing positive earnings reports.

The MOTI for the week came in my Homeroom, where I have 2 students from Intro plus a few of the other business teachers' Intro students. They all had their smart phones out and the Marketwatch app and were checking their position against others in the game. "Hey I'm in 2nd place!" "Hey, Ms. B., I dropped 3 places in the last twenty minutes! Help!" They had conversation for nearly 20 minutes straight about stocks and the market. I was sitting at my desk just tickled!

Before the bell rang on Wednesday, one of my students said to another, "I think this is the most adult conversation I have ever had."

This made me a laugh hysterically. I told the kids how proud I was that they were using their knowledge from the game and the Investing unit we had just completed and were talking about it. And to tell the truth, by Friday they spend the entire Homeroom period doing the same thing.

Now, if I can just get them all to be playing the market long term instead of trading stocks every day....

We shall see by the time December rolls around and the game concludes!

[Side note #2: I am also playing and am currently in 37th place out of 62. I am playing the long-term game. I don't know that it will make the point I want it to in just 2 months' time but we shall see!]

Have a great wrap on October everyone. Go learn something and have a conversation.
(Then let me know what it is you learned!)
KB

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