October Highlights at a Glance
- Sarasota County High School Principals Meet ABE
- CyberFlorida Webinar on Blockchain and Cybersecurity
- First Unit Lesson on Financial Literacy Complete
Sarasota County High School Principals Meet ABE
Intro to ABEEarlier in the month, through the coordination of Michelle Anderson and other Sarasota Schools district leadership, I finally had the chance to get in front of principals from Sarasota high schools. I shared a brief overview of who I am, what ABE is, and how we would like to pilot some of our material with Sarasota schools. The presentation was well received, and there were some great questions from their school leaders.
What we learned from the presentation is two-fold: 1) there was a decent familiarity with blockchain technology, especially due to Bitcoin becoming a more mainstream asset now that it has ETFs and financial management companies recommending investment; 2) principals believed ABE presents a unique opportunity for students, both technical and non-technical. There were some who were curious about getting our materials in front of AP Computer Science students who already code, and all believed understanding digital assets in the context of financial literacy would be valuable for every student.
I followed up with Michelle after the meeting and sent her a PDF copy of the five-module seminar to share with principals, and our immediate next steps will be to present to the middle school principals in November, as well as meet with professional development specialists to see how we can adapt the seminar to help Sarasota teachers understand digital assets.
CyberFlorida Webinar on Blockchain and Cybersecurity
Webinar OpeningThanks to the efforts and collaboration of my former Hillsborough colleague and good friend Jereme Monette, I was able to share a primer on blockchain technology for teachers around the Sunshine State. With October being “Cybersecurity Awareness Month” here in Florida, he thought it would be a great time to showcase what ABE is doing. We created a new presentation that is more technical in nature, covering what blockchain is, how it works, the types that exist, and how this burgeoning technology relates to cybersecurity.
The webinar itself lasted about 45 minutes, and then we had an open Q&A for the educators in attendance, during which we had an incredible conversation. I learned that teachers from around Florida had varying degrees of knowledge on the subject, and all of them were interested in bringing this information to their classrooms, which was incredible validation for the work we’ve done in just over our first year of the ABE initiative.
Jereme stated that he would be interested in having me do the presentation again in the spring semester and that he would ensure CyberFlorida did a much bigger push around marketing the opportunity ahead of time. It was still a great turnout for the first time, and I believe it will be even better at the next presentation.
First Unit Lesson on Financial Literacy Complete
First Unit LessonTo close out the month, I wanted to share some great news about our first lesson on financial literacy. My colleague at Ardent, Matt, who has a love for all things financial literacy, went ahead and designed a full teacher’s guide on financial institutions as the base lesson for all concepts covered in SB1054. He believed it made the most sense to start with financial institutions because they are referenced throughout the rest of the standards and what students need to know to earn the graduation credit requirement imposed by the Dorothy L. Hukill Financial Literacy Act.
After reading through the teacher’s guide, my wife and I got to work designing the slides for the presentation, adding all the presenter notes, and creating activities for students to do in order to cement their learning. This first lesson provides the schema necessary for students to continue their learning across all aspects of financial literacy.
As always, stay tuned for our next update, where we will have more great news to share, including how Sarasota middle school principals received the ABE intro!
