Tawnya Smith is a 7th grade teacher in her second year at Mrachek Middle School in Aurora, Colorado. Tawnya teaches an elective course called Life & Careers, about 2/3 of which is dedicated to personal finance skills. Among many other superlatives, she's a prolific participant in NGPF Virtual PDs.

I sat down for a Zoom session with Tawnya to hear about her classroom, how she's tackling the challenges of remote teaching, and how she's using NGPF's new Middle School Course. Here's a transcript of our mini interview!

Sonia Dalal: What's the mix of in-person vs. remote instruction at your school right now?

Tawnya Smith: Interestingly enough, I've only ever taught personal finance remotely, because this is my second semester teaching the class! In the spring, we were remote, and now in the fall we're also completely remote. Things are changing now to more of a hybrid model, with some students coming in every other week, and some students opting for full remote. We're still distanced in class, and students are on computers, so I'm able to have the at-home students connect to the same Nearpod link as the in-class students.

Sonia Dalal: What platforms and EdTech are you using to organize, grade and deliver instruction?

Tawnya Smith: I use Google Classroom to organize all my assignments and class sections, and I use Nearpod since I am one of the Nearpod grantees from NGPF! I use Nearpod pretty much daily. What I do is add the discussion prompts and hooks from the middle school and high school lessons into Nearpod so every student can engage, and we can have discussions even though most of my students are remote. So I do a little bit of conversion from the original Google Docs form into Nearpod so I can make the lessons as engaging for my students as possible.

Sonia Dalal: When teachers first find NGPF, their first reaction is: "Oh my gosh, NGPF has a ton of resources," and it can be a little overwhelming! What are your go-to pages on the NGPF site to help you find resources you use quickly?

Tawnya Smith: I actually use different pages from all over the NGPF site! What I like to do is pick an upcoming topic, check out the Unit page for that topic, and piece together different activities from there. Lately, I've found myself coming back to look at the Middle School Course page, and I use the answer key spreadsheet from your email to make sure before class that I have everything ready with no misconceptions of my own. I used to come back to the FinCap Friday page every week, but now Fridays are our teacher prep days, so I haven't been doing those as much. Before I did most of my instruction on the Nearpod platform, I also used the Arcade page a lot, since students get really engaged with the games and simulations there.

Sonia Dalal: Which lessons and features from the NGPF Middle School Course have been most useful?

Tawnya Smith: About 2/3 of my class is personal finance, and the other 1/3 is dedicated to exploring post-high school options, so the new Preparing for Success unit in the Middle School Course has been a hit! I like how many of the lessons introduce concepts with videos, interactives, and infographics. The fact that guided questions are built right into the lessons is also really useful, because they help frame the lessons in real-world terms for students. Students don't just learn the content - they reflect on why the skills they're practicing are important for their lives.

Sonia Dalal: what NGPF supports or PDs have you found useful so far?

Tawnya Smith: I took advantage of every Virtual PD that NGPF put out beginning with the second quarter of the spring semester last school year. For me, even though it's strange that all of our instruction has been remote, everything I got out of all the hours I spent dedicated to professional development this spring and summer helped me so much to prepare for this year.

Sonia Dalal: Any advice you'd share with other teachers for this crazy school year?

Tawnya Smith: Collaborate with teachers at Virtual PDs if you can! There are so many different options. I've really enjoyed the speaker series, the current events sessions, and any of the sessions focused on resources I might not otherwise use. It's been a really eye opening process. 

About the Author

Sonia Dalal

Sonia has always been passionate about instruction and improving students' learning experiences. She's come a long way since her days as a first grader, when she would "teach" music and read to her very attentive stuffed animals after school. Since then, she has taught students as a K-12 tutor, worked in several EdTech startups in the Bay Area, and completed her Ed.M in Education from the Harvard Graduate School of Education. She is passionate about bringing the high quality personal finance content and instruction she wished she'd received in school to the next generation of students and educators. When she isn't crafting lesson guides or working with teachers, Sonia loves to spend her time singing, being outdoors, and adventuring with family and friends!