Economic Education Center, Central Bank Present Awards

A school counselor and team of second-grade teachers recently received the 2016 Learning for Life Teaching Awards, presented by Central Bank and the Eastern Kentucky University Center for Economic Education.

The recipients were Brittany Mauck, school counselor at White Hall Elementary, and the team of Tracy Hall, Lisa Sizemore, Jill Van Dyke and Angele Vaughn, who teach second grade at Daniel Boone Elementary.

Central Bank and the EKU Center for Economic Education established the award to stimulate and recognize development and advancement in teaching decision making and problem solving with applications to personal finance, economics and entrepreneurship. 

Mauck uses activities such as rolling “goal setting” dice, playing “career bingo” and wrapping students in “cooperation duct tape” to teach real-world content in careers, consumerism and economics.  She teaches the students that the lessons are “…more than words. They are the way I live my life – with responsible stewardship to give, save, and spend.”

The Daniel Boone team integrated the learning of personal finance content into a variety of activities with their students, from assigning penny values to each day on the calendar to playing games like “Holler for a Dollar” and working through decision-making processes to choose the best use of field trip money for maximum enjoyment (which included a meal at a local restaurant). 

“Students were engaged in making decisions about real-world concerns in both projects,” said Dr. Cynthia Harter, director of the EKU Center for Economic Education, “and Central Bank and the Center are proud to honor these educators with recognition and monetary awards to highlight their commitment to preparing Madison County students for life outside the classroom.”

For more information about the Central Bank/EKU Learning for Life Teaching Award, contact Harter at cynthia.harter@eku.edu.

PHOTO: The Daniel Boone Elementary Team, with Dr. Harter and Jeff Fultz of Central Bank: From left are Angela Vaughn, Tracy Hall, Fultz, Harter, Jill Van Dyke and Lisa Sizemore.