JA Biz town

12.2.08

Today I volunteered with Mac's class on their field trip to Junior Achievement's JA Biztown!! What an incredible learning experience for these fifth graders!! Man do I wish this had been around when I was teaching economics to 4th graders!!!! This is basically a whole town set upfor the kids to run. There is a bank, town hall,professional offices,supply center, newspaper, TV station, etc., etc. The students perform all the jobs. There is a mayor that they vote on prior to coming. ( By the way, the teachers do about 6 weeks of preparation at school in math class, social studies, and language arts. They learn to write checks, balance a check book, use percentages, orewrite a business letter, apply for a job, etc. all before they arrive at Biztown.) Mac's job was Meter Reader. His job was to go around the town reading all the meters and then calculating payments for each business.

Mac and his good friend, Brent, at work at the Professional Offices. Our wonderful neighbor, Catherine, was a DJ for the radio station! What a cool job!
This was my crew in the Supply Center... Andrew, Michael, Maria, Cristen.
A busy bee!
At the bank, depositing his first paycheck.
At the TV station, being interviewed by friend and CEO, Andrew Hunter. Filmed by Mackenzie.

I can't wait until Lu is in fifth grade!!!!