Tim Mandell
Billie Kelly has been teaching eighth-grade students at Clark-Moores Middle School the importance of financial responsibility.
The Life Skills teacher is now receiving national attention.
Kelly was selected by America’s Promise Alliance and the National Middle School Association (NMSA) as one of 10 teachers nationwide to receive a $1,000 grant to implement and evaluate the Saving Our Futures financial responsibility curriculum.
She also was one of 100 teachers to receive a $500 gift certificate from the NMSA for evaluating the program and submitting an outline of a service learning project that would engage students. The gift certificate can be used for any NMSA event, membership or product.
Kelly, who is in her first year at Clark-Moores, teaches Life Skills to students on a 12-week rotating basis. That means that every eighth-grade student takes the course.
“Saving Our Futures is a financial responsibility program for young people,” Kelly said. “They learn how to budget their money, balance a family budget and purchase and comparison shop. If they learn how to be responsible now, in the future it will come easier to them.”
Students also learn about international budgets, such as debts owed by various countries.
As part of the project, students will be matched into families where they will learn how to pay bills, write checks and balance checkbooks, as well as learning to purchase items such as a house, car and insurance.
Kelly plans to take students on a field trip to various grocery stories to teach about the costs of shopping and compare prices of name brand items to store brand items.
There also are plans to take the students to an elementary school to teach fifth-graders the importance of financial responsibility.
Kelly, who is involved in Clark-Moores renaissance program, recently returned from the national conference and she said her hope is to return next year to present a program about financial responsibility.
“I’ve been teaching 21 years,” Kelly said. “I love to get new ideas and try new things that are relevant.”
Tim Mandell can be reached at tmandell@richmondregister.com or 623-1669 ext. 6696.
