Volunteers take turn as teachers at Goose Bay Elementary

KNIK — It wasn’t just the students at Goose Bay Elementary who came away with new information Nov. 15 when 19 Junior Achievement volunteers spent the morning in their classrooms.

The JA in a Day program was a first for the Mat-Su Borough School District, said community coordinator Stephanie Mode.

She said more than 24 volunteers spent last Tuesday morning in the elementary school teaching age-appropriate lessons about financial literacy and entrepreneurship.

Mode said the financial literacy program was only offered at Goose Bay Nov. 15, but the program has been offered at other district schools in the past — including Snowshoe, Tanina, Sherrod, Knik and Swanson elementary schools, as well as at the high school and middle school grade levels at Colony and Wasilla.

“Last year, JA of Alaska reached more than 7,000 students statewide with its age-appropriate, hands-on K-12 financial literacy programs,” Mode said. “We are glad to offer this in Mat-Su schools.”

Superintendent Deena Paramo said the lessons taught by volunteers from the Mat-Su Valley business community complement the district’s addition of an elective unit on financial literacy. Beginning with the freshman class of 2012-13, the course will be a graduation requirement, Paramo said.

She said the lessons she observed being taught Tuesday reinforced for her that financial literacy can start as early as age 5.

Paramo said she stopped by a first-grade classroom where students were making choices with Junior Achievement money about the difference between wanting an ice cream sandwich and needing a coat.

“It was a good day,” Paramo said.

Goose Bay kindergarten teacher Ivy Van Dussen said it was good for her students to spend the morning learning from a community volunteer.

“Just having people come into the school from the community is huge,” she said. “Kids at school need to know the community cares about what they are learning.”

Mode said the opportunity was made possible by financial support from Alaska USA, AmeriGas, Cruz Construction, Diversified Tire, First National Bank Alaska, Matanuska Federal Credit Union, Northrim Bank, Watterson Construction and Wells Fargo.

Additionally, she said the Junior Achievement committee raised about $9,000 and coordinated and trained volunteers.

Mode said the financial literacy lessons also complement state standards already being taught. Lessons build on each other from kindergarten through 12th grade.

“We had a number of volunteers who’ve said after teaching the lesson they have more of an appreciation for teachers and the work they do daily,” Mode said.

Beyond that, she said at least one volunteer had an uninvited lesson in how technology has changed since he was in elementary school. Everything went fine until he used a dry-erase marker on the classroom’s Promethean board, an interactive white board that connects to the teacher’s computer.

Contact Heather A. Resz at heather.resz@frontiersman.com or call 352-2268.