Greenlight, creator of a smart debit card for kids, is entering the personal financial literacy education arena in 2023 by offering free material for school districts, teachers, and students. Its new Greenlight for Classrooms program will provide educators with an additional source of material to use in a Personal Financial Literacy class or to supplement existing finance-adjacent classes, such as Economics. The material used in Greenlight for Classrooms has been designed to meet national K-12 standards in financial education, which means teachers can use it confidently. This is important as many states have yet to require a Personal Financial Literacy course and have not created state standards, requiring teachers to ascertain whether or not the material they find is of sufficient academic rigor.
Educational Videos About Financial Literacy
One major benefit of Greenlight for Classrooms is its bank of over 100 animated videos. For teachers of any subject, and at almost all levels, finding high-quality education videos of the correct length is often a challenge. In addition to Greenlight for Classrooms, another good source of educational video clips about financial topics is Next Gen Personal Finance. The Next Gen Personal Finance list of videos conveniently allows users to sort by length, with most videos under three minutes long. Short video clips can be embedded into PowerPoint presentations to make them more engaging.
The American Institute of CPAs, through its 360 Degrees of Financial Literacy initiative, has also created a series of animated video clips. A menu on the left side of the screen sorts videos by most basis (101), more advanced (201), and for adults approaching retirement, dealing with financial emergencies, or teaching their own children (301). The state of Washington has also created some animated videos on personal finance for different grade level clusters, ranging from elementary school to high school. The videos for older students are often linked to other sites, such as PBS.
Teachers who want to include news clips about personal finance as part of their teaching can find them on Fox Business. These news clips are sorted by date, beginning with the most recent. These video clips can be helpful teaching tools by showing students that the material they learn is not just personal, but also important in the real world as part of business and commerce. CNBC has similar videos available, though there is a more general mix of economic and business news as well.
For those looking for finance-related graphics, including short video clips, to spice up an educational presentation, Pexels has free video clips related to money and finance that can be downloaded. Longer clips with broader options, such as someone working on their taxes or speaking in a business meeting, can be found at Storyblocks.
Finally, popular media like movies and TV shows can also have scenes or episodes that help teach financial literacy. Research conducted at Penn State University revealed that video clips from popular TV shows, ranging from The Simpsons to Friends to Saturday Night Live, helped introduce personal finance concepts to students. Unfortunately, the research does not contain links to the scenes directly, so teachers may have to search on YouTube. Since they are dealing with popular media, teachers should watch the scenes first to ensure they are age appropriate!
