Interactive Economics for Today's Teachers

0:03 This podcast Spotlight for Success is our way of highlighting the incredible success stories happening in education right here in our home state of Georgia. Today, we're thrilled to be joined by Dr. Chris Cannon, with the Georgia Council for Economics Education, who has made a significant impact in the field of social studies and economics. We'll explore his journey, insights and the positive changes he's creating for students and teachers So let's get started. D r. Cannon, can you tell us a little bit about yourself? Absolutely. Chris Cannon. Been teaching high school pretty much since 2002. Started at Morrow High School in Clayton County, georgia, then spent a couple of years at the Department of Education when we were changing curriculum and that was very eye-opening.

0:46 It was a great experience. I got a lot of practice doing workshops and presenting to teachers and I saw kind of the impact you can have sort of statewide Went back to teaching for a few years and then the Georgia Council on Economic Education came calling and I was excited about that opportunity to get back and have sort of a statewide impact. Wonderful. Can you give us a glimpse into your daily responsibilities with the GCEE? Absolutely so. As the associate director, my primary responsibility is to make sure we're executing all of our programs. So the way the Georgia Council operates is. Our mission is to help teachers teach economics and personal finance, and the way we primarily do that are through highly engaging, interactive workshops. So you have to schedule those. There's a lot of event planning that happens, a lot of marketing, but then there's also the content creation.

1:32 So we have to have something to do at the workshop, obviously. So we do a lot of lesson plan writing, curating materials, planning events. We take teachers on manufacturing tours and bus tours and it's that kind of stuff and it's trying to make teachers understand that economics is everywhere, it's very accessible and it's exciting and we try to help teachers get excited about it. That's wonderful. What are some of your big takeaways or big moments that you've had at GCEE that you can share? Oh, so many. But every summer we do this big week-long institute where we have teachers coming from all over the country and it's not just Georgia teachers who already kind of know us and have an expectation.

2:19 It's teachers who have no professional learning in their state, for economics maybe. But they come to this week-long conference and they're just blown away by the way we present economics and the way we approach it and the materials we give them, and it's always so fulfilling because they leave and they're like I wish I had this in my state and you guys did such a great job and that makes all the planning and all that worth it. So that's kind of a big repeat thing that happens. But the other thing I would say that makes the job really rewarding is just when we come to conferences like this and just the number of people that stop by our table and be like we love what you guys do, thank you so much, and they're so appreciative Because I was that way, and now to be on the other side of it and get to do that for teachers is really cool.

3:00 That is fantastic, and what is your role here is to educate people with the GCSS. What are some takeaways you're hoping to get from the conference this year? Yeah, so that networking is absolutely critical for us. The vast majority of people come to our workshops via word of mouth. And so this is the place to come do word of mouth right, but also we make connections with ABC and MRU and other organizations that do very similar stuff to what we do. Our biggest partner is the Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta, so it's cool they're set up right next to us so we can talk to people together and it's that face-to-face conversations with people.

3:41 It helps us get our mission out, but also helps people know who we are and find out about us. So that is wonderful, Dr. Cannon. Is there anything else you'd like to share with the audience? Absolutely. October is Economic Education Month, econ Ed Month, so you can come get happy Econ Ed Month stickers from us. That actually started here in Georgia four years ago and yeah, we're super excited about it and so we're always happy to promote that whenever we can. So teach econ, it's everywhere, econ is life, and if you need help, come to the Georgia Council. That's why we're here. That's awesome. Well, you heard it best from Dr. Cannon, with the Georgia Council of Economics Education. Thank you for being part of ABC's Spotlight for Success.

4:23 Thank you appreciate it. Thank you for being part of abc spotlight. and we look forward to hearing more from you in the future. Absolutely all right.