WORKSHOP LEADER’S GUIDEFor

EconEdReviews at http://www.econedreviews.org
Kim Sosin and Mary Lynn Reiser
Center for Economic Education University of Nebraska at Omaha

This publication was made possible through funding from the Calvin K. Kazanjian Economics Foundation1

WORKSHOP LEADER’S GUIDE 1
Part I: Preparing to Host the Workshop
What is EconEdReviews?
Purpose of this Guide
Planning the Workshop
Questions You Might Be Asked about Teaching Economics from Web Lessons

Part II: Organizing the Workshop
Inviting Teachers to the Workshop
Selecting a Location and Date for the Workshop
Creating a Promotional FlierSample Promotional Flier You Can Use
Checklists for Workshop PlanningPart III: Conducting the Workshop
Goals for a One-hour Workshop
Procedure, Activities and Sample Agenda for a Workshop
Conclusion and Wrap-up

Part IV: Your Glossary and Notes

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The structure of this guide is based on “Mathematics and Economics, Complete Workshop Leader’s Guide” by Mary Lynn Reiser, foundat http://mathandecon.councilforeconed.org/wlg/index.php?grade=352

Part I: Preparing to Host the Workshop
What is EconEdReviews?
EconEdReviews (EER) was created to help teachers find great free online economic education
lessons for their K-12 classroom that not only fit their needs, but also have been found to be soundand helpful by other teachers! Our vision is that teachers will help other teachers find and use great
economic education materials. To that end, teachers who have used the materials will guide you with
their reviews and ratings. After you teach an economics lesson, we expect you to come back andshare your opinion of the materials for the next teacher who is looking for guidance.
You may search for lesson materials by grade level, concept, subject, and/or standard. You are able
to search and read reviews without logging in, but logging in is required to contribute reviews.
Signing up is simple! Please know that we do not share your information with anyone.
Any teacher or economic education provider who has their own free online lessons and would like tohave them included in our catalog of materials, please send an email to ksosin@unomaha.edu or
mreiser@unomaha.edu. Each listing in EER provides a summary of the lesson, the appropriate
grade levels, the concepts taught, the economics standards taught, lists related lessons, and hasreviews by other teachers if the lesson has been reviewed. After a teacher finds the best lesson
based on these characteristics, the teacher uses the link to the home website of the lesson. In otherwords, EER does not host the lessons themselves on its server; it hosts information about thelessons with links to them at their own home sites. If you have lessons to share, having them placedon EER can increase the traffic to your website by other teachers.

Purpose of this Guide
The purpose of this guide is to help economic educators, such as Council and Center for Economic
Education personnel, prepare to host a workshop introducing EconEdReview to teachers. EER is
an ideal tool to use in a workshop to help teachers find and teach them how to evaluate online
materials. It can also be used in a workshop or classroom setting to teach teachers how to write
effective reviews of materials they have used. In addition, for any topical workshop you are hosting,
EER can be used to show teachers what is available online for teaching that topic and effective ways
to find those materials.
This guide will help you plan the workshop and give you tips on specific lessons to search for andwell-done reviews to highlight during the workshop. The guide is designed to help you plan youragenda for the workshop and also provides a sample evaluation form for the teachers who attend.

3Planning the Workshop
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Here is a list of questions to consider when preparing for the workshop. The answers to thesequestions will give you direction during the planning process.
1. Will this be a one-time workshop or a series of short programs you will offer more than onetime?
2. Is it being offered in a university setting or in a school district?
3. Will your Center/Council/Organization host the workshop alone or will you seek a partner orcosponsor?
4. Do you have a person or company providing local support who you would like to involve?
5. What incentives (e.g., continuing education credit, a light meal, or free materials) can you givethat will encourage teachers to come to the workshop?
6. What format will you use for the workshop?
o a half-day workshopo a 30-minute presentation as part of a district curriculum-day presentationo a “Train-the-Trainers” session for curriculum supervisorso a one-hour after-school workshop held in central locations over the semester withgroups of teachers from neighboring schools

Questions You Might Be Asked about Teaching Economics from Web Lessons
As you contact teachers, school districts or principals, or financial partners about hosting a workshop
for finding online economic education lessons, they might question the wisdom of using lessons fromthe web. After all, they might say, almost anything, right or wrong, can be found on the web. The
problem of getting a million hits when you want one really good lesson on, say, monetary policy isexactly why we created EconEdReviews. When you start your search at this website, you have
immediately narrowed your search to lessons that are not only from trusted economic education
sources, but are also concept and grade-level appropriate. In addition and even more important,
EconEdReviews provides reviews of the materials by teachers who have used them. Teachingteachers how to use EconEdReviews is preparing them to find timely and specific lessons to meettheir need for excellence in both information and pedagogy.

2“Mathematics and Economics, Complete Workshop Leader’s Guide” by Mary Lynn Reiser, found at
http://mathandecon.councilforeconed.org/wlg/index.php?grade=35

4Part II: Organizing the Workshop
Inviting Teachers to the Workshop
The lessons summarized and reviewed on EconEdReviews cover all grade levels, K-12. The onehour format makes a very manageable after-school workshop. Economics, business, and personal
finance teachers who often use computers and the Internet are most likely to be interested in thisworkshop. The school administrators and computer lab supervisors can answer questions about
which teachers are most likely to be eager to find online lessons and review them for other teachers.
Some schools might be known for using technology or for taking advantage of the most recent
information on the web. But don’t discount that teachers in other schools might benefit even morefrom this workshop.

Selecting a Location and Date for the Workshop
This is a workshop that should be held where the teachers can work on online computers and you
can have good IT support if challenges occur. Beyond that, the location and date might depend onwhether you are working with a single school or selecting teachers from across a district. If a single
school, you can select a date that most teachers will be available and consider holding the workshop
in a lab at that school. If you choose to do this, be sure to check before the workshop to be sure thecomputers are enabled to go to http://www.econedreviews.org and that the teachers can create login
registrations and enter reviews from these computers. Using the school lab does help attendance
because the teachers simply stay after school. If you are recruiting from several schools or districts,selecting the location and date might be more of a challenge. The advantages of holding theworkshop at your location are that you are familiar with the computers and the IT professionals, andyou also will find it easier to use familiar presentation software, and provide refreshments.

Creating a Promotional FlierThe promotional flier for the workshop goes to the teachers in the target audience. We’ve created asample below to simplify the process. The easier you can make the process of workshop
registration for the teachers, the more likely they respond quickly. A mail-back registration form
they can tear off and drop in the mail, an email address they can use, and a telephone number are allimportant. If you have an email list of target teachers, the mailer could be a pdf – and all they need do
is press “reply.” In addition to the obvious date, location, and time, be sure to include information
about partners or sponsorship, the procedure for registration, the cost (if any), the materials that will
be provided at the workshop, and if refreshments will be provided.
The following is meant to be revised by you for a workshop invitation, if you think it will be convenient
to use. Because you should demonstrate writing a review, it will be convenient to have the names ofsome online lessons the teachers have used. The invitation includes that request.

5EconedReviews.org
A workshop for teachers of all grade levels covering a great way to locate
high quality online lessons by concept, standard and class subject.
Includes how to use reviews and write reviews for other teachers.
DATE:
TIME:
LOCATION:[ day and date][ starting and ending times][ address including room number]

WORKSHOP HIGHLIGHTSFOR MORE INFORMATION, CONTACT:Curriculum Provided; Breakfast/Lunch/Snacks
Provided; Hands-on Lesson Demonstrations;In-service Points/Credit Available[ Contact person’s name, email address, andphone number]

To register for the EconEdReviews workshop, fill out the form below and send to[ contact person’s name, address, email address, and phone number]Space Is Limited--Enroll Today! Registration Due by [ registration deadline]

In addition, if you have used free online lessons that could be used for demonstration
purposes, please make a note of the name of the lesson below, along with otherinformation if known. This will be useful in the workshop.

------------------------------------clip and mail------------------------------------Your Contact Information
Name:
Email:
School Name:

Home Phone:Work Phone:Home Phone:Home address:
A free online lesson I’ve used, Lesson Name:
Lesson Sponsoring Organization or URL if known:
Your focus/subject area for teaching
Signature:

6Checklists for Workshop Planning
Before the workshop
••••

•
•

Have you found a location with computers, Internet, and IT support that you know will allow
teachers to go to http://www.econedreviews.org and register for complete use of thewebsite?
Do you have a list of teachers who will participate?
Have some of the teachers provided lesson information that can be used in the workshop?
Select one free online lesson a teacher has used and ask that teacher to work with you in theworkshop to demonstrate writing a review. Failing this, find a lesson YOU can use to write areview for demonstration purposes.
Have you located these lessons on the EER website?
If any lesson is not included on EconEdReviews, but you think that it should be (it is a useful
lesson of good quality), please feel free to email us (ksosin@unomaha.edu ) and ask that it
be placed there before your workshop. If we are given a bit of lead time, we are happy to dothat.

Week of the workshop checklist
Be sure to consider or reconsider, these details the week before the workshop:•Have you sent confirmation letters or emails to everyone who registered for the workshop?
•Are the rooms arranged and the computers and IT support ready?
•Are you prepared to locate the lessons already used by the teachers?
•Have you made it clear to the teacher whose lesson you will demonstrate that you will beasking for a few sentences of review in the workshop? OR are you ready with your own
lesson?
•Do you have a backup plan in the worst case scenario of internet failure?
•Are the details of check-in and name tags completed?
•Are the refreshments planned?
•Are the evaluation forms ready?
•Do you have a way to collect more information, like email and contact information?
•Have you prepared the agenda and handouts? (see the next section for samples)
After the workshop checklist••••

Send thank-you letters to co-hosts, district or school personnel who helped you and donors.
Include sample comments or copies of the evaluations.
Send an email thank you to the teachers who attended and remind them to contact you if they
have questions and when they have completed a lesson review.
After several weeks contact the workshop participants by email again and ask if they haveused additional lessons in class that they would be willing to review for other teachers.
If you have a very willing and outstanding teacher, she or he might be willing to help you put
on a workshop in the future.

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Part III: Conducting the Workshop: a Sample One Hour Workshop
Goals for the after-school workshop:
At the conclusion of this workshop, the participants will be able to:•Register for the EconEdReviews website.

•Easily search for online lessons by concept, standard, grade level, and/or subject matter•

From the search results, evaluate the lessons for appropriateness in their own classroom•

Write and submit reviews of lessons that have been classroom tested.

Procedure for the workshop•Use the EER home page to discuss the purpose of the website
1. The right sidebar “Welcome” explains what can be done on the site
2. The “Top Lessons” list shows the lessons that have the most stars.
3. The “New Lessons” shows the most recent updates•

While on the home page, go through the process of registration to illustrate how it is done,
and have each teacher become a registered member of EER.

•Make sure each teacher is now logged in.

•Click on the highest “Top Lesson” and review with teachers the structure of information aboutthat lesson provided on the site.
1. A summary of the lesson and goals are provided, along with the source of the lesson
2. The grade levels are provided
3. A list of concepts and standards are shown
4. Some related lessons are shown
5. The review(s) by other teachers are available to read. Note that the reviewing teacher
may provide his/her name, but is NOT required to do so.

•Back on the home page, use the “Search” button to show teachers how easy it is to find alesson by one or more of several characteristics.

•

Show them how the list of lessons below the drop-down boxes is reduced as they makeselections narrowing down their options, until they have exactly the list they desire.

•Ask each teacher to find one lesson that would be appropriate for his/her classroom.

•

Ask each teachers to explain to the group how she/he evaluated the lesson to make thedecision that it is appropriate. Have a general discussion of evaluation points and make achecklist based on the teachers’ observations.
8•Go back to the home page and click on the “Review” button•

Using the lesson you have selected to review, find that lesson, select “review it!” and workwith the teacher (if appropriate) to select the number of stars, title (not of the lesson, but ofyour review, e.g. “great lesson”) and thenwrite a few sentences (or more) about the lesson.

•Ask the other teachers, assuming others had volunteered lessons on the signup sheet, if theywould take a few minutes to immediately write a review. If only one or two volunteered you
might ask if they would allow you to demonstrate again using their help.

Conclusion and Wrap-up•

When all reviews have been written, ask the teachers to review one more lesson on their own
over the next few month as they use it in the classroom.

•Distribute the Workshop Evaluation Form and allow time for the participants to complete it.

•Thank the teachers for coming, and distribute your card to the teachers for future contact.

Part IV: Your Glossary and Notes:

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