Three Rio Rancho employees receive grants aimed at financial literacy

RIO RANCHO — Enchanted Hills Elementary School teacher Holly Silva remembers lying on her bed and sorting her mother’s change as a kid.

She would often place the money into coin wrapper rolls to take to the bank. The activity gave Silva, who later became a first-grade teacher, something to do — but it also was a fun way she learned how to count money.

“When I think back to, ‘How did I learn how to count change and do conversions?’ That was from piles of change on my bed,” Silva said. “That is what got that skill locked into my brain.”

Silva is one of three Rio Rancho Public School teachers who won an enrichEd grant from Albuquerque-based U.S. Eagle Federal Credit Union’s ARNIA Foundation. The funds, distributed to teachers recently, are intended to be be spent on additional resources for teachers to build a curriculum on financial literacy.

Silva, who heard about the grant through a flyer, wants to create a lesson more sophisticated than the one she made for herself as a child.

“I want them to creative with it,” she said, but, she cautioned, “I don’t want them setting $1 million for a hamburger.”

The other local recipients include Gina Rodriguez of Joe Harris Elementary School and Justina Miller of Rio Rancho High School. In total, the foundation awarded 11 grants totaling $20,000 to educators throughout the state, the release said.

Holly SilvaSilva will use $500 to create a “restaurant-themed math center” for students to learn about budgeting and financial transactions. She plans to make online purchases for toy money, a cash register, play food (all the food groups), card stock, paint and stickers.

“There are a lot of pieces at play,” Silva said.

The restaurant-themed math center will build on her students learning to identify coins, their values and basic addition.

“Now, we can take that same idea and really expand it,” Silva said.

Silva said she looks forward to her students deciding what will be on their restaurant’s menu and setting prices for each item. Those discussions are important to Silva, who believes many of her students see their parents make monetary transactions electronically.

“Even the handling of money, it seems like it’s becoming a lost skill,” Silva said.

Silva is already thinking about the significance of her purchases beyond the planned spring lesson.

“The materials that I’m getting with the grant are things that will last for many, many years — and impact more than just the 21 students in (this classroom).”

Justina MillerJustina Miller, who has been with RRHS for 22 years, learned about the grant program through school administrators.

“I thought, ‘Why not? What’s the worst that can happen?’” Miller said. “(I’m) incredibly grateful because money is tight.”

The $2,500 grant will help develop a curriculum for college-preparatory students that will help them learn about developing a budget, their credit and setting financial goals. The curriculum will be applied to Miller’s college and career prep class, an elective open to all students.

“This money should help me make it a little more robust,” Miller said.

She is still deciding how to use the funds, but she is interested in possibly using instructional materials from radio personality and finance guru Dave Ramsey.

“I think he’s an amazing financial advisor,” he said.

Miller might also purchase calculators to help students so they can complete objectives in the course without having to violate the districtwide ban on cellphones.

“(The calculators are) a good way to help them keep their cellphones put away,” she said.

Gina RodriguezWith her $2,500 grant, Rodriguez, an instructional coach, will attend an elementary school literacy workshop with three teachers in Nashville this January.

“Workshops right here in our backyard are amazing — but there’s an added element when you can continue to grow and meet other educators from a lot of different places,” Rodriguez said. “That’s what we, as teachers, do; we learn from each other.”

In her coaching role at Joe Harris, Rodriguez helps teachers improve their craft — sometimes co-teaching lessons with them.

“The teacher is always in the driver’s seat. I am a thought partner,” Rodriguez said.

She utilizes a California-based educational instructional approach from Kagan Cooperative Learning. When a Joe Harris administrative assistant informed her about the enrichEd grant, Rodriguez decided to tie it in with the Kagan approach.

“(The workshop), of course, continues to build on the Kagan structures that we use at Joe Harris, but it also tries even more intentionally to focus on standards with regards to vocabulary,” Rodriguez said. “If you don’t understand the vocabulary connected to something ... it can become a barrier. If you don’t know math vocabulary, then doing the math is hard. So understanding the vocabulary for financial literacy is a huge component we will be looking at.”