F I S C H + E D

At university, one of my favourite subjects was concerned with conflict and negotiation. I've always found this topic interesting, and I believe the interest originally stemmed from my interest in cars. As a child, my father and I would often go to car yards just to look at the latest model cars and toy with the car dealers. In particular, I remember my father negotiating with a dealer on Christmas Eve regarding the purchase of a new car, getting as far as looking at options before telling the poor dealer that he had better check with my mum before proceeding further. Another favourite was a dealer who tried at least four or five different tactics with my father, from telling him he wasn't serious and not to waste his time, to smooth talking and trying to charm him. The funniest part was at the time we were looking to purchase a car for my sister and the poor guy totally blew it. This topic also makes me think about my father's favourite line - 'I love negot

We live in a world where fashion retailers can, if they choose to, take a design from paper to the store in under a month. Whilst this means that we can gain access to on-trend items quickly, cheaply and easily, it also means that clothing is being produced, and disposed of, at an alarming rate. In 2014 over 100 billion items of clothing were produced worldwide, equating to around 4 items of clothing per person living on Earth. Traditionally, 'seasons' of fashion were limited to two a year- warm weather and cold weather. It then expanded to the four seasons of the year that most temperate climates experience. In 2017, some retailers are looking between 9-11 'seasons', with clothing being removed from stores as early as a month after going on the shelves. Herein lies the origin of the term fast fashion , goods that are produced quickly and cheaply, and often of a poor quality. The advent of fast fashion has resulted in a throw-away culture emerging in the west

A GUIDE TO CONDUCTING A CLASSROOM WASTE AUDIT A classroom waste audit is a great way to engage your students in a discussion about waste management. By collecting waste samples from around your school, students undertaking this process are able to gain a valuable insight into their collective waste management practices. It also provides the opportunity to open up a dialogue with your school about ways that waste management practices can be improved.  Our students exist within the throw-away culture of the 21 st century, where it’s far easier to buy a new product than to replace, repair and regenerate existing items. However, it’s not all bad news. With more recycling options available than any other time in history, it is becoming easier and easier for individuals to make simple - yet hugely beneficial - changes to their waste management practices. Ideally, this activity will get your students thinking about their decision making processes in regards to disposing of t

I recently posted about an activity that I was attempting to implement for the first time in my politics and economics class. In the previous post, I had introduced the game Democracy 3 to my students to familiarise them to how the game functions. Since the first introductory class, I have introduced an assignment whereby students are required to record and analyse every decision that they make in the simulation. I had some trepidation as I distributed the assignment to the students. I desperately wanted the class to enjoy the activity, as the game acts as a perfect tool to bring together the political and economic concepts that I had sought to share. Ninety-minutes later, it was clear that the activity was a success. Almost too much of a success. The students were so engrossed in the activity that it was taking far longer than I had anticipated. As I had set the task to be completed in pairs, the students were discussing every decision and considering a range of alternativ

An interesting article from 'The Economist' entitled 'Recline and fall: Who owns the space between reclining airline seats ( http://www.economist.com/blogs/gulliver/2017/05/recline-and-fall) recently piqued my interest as a discussion class discussion. Any economic discussion that students can relate to is always good fun. This is definitely going to be a great lesson idea that I will write up in the near future! 

Since 2007 when I first started teaching, I have sought to create opportunities to implement economic activities into a range of my classes. As such, I have managed to introduce economic thinking into business, accounting, careers, personal finance and even information technology. However, I have always wanted to create a middle school subject based upon two of my biggest passions: economics and politics. In mid 2016 I had the opportunity to propose a new middle school elective at the High School I teach at. The goal; to encourage students to become engaged in politics and economics. Throughout 2017, I have had the opportunity to work with a graduate teacher in bringing my vision to reality. This process has been extremely rewarding and enjoyable. As I designed the subject, I had in mind an end point, a task that I could use to determine whether my students had developed an awareness of the strong and unbreakable links between economics and politics. This end point is Posite

  Since first studying economics at university, it has always fascinated me. I initially struggled with the concept of self-interest, as I believed it contrary to the how people actually behaved. However, the more I considered the concept, the more I came to believe the concept to apply to the real world. As an idea that intrigued me, I had always thought to introduce the subject with a discussion on self-interest. However, what fascinates me and what fascinates students is often quite different and when I have tried this approach, it has been less successful than I had hoped. When developing a new middle school subject at my school, I hit upon the idea of using real estate instead. Real estate is relatively easy to understand, for almost everyone in the western world lives in a house or apartment. As a ‘good’ it is easy to understand why it is valuable, and factors that can impact upon its value. With this in mind, I developed a resource that enables