Lisa Bender

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Retired Business Educator, Maryland

Lisa Bender picture

Educational Background

  • M.Ed. from The University of Maryland

  • National Board Certified Teacher (NBCT) 

Professional Experience

  • 2019 Appointed to the Educator Advisory Board for Knowledge@Wharton High School Program, University of Pennsylvania 
  • 2018-2019 Collaborated as a Subject Matter Expert & Curriculum Writer for The Financial Literacy Group and the CFPB Youth Financial Education Project
  • 2017 Teacher Speaker "Hill Day" for financial literacy on Capitol Hill, Washington, DC. 
  • 2017 VISA's Practical Money Skills Innovative Educator https://www.practicalmoneyskills.com/teach/innovative_educator/lisa_bender
  • 2016 Lead presenter for Take Charge Today at the St. Louis Federal Reserve Financial Literacy Workshop 

  • 2015 Coordinator/Leader- National Master Educator Team for Take Charge Today  

  • 2015 Marketing Specialist/Associate for Take Charge Today

  • 2015 Personal Finance Teacher Featured on Next Gen Personal Finance Blog. http://nextgenpersonalfinance.org/featured-teacher-lisa-bender-southern-garrett-high-school-maryland/

  • 2015 Instructional Designer/Content Reviewer - Maryland Financial Literacy Online Course

  • 2015 Instructional Designer - University of Pennsylvania Knowledge @ Wharton High School Finance Course 

  • 2013 Presenter for Jumpstart National Conference, Washington, DC

  • 2012  National Board Certified Teacher AYA-CTE

  • 2012 Leavey National Award for Excellence in Private Enterprise Education - $7,500

  • 2012 Discover’s Pathway to Financial Success – Awarded $41,000 Grant

  • 2012 Association of American Educators Grant Winner for Book Buddies Project

  • 2012 Association of American Educators Grant Winner for Book Buddies Project - $500

  • 2011 and 2012 Presenter for “On Common Ground” – Technology Leadership Conference

  • 2011 Grant Winner Consortium for Entrepreneurship Education Conference Cincinnati, OH

  • 2010 National Education Association (NEA) Grant Winner (Learning and Leadership)- received $2,000 to attend the Council for Economic Education Annual Conference

  • 2008 ING Unsung Hero Award- received $2,000 to create a “Financial Literacy Suite” in her classroom

  • 2007 Maryland State Teacher of the Year Finalist 

  • 2007 Garrett County Teacher of the Year

  • 2007 MSET Grant Winner

  • 2006 Outstanding Teacher Alumni Award University of Maryland College of Education Member of the National Education Association (NEA)

  • 1996 Selected to attend “Teach the Teacher" Program at New York Stock Exchange

  • Member of the National Education Association (NEA)

  • Member of the Maryland State Education Association (MSEA)

  • Member of the Global Association Teachers of Economics (GATE)

  • Member of the International Society for Technology in Education (ISTE)

  • Member of the Maryland Society for Educational Technology (MSET)

What is your favorite Active Learning Tool (ALT)?

  • I like to review with the Musical Chairs activity. It allows me to get the students up and interacting; they take ownership in their learning as they write down appropriate definitions on the different papers as they dance around the classroom until the music stops; adding music helps to mix up the regular classroom dynamic. All in all, I have seen very positive attitudes from students when we do this review game. It is easy to prepare since Take Charge Today has a template to use for any unit you of your choosing.

What is your most memorable success?

  • I am a firm believer in challenging my students to take their learning to the next level. After I teach the Take Charge Today units on Investing, and The Language of the Stock Market, I require students to complete an essay test based on the InvestWrite National Essay Contest. In the Fall of 2011, I had a student win 2nd place in the nation for her essay and win a new laptop computer and a trophy that was taller than her 5’2” frame. She along with two other students who earned perfect scores on the National Financial Capability Challenge were honored at a special luncheon in Baltimore and I was able to enjoy their success with their families – a perfect way to spend an afternoon celebration educational success. The Take Charge Today lessons made all the difference in my delivery of lessons and their achievements in the financial literacy arena.

What have I learned from being part of a Take Charge Today online community?

Yes, I’ll admit that my age makes me a “Digital Immigrant”. In terms of 21st Century technology usage, Digital Immigrants are people who are older and had to migrate to the land of “everything technology”. Younger students and adults in their teens and twenties are considered “Digital Natives”: they have grown up using technology all of their lives. They have no fears when it comes to trying new tech things.

For this “Digital Immigrant”, learning to Tweet was a goal I shared with my students in 2013-14 so that I could become aware of what was going on in the world of financial literacy. The challenge worked as I Tweeted for 30 days straight in April during Financial Literacy Month. Now I tweet regularly about things my financial management students are doing in class and keeping up to date with financial educators across the country. This experiment has paid even larger dividends as I have secured several jobs from posting on Twitter about personal finance topics.  

The Take Charge Today Forum is also an online space where I have gained ground in learning more from my teaching colleagues across the country about how they approach financial literacy. The TCT Forum has allowed me to go in at my leisure to read about new ideas and methods for teaching financial literacy. Going to the discussions allows me to see what others have tried and liked, before I spend a lot of time on an un-tried activity. The Take Charge Today community helps me find links to current, up-to-date lessons I can incorporate into my classes. All of these things make being part of a Take Charge Today community worth the time and effort. It helps to ensure that I am using my time for planning my lessons wisely, and I have already used many, many tips, links, articles, lessons, and videos that I found on the discussion boards this year. Take Charge Today communities keep me current – and that is something I find truly helpful in my classroom.

Unique Projects when Teaching Take Charge Today

  • Uses the Take Charge Today curriculum as the primary resource for her new Financial Management course - this is one of the three classes that serve as a graduation requirement for incoming freshman

  • Uses The Fundamentals of Investing Lesson as a prelude to student team competitions with a statewide Stock Market Game sponsored by the Council for Econ Ed

  • Used grant money from The Association of American Educators to create a “Book Buddies” literacy project with our feeder middle school. My juniors and seniors and the 6th grade English Language Arts class read the book Lawn Boy by author Gary Paulson. My high school students created personal finance lessons about the stock market for the 6th grade team using the Fundamentals of Investing Lesson from TCT. We uploaded the lessons onto Edmodo so that the 6th Grade Teacher could access them through the cloud. We combined classes at the end of the project to create T-Shirts for the group and celebrate learning about money with a local guest speaker entrepreneur and an ice cream party. Fun stuff for young and old; great Service Learning opportunity also.  

Favorite Take Charge Today components

  • Likes that the Take Charge Today lessons have students engaged, excited, and energized about taking charge of the their financial future

  • The Take Charge Today lessons “The Basics of Taxes”  and “Statement of Financial Position” have given her students a solid foundation in understanding the relationship from the present and decisions they make today upon long-term goals of financial planning – these two lessons take a very complex subject and draws students in with easy-to-understand presentations, True/False Chairs review games, math tasks, and simulated assessments.  

Advice for new Take Charge Today users

  • You don’t have to tackle the TCT curriculum all at once; pick and choose one lesson to try and build upon your confidence to teach this subject one unit at a time. Because this repository of lessons is crafted “By Educators for Educators”, The Take Charge Today curriculum provides some of the most creative ways to teach and engage young learners about economics and finance - Take Charge Today helps me reach my professional goals of “Making Students Future Ready”

Making a difference through Take Charge Today

  • Lisa knew she was making a difference when a former student who had been out of high school for five years paid a visit to share his latest quarterly report of his investment portfolio saying, “I remember your advice to pay yourself first and the lessons we learned by playing the Stock Market game. I just wanted to show you that I am now an investor and your class made a difference!” This young man went directly into the work force after leaving high school. He is a long-haul truck driver and runs a route from Pittsburgh to Chicago several times a week. So glad he is letting his money work for him!! 

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