2019 is ending in a few days. I'm going to take a moment and reflect on my finances this past year. I've always cared about finances, but 2019 is when I REALLY cared and started to rethink my financial goals. In the second half of 2019, I made quite a few major financial moves. I'll share with you what lessons I learned this past year, especially in the area of investing. Hopefully it will help you as well. 

Happy Holidays and Merry Christmas! Hope you are surrounding yourself with loved ones and eating plenty! Most importantly, catching up on rest! It's a good time to catch a breather and recharge before we jump into the second half of the school year. What do you do during your winter break? Here's what I'm doing with my break and what you might consider doing as well...

Happy Friday! For many of us, it's the start of the holiday break! Thank you so much for your hard work! You deserve it! 

As the year wraps up and tax season looming around the corner, it's probably a good time to start reevaluating your finances. Today's topic is Public Service Loan Forgiveness (PSLF) that some of us should qualify for. I'm on it myself and it's a frustrating process. Let's talk about what it is, the pros and cons of PSLF, and its considerations. 
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For many of us, this is our last week before the holiday break. Congratulations! You've made it through the first semester! What are your plans for the break? What are your plans for your students over break?? I recall being assigned homework by my teachers every single break. That's ironic right there. Being assigned "work" during "break." I had no break. 

Perhaps we should reconsider assigning homework over breaks for students? After all, don't we need a break? Shouldn't they also get a break? 

This post is an update and a re-launch of Chang the World’s personal finance section  - Finance Friday! In this section, I will be diving into a variety of topics that you may find useful. Future posts will be topic specific complete with resources you can use for yourself or your students! 
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I have a lot of interests; personal finance being one of them. This is one of those subjects that should be taught in school. It’s so huge that I incorporate it into my economics class ever since my first year. Let’s face it. Most students are more likely to use personal finance skills straight out of the classroom than wonder about how the supply & demand of eggs are affecting its prices. I wasn’t taught it in school and “life skills” ALWAYS come up whenever you ask students what they want to learn.

After several months of working on this, I can finally share with you my presentation deck for teaching history thematically! The detailed mini e-book version will come soon! Continue reading this post to get more information and access to the deck. 

After a fall hiatus, I'm back and I have some updates for you! I finally finished my "Creating Your Own Thematic History Curriculum" deck - presentation version, titled as "Not Your Typical History Class: A Thematic Approach to Teaching History." The in-depth deck will arrive in 2020. This will be a busy winter break. I will be sharing the presentation version with you in the coming week! Stay tuned! 

Also, I'll be presenting on thematic teaching for the first time this weekend at CTA (California Teachers Association) New Educator Weekend South in San Diego. My session will  also be recorded. I'll provide the link once I'm hear it's live. Looking forward to the presenting what I've learned to others and get feedback! 

Happy 4th of July!

As I was making my rounds of sending mass text messages to friends to wish them a “Happy Independence Day,” a friend replied back with a “For some.” It hit me hard. It was 8:20AM. 

Her respond really got me thinking so I want to share a few words. She’s is absolutely right. We're not free until we are ALL free. There are many people who do not have the same freedoms with differing access to privilege. Can we truly call ourselves the Land of the Free when there are still so many injustices in our society? ​

This post/letter is dedicated to the Class of 2019.
Keeping with a tradition I started since my first year teaching, I would like to write and dedicate a letter to the Class of 2019.


Dear Class of 2019,
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It’s been a little over a week since you graduated and I wanted to take some time to process it. Your class holds a very special place in my heart. When I first started at Santa Teresa, you were sophomores. About 50 of you had me as your world history teacher and became part of my first group of students. My reach didn’t stop there. I was also one of your class advisors and that allowed me to meet many more of you through ASB activities. A few of you ended up in my government/economics class your senior year or just ended up hanging around my class during break, tutorial, and/or some club activity. Not only are many of you among my first group of students, your class is the first one I’ve had the honor of seeing mature over the past three years. I definitely repeated this so much you’re tired of hearing of it.

I am looking to write more often, so I'll be taking baby steps and starting with these short reflection pieces, "Thoughts for Chang."

Since I started teaching, I've been working really hard on helping my students ​develop perspective and opinions of their own.