Meet the Teacher Using Social Media to Spread Financial Literacy Among Children

Younger generations are facing bigger financial challenges and struggling with more instability as compared to their older counterparts. This is what makes it important for imparting knowledge about money, savings and investment to children at an early stage. In Charlotte, North Carolina, Shelby Lattimore (@shelby_thatsmee), a third-grade teacher, has discovered an unusual way to impart financial literacy and accountability to her kids.

Shelby's teaching career took an unexpected turn because of the COVID-19 outbreak. She had originally intended to teach for a little while until everything was back to normal, but she ended up falling in love with the profession. Shelby has been teaching third grade for the past four years, and she has no plans to stop any time soon.

Creative teaching solutions

Running a classroom economy is part of her creative teaching strategy; students manage and earn "money" for their allotted work and good behaviour. Shelby was motivated by money as a child and wanted to instil financial knowledge in her students. But she found that a lot of kids had trouble grasping the concept of money, so she decided to share her experiences on TikTok.

After receiving millions of views on a video showing her collecting "rent" from her students, Shelby assisted hundreds of teachers around the globe in putting her classroom economy system into practice.

Social media & focus on financial literacy

Until her first TikTok viral video, Shelby Lattimore had never given social media posting any thought. Throughout her time in high school and college, she was familiar with the concept of making material for websites like YouTube and Instagram but had never leapt.

Shelby is open and honest with her school administration about her use of social media and her teaching job. She also highlights her dedication to producing content responsibly, particularly concerning her students' privacy, by never displaying their faces in never showing their faces in her videos.

Shelby has drawn notice for her focus on educating children about finance at an early age. She highlights how crucial it is to instil financial literacy in children at a young age to better prepare them for adulthood and making financial decisions in real life.

Some of her audience has also shared hilarious reactions! 

Incentives in classroom economy

Students can earn a variety of incentives from Shelby Lattimore's classroom economy, such as sweets, homework passes, lunch with friends or the teacher, or even the chance to assume the job of teacher for the day. At $30, the most sought-after incentive lets students take charge of the classroom for the whole day.

Shelby interacts with comments on her videos, trying to answer queries and create a feeling of community among her fans, even when she gets conflicting reactions online.

Balancing teaching and content creation

Shelby finds it difficult to juggle her duties as a teacher and a content creator. Shelby also coaches and instructs students after school. She is nevertheless dedicated to sharing content on social media sites daily despite her hectic schedule.

Shelby's online profile has expanded quickly, but despite the time and effort required, she does not view content creation as a full-time job. Her main priorities are still her teaching profession and creating materials to support other educators in successfully implementing classroom economics. Shelby's ultimate objective is to produce thorough teaching resources for her classroom economy system that other educators and parents may modify to suit their needs.

Follow her at @shelby_thatsmee for more such videos.