From The Record
Montezuma High School teacher Kevin Gartman has reached a milestone.
A curriculum proposal he created through professional development on behalf of the school was chosen as one of a few “Gold Standard” programs in the United States and will be implemented at schools nationwide.
Gartman is a high school business and middle school computer teacher at the school.
He has been working several years on creating a personal finance curriculum that prepares graduating students to be ready for life after high school.
Gartman said the intent is to prepare students to be decision makers and financially successful, regardless of the career path they choose.
Schools now will be able to follow Montezuma’s lead as they implement their own personal finance classes, using Gartman’s curriculum.
Gartman has been awarded a $10,000 grant by Next Generation Personal Finance to help implement and enhance his course.
He also will be a presenter at the 2020 Changemaker Summit for personal finance educators in San Francisco this March.
“At the conference, I’ll be able to share about the progress we’re making ahead of the curve in terms of personal finance,” Gartman said.
“One unique thing about the business classes at Montezuma is the amount of real-world application and projects that are completed,” he said.
“Students complete case studies, research and projects for both real and imaginary clients, and find ways to collaborate with the school community as a whole to learn and improve skills they will use post-graduation,” he said.
Gartman also created a proposal on behalf of Montezuma schools to pilot Facebook’s new digital marketing program within his marketing class. It was recently accepted.
This pilot program has been released to just a few educators around the country, and this spring, Montezuma will be able to be the first to use it.
“This digital marketing portal has 23 beginning, intermediate and advanced modules that I’ll be able to integrate into my current curriculum to give students real-life learning, as well as allow them to complete the certification exam after the end of the pilot. Our students will have the same digital marketing associate certification that Facebook requires its own employees to have,” he said.
“It’s a cool perk at the end of the class!”
Gartman graduated from Waukee High School in 2011 and the University of Northern Iowa in 2015. He teaches 7th Grade Leadership, 8th Grade Intro to Business, Sports and Entertainment Marketing, Business Marketing, Personal Finance, Business Law, Entrepreneurship and two levels of Web Design.
“Being able to teach at Montezuma gives me a unique opportunity to watch the growth of students here from when I first taught them in 7th grade, through graduation six years later,” Gartman said on his teacher page on the school’s website.
In addition to his classroom duties, Gartman coaches junior varsity girls basketball, junior high girls track, and is the junior and senior high boys and girls cross country coach.