1. Explain what the four factors of poverty are and how they impact one’s life.
The four factors of poverty are;

1. Household/Family: If you have, for example, a lot of siblings, your family would spend a lot more money so you would have less money left.
2. Health: If you have an illness like diabetes or something that you need medicine for, the cost of the medicine could become expensive.
3. Geography: If you live in a poorer neighborhood, that can affect your health.
4. Education: If you don’t have a good education, you can’t get a good job, and you can’t make a lot of money.
   2. Explain how the cycle of poverty works.

If you have a child and you are in poverty, then;

• Your child can’t get a good education
• They can’t get a well-paying job
• If they have a child, their child will also end up in poverty.3. How do we help people get healthy food cheaply (make sure your answer is realistic)?

Food stamps, like SNAP, can help, but also places like St. Bens and The Gathering can help people get good food for free, so if there were more places like that, more people could have good food. We could also donate food to help people get food.

What government policy suggestions do you have?

I think that anyone in need of food stamps should get them.

What changes can you/we make to help?

We can go to The Gathering more and help people in need and also donate food to people in need.
Defend your answer.

The Gathering helps people get good food, so it could help poverty. However, it is not a forever fix, and donated food might also not help as much.

1. What is SNAPS?

SNAPS is the “Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program”. It helps people get food when they need it.

2. What is the average monthly benefit for someone on SNAPS?

The average monthly benefit for someone on SNAPS is $126

3. On average, I spend $18.69 on food per week.

4. My life would be different if I were on SNAPS because…

My life would be different because I would have a limit of food that I could eat.

1. What factors can lead to poverty?

The factors that lead to poverty are:

• Household: If you need to fix your house or something, it can cost a lot.
• Family: If your parents have no jobs, or you only have one parent, it’s a lot harder to live.
• Education: If you or your parents don’t have good education, they (or you) can’t get a good job.
• Health: If you live in an area with more pollution, you could get sick but have no money to get medicine or go to the doctor.

3. How can poverty affect succeeding generations?

It can affect succeeding generations because it’s really hard to get out of poverty. You might not get a good education, and then you can’t get a good job. If you every did anything bad to get food, like steal, you might have a bad reputation. Also you wouldn’t have that much money to get a new house or anything.

• As someone in this experience, tell your story.  Describe your experience. Tell us about the highs and the lows.  What were your major takeaways? What did you learn? How did you like it?  Be sure to explain your answers.

The unit was about an economy. We randomly picked jobs and chairs and then had to work to get checks and pay bills. I personally really liked the whole unit. I thought it was really fun and I really liked learning how to write and deposit checks. The only thing I didn’t like was when we picked our seats because I really wanted the couch but I ended up getting the crates which were still a cool seat. I liked how we could sit in other things rather than chairs.

• How did your character’s role/situation in the game affect your ability to take care of yourself?  Think about your income, job, rent, the amount of money you had, any loans you took out, and your health situation.

I think that my job was a very good job because it paid very well. I was a CEO so I got paid a lot and had really good health care. I had no trouble paying bills and didn’t get any diseases. I think I ended up with about $160,000 which was a lot of money.

• What aspects of your character’s life encouraged success?  What aspects of your character’s life brought about failure?  Explain how that process worked.

The aspect that encouraged the most success was that I was a CEO and got a lot of money, which definitely helped so I could easily pay my bills and rent and fines. The thing that encouraged failure was that one time I didn’t see someone charging a Chromebook. When I didn’t catch someone, I was fined $50, but when I caught someone, I got $10.

• What attempts did you make to improve your character’s life?  How successful were these attempts? How difficult were those attempts and why?

I tried to catch more people charging their Chromebook and I tried to be a little more sneaky so I could catch more people. This was difficult because everyone already knew that I could fine them so they were being careful. This didn’t work because I ended up never getting the money I was supposed to get from catching people.

• In bullet points, write a list of what you learned about poverty from this activity.  Be sure to include a brief description next to each item about what you learned, explaining your learning/thinking.

• How to write and deposit a check, we had to write and deposit checks to get paid and to pay people.
• What eviction is, we read about it and some people got evicted from their chairs.
• What the poverty line is, about 13,000 a year
• How much more  CEO gets paid than the average employee, 361 times more
• Things cost money, rent, bills, utilities
• Medicare vs Medicaid, both are different
• Diseases, some people had diabetes in the game

a. How many weeks of the challenge did you participate in? (1 sentence)

I participated in all eight weeks, however, I did a few of the weeks late.
b. How many comments did you receive from classmates, teachers, or other visitors? (1 sentence)

I received only one comment.
c. Which post did you enjoy writing the most and why? (3 sentences)

I most enjoyed the “Catch up or Free Choice” week. I enjoyed this because we got to chose something really fun to write about. I also loved writing my “Would You Rathers”.
d. Which web tools did you use to show creativity on your blog? (1 sentence)

I learned how to correctly use photos but still be able to find ones that I want.
f. What did you learn about yourself during this challenge? (3 sentences)

I learned that I don’t usually check to see if the photos I use are copyrighted! I could get in trouble for that so I’m glad that I learned how to find non-copyrighted photos. I also learned how to write better blog posts with more detail.

1. Explain the role/job you have been assigned to for our Classroom Economy.

I have been assigned the job of Chief Technology Officer. This means that if someone is charging their Chromebook during class, I have to report them to the president of the class, and they will get fined. I also get to keep $10 of that fine. Something I have to look out for is making sure I catch those people. If I don’t by the end of class, I get fined $100.

2. What are you most excited/nervous about for our Classroom Economy?

I am most excited about basically the whole job thing. I think that it’s going to be pretty fun to all have jobs to do. I also think that getting and depositing the checks will be fun because we can learn how.

3. In my mind, poverty is caused by people not having a job that gets enough money, or if a popular workplace gets closed down, so they can’t work.

Today I’m going to be sharing about holidays that I celebrate with my family. The pictures that I use are not from my actual family, but I found them on Pixabay .

In my family, we celebrate a lot of holidays. My dad is Jewish and my mom is Christan so we celebrate bothy “types of holidays. Here are some of the holidays we celebrate. We celebrate Hannukah. Hannukah is a Jewish holiday that lasts 8 days. Every night of Hannukah, we light a candle and give each other a little gift. We also celebrate Christmas. During Christmas, we go to my grandma’s house and celebrate with my cousins. We also celebrate some more holidays; Passover – when the Jews escaped Egypt, Yom Kippur – When we think about things we did wrong in the past year and say sorry for them, Rosh Hashanah = The Jewish new year, we celebrate by eating apples and honey.

For our Class Economy unit, I am a “Cheif Technology Officer”. I am very happy with my job because it is the 2nd best paying job, next to the mayor who gets $4,000 per week. I get paid $1,580 a week and only have to pay $50 a week for bills – so I basically get $1,530 a week which is pretty good. I also get $10 each time I find and report someone charging their Chromebook during class. The only bad thing is that if someone else sees someone charging their Chromebook and I don’t catch them/give them a fine by the end of class, I have to pay the bank $100.

Overall, I really am happy with my job and I think that it pays really well.