Building a Future of Financial Savvy Educators and Students through PBL | E183
May 22, 2024Season 7Episode 183
Magnify Learning
Discover the transformative power of Project Based Learning (PBL) as we explore cutting-edge professional development opportunities at Magnify Learning. You'll hear how Rise Elementary is smashing expectations with PBL and boosting social-emotional learning scores.
Meet Pete, a passionate educator whose 24-year journey through the realms of teaching and soccer has led to his insightful book, "Setting and Scoring Financial Goals." Pete's prowess in intertwining his love for soccer with financial literacy sheds new light on the subject. Our chat reveals how Pete's commitment to helping others extends well beyond the classroom walls, and how he juggles writing, family life, and a full-time teaching career with a grace that might just leave you feeling inspired to score your own goals.
Wrap your mind around "Possession, not Possessions," and learn how financial wisdom can mirror the strategic gameplay of soccer. In this episode, we dissect the emotional ties that bind us to our financial decisions, the spending habits we inherit, and the strategies that forge a path to financial freedom. We draw parallels between managing your money and cultivating sustainable PBL environments, offering insights into how a fearless approach to money management can unlock a more empowered and educated future. Join us for a playbook of financial and educational strategies that's sure to enrich your mind and maybe even your wallet.
CONNECT WITH PETE Website: www.sportsfinancellc.com Instagram: @sportsfinancellc Facebook: Sports Finance LLC Pete's Instagram: @phuryk7
Some of the links above are affiliate links which means we get a small commission on anything you purchase using that link (at no more cost to you). As Amazon Associates, we earn from qualifying purchases.
Discover the transformative power of Project Based Learning (PBL) as we explore cutting-edge professional development opportunities at Magnify Learning. You'll hear how Rise Elementary is smashing expectations with PBL and boosting social-emotional learning scores.
Meet Pete, a passionate educator whose 24-year journey through the realms of teaching and soccer has led to his insightful book, "Setting and Scoring Financial Goals." Pete's prowess in intertwining his love for soccer with financial literacy sheds new light on the subject. Our chat reveals how Pete's commitment to helping others extends well beyond the classroom walls, and how he juggles writing, family life, and a full-time teaching career with a grace that might just leave you feeling inspired to score your own goals.
Wrap your mind around "Possession, not Possessions," and learn how financial wisdom can mirror the strategic gameplay of soccer. In this episode, we dissect the emotional ties that bind us to our financial decisions, the spending habits we inherit, and the strategies that forge a path to financial freedom. We draw parallels between managing your money and cultivating sustainable PBL environments, offering insights into how a fearless approach to money management can unlock a more empowered and educated future. Join us for a playbook of financial and educational strategies that's sure to enrich your mind and maybe even your wallet.
CONNECT WITH PETE Website: www.sportsfinancellc.com Instagram: @sportsfinancellc Facebook: Sports Finance LLC Pete's Instagram: @phuryk7
Some of the links above are affiliate links which means we get a small commission on anything you purchase using that link (at no more cost to you). As Amazon Associates, we earn from qualifying purchases.
Ryan Steuer:
Here we are. At the end of May, you may have already finished up your school year or you're getting ready to. Hopefully you looked ahead to get PD options set up for you and your staff. Most of our on-site weeks are actually going to be filled up here at Magnify Learning, but there is still space in the virtual workshops or some of the conferences that we have. So if you've got some teachers that want to jump into a PBL Jumpstart or PBL Advanced or even a PBL Cert certification, they can do it virtually, which means that they can attend in their PJs Although I'm also going to tell you, though, it is intense work, so they are going to have to be ready to work all day for those three days, but it does save you on travel costs. So virtual is a really great option. We've kept it around because people seem to enjoy it. We also have two in-person conferences, one in Indianapolis and one in Missouri, and they're both going to have an emerging schools track where you can bring a leadership team. You can also do a jumpstart and advanced or a certification at any one of those. So if you come down to Indy, you can fly right into Indianapolis airport.
Ryan Steuer:
Great places to stay and eat some good places to maybe catch a baseball game. If you've come into Missouri, my family we tend to stay at the Joplin KOA, where you can catch Rudy the one-eyed catfish. Over and over again, we've been doing that for years. If that's not your jam, though, you can stay at a casino about 25 minutes away as well. So they've got a hotel and a casino. So, whichever way you go like maybe you go casino, maybe you go one-eyed catfish whichever way you and your team want to build culture, it's totally up to you, but we'd love to have you join us. That's where we still have some space, and we'd love to help you up your PBL game. That's what we're all about.
Ryan Steuer:
With that in mind, welcome to the PBL Simplified Podcast. I'm your host, ryan Stoyer, and here we talk about all things project-based learning. We want you to be able to create an innovative culture that is internally innovative At some point. You don't need other people to bring in innovation. You're doing that within your staff, and we also want you to have an irreversible culture so, as team members leave whether they're teachers, admin, whoever it is that this irreversible culture stays, because your learners love it, your staff love it, your parents love it, community partners love it. You have structures set up so that your PBL environment is there to stay.
Ryan Steuer:
It's a big deal, especially since we're trying to get 51% of schools using project-based learning by 2051. That only gives us about 37 years at this point, when this episode is coming out, which means we've got to move and two things need to happen. One, we need to do some offense in that we need more schools using project-based learning and doing that with authenticity and a way that builds structures and culture and really changes the classroom culture from an area of passivity to empowered, both for your students and your teachers. There's a lot of good research that shows that, yeah, pbl is not the easiest way to go in a school, but those teachers that are using PBL are empowered and they're fired up and they're excited about life. In fact, our model school in Missouri that you can go visit if you go to the conference we're actually going to hold it at Rise Elementary and when you look at their SEL scores, they're off the charts, both for their learners and for their teachers, which is really really cool stuff, both for their learners and for their teachers, which is really really cool stuff. Anecdotally we could see that, but now we're developing more and more quantitative measures to measure the positive results of project-based learning for our learners and, again, for the adults.
Ryan Steuer:
Before we jump into this conversation that we're going to have with Pete about literacy and financial pieces through his book, which I'm really excited to share with this conversation that I'm going to have with Pete here in just a second, I also want to read you a review from the podcast. We'd love for you to leave a review. You can go to the bottom of your podcast player and you just hit the review on there. If you could leave a review, it helps the next person find this podcast. You know that when you see a bunch of stars on there and you see real comments from real people that this is a podcast that you want to jump into and then the next person can too, and that's how we get the movement going.
Ryan Steuer:
But here, speaking 24-7 says that this podcast has great strategies for educational leaders. Thank you, speaking 24-7. That's exactly what we're looking to do. It says that we offer a wide variety of strategies and guests who offer cutting edge ideas that beleaguered educational leaders need to hear about. An excellent podcast. And if you need to look up beleaguered like I did, it means that you're in a very difficult situation. So if you're an educational leader right now and you think that you're in a difficult situation, you're listening to the right podcast because we've got the resources for you. We've got resources for your teachers to create that school environment that you've always dreamed about, to bring your vision to reality. That's what we do here, and we don't just talk it, we do it every day. So thank you for joining us, speaking 24-7. Thank you for leaving a review. Appreciate it, you listener. If you'd leave a review as well. Here's my conversation with Pete. I hope you enjoy it.
Ryan Steuer:
All right, pbl Simplified audience. You are in the right spot again. We've got a leadership guest episode today, and I've got Pete on here today, who is a teacher. He's been teaching for 24 years. He's also an author. He's a coach, he's a blogger. Pete's been looking at better performance for whoever's in front of him and he does this through soccer. He's got a huge love and passion for soccer and he's used that to write this book called Setting and Scoring Financial Goals. So we're mixing soccer, we're mixing finance. I think you're going to love today's episode, pete. Thanks for being on today.
Pete Huryk:
Oh, thanks for having me, ryan, I really appreciate it.
Ryan Steuer:
So, pete, we start with the same question with every guest on the podcast, no matter where you come from or what your background is. So what is your why for your work?
Pete Huryk:
Basically, if you break me down to my core and you looked inside of me, you would see that the reason I'm on this planet is to help people. It's why I became a teacher, it's why I became a father. It's all of the things that I do basically get broken down into. I'm looking to help people. I'm looking to help people and that's what I do through coaching, and the books are probably the most apparent of the things that I do. That you know. All right, I'm not a finance person per se. I'm a coach who's looking for a place where I can help where I see there's a need, and that is just something that is a through line in basically every single thing that I do on daily basis and then on bigger projects like that.
Ryan Steuer:
Right, so you're in the right profession, right.
Pete Huryk:
The selflessness of teachers. Yes, that's what we do.
Ryan Steuer:
Right. I always say teaching is not a gig. Right, it's a passion, it's what you do, it's who you are. You get to share that with whatever kids are in front of you.
Pete Huryk:
It's the first job. When I was in high school, college, whatever I had many jobs, from garbage man to pizza delivery guy and everything like that, and every single job I ever had. I knew how much money I was making every single minute that I was working. Teaching is the only job that A. I couldn't figure it out because the hours are so strange. And then also the thing is this just feels like I'm doing who I am and, oh, every two weeks a paycheck just happens to show up. I'm just being me and doing what I would normally do anyway. So it's a really nice kind of setup that I get to do something that I really care about and money shows up.
Ryan Steuer:
Yeah, that's right. Well, now you've got it in book form too, right, so you get to do this every day in real life, whether you're coaching or you're teaching Spanish, whatever that looks like. Now you've put it in book form, right, and we've had several podcast episodes actually about teachers writing books and what that process looks like to have a full-time teaching job, right, and write a book. So you, you know the the grind that that can be, but also the labor of love. So, but this particular book, tell us a little bit about it and why is it so important right now?
Pete Huryk:
So the book kind of was as I told you before. It's a. It kind of came into fruition during the pandemic. My best friend is a financial planner, he's my co author and basically I was having some discussions about my own finances and I was thinking about all right, well, who could I talk to about this? That'll really give me the nitty gritty. And I was like, well, my best friend's a financial planner. I think that only makes sense for me to go to him first.
Pete Huryk:
And as we were talking through some of the financial concepts, I was like, all right, well, this is like watching paint dry. How could I make this more interesting? And we played soccer together in college. So I was like, all right, well, how does this relate to soccer? Because that could hold my attention just a little bit longer. And as we started talking about it, it was well, if I can understand these financial concepts a little bit better because of the fact that I'm relating it to soccer, well, that could definitely work for somebody else, because a lot of people are intimidated by the world of finance because of the fact that it seems like such high stakes and you don't want to make mistakes, but also we have bad habits around money and everything like that. So the idea of taking something that people are really passionate about and coupling it with something that people are intimidated by and trying to simplify it through the metaphor of soccer, it just made the most sense in the world to me.
Pete Huryk:
And it's a really important book now because of the fact that we've had such a tumultuous time over the past depending on how far back you want to go the last couple of decades where the financial world has kind of gotten turned on its head from time to time. And it's not something that we teach in schools generally speaking. I know there are certain school systems that have financial literacy courses and everything like that, but usually it's parents who are teaching their kids about finances, and a lot of times the parents are just trying to figure it out or they're continuing on a series of bad habits that their parents gave to them. So it's an educational situation where a kid can walk in knowing nothing and possibly pick up enough to get themselves going in the right direction.
Pete Huryk:
Our book is not, by any stretch of the imagination, perfect financial advice. It's actually the thing that we keep on going back to is the decision-making process is up to you. It's very similar. I don't know if you're a soccer guy at all, but soccer is a player's game where everybody on the field it's not like the coach is calling a play and saying you must go here and you must go there Everybody's making a decision that benefits or hurts the team at large. So the situation is is everybody's making decisions all over the place, and that's what you have to do in your financial world is you've got to make the decisions and you're kind of living with the consequences of those decisions.
Ryan Steuer:
Yeah, that's so good, pete, and I love the idea of it, now and anytime that you can combine the engagement of something else, whether it's sports or art, and then you can bring in this other deep learning, like project-based learning. That's a big piece that we do right and we've got this big overall goal that we're trying to achieve and then we're going to. We're going to tackle all these academic standards, but also all these employability skills, just because they're good for life, like when I look at my facebook feed and I have all these former students that are on here and now they're getting apartments and they've got jobs or new jobs. Like everybody has to do finances right, like it's to happen. And I think you're right that, while I think schools are starting to catch up to have this practical finance course, everybody has to have this. It can't be just the students that are going to go do accounting in college. Everybody's going to need to use math.
Ryan Steuer:
So I think our PBL audience that's listening right now is like this is something I'd like to tackle. They want to bring this into their PBL audience that's listening right now is like this is something I'd like to tackle. They want to bring this into their PBL units. They want to bring this into their school because it helps our learners be successful. So I think this vehicle that you've created to the book and this metaphor of soccer, I think there's a whole segment of learners that can be reached this way. Even if I'm a basketball player, I still get the soccer metaphor and there's some students that we know are not going to be necessarily reached by this book, but I think teachers are always doing the puzzle right. How do I engage this section? How do I engage here? How do I do this?
Pete Huryk:
So I love it and, ultimately, what we're going to be doing is soccer was just the first book, because it's where our passion is. The number two book is American football. The third one is going to be basketball. Baseball is next, and it's just a progression of. We're going to tick off the major sports in order to you know, oh, you're a kid who likes soccer? Great, we've got the book for you. You don't like soccer, you like football? Here's the book for you, so that, if we were eventually to get to the point where we're reaching into a school system where it's okay, I've got a class that I'm teaching and some of the kids care about soccer, some of the kids care about football you've got something for each and every one of them, rather than you've got to fit into the square peg or you've got to be a square peg in the square hole that we've created here.
Ryan Steuer:
Yeah, but this is your passion and your love, right? So I think you just run with that. And if you're listening right now and this isn't typically our listener but if you're listening and thinking, man, I can't believe they're doing sports. What about art? Write the book, right. Write the art book that does this, right, like, jump into it, like this is Pete's world, and I think you just maximize what you do best. And so when you think about this book, like what's the biggest takeaway that you want a learner to take away from this book?
Pete Huryk:
Basically, I want to take away the fear factor, for young people especially. You know, I think that people have a tendency to get daunted by finance. They think the problem is too big or just creating good habits where there used to be fear. It's one of the first chapters or sections of the book is called Possession, not Possessions, and again, not sure who's a soccer player or not, but a few years ago Barcelona was the, you know, the team in the world. They were, you know, lauded as one of the best ever and basically the reason why and man City is now coached by their former manager is they keep the ball 80 to 90% of the time. You know they have the ball more than anybody and that's the idea that we talk about. Is it's possession, not possessions.
Pete Huryk:
Now, it's okay to spend money on things you want to spend money on and that makes you happy.
Pete Huryk:
That's completely fine. But the idea is know where the ball is going. We use, you know, your money as the ball, as a metaphor for your money, and basically the idea is if you're going to give the ball away to the other team, that's your choice, but know when you're doing that and why you're doing that, and if you're giving the ball away 90% of the time as opposed to keeping it 90% of the time, well then you've got to figure out whether or not that's the right thing for you, and I think that a lot of people just get stuck in their habits of I've done this way forever and so therefore, I'm going to keep doing it that way, and hopefully this just A jolts them out of the fear of I can't understand how to make my money work for me and things like that. Understand how to make my money work for me and things like that, and now giving them a conduit for getting out of some of those bad habits.
Ryan Steuer:
Yeah, so good, because I think habits is an important piece as well for our learners because, like you said, especially financially, we tend to just get those from our parents right. So, whatever they did, that's what we do and we think that's normal. And so this other point of view, anytime you're taking away fear I'm also a huge fan of that, right, like given us a concrete way to look at money a different way. It's such a big deal for our learners as we're showing them new opportunities that maybe they haven't seen before. One of those is money. A lot of times, right, and how you deal with money is it can be so different and can change the trajectory of your life, right, which is why we're in this profession. So yeah so good.
Pete Huryk:
Yeah, absolutely. And you know the idea of habits is, you know, is so important and you mentioned it before. It's like we're myelinated on. I mean, I'm sure you get into all the brain science at some point with your listeners and stuff like that is, you know, if you've got this myelinated habit of I always, after I get my paycheck, I always go out and, you know, buy myself something new because of the fact that, like that's just what my parents did or that's just what makes me feel good and everything like that. And just having that conscious thought of all right, is this what is actually good for my financial well-being, and making possibly a new decision or keeping your old decision, but understanding better why it is that you're doing it rather than just this is what I've always done.
Pete Huryk:
So we fire and wire together, and one of the things that I really want people to understand is money is not the end goal. Money is just portable power. It gives you the ability to either purchase things or experiences or whatever. A lot of people say, oh, I want a lot of money. Well, why you really want pictures of dead presidents? No, it is the things that you can get from that. And eventually, when you break it all down. It's all an emotional play. Anyway, we are all looking to have some kind of emotional experience. All right, you don't want to buy a house just to have a building. It's like all the feelings that come along with it.
Ryan Steuer:
Yeah, super good. So, pete, I've got a couple more questions for you, just to tease some things out of you. As we're thinking about the book, what's the best advice that anyone's ever given you?
Pete Huryk:
Regarding finances or just in general.
Ryan Steuer:
I think just in general. Sometimes it's nice, I think, for me I like to just know a little bit more about the author when I'm looking at a book, so I might go research. James Clear love atomic habits, right. So I just started watching everything by James Clear just so I know more about him. I'm a big fan of John Acuff, so it's like I just start to know the author a little bit and I feel like it lets me know the book a little bit more.
Ryan Steuer:
We'll get back to the episode in just a minute, but I want you to know about magnify learning, design days. Design days is a two day workshop held at one of our PBL model schools, so a school or a district that's operating a really high level with project-based learning. Then we're going to take you and your leadership team, a group of 10 or less made up of you, assistant principals, coaches, teachers that are all starting to plan out the next three years of PBL implementation. If you just start and hope it's going to work, it's probably going to fizzle. So what about a three-year plan where you think about all the different stakeholders, we think about the values, we think about the rollout, Think about which teachers on your leadership team could start to implement and start to have your own local success stories around PBL that you can share with your staff. That goes a really long way and you're going to do it at one of our model schools. So you and your team get to ask questions of that local principal, the teachers, the learners that are in the classroom. You get to go see it and then we pull you back out and one of our facilitators helps you and your team plan. As the leader you get to be a part of the planning process, not just driving it home or pulling people along. You're going to leave those two days with a grassroots movement. You're going to leave with momentum for your PBL vision. This is the way to start.
Ryan Steuer:
We've done it a lot of different ways. We've seen other groups do it. We've been doing this for a decade. The schools that start with design days and keep those going implement strong and a lot of times faster than you might otherwise, because you have more people moving in the right direction and they know what the goal is. So look in the description, get an overview of our Magnify Learning Design Days schedule. A call let's jump in and partner. Now back to the episode.
Pete Huryk:
Yep, probably. You know the simplest answer is advice that my dad gave me when I was a little kid and it was kind of annoying because he repeated it so many times. It's be nice to people, it doesn't cost you anything but it can get you everything. I think that's probably the piece of advice that has been the most practical throughout my entire life and, you know, I think it kind of led into my why of helping people and stuff like that. So I think, if you know, the very, very simple answer is probably that one, just because of the fact that it's it's been so long standing and I can't say that it's ever really steered me wrong. It may not have worked out the way that I anticipated, but for the most part I can't say that it's ever really been bad advice.
Ryan Steuer:
Yeah, that's good For me. I just like the idea that the dad advice that I'm giving my kids is going to sink in and they'll use it someday. So I'll take that encouragement.
Pete Huryk:
Exactly.
Ryan Steuer:
Pete, and, as a true soccer guy, I love that the next book is going to be American football, right, not just football. So you've got to differentiate because you're a soccer guy. What are the other books that are coming out? You kind of mentioned them. Are they all going to be finance related? And just talk a little bit more about those as they're coming out?
Pete Huryk:
yeah. So within the work that I'm doing with, uh, my co-author, uh, chris schaefer, um, we're doing the sports finance thing. We actually um, our llc is sports finance llc. Because of the fact that we knew we went in with the idea of we're going to start with the soccer book and then we're going to differentiate to the other sports. Me personally, I've already written two books and they were both soccer related. The first one was Fill your Boots. I wrote that years ago. Second one was Soccer Life Balance, and they're all intended at high school age, college age students and basically school age, college age students. And basically you know the overall premise of me and the books is always, you know, I'm looking to help younger people not step in that pothole that I stepped in five times, and so you know I have other book projects that I'll be working on, you know, independent of what Chris and I are doing, but ultimately the first.
Pete Huryk:
The next thing is the American football book and it's not a situation that I am less enthusiastic about that project.
Pete Huryk:
Actually, my brother is an American football coach who he played college soccer, but he actually coaches football now.
Pete Huryk:
But the concept is actually not all that different and that's why we're doing that one second because of the fact that, historically speaking, if you want to look at it this way, american football is the grandson of soccer. So basically, in England they had the kicking game and then this guy decided 150 years ago that he was going to pick the ball up and run with it, and that's now the sport that we know as rugby. But they were still calling it football and a bunch of people who emigrated to the United States were still calling it football at that point. That's how we got the sport that we have is rugby. Eventually they started passing the ball forward and that's how we got American football. So ultimately, the two sports are not that dissimilar. So I am very excited about doing that next project because of the fact that I think that, as much as I love soccer, and I think that it'll have a huge impact, the American football one, I think, will hit on a much larger scale to people who really need it.
Ryan Steuer:
Right yeah, so good yeah, you've got such a great niche. Finance is a huge, important piece for all of our learners, even if they don't know it yet, right Cause they're going to be adults, they're going to have expenses, they're going to have income at some point, so we need to find engaging ways to get it out to them. So I appreciate the vehicles you're creating that our visionary leaders that are listening right now can use in their schools. So, pete, as these books come out, we want to stay connected. So what's the best way for our audience to connect with you?
Pete Huryk:
Basically, the website is sportsfinancellccom. That is probably the easiest way to go about it because of the fact that that's where all the books will be. It's on Amazon and everything like that, but our website is a home for all of our resources and everything like that. And then we're on Instagram and Facebook for the younger generation, facebook for the older generation.
Ryan Steuer:
Yeah, there you go, you're everywhere. So that's perfect. Generation Facebook for the older generation. Yeah, there you go, you're everywhere. So that's perfect. Pete, thank you so much for coming on today and sharing your heart so we could hear what the author has to say and what's behind this book. Right, it's not just an outline, it's a passion project, so thanks for being on today.
Pete Huryk:
Thank you so much, ryan, appreciate it.
Ryan Steuer:
All right, visionary Leader, you heard yet another resource that you can use in your PBL classrooms, your PBL schools, to reach your learners in a different way. In this particular case, we've got a way that we can look at finance in a different way, and we know that that engagement can really open up eyes for our learners, and I'm sure you're thinking of ways already to bring it into a PBL unit, and we just hope that this podcast has helped you move the ball down the field and, I guess, keep possession of it. So, as you do that, you will engage your learners, tackle boredom and transform your classrooms. So go, lead inspired.
Ryan Steuer:
Thank you so much for listening to this episode of the PBL Simplified Podcast. I appreciate you and honor that you tune in each week. Would you please take two minutes to leave a rating and a review? When you leave a review, it lets the next person know that this is a podcast worth listening to. When they go into their player and search project-based learning, and PBL Simplified popped up, when they see those reviews, they know that high quality, visionary leaders are listening, so they tune in too and they can find their way into the PBL journey. Thank you so much for leaving a review. Thank you so much for listening. I appreciate you.