Classroom Connections

Since 2001, we have offered a one-day professional development event for teachers who integrate personal finance in the classroom.  This annual event in May brings together teachers from across the state to network and share practices with one another; to learn about new classroom resources; and to improve their own personal knowledge of personal finance concepts.

May 9, 2024! 

8:00 a.m. – 3:00 p.m.

2024 Presenters to be Announced!  There were last year’s presenters:

Tim Ranzetta
Founder
Next Gen Personal Finance

Tim Ranzetta is the founder of Next Gen Personal Finance (NGPF), a non-profit organization committed to providing all young people with access to a high quality, engaging financial education. After creating a personal finance course to educate first gen students at Eastside Prep in East Palo Alto, California, Tim saw the impact this course had on engaging ALL students as well as their parents. Founded in 2014, NGPF serves educators with a comprehensive set of resources from well-organized lesson plans to hands-on projects, activities and case studies. NGPF spends thousands of hours every year curating online content (videos, games, articles) with an educators’ mindset. Already, thousands of teachers in all fifty states rely on the NGPF website as their “one-stop” to support their personal finance classroom.

Mike Sheffer
Director of Education
The FoolProof Foundation

Mike Sheffer is FoolProof’s Director of Education and Board Member of the FoolProof Foundation. Recently retired after 32 years of teaching and coaching in the Corning-Painted Post School District in New York State. He was an International Baccalaureate Teacher of IB Business and Management, Personal Finance and Economics along with being the Business Department Chairperson at Corning Painted Post HS. . He has worked with the FoolProof team in the development of the FoolProof modules along with the teacher guides and teacher lesson plans.

Olivia DiBiase
Director of Financial Education and Outreach
American Financial Services Association Education Foundation

As the Director of Financial Education and Outreach for the AFSA Education Foundation, Olivia manages the implementation of the MoneySKILL® curriculum, which provides free financial education to middle school, high school, and adult learners in the U.S. and internationally. She works closely with educators, administrators, education officials, and AFSA members to raise awareness about and expand enrollment in the online curriculum.

Before joining the AFSA Education Foundation, Olivia spent six years at the National Foundation for Credit Counseling (NFCC), the leading association for nonprofit financial counseling organizations. She held leadership roles focusing on the delivery of innovative, consumer-focused programs and resources to improve consumer financial health. Prior to her work at the NFCC, Olivia served as a Youth Educator with the Peace Corps in Morocco.

Olivia holds a Bachelor of Arts degree from the University of California, Davis. She and her family live in Washington, DC.

Jessica Pelletier
Executive Director
FitMoney

Jessica Pelletier is the Executive Director of FitMoney. She brings extensive non-profit management, strategic planning and fundraising experience to FitMoney with over 20 years growing non-profit, private and political organizations. In her previous role as Co-National Director at Right to Play, she worked to implement play-based educational standards in disadvantaged communities around the world, traveling on several occasions to Africa to experience firsthand the benefits of accessible education for all. She is a long-time youth and educational advocate and promises further expansion of financial literacy across the country, especially focusing on positive financial behaviors starting as early as kindergarten.

Leslie Jones
Youth Financial Education Analyst
Consumer Financial Protection Bureau

Leslie Jones is a former business teacher, instructional designer, curriculum supervisor and developer. She advises on the benefits of K-12 financial education and the challenges of incorporating personal finance topics into K-12 courses. Leslie is a certified business teacher in Virginia. She was recognized in three editions (2000-2005) of Who’s Who Among America’s Teachers and was a member of the 2004 National Outstanding High School Business Department – sponsored by the Association Career and Technical Educators (ACTE). Leslie has a Master’s Degree in Instructional Design and Development from George Mason University in Fairfax, VA and two Bachelor’s Degrees: one from Bowling Green State University in Bowling Green, OH in Marketing Education and the other from Lake Erie College in Painesville, OH in Arts Management and Sales.

Steve Gamlin
Visualization Coach

If there is a more rewarding way to live his life than being a professional speaker, Steve Gamlin hasn’t discovered it yet. At the moment, he has no interest in changing course. He’s finding too much value in sharing the stage as Provider of Motivational Firewood™. After enjoying a successful decade in the radio industry, a series of life-decisions led to shifting gears from dark broadcast studios to the bright stage lights of business events and conferences. Blending humor and motivation, Steve’s programs deliver directly from his heart with frequent trips to the humor bank. His message and style have created solid results for sales teams, managers and association audiences as it targets the sweet spot of engagement between personal and professional aspirations.

Date and Location

This popular professional development event for Granite State teachers will be held on May 12, 2023 at The Grappone Conference in Concord, NH.  Directions here.  

We are grateful that Classroom Connections continues to be sponsored by our friends at Fidelity Investments.

Networking, Classroom Resources and Professional Development

At the in-person event – in addition to the content sessions, we make classroom resources available as well as the opportunity to share best practices with other teachers from across the state.  Six (6) professional development hours are generally provided for attending the event.

Overnight Accommodations!

For teachers traveling more than 45 miles, we  will be again able to provide free hotel accommodations near the workshop.