Carbon teacher heading to Washington D.C. for conference

By Sierra Trujillo

When in high school, your last interest is learning about economics. You don’t like English, math is a struggle, but economics is the class you dread. Unless you are Terri Tubbs. Tubbs, a financial literacy teacher at Carbon High School, has always excelled in business and economics.
“I watch the news like you guys watch sitcoms,” said Tubbs regarding her love of the subject. “I just stay on Fox News all the time.”
Her dedication is paying off, as for the second time in her career, Tubbs is one of 20 teachers in Utah chosen to attend the National Educators Conference sponsored by Jump$tart in Washington, D.C. this week. Tubbs was chosen based on her work in the field of financial literacy. She has created standards, curriculum and semester tests for the entire state to use.
With a background in business and a passion for economics, Tubbs began teaching financial literacy and economics classes in 2007 when the Utah state legislators decided that young students were not being properly taught how to manage their money. At the time, Utah was consistently at the top of the list of bankruptcy in the country.
Each year, when the legislators wanted to make the course requirements more rigorous, Tubbs followed suit, and eventually began to be asked to help create the course requirements. After years of increasing the course requirements for students, this past summer the state legislation decided that not only did the courses need to be tougher, but the teachers also needed to be recertified for their positions.
“They wanted to make sure every teacher in the state was highly qualified to teach this class because in some districts its been a dumping ground,” said Tubbs.
The Utah State Office of Education specialists over financial literacy began looking for teachers to create online training courses for the teachers. Tubbs was chosen and spent her summer commuting to Salt Lake City to help create the courses for teachers as well as instruct the online courses.
“I’ve been to five different school districts already this fall, training the teachers so they can get recertified,” said Tubbs.
After helping recertify the teachers, Tubbs was asked to apply for the opportunity to attend the conference in Washington, D.C. Although she did not herself apply, someone must have for her, because three weeks ago she was notified that she was chosen as one of 20 Utah teachers to attend, and the only teacher from Carbon County.
“I am honored and it is an honor that [they] would think that I deserve it,” said Tubbs.
Tubbs has been to the conference before, when it was held in Kansas City and is excited for the opportunity to expand her own curriculum and teachings.
“[Last time] I came back with so much material that I totally revamped my whole financial lit classes because the information that was out there, most of the Federal Reserve teaches it,” said Tubbs. “I love the classes. I’m old school. I love to get new material. I love to hear the Federal Reserve’s opinion on issues of the day and interest rates. I’m always cornering them after and saying ‘what’s going on here?’ That’s my favorite.”
While Tubbs is honored that she has been chosen to attend the conference, her real prize is hearing from students who have benefited from her classes in their future lives.
“I love the kids, I love the classroom, I love watching that light come on in those kids’ eyes,” said Tubbs. “And when you hear from them after they’ve graduated or they’ve started their careers and they just say thank you, and it’s like I don’t get paid any money but I certainly get this psychic income from the success of these kids. And that’s what it’s all about.”
Tubbs will leave for Washington D.C. on Thursday and return on Sunday night, with days full of classes and workshops taught by the Federal Reserve, and nights of touring the city.