Teacher Spotlight – Kathryn Gustafson

Kathryn Lloyd Gustafson is no stranger to the FTE teacher programs, attending 11 of our offerings over the last 15 years. It’s easy to see that she has passion for the subject she teaches and loves finding out the best ways to continually improve the way economics is taught. 

Kathryn earned both her undergraduate and graduate degrees from the University of Michigan and recently earned an Education Specialist degree in Educational Leadership as part of the Galileo Leadership Cohort through Oakland University.  She enjoys teaching AP Microeconomics, AP Macroeconomics, and Introductory Economics as well as other social studies classes at Farmington High School in Farmington, Michigan where she was named the Farmington High School Teacher of the Year for 2009, 2010, and 2011. In 2011, the Michigan Council for Economic Education named Ms. Gustafson as their Economic Educator of the Year. Kathryn is a contributing author to the ABC-CLIO books Economic Thinkers: A Biographical Encyclopedia (2013), Government and the Economy: An Encyclopedia (2014), and Economics: The Definitive Encyclopedia and Document Collection (2016).

The list of FTE programs that Kathryn has attended include,

Economics for Leaders, The Right Start, Economics and the Environment, and several Professional Teachers Association seminars.

About her experience with these programs she writes,

“The Foundation for Teaching Economics continues to be one of the best resources for professional learning I have encountered in my teaching career.  My first exposure was the Economics for Leaders program which completely shifted my teaching paradigm for economics.  FTE consistently provides active student simulations, relevant and current case scenarios, along with intentional time for educators to practice, debrief and reflect as teaching professionals.  In particular I find that students repeatedly return to my classroom and are able to remember and apply the economic concepts they learned from their participation in the international trade and tragedy of the commons simulations among many others.  In addition, the Economics and Environment program provided a great opportunity for me to collaborate my AP Macroeconomics course along with our school AP Environmental Science course. I highly recommend FTE programs to any one teaching classroom economics – new or veteran –  and for interested students.”

To learn more about our teacher offerings, go to https://fte.org/teachers/teacher-programs/