Mr. Jim Ford

Mr. Jim Ford\
Consultant


Jim Ford has been a teacher, department chair, camp director and coach over the past 38 years in education. Jim recently retired from Oak Hill High School in Wales, Maine, after 38 years of teaching courses in American history and in financial fiteracy. As department chair of Social Studies for 13 years, he led many new educational initiatives on Financial Literacy/Social Studies curriculum planning, Design for Understanding Models, and Classroom Management.

Jim’s activity-based Financial Literacy course blossomed in 1990 with the emerging use of classroom technology to become one of the top performing Stock Market Game participating schools in the nation. From 1990 to 2003 his classes won 18 Maine Stock Market Game Semester Championships in coordination with The Maine Council for Economic Education program. That success was capped off in 2003 by winning The Stock Trac Million Dollar Challenge National Title placing first in the nation. Jim, in 2006 linked his classroom with the Securities Industry Foundation Market Associations program to win another 21 Maine SMG Championship titles , 8 Invest Write Essay Competition Titles and two Capitol Hill Challenge National Awards trips to Washington, DC placing nationally second in 2011 and seventh in 2013.

Around the Oak Hill High classroom in a span of 28 years, Jim has coached a total of 64 sports seasons in basketball, baseball, tennis and cross country running.

Jim is originally from Elizabeth, New Jersey where in 2003 he was inducted into the Saint Patrick’s High School Hall of Fame for his; “Lifetime Commitment to Teaching and Coaching.”  He played a major role in Saint Patrick’s winning the 1971 New Jersey State Basketball Championship. Athletic scholarships sent Jim off to earn degrees at Schreiner University, Kerrville, Texas, and Saint Joseph’s College Standish, Maine, (B.A.). The Saint Joseph’s College Sports Hall of Fame inducted Jim into their Charter Class in 2000 as he captained the Monks in basketball and baseball to their first ever WMAC Championship.