Job: Fifth-grade teacher at Olson Middle School in Minneapolis and president of MultiplicationShake.com.

Salary: $75,000 to $80,000

How long have you been teaching? Over 27 years ... and I love it.

You've created a lot of materials to help young people learn personal finance. When did this all start? I started in 2005 with the Daily Tracking Practice, where I made sure kids go online and practice plugging in checking transactions or savings transactions. And then I made the Checkbook Registry.

What are you working on now? I have a book I started on last summer called "Lillie Dillie Start Wealthy." Now I understand I didn't have all the material I needed to really reach the young people. ... They need to know how to deal with adversity, they need to know how to set up financial goals, they need to know how to make their money work for them, they need a budget. There's so much they need to understand, and now I know where it needs to go in the book. So they'll have [it] by the end of the summer.

What is your story? I wasted a whole lot of money. I was not taught how to manage money. ... I created all this ... because I have to help somebody. One time, I got my credit card so high it was too hard to pay. So the passion came out of my own pain.

Fox 9 recently named you one of the top teachers for 2009. How did this come about? I was nominated by a behavior specialist [at school]. He heard Fox 9 announce [the award] and he said, "The light went off, Mrs. Johnson" and he nominated me. And I said, "I'll take it." The award is Top Teacher Award 2009, but everywhere I go people call me Teacher of the Year.

How has your work affected your students? I had one student who didn't even like math, and now she's a head Multiplication Shake dancer. She can get up on stage and explain the color-coded math that she learned in a song. This young lady helps her mother with her checkbook. They're having mature conversations with people about money.

With these projects, what message do you hope to leave students? I would love for them to think about spending their money to help other people. I don't want them to just be about themselves. This recession has shown us that we're not always going to have a lot of money and we really need to have a Plan B. What are we going to base who we are on? It can't be about money. It has to be about helping somebody else.

ANDREW NEWMAN