"I'm not really used to this," Allison said. "I didn't expect them to be in my classroom for seven hours."

"I've never seen them teach before," she added. "Normally at home they don't teach me anything like this, and now they are teaching the entire class."

Junior Achievement has expanded its coverage in the Saratoga Union School District, according to one of the organizers, JA board member Mark Linsky of Saratoga. Last year, the program reached every second-grade classroom in the district. But this year parents and community volunteers were passionate enough to bring the program to second, third and sixth grades district-wide. There were 20 volunteers at Redwood, including three husband-and-wife teams like the Buchanans.

"For many of the parents, this is real stuff," Linsky said. "They take their worlds and make it age appropriate. They use their professional backgrounds in the classrooms."

Through the age-appropriate, multi-disciplinary curriculum that meets California state education standards, JA programs feature hands-on activities and workbook exercises that teach children about the world around them. But their normal classroom teachers get a break because the material is presented by parents, business professionals and community members.

As part of the global marketplace curriculum, sixth-graders learned about trade productivity and how to open a restaurant in another country. They also practiced converting currency using various exchange rates and studied related vocabulary terms like tariffs and embargoes. Eljas Long, who teaches physical education at Redwood, said JA Day helped his students gain an appreciation that not everything related to education happens in the classroom.

"It's good for them because it brings the real world into the classroom," Long said. "It gives them a way to display their knowledge. About 80 percent of the kids in my class have traveled abroad."

The day was also the first time Long's homeroom class of 34 students was together for an entire day. Sixth-grader Erika Lowdermilk said it was more interesting and a good change to study one basic subject for an entire day instead of moving between classes as she does in her regular schedule.

Sixth-grader Kyle Penuen said he plans to become a businessman one day, so the JA Day material will be helpful to him. He learned that in Japan it's customary to distribute business cards, which he plans to have when he gets older and has a job. The students role-played how to formally present business cards if they were in another country, like Japan.

"It's good because it's not completely all school," Kyle said. "We're learning about global trade, about different countries and technology that has helped us, like the printing machine."

Shinku Sharma, a Saratoga Union School District board member and JA volunteer, said the event was meaningful to the students because the information was delivered by people with professional backgrounds. Had the material been presented by classroom teachers, it might not have had the same effect. JA materials and services were provided at no cost to the school district.

"JA is a great way of helping kids understand how what they are learning ties into real-world studies," said Redwood's assistant principal, Alex Chapman. "So often we're so busy teaching the state standards, we don't get a chance to touch base on the global economy and those concepts in depth."

Linsky said that while the JA material is extremely valuable to Saratoga students, it's even more valuable to economically disadvantaged communities. Students from less fortunate communities don't have the same role models or understanding of career choices and future ambitions. Linsky is hoping to bring some of the Saratoga volunteers from March 3 to present JA information to economically challenged Bay Area school districts. He's also hoping to involve more Saratoga businesses and city government representatives in future JA activities.

For more information or to sign up to volunteer with Junior Achievement of Silicon Valley and Monterey Bay, contact Mark Linsky at 408.741.1949 or mark_linsky@alum.mit.edu. Additional details about JA are available at www.jascc.org.