It was a full week at Poudre High School, so I was able to experience the complete five day week schedule. It was challenging trying to determine what classes I would be teaching on the appropriate days. Next week is another short week because of Martin Luther King Jr. Day, so the schedule changes to a four day week schedule.
This week went better than the first as I expected it would. I finished the Power Point slides in Entrepreneurship and had students work on the project for this section during class time. The project required the students to describe their business in terms of image, ownership type, and types of products and services their business will provide. Part of the assignment had the students make a logo that was placed onto business cards and letterhead. This worked out well and most of the students worked at the same pace. I had a few that completed the project early and a few that straggled behind, but overall, it turned out to be a good lesson. After completing the assignment, he students are beginning to get excited about their businesses and want to complete the assignment. Next week we will work on the Personal Development part of the business plan. I had thought about including a section on resume writing, but Mr. Long and I discussed it and decided that it would be too much additional work with all of the projects that are already required as part of this class. The following week, I will begin the lesson from my Teacher Work Sample, which is the Market Research section. I have included some of my own plans for this lesson. We will begin by talking about SWOT Analysis and then moving on to Marketing.
Mr. Long's Economics class participated in several activities over the past week including discussions, group discussions, and a special activity that he and Mr. Johner both used in order to show what utility and value meant. The special activity was a trade game where each of the students is given a brown paper bag at random and asked to sit with their bag without opening it. The instructions are given, and then the students can look inside their respective bags only. After looking in their bags, they rate their happiness level of the gift they were given on a scale of 1 to 10 with 10 being the happiest. Now, they are able to show a neighbor and trade only with a neighbor without alerting the entire class. At this point, they also rate their happiness level of the gift they were given. Finally, they are able to trade with anyone in the class. They walk around, bargain, and trade for something they want. At the end of this trade, the happiness levels were then rated again on the board for everyone to see. From the beginning of the lesson, the students' happiness rating improved as they were able to trade for what they wanted. It was a fun activity, and the students did learn and understand the concepts of utility and value.
The Opportunity Cost discussion was also interesting. Mr. Long used time as the measurement where each student was required to rank a list of activities as to what they wanted to do most. It was important to show that by doing one activity, you are giving up doing another. The choices we make are always at some cost. The discussion about college was interesting, too. There were questions that Mr. Long had the students answer true or false and decide why they are true or false. The question about the most expensive part of college is tuition, room, and board allowed Mr. Long to show what students give up in order to receive a higher education. Once again, the opportunity cost of going to college is that you don't make money for those four years, and you will likely be in debt at the end with no guarantee of a job.
In International Business, Mr. Long was really just introducing some key concepts on what it takes to open and operate a business in a foreign country. The largest part of this week in this class was the project the students were assigned. Each student or group of students is assigned a country to research. Students were in the computer lab putting together their country's information about language, exports, imports, religion, etc... The students will give presentations at the beginning of next week that will include all this information.
Finally, there was a Promotional Night this week on Wednesday when all of the teachers were required to be at school to talk to prospective parents about Poudre High School. I attended the event, which had a good turn out of parents. Students guided prospective parents through the halls of the high school to talk to teachers and coaches about programs and activities that their students would be able to participate. The majority of the parents were interested in the International Baccalaureate program, Advanced Placement programs, and sports. We did have a few parents stop by the business department to see what kind of classes were offered and how they might help their student to get into college or narrow down their fields of interest to decide on a major in college. I was able to get a bit of PHS Schwag to wear on Spirit Days (Fridays).
Overall, the week went well. I observed how to incorporate activities into lessons effectively, I was more comfortable and confident in interacting with the students, and I got a good start on my Teacher Work Sample. I worked with Mr. Long in reviewing and planning future lessons, and I even did a little bit of housekeeping in the classroom. With the three day weekend, I plan on relaxing before I go back to school at both Poudre High School and Front Range Community College next week.
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