How many times do you say settle down? How many times do you want to, especially when students are excited, animated and engaged? That was the challenge today when I began the workshop with the entrepreneurial session. Students took off. Working. Chatting. Laughing. In fact they went nuts working in their business groups and writing out their business plans. I created the questions. They had to work as a unit to provide the answers. Name their group. That was an easy question. They'd named them weeks ago. Describe the business. Not so easy a question as some thought. So easy to jot down one line and think you're done. I am pushy. They were all okay with digging deeper. And rethinking things. How many customers will you serve daily? Who will be your customers? Everyone is an answer but here they get to learn why it may not be the most complete answer. In their heads they might have been thinking, lady sit down. But on the outside they showed that they understood and were willing to rethink some things.
Over these ten days I want the students to hear and experience business terms and strategies they may run into later in life. But how to tie in the novel Money Hungry to the entrepreneurial side? I hadn't realized I hadn't done that. They spend one hour doing business and one hour discussing the book and writing. Today they were told that one of my characters wanted to be a part of their business. In envelopes I had names of the top five characters, and fifty pretend dollars in each one. Here's what I've learned. It is easy to motivate young people with money, even if it's play money. Each of the four groups wanted an envelop. I told them they had to have only one person select the envelop out of my hand. I was being intentional. Teaching them to depend on others, give others a chance and think of the group first. For accepting my characters and my cash, they now have to write up a bio on the character, provide their full name, the city they live in, parents, and main conflict they face. I said I had five characters. I had four envelopes. All hands went up when I asked which group wanted the fifth one. Oh it was for the money, Sharon, you're saying. It was. But work came with the money and they were willing to do it. I liked knowing that.
Itemizing lists for things they will need or sell meant that some students took to circulars and the internet. Having students at different skill levels and interests, meant everyone wasn't at the same place at the same time. But all in all it was a good day, for the business side. But what about the novel? Were they all as hyped up? Can a novel compete with play money?
Well here's what I learned today. All that excitement spills over into the next period, especially when you begin the next period with a game. We played Who Am I? I wrote information about characters, places and money (yep money talks when you need it to) and wrote it down under the name of a character. Each time someone read a phrase someone else had to say, I am Raspberry or whomever and read their phrase. This went on and on, with students enjoying themselves.
We were discussing leadership today. Was the main character a leader? Who leads in the friendships of the students in the class? What is a leader? Also tried to help them see Raspberry has the entrepreneurial sprit which is why she sees opportunity everywhere she goes. On the bus she sees old women talking about hiring girls to clean their homes. She believes this is a great idea. I believed it was a great idea to have students write letters to elderly people they knew telling them the interesting things happening in their lives and why this person was valuable to them. Turns out everyone isn't in love with the elderly. Let's face it y'all, some of them are cranks. And lots of young people have had bad experiences with them. While most of the literary session went exceptionally well, the writing assignment didn't fly high. I have to take credit for that. Back to doing the book first for starters. Have an example of whatever you want students to work on. Understand that no matter what group a person is in (elderly, super models, pilots) everyone won't love 'em, be prepared with a plan B.
All in all I left flying high. Great group as I've said before. Not perfect, though I'd never go into specific details here. Not appropriate I think to teach and tell. Oh yes, the meditating. I'm seeing progress already. Also with the journaling. They may write on whatever they like. I do not read it. Today most wrote longer passages than yesterday. Some even wanted more time.
On my way home, recounting things. I yawned. And why? 'Cause teaching is hard work y'all. Took a nap yesterday thinking it was because I was up almost all night the day before. Am ready for another nap. And I'm taking it too. Then up to work on my curriculum. Just think. I only teach (is it teaching if you're not a real teacher?) two hours a day. Dang. How do the real ones do it, all day, five days a week, up to the end of the school year? Yawn.
Until tomorrow. Nap, nap.
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