Shark Tank!: Entrepreneurship with New-to-Country Students
My students need 2 iPads with cases, cleaning, cooking and art materials, plus a cash register, to create classroom businesses and learn financial literacy.
The American Dream says that with a good idea and a willingness to work hard, you can be successful. It's a reason that many of my students' families come to this country. I want to give my students a taste of this dream, while teaching persuasive language, entrepreneurship, and financial literacy skills.
In my classroom of new-to-country students--all of whom have been in the country anywhere from a few weeks to just over a year, many of whom are refugees--we understand that hard work pays off.
It pays off intrinsically, as students track their growth in different subject areas and reflect on how their effort caused these gains. But it also pays off extrinsically, through our classroom economy.
My co-teacher and I center our management around a classroom micro-society. Students have a weekly timecard to fill out, wherein they earn "money" and receive a paycheck based on their efforts and achievement for the week, as well as for doing teacher-assigned jobs. Class bankers deposit these paychecks in student bank accounts (established through a free online program), and students use their money to buy supplies, visit the prize box, or bid on high-ticket items in our monthly auctions. The next big step is students taking ownership of creating and managing their own businesses.
My Project
In conversations, students proposed a variety of interesting ventures for our classroom, from selling food and drinks, to cleaning, to helping with homework, to designing henna temporary tattoos. This is where you come in. For our economics unit, we will have a "Shark Tank" project, based on the popular TV show. Student teams will write business proposals and pitch their ideas to teacher "investors." This will provide an authentic forum for persuasive language practice. All participating students will then be awarded the supplies needed to start and run their businesses. Classroom cash registers will enable transactions. Using iPads and budgeting materials, students will track profits and expenses on spreadsheets. This data will inform regular investor meetings to discuss successes and setbacks and to brainstorm solutions. Meanwhile, students will use money manipulatives to learn computation during math mini-lessons. I've also arranged for a local finance specialist to visit our class.
The American Dream of working hard and getting ahead is sometimes just a dream.
But the hope of this dream still impels many to come to this country. For my students' families, wanting their children get a strong education and build prosperous lives as new Americans drove them here. It's my responsibility to help realize this dream by teaching language and math, plus 21st century skills like entrepreneurship, creativity, and collaboration. Please help make this dream come true in my classroom.
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As a teacher-founded nonprofit, we're trusted by thousands of teachers and supporters across the country. This classroom request for funding was created by Mr. Kindle and reviewed by the DonorsChoose team.
