As I finished reading Creating Innovators by Tony Wagner, I came away with a few opinions from what Wagner was arguing. First of all, I respect that he wants to change the way Americans are educated and I believe their truly is an inefficient program in place to teach students from kindergarten to PhDs. I also believe that a lot of his examples were very well described and I enjoyed learning about a bunch of new, innovative programs in America. I do think, however, that the ideas and methods that he is arguing would not work on the full-scale. He wants every public school in America to let students teach themselves and have more hands-on, collaborative thinking. While this might work in some class rooms, their are too many educators and students that just do not teach and learn this way. I think it says something that places like Harvard and Stanford do not respect this type of learning.
A lot of the ideas Wagner also talks about has nothing to do with teaching and the school systems. A lot of the book is addressed to parents- something most people would not really think has much to do with innovative leaning. The idea that passion, play, and purpose is what drives children to be innovators has to do with the way they are brought up. There is no way that parents will just begin to 'parent' differently. I think parents will 'parent' like how their parents brought them up. The idea that letting your child just run free and make his own choices seems really crazy. Also, in a time where the college process is extremely competitive, not signing your child up for activities is not exactly a key for success. So unless parents want their child to be a thinker and a dreamer, and I feel like that is the minority of parents, then Wagner's theory will always stay as just a theory and no more than that.
Sunday, January 18, 2015
Week #5- In class
This past week has been a great finalization of all of the projects we are doing as a group. One of the most helpful days was when we practiced our presentation with Mr. Fischer and Ms. Stevens. We got a lot of great feedback on our slides and information that we are presenting. We also learned a lot about public speaking which has been great. I wish we could spend more time in class learning public speaking and presenting skills. I think having those skills will be extremely useful in whatever career I pursue. Being able to present information well is usually more important than the actual information I am presenting.
This week has also concluded our selling of the calendars. Overall, we sold a couple more calendars for a few dollars. In total, we made a profit of $54. With an initial investment of $200 from the class, I would say a 27% profit is not too shabby. I do wish that we had sold more, and although the class project is done, I still believe we can sell the rest by the end of the year.
I have had both my guidance counselor and dean both mention that they are coming to my presentation in two weeks. I am very excited to get some real feedback from professionals on our storefront project.
This week has also concluded our selling of the calendars. Overall, we sold a couple more calendars for a few dollars. In total, we made a profit of $54. With an initial investment of $200 from the class, I would say a 27% profit is not too shabby. I do wish that we had sold more, and although the class project is done, I still believe we can sell the rest by the end of the year.
I have had both my guidance counselor and dean both mention that they are coming to my presentation in two weeks. I am very excited to get some real feedback from professionals on our storefront project.
Sunday, January 11, 2015
Week #4- Book
The more that I read Creating Innovators by Tony Wagner, the more I see the connections between what Wagner is saying and how Communications for Entrepreneurs is being run. I would not be surprised if you both read this book while writing up how C4E would be organized.
In the last few chapters, Wagner has pointed to different examples from real-life schools and classrooms on how his ideas were already being run across America. One idea that he talks about is a flipped classroom. Although this idea is not implemented in C4E, I do partake in this style of learning in my AP Physics class. During class time, we focus on hands-on projects, from labs to big questions to creating posters. Every night, we have a video of notes accompanied by a textbook reading and a few questions. I think it is very interesting to read about this style of learning according to Wagner and then actually do it, too. Overall, I enjoy the new way of learning and feel like I am forced to think about the conceptual questions deeper. I can no longer just accept the right answer and move on. I must understand why it is right, and that is the hardest part of the class. While I am thinking differently, I do not think I am learning "more" information or learning faster. I do, however, feel like it is a better way to learn ideas that are hard to conceptually think about, like Physics.
In the last chapter, Wagner has talked about Olin College as an example of innovative learning. This is really interesting because it is just down the street in Needham, MA. While it has only been around for a decade, the college has blown away scholars and businesses by the type of students they are graduating. Some of their biggest ideas are teamwork and hands-on learning. While it is a very small school, they make sure their students are always learning from each other. The way they treat their teachers are different, too. They are not all working to get something published or to have a tenure. They are just their to push their students to think. And the craziest part is Olin is an engineering school, but these students are coming away and entering so many different fields. That is because they also support interdisciplinary learning, and the ideas and skills they are teaching can help in tons of industries. I think a lot of the ideas Olin College has about learning reflect how we learn in C4E and also how Wagner suggests the American education should be taught.
In the last few chapters, Wagner has pointed to different examples from real-life schools and classrooms on how his ideas were already being run across America. One idea that he talks about is a flipped classroom. Although this idea is not implemented in C4E, I do partake in this style of learning in my AP Physics class. During class time, we focus on hands-on projects, from labs to big questions to creating posters. Every night, we have a video of notes accompanied by a textbook reading and a few questions. I think it is very interesting to read about this style of learning according to Wagner and then actually do it, too. Overall, I enjoy the new way of learning and feel like I am forced to think about the conceptual questions deeper. I can no longer just accept the right answer and move on. I must understand why it is right, and that is the hardest part of the class. While I am thinking differently, I do not think I am learning "more" information or learning faster. I do, however, feel like it is a better way to learn ideas that are hard to conceptually think about, like Physics.
In the last chapter, Wagner has talked about Olin College as an example of innovative learning. This is really interesting because it is just down the street in Needham, MA. While it has only been around for a decade, the college has blown away scholars and businesses by the type of students they are graduating. Some of their biggest ideas are teamwork and hands-on learning. While it is a very small school, they make sure their students are always learning from each other. The way they treat their teachers are different, too. They are not all working to get something published or to have a tenure. They are just their to push their students to think. And the craziest part is Olin is an engineering school, but these students are coming away and entering so many different fields. That is because they also support interdisciplinary learning, and the ideas and skills they are teaching can help in tons of industries. I think a lot of the ideas Olin College has about learning reflect how we learn in C4E and also how Wagner suggests the American education should be taught.
Week #4- In Class
Since I last posted, a lot has changed in both of our class projects. The calendar sales are on a steady rise since before break. We made even the last day before break and have paid off all of our investors. That means that ever time we sell a calendar it goes straight to profit. At the moment, are almost $50 in profit, and are on average selling 2 calendars per day. While we still have more than 50 calendars to sell, I know that for the next month or two, we will slowly sell each unit. We also made the decision to sell them at $10 per unit to students, but are still selling them at $15 to parents. This was mainly done to sell more calendars faster while still making as much money. I have also tried to contact the school store to sell our product through a third party. My future plan to sell the remaining calendars is to also contact the booster clubs for all of the sports teams at BHS. For example, if I could get Friends of Brookline Soccer to buy ten and sell them to parents, if would be a very fast way to distribute our product.
Besides selling calendars, I have also been very busy creating the document to send to Mr. Gladstone for the Storefront project. I took all of the documents that had been typed up and created one formatted document that looked much better. I also had to take some of the excel documents JC had made and reformatted them so they were easy to read. I also designed the Table of Contents and a cover page. By using the sample as a goal, I was able to make our document look professional so that Mr. Gladstone would not be confused by an incomplete, confusing document. Now that I have finished this document, I will begin to work on the remaining projects due for the this quarter.
Besides selling calendars, I have also been very busy creating the document to send to Mr. Gladstone for the Storefront project. I took all of the documents that had been typed up and created one formatted document that looked much better. I also had to take some of the excel documents JC had made and reformatted them so they were easy to read. I also designed the Table of Contents and a cover page. By using the sample as a goal, I was able to make our document look professional so that Mr. Gladstone would not be confused by an incomplete, confusing document. Now that I have finished this document, I will begin to work on the remaining projects due for the this quarter.
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