Class Revise Deadline and New Class

Need to get the Business Econ re-do touched up over the break and write the new Money, Marketing, Finance and Banking Class. Will be nice to hear back about the accounting course, but moving forward and getting the lesson plans done as well for the biz math and econ class as well.

Unit planning will help get things moving. Then we'll talk about possible sponsorship and classroom updates, and board approval. Excited. Think it will be a great pathway.

Following Up: Accounting and Pathway Creation

Meet with Jim and Ali on Friday, October 27th after the intense inservice and came up with some additional action plan items including:

• checking in with UC about status of the Accounting Course that we submitted. 
• re-vise the re-write of the Business Economics course with writing components added to be re-submitted before Thanksgiving
• look for one more course that is on the UC approved list that I would be able to teach with my credential and not any additional items
• work on what the pathway would look like

Once those classes are UC approved, then we will work on the format, steps and policies.

Ali was looking into the class status. Bonnie doing the re-write for biz econ and researching the third class. Hopefully have those items done before winter break. 

Pathway Ideas The courses would start with the initial math class for students which can be anything from algebra to geometry, etc. An option down the road is to offer a business algebra class (there are approved courses via UC's own sponsored programs), which would then be followed by the Business Accounting course (still pending UC approval), then the Business Economics course which could include the capstone project and/or add the Career and Workplace Readiness Course as the capstone, giving the students some options. Another option might be to add a business law course as well.

The goal for next year is to: (1) get both the courses on the UC approved list; (2) find backers and finalize the pathway with the Board (mostly done already); (3) start marketing the course early in the year in conjunction with the Career Class; (4) have partner set up for the course for the 13-14 school year including possible new computers to run the accounting software for that portion of the course.

This year has been a lot of research and collecting resources for the accounting courses and the business part of the course. Have found some open source and free books (to our students) that will work for the course and once the school year is over will be spending most of the summer time getting the syllabus and projects all prepared and ready for the 13-14 year while revising the current Business Math and Economics courses to accommodate and use the as test runs for the other projects. In the Business Math will be adding in some accounting activities and test out the software that will hoped to be used the next year. Again, 90% is open source or limited source and the goal is to find local companies willing to allow the course to use their materials as testing centers and it can be a win-win for them -- if the students know their products and then go into businesses, they would be able to offer the product as an alternative.

I have also purchased most copies of the the current accounting textbooks and workbooks so that I will be able to develop and adapt the open-source textbooks that I have found to be sure that they are covering all of the same items. The open source textbooks are totally available online as pdf's to view. If the students want to download or print them, they will have to pay a fee. We may be able to work out something to assist in that cost or just charge a fee to get the access for them like we do for shop fees in other classes. If the students just want to access online, then it's free. They just have to register and for some of the sites, download a specialized reader program. I have not tested with various devices but hope to this summer as I have friends who have kindle fires as I only have the apple tablets.

On the business end I have found a website that takes students through the process of starting a business including writing a lesson plan that is totally free and open. This aspect of the course for economics will be added into the international summit simulation when we are talking about how to increase the gross domestic product per capita. Students will be given the option to start their own company or to do an in-depth analysis of the current status comparing the U.S. and global economy and to make specific recommendations as to what U.S. companies would and should invest in the countries they have been assigned. I have found some textbooks for the business part of the course that also are open source and have the same online reading and download for a fee structure.

I am very excited about the possibilities and will continue to share the class outlines as I get them updated. With the end of the year, I am new to this whole process and it's a bit more intense than at the middle school. I will have the revised business economics done and ready to upload before the end of the year so we can try it again and will be available this summer to revise as needed should it be necessary.

This year has also been about getting to know the high school students, the culture, the flow of the year with regards to special things to think about -- like that with seniors you have to get things done a bit earlier than if with other grades--, have done some home-hospital and learned that system, and tried to get involved in the culture of the school and really putting my students' first. It's a much more intense and different mixture than the middle school -- counts a bit more. Next year, there will be a bit more balance and I now know what they can and cannot handle academically. Looking forward to rolling out the new curriculum and then seeing the pathway blossom in 13-14.

Since the NO GO on the business economics the way it has been, have been working on really getting the revise done so that it reflects what I want to do with the teaching of the course including all the IES summit items (and trying to see how to adjust since the sponsoring organization is no longer going to be supporting after this year). This means we may have to pay some fee to the IDAHO folks who are actually the originators. Another cost -- well worth it, however, just one more step. The stepping block for me getting this re-write done is just getting the time to have it make sense and the realization that the write ups from the other places are a great starting point, but I need a full, unobstructed day or two to get this all together and with the schedules as they are, that is nearly impossible to do. Will have it done this week

TRY IT AGAIN...

Seems the UC A-G folks want a revision and I can understand. Spent more time on the new one rather than the existing course. Luckily there are great examples that give a clearer picture. Just need time to put them into order and integrate the business part. That is on the agenda for this week along with starting to look at software and pitching new laptops for the biz class that can take said software. Registration is starting as well -- nice to see the plans for the future coming along. This will be first year to be on the outside looking in, so to speak so it's been an interesting journey so far. Also learning how things go at new places -- all about learning the culture. Onto more organizing of materials and re-vising my outline for the econ class. Keeping fingers crossed for the accounting course.

OPEN SOURCE FOUND!

Found open source textbooks to use with my class -- they are free and useable. One service kinda charges, but the basis is open source so will have to work with them on the content. Revising the course descriptions based on the new textbooks this week as we are uploading on Tuesday, March 19th for UC credit! YAHOO. Fingers crossed it goes through on the first step. Don't want to revise too much since they were approved. Just need to double check them tonight so they are ready. The econ one just need to revise the schedule which will be a no-brainer-- just time consuming.

The accounting will need to review lots of material and see what we can do with regards to software.. May not need much and if we can move to new laptops and or chromebooks we may be on our way. Trying to get away from needing much in the way of proprietary software. Think we can get by on consumables and ledger books. We'll see. Just need to get my hands on the things we are using so I can get them all into moodle and see if there are any modules I can just download.

Ipads would be great, but not sure about not being able to have flash for the videos and such.. if they could just get over it with Adobe -- c/mon guys!

Found Samples!

Found some great sample courses - now I just need to pull them together and align the textbooks and resources. If I can get than done before finals, can have it ready for A-G/Board Approval to get the process started. So excited. Will possibly need additional technology, but that just might happen with the change over. Need to start my exercise, weights and smaller me campaign so I can fit into my business attire and work on my small talk skills.

January 10,2012 meeting

After a few emails going back and forth, I met with Janice Hickey, Ali Rabei, and Jim Garza about the specifics of the potential pathway. We discussed using the in place business sector pathway standards as the basis for the course that would need to be designed rigorous enough to meet the A-G credentialing requirements, while at the same time be accessible enough to the students who need the course for their A-G math requirements.

We talked about the Account-Banking- Business Management pathway as an option for the future. During the course of the discussion we can upon a plan.

Start with getting both the Accounting and a new hybrid Business- Economics course prepared for the upcoming fall semester. This would allow for students to take a year long course, focusing on the basics in the first semester, then applying what they have learned to a real-world setting in the second semester including the possibility of incorporating internships into the mixture.

The idea would be that for students needing two courses for math, the banking/financial pathway course would be added the following year. We would count the first two years of math as the initial pathway, then followed by Accounting and then the Business Economics course. The idea being that I would be teaching three Business Econ courses and two Accounting courses with the CELDT items on the side, as a stipend.

The goal is to: (1) get the accounting courses that have been UC approved and possile incorporate business algebra -- sample course descriptions. I have written to the two schools and will write to the UC folks themselves to see if they can also provide the sample course outlines. (2) Adapt the business economics courses that have been approved through other school sites and look at incorporating the virtual entrepreneurship aspects of the the sample course.

I also need to check on what is covered in my credential area to be sure that business will cover those areas. The goal is to get this prepared and to a reader with the UC system to be able to get it to the board as soon as possible for scheduling.

Another obstacle is to work on the scheduling since the BUsiness Economics would be a year long course.

Evaluation Project

I chose to work on figuring out a way to expand the opportunities for students at ESHS by some how getting one of the last elective courses A-G approved, thereby opening up the elective to additional students.

I started by meeting with my supervisor for my evaluation, Mr. Ali Rabei in October to go over my general plan. I spent most of Sept - January researching courses and learning a bit more about the process for getting courses approved as well as familiarizing myself with the current flow of courses to see how and where the course/courses for a possible business pathway might fit.

This involved talking with the counselors to make sure credits and assumptions were correct.