Hi Everyone,

Make sure to ask your students about our ADI experience last Friday.  We’ll be working on POLs, PSRs, and a Geography Scavenger Hunt this week.  Here is the POL Schedule fyi…

Upcoming due dates:

• Thursday, 4/13:  PSRs and Geography Scavenger Hunt due.
• Tuesday, 4/18 and Wednesday, 4/19 –POLs
• Friday, 4/21 — bring in items for end-of-class party

The class officially ends on 4/21.  Thank you so much for all your support and a great semester. -JF

A few quick notes:

1. The Around the World project was due last Friday.  It should be printed out with a hand-drawn map as a cover.   Ask your student where they are going!
2. I have assessed all the LTPs (Business Plans).  If students wish to do revisions, they are encouraged to do so.  All revisions should be done prior to March 23rd.  Students should make an appointment to see me prior to commencing the revision process.
3. We are headed to CEDS on April 7th to meet some refugees who are now entrepreneurs.  Afterwards, we are going to eat Ethiopian Food.  If you are interested in joining us as a chaperone, please let me know.
4. We have commenced work on our pitches.  Here’s a link to the pitch planning document and rubric.

Have a great week!  -JF

Shark Tank Happenings!

1. LTP due at beginning of class on Tuesday, March 7th.
2. We’ll be having a conversation cafe about religion on Tuesday.
3. Introduction of the “plan a trip around the world” project on Wednesday.

Upcoming due dates:

• Tuesday: LTP with rubric complete.
• Wednesday:  Class survey.  

Definitely ask your student about our ADI last Friday.  Great day!

Have a wonderful week!  -JF

On Friday, we have our 2nd ADI.  We’ll be headed to the campus of CU for a bunch of programming.  Students should bring a warm jacket, writing utensil, good walking shoes, and a sack lunch on that day.  Here’s the schedule for Friday, March 3rd:

10:00: Students dismissed from class.
10:17:  Depart Platt on RTD bus 225 to CU Boulder
10:47:  Arrive CU Boulder
11:15-12:15:  Entrepreneur Programming at Leeds School of Business
12:15-12:45:  Lunch
12:50-1:20:  Tour of Maker Space at CU Boulder
1:30-2:30: Cartography Programming at CU Geography Library
3:05pm:  Depart 20th and Broadway on RTD bus 225E
3:34pm:  Arrive back at Platt

Otherwise, we are working on our LTPs which are tentatively due on Tuesday, March 7th.   This date may get pushed forward.

Monday, 2/28:  Students should have completed three interviews of their target customer.

Thursday:  3/2:  Geography Re-Take Quest.

Friday, 3/3:  ADI #2.  See note above.  Students should bring good walking shoes, warm jacket, writing utensil, and sack lunch.

Tuesday, 3/7:  LTP Due.  (Tentative date — this may get pushed forward.)

Have a great week!

We are deep into our LTP work right now.  We have two remaining pieces of our LTP including market research to learn more about our customers and also the creation of a marketing artifact to help spread the news about our product.   We also have our 2nd Mentor Meeting on Thursday.  Each of the students has a 20 minute appointment with an “entrepreneurial expert” (including representatives from Techstars and the head of product development at Sphero) to help them further develop and shape their business ideas.

Upcoming due dates:

Tuesday:  Strong drafts of questions #1, #2, #3, #4, and #7 should all be complete.  (I gave every student feedback on their work over the weekend.). (In class: Miss Zillionaire)

Wednesday:  Mentor Meeting Prep.

Thursday:   Mentor Meeting #1.  What Investors Want to Know document complete.

Friday:  Geography Quest in class.  (Study sheet was given out last week.)

Monday, 2/28:  Students should have completed three interviews of their target customer.

Friday, 3/3:  ADI #2 — Visit to the Leeds School of Business at CU along with the geography library (I think!)

Tuesday, 3/7:  LTP Due.  (Tentative date — this may get pushed forward.)

Have a great week!

We had our first round of mentor meetings on Thursday.  Students got feedback about their business ideas.  We are going to use that feedback this week to continue writing our LTP.

Here’s a few of the topics that we are going to be covering in class over the next couple of weeks.

1. We are going to continue writing up question #2 of the business plan.  (Please explain your business or business idea in detail.  What problem does your business solve and how is your product unique?  Make sure to cite your research trends.)
2. We are going to learn about conducting and citing research.  This includes learning how to take Cornell style notes.
3. We are going to talk about market research.   What is it?  How do you conduct an interview?  What does that look like?
4. How do you price a product?  What is keystone pricing?  How do you determine expenses and profits?
5. What is an “empire?”  How are they formed?  What made them important?  We’ll explore this through a conversation cafe.   (This may get pushed to next week.)

Upcoming due dates:

• Wednesday:  Questions #2 and #3 of the LTP should be done.
• Tuesday 2/21:  Pricing essay should be complete.
• Thursday 2/23:  What investors want to know should be done.  Mentor Meeting #2.

Have a great week!  -JF

We have our first round of mentor meetings on Thursday, February 9th.  If — for whatever reason — your student is not going to be at school that day, please let me know so that I can try and reschedule their mentor meeting.

Super excited for students to meet with mentors on Thursday.  Students will be sharing their ideas with people from the Entrepreneurial community.  Each student will have a 20 minute meeting to brainstorm their product ideas and share their learning to date.

Here are some great questions to ask your student about class!

1. What is an imaginary customer?  Why think about them? Who is the imaginary customer for your product?
2. What is the Silk Road?  How does it relate to globalization?
3. Tell me about some famous Chinese inventions.  What problems did those ideas solve?
4. What are you thinking about for a business idea?  What problem does your idea solve?
5. What are your greatest entrepreneurial qualities?
6. Tell me about the piece of history that you researched for our China Encyclopedia project.
7. What is the daily geography challenge?

Next week, we’ll introduce the big piece of our LTP — the product essay.  Students will have to explain why their product is differentiated in the marketplace.  They will also be asked to research trends that support the problem they are trying to solve or the necessity of the solution they are hoping to introduce.

Due dates:

• Monday:  Essay #1 and #4 of LTP should be signed off.
• Thursday:  Business Canvas due prior to Mentor Meeting.  Prototype — if possible — should be complete.

Have a great week!

We are headed to the Chinese Joyous Cultural Center on Friday.  We’ll be leaving around 9:15am and returning around 2pm.  Lunch will be provided.  To prepare for our visit, our focus will be on China this week.  We’ll be creating a class encyclopedia about some of the major dynasties, events, people, religions in Chinese history.

We’ll also be working on our business plan as students will be learning about demographics as well as writing up imaginary customers for their product.  Here’s a description that explains this in greater detail.  

Upcoming due dates:

1. Monday:  Entrepreneur Essay should be complete. (Question #1 on business plan)
2. Wednesday:  Encyclopedia slides should be written.
3. Monday, February 6th:  Customer Profiles should be written (Question #4 on business plan.)

If you have entrepreneurial experience and are interested in helping to mentor students, please let me know.

Thank you so much!   -JF

Hi Everyone,

We are BUSY in the Shark Tank.  Here are a few questions you can ask your student:

1. What country did you create?  What was the system of government?  Religion?  Laws?  Geography?  What did you learn about making  a country?
2. What is Kiva?  How does it work? Who are you advocating for as our class loan recipient?  What have you learned about their home country?    (For a full task description, click here.)
3. Any ideas yet for a business?
4. What are your greatest entrepreneurial traits?  What makes a good entrepreneur?

We’ll be working on the first part of our LTP next week (Entrepreneurial Essay) as well as our Country Kiva Reports.  Later in the week, we’ll be conducting an Asian Trade Scenario as we get closer to our first ADI to the Chinese Joyous Cultural Center.

Have a great week!  -JF

Class is off to a fantastic start.  We are exploring the following:

1. The different types of government (Oligarchy vs. Representative Democracy vs. Theocracy.)
2. What makes a country?  Students have been working in groups to create our own country.
3. What are our passions?  What type of business would we like to start?  What is our cause?
4. How does Kiva.org work?  Why is entrepreneurialism important throughout the world?
5. Exploration of Eastern Hemisphere History through research of specific countries. (They’ll be choosing that later in the week.)

Create a Country reports will be presented Wednesday.

If you have entrepreneurial experience and you are interested in being a mentor, please email me at joshua.feiger@bvsd.org — I’d love your help!

Have a great week!  -JF