Teaching Students to Pitch—Not Present
By Martha Rush; Chief Educator-in-Residence Tales and Tips from the Front #14 Students develop a lot of bad habits by…
How Do I Grade This?
By Martha Rush; Chief Educator-in-Residence Tales and Tips From the Front #13 There’s only one form of feedback that really…
Time and Priorities
By Martha Rush; Chief Educator-in-Residence Tales and Tips From the Front #12 Many entrepreneurs work 24-7 to get their ventures…
Managing (and Getting) Money
By Martha Rush; Chief Educator-in-Residence Tales and Tips From the Front What is preventing you from going to market right…
Making the Most of Mentors
By Martha Rush; Chief Educator-in-Residence Tales and Tips From the Front There is a whole lot that educators don’t know…
Taking Entrepreneurial Education Online
This spring and summer, while educators nationwide are scrambling to create meaningful learning experiences for our students online, let’s embrace best practices for fostering our future entrepreneurs in the virtual world. Let’s be ready to launch new ventures when “shelter in place” is over (or even before!)
Shying Away From Sales
Sales may be the most challenging aspect of “talking to strangers”—something that’s already difficult for most teenagers. But once they’ve done it a few times, it’s much less intimidating. Best of all, students who have learned “how to sell” will have an advantage when they need to sell themselves to investors, colleges and employers. This is not just about creating entrepreneurs; it’s about building skills for life.
Fail Fast
Before Quarter Zero, I was afraid of falling short of my plans and, more greatly, failing to accomplish something I spent hours constructing. Failure is something that seems taboo to talk about, and honestly who wants to share a failure or mishap that they have gone through? It puts people in a vulnerable spot, digging at something that they hope to bury away completely.
Getting it Off the Ground
Only by launching their ventures can students find out if their ideas are viable, if there’s a product-market fit, if there are revenue streams, and if those revenues will cover the costs of production. Only by launching can they learn about sales, managing stress, and teamwork. And it’s only by launching do they risk failure, which is one of our most effective learning experiences.
