Skyping with Experts: Robin Roffer & Branding

Our Skyping with Experts Business Series ended with a chat with the one and only, Robin Roffer. Let me preface by saying that I have read and thoroughly benefited from Mrs. Roffer’s, Make a Name for Yourself: 8 Steps Every Woman Needs to Create a Personal Brand Strategy for Success. I initially used this book to research branding for my entrepreneurship unit and realized that it applied to my own career path . As I developed my lessons, I modified her exercises to give my students the opportunity to reflect on their interests and strengths as they developed a business.

My sixth grade class had the opportunity to chat with Mrs. Roffer about branding. During her presentation, Mrs. Roffer explained branding and stressed the importance of taking control of your brand. The message: If you don’t brand yourself, someone else will. This was a powerful message, especially for my preteens who have shown concern about what others think of them.

Next, Mrs. Roffer presented some celebrities and how their actions affected their brands. She also mentioned how companies develop brands and had students describe several companies’ brands. My students seemed interested in the marketing aspect of branding- particularly jingles. Mrs. Roffer further explained how jingles include short phrases or catchy tunes. This got my students thinking about a different approach to their marketing strategy for their business.

As I reflect on our Skyping with Experts Series, I am very pleased with the experiences that our guest speakers have created for my students. Their presentations have offered an authentic and rich perspective to our learning of entrepreneurship. The tips and concepts were also very practical, which made the whole experience so much more real. My classes and I would like to thank all of our speakers and hope that we can connect in the near future. I would also like to thank my husband, Will Deyamport, for arranging these events.

Skyping with Experts: Ingrid Stabb and Career Types

An important component that I wanted to include in my Entrepreneurship Unit was self exploration because part of being a successful entrepreneur is knowing your strengths and maximizing on these. When I decide to teach a concept like this, my first instinct is to find materials used and designed by professionals in a specific field. As a result, I chose to have my students take The Enneagram Quiz developed by Ingrid Stabb and Elizabeth Wagele in The Career Within You. This quiz centers on an individual’s strengths and outlines 9 EnneaTypes (career types) that best suit certain personality types. As my students took this quiz, I had them think of examples from their own lives. Next, I had them read about each career type and determine whether their “type” was accurate for them. All of my students agreed with the descriptions and even cited examples in their lives that reflected each type.


As a culminating activity, I was very pleased to have Ingrid Stabb as our guest speaker for my fourth grade class. Mrs. Stabb began her chat with a presentation on each type and gave examples of celebrities and historical figures who represented each type. She also asked students to share their type and any experiences that illustrated their type. Students enjoyed sharing their stories and I even noticed some students referring back to their quiz during the presentation. A final thought that Mrs. Stabb offered was telling students that it was important for them, their parents, and even their teachers to know their types because these help in identifying how they think and work best.

Even more exciting was the fact that this experience was featured on the examiner.com. To see the full article, click here.

Skyping with Experts: Pam Slim on Starting a Business

To jump start our Entrepreneurship Unit this semester, I have had the pleasure of connecting my classes with several experts in the business world. With the help of my husband @peoplegogy, I was fortunate enough to have Mrs. Pam Slim as a guest speaker for my fifth grade class.


Mrs. Slim led a very engaging discussion of how to start a business and offered some practical tips that kids can use to start their own business. She did a wonderful job of having my students brainstorm ways to advertise and bringing attention to the financial considerations. Mrs. Slim even surprised us with an offer to buy handmade Valentine cards! Of course, my students were up for the challenge and got to work immediately after our chat. The goal was to make and have the cards sent to Mrs. Slim by Valentine’s Day. But the biggest surprise was discovering that my students’ cards were featured on her daily blog. To see the blog post, click here.

I must say this chat was a very enriching lesson for my students. They loved connecting with an expert and creating the cards. But most of all, they loved seeing their final product on display.

This Is Why I Teach

I received this letter from a student after Winter Break. As I read it, it reminded me of why I chose this profession. As elementary teachers, most of us don’t get to see long term outcomes with our students. We don’t often get to celebrate with our students as they receive their high school diplomas or their college acceptance letters. What we do see is their growth from a wide eyed kindergartner to a precocious preteen. As elementary teachers we try to nurture their dreams and point to the path towards a promising future. But most of the time, we never know that we have succeeded in doing so. That’s why this letter means so much to me. And that’s why I chose to teach.

Skyping with Experts: The Stock Market with Tisa Silver, MBA

In my previous post I discussed ways that I used Skype to connect my classes with other gifted/talented learners across the nation. I also use Skype to provide my students with the experience of speaking directly with experts across different fields. This gives them first hand insight into their professions as well as encourages students to start thinking about their own future careers. For the next few months, I will be documenting our chats with experts. This series will outline activities done during our chats to engage students in discussions related to our current unit. Our journey begins with the stock market. . .

As part of our money unit, my objective was to cover the Stock Market and investing options. I was surprised to discover that my students’ thought that the Stock Market was another form of bartering. Like most of the country, they didn’t know how Wall Street applied to their lives. That’s where our expert came in. Thanks to my husband, I was able to contact Tisa Silver, MBA, founder of the non-profit Good Works Coalition, author of The Time Value of Life: Why Time is More Valuable than Money, and professor at the University of Delaware’s Alfred E. Lerner College of Business & Economics, to speak to my class.

Tisa presented the Stock Market in very kid friendly terms. She started her presentation by showing my students products that they see every day and had them think about the companies that make those products. This activity showed my students that stocks were found in their daily lives and in the items that they purchase. I really liked how Tisa had students think about what items or services they use on a daily basis before considering buying stock from those companies.


Next, Tisa asked for a volunteer. She greeted our student and created a fictional business for him. She told the story of how he opened his own pizza parlor and how business was going great for him. Next, she asked for another volunteer. After greeting the next student, she explained how this student visited Student A’s Pizza Parlor and saw a rat. She asked Student B how this experience influenced her decision to return or buy pizza from Student A’s Parlor. Of course, Student B was disgusted by the experience and did not think it was a good idea to get more pizza from there. After explaining this scenario, Tisa discussed examples of how bad news can have a negative effect on stock prices. This activity was a wonderful way to illustrate how current events or the news and media can affect stock prices.

The remainder of the chat was spent on discussing why some stock prices were worth more than others and where to buy stock. Tisa offered some tips on buying stock and basic terms to know. Students also had the opportunity to ask questions about the Stock Market at the end of the presentation.

My students gained a lot from this experience. Tisa did a wonderful job of explaining the purpose behind the stock market and how stocks are present in students’ lives. After this activity, my students were eager to research companies and some even mentioned their interest in buying stock.


Skyping with experts will be a regular occurrence in my classroom. After every experience, I will share what we have done on this blog. In January, I will start my Business Leaders unit and have some exciting experts scheduled to talk about starting a business, personal branding, and assessing one's individual strengths. Please feel free to stop by and see what surprises I have for my students!

Using Skype to Connect Gifted & Talented Learners

Hello Everyone, it’s been a while. In fact, I haven't blogged since I officially switched from Spanish to Gifted. One of the major changes from my switch is the opportunities I have to incorporate technology. Yes, in Spanish, I used Skype to connect my students to schools in Argentina and Spain, but I was doing all of the talking because I had to translate, which resulted in my students not being able to be as engaged as I wanted them to be. My ideal experience is for my students to steer the conversation and be the ones in charge of the discussion. And, I am thrilled to say that that is exactly what has happened so far with my gifted learners.

Sharing our Work

Just last week I organized a series of Skype sessions with other elementary gifted/talented teachers across the nation. My goal was to have both classes showcase projects that they have worked on this semester. I had my students present one of their projects and in turn they served as a audience for our partner class. I enjoyed watching my students describe their product and was impressed when they started sharing the process of developing these products. I noticed a sense of pride and accomplishment in their voices. It was truly an amazing experience. The best part though was when we had our partner class ask questions and vote on their favorite project. My students really enjoyed receiving this feedback.

Informal Sessions

I also scheduled several informal sessions to introduce both classes. These kinds of sessions were arranged for partner classes that could not Skype for over an hour. For these sessions I also came up with the idea to use a Google map to show both classes where we were. On the Google map, I tagged both schools and used the satellite feature to “zoom” into our schools. Both classes really enjoyed this and thought the satellite view was cool. My plan is to add more partner schools to this map and eventually embed other features such as video greetings or pictures for our partner schools.

The remainder of these informal sessions was dedicated to a Q & A session. Both classes asked questions about their daily life (family, pets), interests, likes (favorite food, music, television shows, toys), and school (special events, recess, classes). I enjoyed watching this dialogue and I know my students were very interested in learning more about our partner classes. And of course, my students were thrilled at the sight of snow!


Overall, my students were excited about connecting with other classes in different parts of the nation. I can tell that these chats have made an impression on them when they ask, “Are we going to Skype today?” Unfortunately, we have to postpone any sessions until January due to end of the semester testing and the holiday break. My students and I are equally looking forward to sharing more projects and good news with our partner schools. This has been as much a learning experience for me as it has been for them. And as our break approaches, I have so many ideas floating in my head. My next step is to find more partner schools as well as develop collaboration projects. If you teach gifted/talented classes in the elementary setting, I welcome you to join us in this journey.

Announcement

Well, everyone the time has come. A few weeks ago, my principal offered me an opportunity I just couldn’t refuse. I am officially a gifted teacher at my school. I have been wanting this for so long that it’s almost unreal. Ever since I was working on my Master’s degree under Dr. Frances Karnes, I knew an enrichment setting was where I belonged.

The first four courses I will teach are: All Things Money, Entrepreneurship, Folktales around the World, and Leadership. These enrichment courses are designed to cultivate self-efficacy and global connections. My goal is to create the kinds of learning experiences that expose my students to an array of ideas, themes, and concepts, as well as develop a rudimentary expertise in the subject area. Whether we are exploring world cultures through folk tales and Skype sessions with classrooms around the globe or writing marketing plans for our Entrepreneurship unit, the objective is to integrate literacy and technology into each lesson.

I have been blessed and have enjoyed teaching Spanish these past few years. I will miss my students, especially the little ones in Kindergarten to 1st grade. It almost broke my heart to see them in the hallway when they asked where I was today. As of now, the reality hasn’t set in for them or for me. Though it is sad to leave Spanish, I am ready to move on to the next chapter in my career. I invite you on this journey with me to follow what I am doing in the gifted classroom.