Toward Entrepreneurial Mindsets

After viewing Tom Kruczek's comments at http://ready4life.me/entrepreneurial-thinking-with-tom-kruczek-rfl003/, I began to think that there is much more to entrepreneurial thinking than just knowing yourself and following your passions or creating a product. Entrepreneurial thinking encompasses a great deal of risk-taking.  As teachers, we must model this for our students.  On a very trivial level, I experienced something yesterday.
Taking students to present at a national conference is indeed always challenging, but finding out that we would not have wifi available for our presentation sent us into a whirlwind of uncertainly.  If we created a "low-tech" version of our presentation, it would most likely lose its flavor with our audience.  As the students were working on doing just that, though, as our possibly only option, (other than grab a wifi hotspot or pay lots of cash to a company willing to take our cash to make our presentation work), I was toying around with the equipment we needed to pack.
Suddenly, I told the students...I think we could just present from my phone. Amid the crazy and uncertain looks, I proceeded to grab an adaptor and a projector, open the presentation on my phone, and, indeed, make it work.  The students, feeling a sense of relief, I know still wondered somewhat about me and how my brain works.
Now, while I would never, ever equate this to a risk taken in the business world where financial and other risks are critical, I certainly see it as a small, to some somewhat insignificant step in thinking outside of the box to solve a problem.  After all, isn't that what design thinking is all about?
I'm  happy to say that our "prototype" worked, and we are set for the conference regardless of the wifi situation.
To teachers...no step is too small.  Model problem solving for your students so that they, too, become outside of the box thinkers for those larger obstacles down the road.

Technology and Future Teachers

CAPS Innovation Celebration 2017

It seems that I always have some students who come into the classroom and tell me that they either aren't "good" with technology or don't like it.  My response?  "You don't have a choice!"
As a future educator, you are not allowed to make that decision for your students.  One of the great attributes of an entrepreneurial thinker is that he/she is willing to take risks and to think outside of the box.
Students need their teachers to be their role models.  With that comes a responsibility to provide exceptional, timely, and engaging resources that will prepare them for the challenges they will face personally, academically, and professionally in the future.  Students deserve the best there is to give.

Blue Valley CAPS  (Center for Advanced Professional Studies)
Overland Park, KS

I have the privilege of teaching students who are interested in future careers in education!