I heard the word "senior project" the first day I walked into my classroom as a first year teacher. Senior projects, although they took many different shapes over the course of my career, were highly emphasized at my school.

We always implemented a senior project of some kind. The school never wavered on that, and I never questioned it because I witnessed senior projects to be one of the most amazing college and career readiness strategies for our students.

Any time is a good time to jump on high school resume builders for students, but summer is a GREAT time for high school students to bolster resumes for colleges and careers.

Resume building is good for younger students, as well, not necessarily in terms of college and career readiness, but for developing life skills such as work ethic, teamwork, and responsible citizenship. 

​This post has the best high school resume builders for students out there. Let's dive in.

Teaching high school entrepreneurs to start their own businesses is a great idea! Just reading this blog post is a great first step. But teaching students how to create their own high school businesses can be slightly overwhelming, and I get it.

​Let's talk high school entrepreneurship that is engaging, effective, and not overly complicated for anyone involved.

If you are in secondary education, implementing a senior project for high school students has likely crossed your mind. You've mulled over the costs and benefits of senior projects, the time commitment, how to develop a senior project program, what your senior project would look like, and more.

Observing high school senior project experiences and their outcomes has been one of the highlights of my career as an educator. The benefits of high school senior project experiences are out of this world.

I have witnessed and been a part of implementing a variety of senior project styles, so through a lot of trial and error, have developed a comprehensive senior experience that incorporates the best parts of each of those senior project varieties.

Happy college season! For some, that season is long over, having completed early applications over the summer. Phew! Now all you have to do is wait! For some, you're still trying to get everything figured out. Preparing application materials for deadlines, considering a gap-year. Maybe even wondering if college is for you at all. I get that. I've been there! College is truthfully not for some in my opinion. You do you! 

My 4 year old son, Charlie, has been requesting, more like demanding, that we buy him toys. Not just every time we leave the house, but now toys can be purchased right from our couch. He has discovered Amazon. My attempt to explain greed, materialism, poverty, waste, the difference between needs and wants to a 4 year old has been unsuccessful. 

And anyway, does my 4 year old need to know about human suffering this early in his life? Maybe, maybe not. We can save that discussion for another day. Regardless, he wasn't getting it. That approach didn't work. 

So I tried something else. I told him he could earn money and save it for "wants". We discussed how a four year old boy might go about doing that. He observed that some kids make money with lemonade stands. We determined that it was too cold for that. I asked him what kinds of things we eat and drink in the fall? He said hot chocolate. We didn't have ingredients for hot chocolate. He reminded me that we had two gallons of apple juice left over from his sister's birthday party the week before. That is how "Hot Apple Cider Central" got it's start.

Charlie designed a sign (what it should say), and I wrote it out. He decided where the sale would be, and what extra treats he could give away to lure in customers. I showed him how to post an advertisement to our online neighborhood forum. He had to brainstorm and engineer a way to keep the apple cider hot outside. I introduced to him the Crockpot. He even chased neighbors down the street shouting "apple cider for sale!" We then had a conversation about appropriate sales tactics. 

Charlie made $4 his first day out. He charged his customers "5 monies" for a cup of apple cider. Considering he has no concept of money, I'd say $4 was a success! But the bigger success was the knowledge and skills gained in the process, and the pride he took in his work. 

All of us are entrepreneurs at heart. Check out this free graphic organizer from my TpT store, Experiential Learning Depot. It is a guide for brainstorming business ideas, geared toward all ages and skill levels. It would be a fun activity to incorporate into your class, or could be treated as the starting-off-point to something bigger, like writing an actual business plan and hosting an exhibition night to show them off. 

If you use the graphic organizer with your students or own children, I'd love to hear about some of their business ideas! Thanks for reading.

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