The importance of agility
Today I had the distinct pleasure of presenting to all of the Entrepreneurship 110 Teachers in the Anglophone sector. I was invited by one of the authors of the recent curriculum revamp, Sarah Jane Smith. Although the event was live streamed, I purposely went to Kennebecasis Valley High School in the hopes of meeting other stakeholders within the Entrepreneurship and business coursework ecosystem. I wasn’t disappointed, and in fact found the morning very enlightening.
The new curriculum for this course was released this fall, and I was curious about both the process, and the methodology behind its reconstruction. This morning I had the distinct pleasure of chatting with one of the architects of this process, Brian Gray. During my many travels throughout this province as a Technology Mentor, I have worked with him before, and have always been impressed with his passion for education. After the usual small talk about other ongoing projects, he asked me to give him the elevator pitch for CHAT to the Future’s program, and to describe in detail the work we do. I would never say it to his face, but this is what makes Brian great. When he asks you what you are up to, he is genuinely interested in what you have to say, and… he always remembers it.
Once finished sharing my story, I could see the wheels turning. He started to highlight how impressed he was with what we were doing, but he also adding something more interesting (this is why I am glad I went). He began to explain that he had purposefully constrained the amount of GCO’s (general curricular outcomes) within the Entrepreneurship 110 course, because he knew how quickly the business, startup, and entrepreneurship ecosystems change. Along with the cohort of teachers, like Sarah-Jane, they purposefully trimmed down the outcomes to ensure that programs like CHAT Entrepreneurs and Brilliant Labs, have a place to come in and provide lessons and activities that represent current practices.
I wrote this post today as a thank you to Sarah, the rest of the authors, as well as the “architect” Brian Gray. We know that curriculums from this domain rarely get touched, and if the last one took almost 15 years to be rewritten, it was extremely wise to take this approach. This gives teachers the agility to be creative, and allows them to keep up with current trends.
If you are interested in learning more about CHAT Entrepreneurs, I encourage you to take a look at our resource section, and see the content we have curated from current sources.
And if you are interested in booking me as a mentor to talk about our program to your Entrepreneurship, Economics or Marketing class, just shoot me a line, or use our booking system through calendly.
Philip Sweezey
Entrepreneurship Mentor
entrepreneurship@chattothefuture.ca
@psweeze
Originally published at chatentrepreneurs.ca on October 9, 2015.
