Business Fair Success!!

Today was the BIG Day! I was very impressed by the entire Business Fair, but about these aspects in particular: 

1. Student readiness - Most groups came to school prepared to set up and sell! Having not seen much of the "products" beforehand, I was a little nervous about what students would actually have ready. We all marched down to the library to set up and everyone worked hard to get their Businesses up and running. 

2. The school staff and student turn out - I lost count at 100 students and staff coming in to view and support the Businesses. It was great to see everyone so excited to spend their $1 at a Business of their choice. *Next time I do this, I will not use the $1 bills... although it was fun, it was just a waste of paper in the end. Businesses kept track of their "orders" on their order sheets they created. 

3. The positive banter - Both during and after the Business Fair, all I could hear was great conversation about how fun and cool the Business Fair was. I was excited when some grade 7s and 8s asked about being able to do this next year, but even more excited when a grade 9 admitted sadness at not being able to take it this year. *we only ran one quarter of this option... 

4. The friendly competition - Even though this was not a competitive class, it was nice to see Businesses upping their game when they saw others doing well. It was also very nice to see the Businesses supporting each other. I saw several students go around and support their competition by placing an "order." 

Were there some negatives, for sure. I had 4 students show up with nothing... Not a single thing. Hard to believe when they've had 2.5 months to work on creating a small business of their choice. Pretty typical results from any class really. No matter what supports, motivation and encouragement are given, some students just "give up." I had a chat with the students  about what went wrong and they just admitted they didn't want to be in the option, couldn't switch so just gave up. That will be a hard thing to address during assessment time... 

Anyways, I am so happy with how the first ELJHS CTF Business Fair turned out. I don't know if I will be teaching the course again, but will spend the next bit of time reflecting on what I would do differently :) 

Here are some pictures from the Business Fair: