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Short courses

Billw@projectAcademy.org

   

Mini-Series

Mini-series of Project Academy:

General framework of the mini-series: The classes will be split into hour blocks that include 15 min of lecture, 30 min. of activity   ( games, improv, problems ) and 15 min break/reflection

  • Worksheet:

  • Goals/Mission/Outcomes:

  • Feedback-sheet:

 

Flowchart: Alternate Process: Focused-Simplified 
Tailored to the organization 
Starter projects
Flowchart: Alternate Process: Present Teams- Problem solving

Curved Down Arrow: Feedback

Flowchart: Alternate Process: Focused-Simplified 
Tailored to the organization 
Starter projects
Flowchart: Alternate Process: Present Teams- Problem solving

Curved Down Arrow: Feedback

Flowchart: Alternate Process: Focused-Simplified 
Tailored to the organization 
Starter projects
Other web-sites :   Needs of learning Life-Skills/Soft-skills

 

Life-skills transition to business
Culture of Readiness-CCR
The real skill gap
Skills to make you more employable
Need for program-engineering mind-set
 

 

 

 

Mini-series descriptions:

Ownership mind-set
4-hour workshop


What are some effective thought processes and strategies for success in the work place?  Are you portraying the image you want to project? What is your body language saying about you? How successful are you at building and nurturing connections to management in a new company position? 

Ownership mind-set will go beyond basic work rules and introduces students to thinking like an owner and standing out in the workplace as they embark on their journey into the corporate world.  Understanding how to treat a customer (your manager) and having a mind-set to look for improving the work environment with be shown to help you standout and be seem as a valued employee.   This flagship program will take an open look at the thinking skills of an owner necessary to succeed in today's workplace. 

  • ·       What is your business … Its you

  • ·       Selling yourself- What’s your brand? How do you want people/organizations to see you?

  • ·       You have customers (your teacher, supervisor) … How do you served them (What’s their needs) and make them successful?

  • ·       Improving your business – Its being a lifelong learner, you sell knowledge and skills

  • ·       Partnering with others – Working with your peers in a team environment

  • ·       Connecting with community – working with others for the benefit of your team

  • ·       Quality focus- looking for continuous improvements in the services you provide

  • ·       Product development- Being innovative and curious to develop new skills and services for your customers

 

Personal financial literacy:
4-hour workshop

Definition:

  Financial literacy is the ability to understand how money works in the world: how someone manages to earn or make it, how that person manages it, how he/she invests it (turn it into more) and how that person donates it to help others.

Culture of the word

 How does it fit into society, business, or education?

Questions & pair share

Improv YES & …

Stories of Failures

·       Put aside 10% of your earnings

·       Control expenditures

·       Make the saving multiple

·       Guard the saving

·       Insure a future income

The richest man in Babylon

 

·        Become a critical consumer

·        Planning, Cost structure

·        Risk management

·        Income, Spending

·        Money management, Budgets

·        Planning, saving and investing, Retirement saving

·        Stocks & Bonds

 

  


 

 

Problem Solving

4-hour

We problem solve in all aspects of our lives. This important skill needs to be learned is the process that is  consistent from problem to problem.  A most important aspect is;  what is the problem to be solved. As a group we tend to not understand what is the problem and put band-aids on what we think is the problem.  We will use the process developed at a leading engineering school.

  • ·       Framing the problem

  • ·       Research

  • ·       Requirements

  • ·       Brain storming/Writing … lots of ideas

  • ·       Shaping the ideas, mundane, innovative, blue sky

  • ·       Decision making

  • ·       Testing / Redesign

  • ·       Presentation

 

Team work
4 hours

Team building:  teaching students to work in teams is one of the most important goals of a twenty-first-century teacher. The class will focus on forming the team, building the culture and character of the team and show the students the similarities to a sports and music team.
 We start with

Faber Est Suae Quisque Fortunae
Everyone is the maker of their destiny

·       Trust among team members

·       Picking the team roles

·       Make your team mate a winner

·       Complementary Skills 

·       Enabling the charter (roles, norm, culture, values, language)

·       Common purpose 

·       Empower Students to Coach One Another

·       Challenge the Teams

·       Value Beautiful Work (Quality)

 

 

College prep
8 hours

Key life-skills are critical for both success and ease of transition into the college education system.  Our course will focus on a combination of life-skill and working in teams that will support the students in this new environment. Also provided will be a web based tutorials for the students benefit and use to support there learning.  An on-line blog is also available for sharing with others.

·       Life-skills ( Attitude, Social skills, Personal skills)

·       Team work … study habits

·       Info mapping and elevator pitch

 

 
Pre-employment
4-weeks

This class follows the standard class as defined on our web site.

 
  • Decision process

  • Process skills/ Project skills

  • Apprentice life-skills

  •  Branding

 

After-school program  12 one-hour  sessions

 

 

Creating a Family Charter

 

Purpose:  To create a working document that lays out the important relationship commitments between the members of a family.  It is to be used as a guideline for family members to continue to build their relationships and manage commitments that were agreed upon or need to be enhanced.

Includes the creation of a family cultural statement that defines the following:

Norms to operate by Values we believe in Goal to live by
Language: how we communicate Rituals that we practice Our vision

 

Document Article Family-pg1, page-2 page-3
Friend    
Family Decision process:
Purpose: to create a family document that sets the ground rules and process
for making  a family decision.  This teaches the family members what they have to 
consider in deciding the outcome of a problem situation.
Visual:
 

Mini-projects Format:

Title: Description Purpose
Goals Schedule Life-skills
Assessment Connection to other projects Tools ( Power Point, Video)

·                                     

Title

Description

What is a Charter?

Team Charters are documents that define the purpose of the team, how it will work, and what the expected outcomes are. They are "roadmaps" that the team and its sponsors create at the beginning of the journey to make sure that all involved are clear about where they're heading, and to give direction when times get tough.

What Bugs you?

A bug is another name for a problem one has

What is a Culture of an organization?

 A set of shared assumptions that guide behaviors.[1] It is also the pattern of such collective behaviors and assumptions that are taught to new organizational members as a way of perceiving and, even thinking and feeling. Thus organizational culture affects the way people and groups interact with each other, with clients, and with stakeholders. In addition, organizational culture may affect how much employees identify with an organization.

 

Ownership mindset

The thoughts necessary to think like an owner of your own business and apply those to other areas such as learning.

 

Engineering mindset

All the tasks needed to manage a design project less the actual science and mathematics.  Such as project management, scheduling, etc.

 

Connect between Ownership and learning

Develop the similarities and connections between an ownership thought process and learning concepts

 

Appling Engineering mindset to a project

Develop the similarities and connections between engineering mindset to the process of a project and its various tasks

 

Fairy tale and picture books to Life-skills

Find key connections between various thoughts and words in a story to demonstrate life-skills

 

Organization growth and life-skills

How to create a path using life-skills in an organization to achieve new levels within the organization

Selecting a problem in society, education or the community

 

 

 

Get students excited about learning (life-long learners).

Have the reasoning skills to manage in today’s society and begin to build a set of skills to use in multiple careers.

Understand that problems are opportunities.  The bigger the problem, the bigger the opportunity.

Have students better prepared for college or a career.

 

 
 
 
Global Drivers: 

 

 
 
Overview Presentation:

Engineering Mind-set (Thought concept for the program )

 

 

 

 Program (PBL)

Overall review document File
Thinking skills & Emotional skills File
 Good review of PBL elements File

 

Project data:

 
 Overview slides  
Schedule overview

Approximately 10 one hour sessions

Role of the facilitator

 

Emphasis on building learning skills by facilitating meta-cognitive questions during the process

The definition of facilitate is "to make easy" or "ease a process." What a facilitator does is plan, guide, provide feedback and manage a group event to ensure that the group's objectives are met effectively, with clear thinking, good participation and full buy-in from everyone who is involved.

Tenets of the organization File
Outcomes & Uniqueness's File
Day plans

Daily feedback sheets

 

General feedback sheet

Day1 Day 2

T,  IS,

Day3

P, F, S,

B, T

Day 4

BW, D

Day 5

S,   D

Day 6 Day 7  
       
Simple projects that can be accomplished as a group while learning skills
 

 

 

Tools/Quick notes:

Web site for links to Life-Skills descriptions Link
Culture
Team
People who work together will win, whether it be against complex football defenses, or the problems of modern society.

   Vince Lombardi
 

 

Processes Activities
One-pager Conflict resolution
Discussion Team charter work sheet
Flow-map Team roles work sheet
Five principles Listening skills
  Like a sports team
  Team work sheet

 

 

Team members questions to themselves What do I bring to the team? 2. What are our commitments to one another? 3. What differences exist between us? 4. How will we operate? 5. How will we know we are succeeding?
Learning life skills & having fun

 

The art or act of improvising, or of  composing, uttering, executing, or arranging  anything without previous preparation:

 

 

Problem-Solving

 

Improv File
Assessment/Rubrics File
Questions & learning File
Project framing File
Picking the problem File
Planning & schedule File  Getting set-up to do the project
Elevator pitch File    Short presentation of key items that you did
Mapping File   Information gathering plus how they are connected
Learning Process File

Brain Plasticity

File

Thinking skills

Creative thinking

Critical thinking
Questioning
Meta-cognitive thinking
Reflection (feedback)

 

File  Maintain the state of doubt and to carry on systematic and protracted inquiry --- these are the essentials of thinking

 

 

Learning targets File Learning targets are short term goals or statements
Self-Reflection of the project File
Benefits of the process File
Preparing for the presentation check-sheet File
Scamper File   Coming up with ways to find new ideas
Links from home page of Project Academy

 

the mental and moral qualities distinctive to an individual

  Web-version 3

Interesting web sites;

It is the policy of Project Academy not to discriminate on the basis of race, gender, religion, national origin, color, homelessness, sexual orientation, gender identity, age or disability in its education programs, services, activities, or employment practices.