Entrepreneurs are people who see, recognise and seize upon opportunities to create sustainable systems.   This may sound a little off the mark because many people think that an entrepreneurs primary concern is money making.   This may often seem to be so, but on closer inspection money is only a tool used by entrepreneurs, and often a tool they can’t do without.  However to make money as a ends product is a lifeless venture at best.

Social Entrepreneurs Jigsaw Puzzle (I cut it into Euros for fun!  It is not as hard as yesterday.)

Creating Sustainable Money Making Systems

Think of the exciting social entrepreneurs of the world today.  Bono and Bill & Linda Gates.  They have made money by creating sustainable systems.  They were able to lubricate these systems with the money they made and therefore spread the effects of their good work around the world.

It is my claim then that if teachers can work with their students to create partnerships of learning that result in sustainable systems they have laid the foundation for teaching kids not only how to invent their own socially entrepreneurial attitude but also how to create and manage money.

The article Creating a Hybrid Reference Centre outlines the elements of this classroom attitude.  By creating classroom products such as jigsaws, tabletop games, flash cards and the like the students come to see that

•     their work is valued
•     the most efficient classroom environment is imbued with a spirit of cooperation
•     unproductive competition is discouraged
•     competition is harnessed to develop attributes such as intuition and improvisation
•     gestalt of cumulative effect is recognised and valued by all

Create, Reuse, Recycle and Leave a Legacy

The book Virtual Jigsaws in the Classroom guides the teach in this way of thinking while at the same time offering discreet hands on activities so that they can get started straight away by learning

•     necessary skills such as coding through solving puzzles
•     how to make jigsaws
•     how to design art effectively for jigsaws
•     how to work writing assignments around the hands on creative activities

As the process emerges by accumulating within a switched on class room environment, the teacher and student finds that they have need for mathematical skills and financial planning.  They need to think about production issues such as

Does everyone get to publish their work, do we need to make wise decisions here.

Students will need to learn how to critique work in a positive way and learn the difference between criticism and evaluative judgments that are based on particular design and logistics, need rather than on subjective decision making based on what the student likes.

Resources:

• Lehrer,J.(2012) Imagine.The Science of Creativity. Text Publishing. Melbourne.
• Jenkins,H. (2013) Reading in a Participatory Culture. Kindle.
• Mainwaring,S. (2012) We First.  Kindle.

• Murphy,J. (2013)  Global Citizens Creative Arts Text. Insights and Activities. Kindle.