The Adventures of Moo Tie

This school year is coming to an end our business is finally up and running very well.  I do believe that the link is going to be put on all the school web pages as soon as today possibly.  We have sold a decent amount of hats just in our classroom.  Our class is working on posters to be hung up throughout the school. There are a lot of boys interested in them. Our profit has come out to be towards the male percentage of teenagers in this area.  To make more money we are going to have to target something at the female half.  Maybe we could change the colors of hats throw in a pink or something? That will come later on though I suppose. Well, back to the begging of this update school is almost out! I hope our business does well over the summer.  I will do as much as possible while we are not in school. I know that our sales might drop over the summer but, they will shoot right back up during the beginning of next year. Because, everyone knows what the new school year brings, “Football” I believe we will have a lot of sales during that time next year. I and the other students are very interested to see what the outcome of our business will be.

We have recently got the hats in they are great looking.  People in our class room have already started ordering the hats which is good to get everything started.  We have changed a few things for like personalizing in such but I think that it will help our business out more, because there are more choices for all different types of people.  We have got the website done for the most part the pictures are taking that where left off and they are ready to be put on there.  Hopefully our business will keep progressing well. We will keep you updated later on in the next few weeks.

We are close to being finished with the website.  It’s introducing us to new things and extending our knowledge in the marketing of a business. It has been very frustrating but fun at the same time. The only thing left to do on the website is minor adjustments.  The hats are finished and will be picked up shortly.  Our teachers will be presenting these to the Principals Meeting this week to gain support for our business throught the county.  We are working very hard and will keep you posted.

This is the behind the scenes look at the making of a 21st Century Skills Learning Project.  Join us as we go through step by step creating and implementing a school based business.  Moo Tie, the business,  was born out of class discussions in Appalachia High School’s marketing education classes.  These conversations then led to the writing of a grant for the JMU/Microsoft Partnership for 21st Century Skills Mini Grant competition.  In February, we were awarded $1,000 to make these ideas into an actual student run business.   Marketing education teacher, Janet Giles has been helping students write and refine their business plan.  She has been teaching about basic business organization, business law, market research, marketing strategies, color theory, and much more.  Heather Blanton, Instructional Technology Resource Teacher, has been working with students on print material design, web design, logos, etc.