Making Business Education Classes More Meaningful

June 14, 2913

Student engagement is critical for promoting students academic success in the classroom. Technology is a effective way to promote student engagement in the classroom. As a business education teacher I am constantly looking for ways to use technology within my classroom.  As well, I want to find exciting ways to make my classes relevant to today world by offering real world experiences to my students.  As thriving 21st century learners student need opportunities to push them to become critical thinkers and problem solvers.

The Career Technical Education department at my schools offers the following course:

• Principles of Business
• Business Law
• Entrepreneurship
• Marketing
• Microsoft Academy 
• Multimedia and Webdesign
• Sci vis
• Health Careers
• Early Childhood

Students who choose the business pathway have the opportunity of taking four of theses classes. With that being said it is important that they have a clear understanding as to how to make the classes relevant and the significance of these class as they relate to their future.

There are many vehicles out there that can be used to add the real world experience objective to these courses. There are several games that can be used to achieve this process.  A couple to share are the Mcdonalds Game and the Hotel Management Game which extends to student a deeper understand of business, how it generates revenue, the background and all of the internal and external factors that come into play with running a business.  These particular games is excellent for teacher who teach Principles of Business, Entrepreneurship or Marketing to name a few.  Teacher can use these games in their business education class to engage the students and to make the class fun and relevant.  

Below is a video demonstration  of the Mcdonalds Game.

As I reflect I shared this game recently in with my students in this first session of summer school as I watch them play the game it was exciting to see all of their "Ah ha" moments.  I asked them how they felt about playing this game, They shared with me that the game really helped them to understand what they had been taught.

I hope you fine these games to be effective resources to help promote student engagement and understanding in you classroom.  Enjoy!!!

References

CTE (Image). 2013 June 14, 2013 https://www.google.com/search?hl=en&site=imghp&tbm=isch&source=hp&biw=683&bih=321&q=career+technical+education+logo&oq=career+techn&gs_l=img.1.1.0l4j0i5l5j0i24.4098.11572.0.13942.16.11.4.1.1.0.66.589.11.11.0...0.0.0..1ac.1.17.img.KQqAlZRi4tQ#facrc=_&imgrc=brgwEEQapEi_-M%3A%3Bd9fxNCm2y7Rl4M%3Bhttp%253A%252F%252Fschools.lcss.us%252Fcte%252Fimages%252Fcte-logo.jpg%3Bhttp%253A%252F%252Fschools.lcss.us%252Fcte%252F%3B418%3B353Mcdonalds Video Game (Video) 2010. June 12, 2013 http://youtu.be/LCIMyjJok-0