Over the past two weeks via my partnership with Microsoft and Office Web Apps, I’ve provided templates of models for you to create enchanting PowerPoint pitches, Word business plans, and Excel financial models. They are all available for you to download from my SkyDrive account. I hope these documents and blog posts help you save a boatload of time and increase the quality of your efforts.I leave you with two sets of top ten lies: one of entrepreneurs and one of investors so that you know what not to say and what not to believe. Top Ten Lies of Entrepreneurs “Our projections are…
Selected by msporer
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Most Topular Stories
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Raising Money: What Not to Say and What Not to Believe #OfficeandGuyK
How to Change the World20 Jan 2012 | 10:46 am -
History of beer in America [video infographic]
Holy Kaw!9 Feb 2012 | 10:49 amWorried about having enough small talk to fill tomorrow’s happy hour? Fear not, thanks to this video infographic courtesy of Visual.ly that supplies all the beer trivia you need to look like a bar-fly who knows what they’re talking about. Oh, wait, that might not be a good thing… Full story at Vimeo via Buzzfeed. Know your beer. Permalink | Leave a comment » -
Is There a Place for “Drill and Kill” on the iPad?
Creating Lifelong Learners7 Feb 2012 | 8:00 pmLast week, I posted on Twitter when a highly engaging math app went on sale for 60% off. I didn’t oversell it by any means: It’s just drill and kill simple math facts with fancy graphics and music but it’s fun. I’m torn on whether to mention the name of the app here (I will list all the apps we use in a future post). However, imagine an app with a first class movie soundtrack, mission impossible-like graphics, and an excitement that is not present in many other apps. Yes, I do consider it “drill and kill” but as an app of this kind, it’s best in… -
No Time to Tinker
assortedstuff8 Feb 2012 | 5:06 pmPresident Obama for a second time converted the White House public rooms into a science fair on Tuesday, and announced new federal and private-sector initiatives to encourage “a nation of tinkerers and dreamers” in so-called STEM education in science, technology, engineering and math. Very nice. Except for the fact that the education policies of the Obama administration don’t allow for “tinkering”, and certainly there’s precious little room for dreaming. For the vast majority of students in this country, the instructional emphasis is on learning to get the right… -
Updates to Teacher Evaluation News page
Empowered High Schools9 Feb 2012 | 4:16 amThere is a great deal of action on the issue of state teacher evaluation plans. We’re trying to keep you updated with the latest news on our State Teacher Evaluation Laws Update page. In a weird way, it is a fascinating topic as each state maneuvers around this sensitive and highly charged topic. If you have news to share please pass it along.
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How to Change the World
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Raising Money: What Not to Say and What Not to Believe #OfficeandGuyK
20 Jan 2012 | 10:46 amOver the past two weeks via my partnership with Microsoft and Office Web Apps, I’ve provided templates of models for you to create enchanting PowerPoint pitches, Word business plans, and Excel financial models. They are all available for you to download from my SkyDrive account. I hope these documents and blog posts help you save a boatload of time and increase the quality of your efforts.I leave you with two sets of top ten lies: one of entrepreneurs and one of investors so that you know what not to say and what not to believe. Top Ten Lies of Entrepreneurs “Our projections are… -
Design a Sam Adams beer
20 Jan 2012 | 8:24 amNow this is a fun project. I’m helping Sam Adams “tap” the knowledge of beer drinkers and crowd source its next brew. Join the party by getting the app and designing your beer: The final brew will be released in Austin in the first week of March. #sponsored -
How to Create an Enchanting Financial Forecast #OfficeandGuyK
17 Jan 2012 | 1:52 pmThis is the third post in my Microsoft partnership, and it’s all about numbers. The topic is crafting your financial forecast to include in your pitch. Bill Reichert, my partner at Garage Technology Ventures, created an Excel model and wrote this blog post. There’s a lesson in this too: Get the best person for the job. His grasp of financial models and how to present them exceeds mine by two orders of magnitude. The Purpose of Financial Projections When it comes to financial projections, there are two types of entrepreneurs: first, the “visionary entrepreneur” who… -
How to Create an Enchanting Business Plan #OfficeandGuyK
12 Jan 2012 | 8:16 amHere is the second post in my series about planning, pitching, and launching a new business venture. In partnership with Microsoft and Office Web Apps, I’ve created a Word document that outlines a good business plan. It’s saved to my SkyDrive folder here. Feel free to download it and use it as inspiration. And if you’re working with a partner, you can use the free Word Web App to stay in sync. I provided the PowerPoint document before the Word document because a good business plan is an elaboration of a good pitch as opposed to a good pitch being a distillation of good business plan. -
How to Create an Enchanting Pitch #OfficeandGuyK
9 Jan 2012 | 8:01 amWelcome to the first in a series of blog posts I’ll be doing as part of a partnership with Microsoft and Office Web Apps. Over the next two weeks, I’ll cover everything a budding entrepreneur needs to turn an idea into an enchanting investment opportunity—from the perfect pitch to a killer business plan to financial forecasts. I’m going to start with a little dissertation on creating effective PowerPoint pitches for your company. I embedded the sample deck for you to click through by using the PowerPoint Web App. When you’re ready to get started, you can download the…
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Holy Kaw!
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History of beer in America [video infographic]
9 Feb 2012 | 10:49 amWorried about having enough small talk to fill tomorrow’s happy hour? Fear not, thanks to this video infographic courtesy of Visual.ly that supplies all the beer trivia you need to look like a bar-fly who knows what they’re talking about. Oh, wait, that might not be a good thing… Full story at Vimeo via Buzzfeed. Know your beer. Permalink | Leave a comment » -
What’s the future of virtual sex?
9 Feb 2012 | 10:48 amComputer scientists are seeking to transmit sense data across the Internet and enable interactions with virtual entities and environments. They're steering us toward a reality previously only dreamt of: sexual congress between the material and immaterial worlds. The future is bright for virtual sexuality. After all, we're human beings. Think of any great artistic or technological achievement and chances are it winds up in the bedroom. Will it end up in yours? Full article at HowStuffWorks.com. Total aggregation of HowStuffWorks.com. Photo credit: Fotolia Permalink | Leave a… -
5 tiny countries with big space dreams
9 Feb 2012 | 10:46 amYou don't have to be a global giant to reach for the stars or to benefit from the pecuniary promise of space-age technologies. Thanks to the growing availability of public and private launch vehicles, "off-the-shelf" tech for kitting out satellites and serious opportunities for research collaboration, even the smallest nations on Earth can dream big. Which little countries have big space dreams? Lithuania Belgium Israel Full list at HowStuffWorks.com. Total aggregation of HowStuffWorks.com. Photo credit: Fotolia Permalink | Leave a comment » -
Top 5 unforgettable memory games
9 Feb 2012 | 10:43 amIt's often said that the brain is like a muscle: You have to exercise it to make it stronger. What you may never have thought about is the way many of our leisure activities -- games, both competitive and solitary -- also contribute to firming up those mental muscles. Let's talk about a few different kinds of memory -- and the games that test, stretch and improve them: Concentration: The way we play Concentration -- turning up cards, looking at them, and turning them facedown again -- strengthens our memory throughout the game the same way that studying with flashcards does. Facial… -
5 tips for getting organized at work
9 Feb 2012 | 10:39 amStarting a new job is one of the more stressful life events. From learning a new commute to mastering different skill-sets (not to mention trying to figure out if your boss finds your sense of humor refreshing or revolting), it's difficult to develop an organizational system from the ground up. In the next few pages, we'll scope out ways that you can get your space and yourself organized for optimal working conditions. From cleaning up to calming down, we'll dispel some rumors about how handling multiple tasks at a time is better than one -- and explain why a messy workspace doesn't always…
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Creating Lifelong Learners
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Is There a Place for “Drill and Kill” on the iPad?
7 Feb 2012 | 8:00 pmLast week, I posted on Twitter when a highly engaging math app went on sale for 60% off. I didn’t oversell it by any means: It’s just drill and kill simple math facts with fancy graphics and music but it’s fun. I’m torn on whether to mention the name of the app here (I will list all the apps we use in a future post). However, imagine an app with a first class movie soundtrack, mission impossible-like graphics, and an excitement that is not present in many other apps. Yes, I do consider it “drill and kill” but as an app of this kind, it’s best in… -
My Current Thoughts on Teacher Evaluation
6 Feb 2012 | 10:00 amI was asked by someone in the press for my thoughts on teacher evaluation, probably because of my previous posts on Merit Pay (I’m not for it) and the Value that Teachers Add to the Classroom (hint, it’s more than just test scores). I haven’t written about the subject in some time and my views are constantly changing. My idea of having teachers gather around a campfire and write down the name of one teacher they’d like to vote of the island hasn’t been picking up any steam so here are my other thoughts. 1. What do you think of the recent national push to tie… -
My Guide to iPad Deployment in School
31 Jan 2012 | 4:00 amAlmost two years ago to the day, I wrote a post, “The iPad: Why Teachers Should Care.” Flash forward to today, both of the schools I work at have purchased one iPad for each classroom. Although I’ve already mastered how to manage all the iDevices in my personal household, learning to manage iPads in an institutional environment involved a bit more learning due to the complexities of software licensing and the necessity to keep institutional accounts separate from personal ones. School Accounts You’ll Need: 1. A generic e-mail address. You can use a… -
Parent Better and Change the World in 2012
27 Dec 2011 | 10:18 amOn a recent journey to Costa Rica, I had the opportunity to reflect on good parenting. Due to a brief layover, we had to switch planes mid-way and on each leg of the journey, we found ourselves sitting in front of children (yes, the same people we left our classrooms to get a break from). I’m not (yet) a parent. However, I believe the principles that I’ve laid out previously about classroom management apply to parenting as well. Specifically, when you can help it, never expose children to a new situation without first letting them know what to expect from that… -
It’s a Hoax! Teach Critical Thinking and Analysis Through Online Hoaxes
28 Nov 2011 | 12:00 amWhat follows are three of my favorite hoax links, shared in a Google Workshop for Educators. Use these to teach students that not everything posted on the internet is true. All About Explorers An attractive site looking site chock full of information about famous explorers, except all the information is false. RYT Hospital Men can now have babies, this high tech web site shows you how. Museum of Hoaxes Find tons more in the Museum of Hoaxes.
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assortedstuff
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No Time to Tinker
8 Feb 2012 | 5:06 pmPresident Obama for a second time converted the White House public rooms into a science fair on Tuesday, and announced new federal and private-sector initiatives to encourage “a nation of tinkerers and dreamers” in so-called STEM education in science, technology, engineering and math. Very nice. Except for the fact that the education policies of the Obama administration don’t allow for “tinkering”, and certainly there’s precious little room for dreaming. For the vast majority of students in this country, the instructional emphasis is on learning to get the right… -
Some Rambling EduCon Reflections
5 Feb 2012 | 5:36 pmI can’t believe EduCon 2.4 ended just a week ago. As much as I love this annual event, it can be a very frustrating experience. For one thing, it’s only two days* when I would love to be able to spend a week with the people who make the trek to SLA. Then, not only are there too many great discussions scheduled opposite each other during each block, the hallway and lunch conversations (an indispensable part of all conferences these days) are usually truncated far too soon. Even so, EduCon packs a lot of valuable ideas, learning, and reflection into a very short time. The high… -
Leaving a Trail
3 Feb 2012 | 9:55 amIn his post this morning, Seth Godin asks Are you leaving behind an easily found trail of accomplishment? When it comes to the work students do in school here in the overly-large school district, the answer is not only no, but we work very hard to keep their work from being easily found – by anyone. Outside of school, most of our kids are leaving an easily found trail. Whether that work can be called “accomplishment” is really unknown because we try very hard to ignore it. Just some random thoughts with little or no context. -
Learning to Write
1 Feb 2012 | 5:59 pmIn the headline of a recent post for his Class Struggle column, Jay Mathews asks Can computers teach writing? Of course the answer is no, but then his post wasn’t really about teaching anyway. His theme was using computers to grade student writing, especially that done on standardized tests (one driving force of his philosophy of education reform). However, the most relevant part of the entire piece is when Mathews relates learning to write back to his own experience. I didn’t learn to write until I was in college, and only after I joined the student newspaper. That extracurricular… -
EduCon Conversation
26 Jan 2012 | 5:39 pmTomorrow I’ll be heading to Philadelphia for EduCon 2.4 (can it possibly be the fifth?), the best professional development event I attend each year. It’s a small conference but a fully-packed weekend of great conversations and a chance to connect with many members of my PLN, hosted at a truly innovative school. This year I’ll be part of a panel session with Tim, Tom, Jeff, and Martha* called Building Bridges: Communities of Practice from K-16, in which we’ll be discussing how to improve communication and collaboration between those of us working in K12 schools and our…
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Empowered High Schools
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Updates to Teacher Evaluation News page
9 Feb 2012 | 4:16 amThere is a great deal of action on the issue of state teacher evaluation plans. We’re trying to keep you updated with the latest news on our State Teacher Evaluation Laws Update page. In a weird way, it is a fascinating topic as each state maneuvers around this sensitive and highly charged topic. If you have news to share please pass it along. -
How to Generate Creativity
3 Feb 2012 | 6:35 pmToday’s leadership insight pertains to innovation and creativity and comes from management thought leader Russell Ackhoff. While not as famous as Peter Drucker, Ackoff is truly a key management thought leader. Like Drucker, Ackoff has spent decades sharing meaningful and actionable management advice. Fans of Ackoff appreciate that his writing style is more straight forward and less formal. A great book from Ackoff for school leaders is Management in Small Doses. It is composed of 52 mini-chapters that are typically around 5-8 pages in length. The chapters are perfect for… -
20 Ways Educators Can Use Twitter
3 Feb 2012 | 6:31 pmCheck out this post on great ways for schools to use Twitter. -
Teacher Evaluation Updates
3 Feb 2012 | 5:34 pmCheck out our teacher evaluation updates. Please email us if you have new news from your state. inquiries@empoweredhighschools.com -
Google In Education
29 Jan 2012 | 4:06 pmFrom what I understand, Google just opened up their Google In Education site. I’m surprised that I didn’t see this in Twitter. I have a pretty broad array of education Tweeters, you’d think that this would have popped up. Maybe it has been out for a long time and I just missed it. It looks pretty interesting. Suffice it to say, it’s still in its infancy. http://www.google.com/edu/index.html
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Seth's Blog
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Inaccurate labels and why we need them (and need to improve them)
9 Feb 2012 | 2:46 amIf I tell you, "I'm going to the baseball game," it seems as though you're likely to understand what I mean. Of course, you won't. When George Will goes to a baseball game, it's a religious experience. Me, I don't even like baseball. Or maybe it's my nephew's ball game (the playoffs), or maybe going to the game causes me to miss an important event, and on and on. We label the experience with just two words, and two words can't possibly capture the emotions and circumstance surrounding an event. The same thing is true with brands. If I tell you that a new business was funded by USV, that might… -
How do they know you're not a flake?
8 Feb 2012 | 2:43 amBefore your link gets clicked or your proposal gets read, a busy person is going to triage it to find out if it's even worth glancing at. Since everyone is now connected, the new permeability has created a deluge of noise, and just about everyone worth contacting is taking defensive measures. Do I know this person? Did someone I trust send them over? Where does she work? (Ideo? the FDA? The New York Times?) Has she won an award? Is she famous? Are there typos and is the design sloppy? Are they pestering me? Do I already follow this person online? Does music play when I visit the website? Will… -
Horizontal marketing isn't a new idea
7 Feb 2012 | 2:09 amBut it is the new reality for just about every organization. Vertical marketing means the marketer (the one with money) is in charge. Vertical marketing starts at the top and involves running ads, sending out direct mail and pushing hype through the media. Your money, your plans, your control. It might not work, but generally the worst outcome is that you will be ignored and need to spend more money. Horizonal marketing, on the other hand, means creating a remarkable product and story and setting it up to spread from person to person. It's out of your control, because all the interactions are… -
Who is your customer?
6 Feb 2012 | 2:26 amRule one: You can build a business on the foundation of great customer service. Rule two: The only way to do great customer service is to treat different customers differently. The question: Who is your customer? It's not obvious. Zappos is a classic customer service company, and their customer is the person who buys the shoes. Nike, on the other hand, doesn't care very much at all about the people who buy the shoes, or even the retailers. They care about the athletes (often famous) that wear the shoes, sometimes for money. They name buildings after these athletes, court them, erect… -
In search of a timid trapeze artist
5 Feb 2012 | 2:01 amGood luck with that, there aren't any. If you hesitate when leaping from rope to another, you're not going to last very long. And this is at the heart of what makes innovation work in organizations, why industries die, and how painful it is to try to maintain the status quo while also participating in a revolution. Gather up as much speed as you can, find a path and let go. You can't get to the next rope if you're still holding on to this one.
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Lead on Purpose
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Managing conflict
4 Feb 2012 | 9:59 am“In a environment that is often fearful and ego-driven, she created a space where people could give up their worries and thrive.” The word ‘conflict’ is used in so many ways that I’m conflicted as I try to make sense of it (ok, that was a ‘tongue-in-cheek for my good friend Jim Holland). For purposes of this post, ‘conflict’ is a mental struggle resulting from incompatible or opposing needs, drives, wishes or demands. It’s manifest in both internal and external ways; internal conflicts based on our beliefs and ethics, and external conflicts between individuals, groups or… -
Guest Post: 7 Key Elements To Building A High Performance Team and Organization
28 Jan 2012 | 8:28 amBy John C. Stevens Managers and executives, who are trying to improve the performance of their teams, are actively helping to improve the overall performance of their organization. Wondering what you can do to boost your team’s engagement and output? Keep in mind these key elements of performance management: Image Source: Guillermo Camargo Leadership. In order to get a group performing effectively, you need a leader who thinks and communicates clearly. An effective leader is one who has a clear vision of his or her team’s purpose and can effectively communicate that vision to the members… -
Leadership and integrity
21 Jan 2012 | 9:34 amIntegrity is one of the top attributes of a great leader. It is a concept of consistency of actions, values, methods, measures, principles, expectations and outcomes. It connotes a deep commitment to do the right thing for the right reason, regardless of the circumstances. People who live with integrity are incorruptible and incapable of breaking the trust of those who have confided in them. Every human is born with a conscience and therefore the ability to know right from wrong. Choosing the right, regardless of the consequence, is the hallmark of integrity. In his recent post 10 Mistakes… -
Making tough decisions
14 Jan 2012 | 10:37 amMaking big decision is not easy; in fact it might be one of the most difficult things we ever have to do. The tendency is to postpone decisions as long as we can and put of the pain. At its root the word of decision means to cut off. When you make a decision you go with one thing and leave all the rest behind. Cutting yourself off from other choices is not easy, and that’s at the root of why we tend to put off big decisions. We postpone decisions for various reasons: we don’t want to offend people; we’re not sure who or what to choose; we’re afraid we’ll be wrong… -
Tenacity in 2012
31 Dec 2011 | 11:57 amSuccessful people share several common traits; tenacity is at the top. Merriam-Webster defines tenacious as “persistent in maintaining, adhering to, or seeking something valued or desired.” Think about your favorite athlete, actor, business leader, or other successful person and you’re sure to find tenacity as one of their defining characteristics. Tenacity fuels persistence. Persistence is analogous to running a marathon. To run a successful marathon you have to spend ample time (months or more) preparing. The time you spend, and what you do leading up to the race, will determine how…
