Another Snow Week

Well last week we missed everyday because of all the snow and then we came back on Monday and we all came to know that we were going to get more snow.  So the three days we had school we tried to catch up on work but it was hard since we had two more snow days this week.  Therefore, it is going to be hard to catch back up again.  However, these two snow days were a lot more fun then the last ones because last week I stayed in the house the whole time.  But this week me, Madison, Emmy, and Moira all spent the night at Moira's house Wednesday night and Thursday night.  So since we were all together it was really fun we did both digital learning days together.  We did the classwork then went sledding.  It was so much fun but now I have so many bruises from hitting the snow and the sled.  Then today we did the classwork and played in the snow again.  We also went in the hot tub and in the pool for a few seconds.  Once again it is going to be hard to go back to school because of all the time we have had off.  So this week we were learning about business ethics and how businesses benefit from the ethics they perform.  We watched the Lorax to see the business side of the movie and to write a paper.  I never saw the Lorax before that and never really wanted to but now that I have seen most of it it is so cute and funny.  I never thought a Dr. Seuss movie would have a business side to it that we could write about in Business class.  Overall, it is kind of sad to think that these are probably the last day that we will have off of school for awhile because we will not have any more snow days for the rest of the year.

The Week with no School

This week was an interesting week because we did not have real school at all.  Monday we of course had off for President's day but then it decided to snow a lot and get really cold.  So the snow froze.  So we missed Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday.  However, Wednesday and Friday were digital learning days.  I would actually rather have digital learning days the rest of the year than actually going to school.  Because we were able to stay in bed, sleep in, finish "school" early, finish work fast and early, be on our phones, eat whenever, and a lot of other things.  Also it was easier to just go in and get the work done with no distractions and get in the work mode to get everything done in the time given.  After the first digital day all the teachers noticed that we were getting all the work done before the time given for that class so they found a way to make us have to do the work given in that time period, haha.  Its weird to think that we had a total of 9 days off in a row.  It is going to be rough starting back school on Monday. I would much rather stay home with the Digital days... On the other hand, this week in business we finished Org Charts and moved on to Business Laws and Regulations.  Although most of the Org Charts were learned outside of school it was still pretty interesting.  But I think the laws will be fun to learn and easier to learn since we are doing projects on them.  Me and Moira have the Employee Laws which are really important to earn about because one of the biggest mistakes is treating employees badly.  So it will be interesting to hear what kind of laws there are for businesses to follow with their employees.  It's great we do not have to make up any days! :)

Business Week

This week was the first week for one of the groups to go.  The first group to go was my group with Gavin and Moira.  We started Monday with two boxes of donuts and two packs of muffins.  The first day we did not get that much business because no one knew about it but we did make some money.  So for the next day we got one more box of donuts and sold out of most of them.  Then for Wednesday we bought two more boxes and sold out of all of them.  We kept the two boxes of muffins for the whole week because they were not selling and they were too expensive for the quality.  Thursday we did not sell because of mass so we gave that day to Fefe's group so they could sell their bracelets.  Then for today we bought five boxes of donuts and by today we were out of muffins.  We bought five boxes because we predicted we would sell two boxes in the morning regularly and Mrs. Ellis bought eighteen.  However, we still have some left over and we are going to sell the rest during lunch and homeroom with Mrs. Weser's approval.  From Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, and Friday morning we have made $122 with some change.  However, we still have to sell the rest of the donuts later in the day so we will be making more money.  Overall, we have been successful because we are able to pay our investors back with interest, raise our salaries, and still give the profit to the class for a party.  I thought it was kind of fun to do this project because it allowed you to run a "business" for a week and see how it works.  The only thing that I did not like was waking up at 5:45 to get to school at 7.

Pitch Week

This week we worked a lot with our new groups in order to prepare for our pitch today!  We have to pitch our ideas to the investors and if they invest then we get $20-$22 to start our business!  I think that we found pretty good prices in order to maintain our money.  We found 12 donuts for under $3 and muffins for $3.  This week we also took a test that was pretty easy and just a review from econ and we were learning the same information in Government.  We also practiced our phone calls which I actually thought was a lot of fun and probably the thing I liked most this week.  We got with a partner and went over phone calls which was kind of awkward with being in front of the class and pairing with your friends that make you laugh.  Personally, I like to be alone when I call for something important.  We also learned the right way to dress for a business meeting which we all get to be tested on today because we had to dress up in order to give our pitch.  I think that this business assignment will be fun because it gives us a chance to see how a minor business works.  We are able to see how to distribute money, use the money we were given, and the money we have earned.  It is good to be in the morning because a lot of people do not eat breakfast so there is something already waiting for them at school.  I think that our "business" is going to be very successful! Along with all the other ones :)

Spirit Week During Business

This was the second week of business but it was the same week of spirit week so it was a little crazy.  It was a little hard to get things done in classes because everyone was focused on other things and talking about other things.  And all the classrooms were a little chaotic because of all the decorations being used in the classrooms.  However, we still got a lot of fun things done in business class.  This week in business we did a lot of fun activities.  We watched Mcdonald's Big Mac, we changed up the groups and we each created a business that could be successful next to the school, our first groups publicized the new lunch menus that the school will be getting.  I really liked when we thought of ideas for the lunch menus because I think every group came up with a really good idea to get it known.  My group with Moira, Tommy, Josh, and Oliver came up with the idea to print one hundred fliers that said "No chicken patty makes my tummy happy" with a picture of a chicken patty on it.  Then we all went outside with some help from other classmates and put a flyer on every car outside then on the way outside and with the extras we slid them under classroom doors when everyone was in class so the teacher could remind them.  I really thought Danielle's group had a good idea too.  Her group printed fliers and put them in every single locker and I actually happen to see mind today so I know everyone else saw them too.  As for our idea I know that everyone saw them because they were on the cars and in classrooms.  After school while standing outside with some friends I noticed that everybody saw the fliers because they had to take them off their car before they drove because they were on the driver's side of the car.  I think that these two ideas should be used more often with other things within the school because it would make everything else more well known.

First Week of Business

This was our first week in Introduction Business and it was a short week.  Because it was a short week we did not have much to do this week.  The first day of class we went over the syllabus, was toured around the classroom, took two personality tests to see what our personality type was.  Once we did that we put them on a sticker so it made it easier to form our teams for projects, though the teams will change.  Then the second day we had our first thought questions and first homework about wants and needs.  We made bridges with our teams and ways to make the voting for the school more popular and then we expanded those ideas.  And now finally we are making our blogs so we can work on them every week.  So this week we learned about team work and how it can help us or hurt us.  I think that teamwork can help or hurt us because in a team one or two people can only do the work but it can help because we can have different personalities from every person that can help the whole group.  The teamwork was really shown when we made the bridges with two minutes of talking about ideas and five minutes of building with no talking.  This shows good teamwork because whoever had the longest bridge was the winner and if they won with the longest bridge it means that they had good teamwork together.

Raising the Minimum Wage: New Evidence

In the article Raising the Minimum Wage: New Evidence by Laura D'Andrea Tyson on December 13th, 2013.  As of right now the minimum wage is $7.25 an hour which is 23% lower than it was in 1968, if it had kept up with inflation and with the growth of labor activity, minimum wage for be up to $25 an hour.  Congressional Democrats have put in an input of raising the minimum wage to $10.10 an hour and index it to inflation.  The people against increasing minimum wage seem to think that an increase will lead to higher unemployment among low skilled low wage workers.  From 1996 to 2000 the United States had an unexpected boom in employment and prosperity.  According to estimates, an increase of 10% in minimum wage would have a statically negligible effect on the unemployment in industries and occupations employing minimum wage workers.  An increase in minimum wage would increase the cost of the business that employ a large number of minimum wage workers.  This would be an offset portion of these costs and the businesses would have to possible increase the prices for their consumers.  But they say that it should not effect the business costs significantly, they would increase less than 3%.  According to an estimate McDonald's could cover about half of its higher labor costs by raising the price of a Big Mac by about 1.25 percent, or only 5 cents.  A transitory increase in the inflation rate from a minimum wage hike would lower the real interest rate, increasing demand and growth.  30 million workers would benefit from the increase, 88% of those workers would be at least 20 with an average age of 35; 55% of them would be working full time; 56% of them would be female, and more than 28% of them would be parents.  For a full time minimum wage worker, the whole year they would make about $15,080, 19% below the poverty line for a family of three.  More than half of the families working at fast food places are assisted by at least one public assistance program, $7 billion a year.  Raising the minimum wage would by great to start fixing the poverty line, with a 10% increase cutting the poverty line by 2%.  Studies show that increasing the minimum wage into the $10 range would lift spending, GDP, and job creation.  A recent poll shows that large majorities of Democrat, independent, and Republican voters support an increase in the minimum wage.
http://economix.blogs.nytimes.com/2013/12/13/raising-the-minimum-wage-old-shibboleths-new-evidence/?_r=0