Every School Should Become a Media School, with Don Wettrick

"The hardest part is getting a school to see that doing well on the SAT is not preparing kids for the future." - Don Wettrick

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Summary

Our guest today is Don Wettrick. He is the Innovation Coordinator for Noblesville High School, the founder and President of The STARTedUP Foundation, and the author of  "Pure Genius: Building a Culture of Innovation and Taking 20% Time to the Next Level." The STARTedUP Foundation empowers student entrepreneurs and innovators with collaborative, immersive experiences, accelerator programs, and seed funding for students under 20 years old. As a public speaker, Don specializes in educational development with a focus on innovation and entrepreneurship. He also helps groups understand and utilize blogging and collaboration in social media integration.

In this episode, Don delivers a strong message about the prospects facing today’s students in tomorrow’s heavily automated employment market and urges schools to take a stand now for creating an innovative, entrepreneurship culture. He details the mindset, strategies, and key players needed to make change happen in the education community.

Listen and take note of how schools can step-up to the challenge of preparing students for a market that we cannot yet even imagine from the chairs that we occupy today.

In our discussion, we cover:

3:10 Don offers the insight that up until about 10 years ago, traditional education had a pretty good track record for success, but that has dramatically changed.

7:20 Andrew asks if Don has any advice for school leaders who are seeing competition pop up in their immediate area.

9:35 Don responds to Andrew’s question about whether parents seem to be willing to consider a future job market where 50% of jobs will be freelance.

11:50 Andrew asks Don to help school leaders visualize the beginning stages of the shift toward implementing innovative opportunities in schools.

16:10 Don talks about the necessary mindset change in schools from chasing grades to creating a culture of innovation.

18:30 Don responds to Andrew’s question about whether school leaders should brand their product and sell.

21:00 Andrew asks Don if every school is becoming a media school.

21:50 Don talks about what his foundation is doing to help create innovation.

24:30 Don responds to Andrew’s question about what will happen if colleges begin to change their admissions requirements.

26:45 Andrew and Don discuss the ways that innovation can happen very quickly when the market responds to change.

Quotes:

1:50 “The future is looking very automated.”

5:10 “Social media is a windfall opportunity for students if they treat it professionally.”

7:30 “The hardest part is getting a school to see that doing well on the SAT is not preparing kids for the future.”

17:10 “Cool idea; now, what do you do with it?”

17:50 “We’re entering this new economy where new ideas are worth something.”

19:28 “Everybody is stealing great ideas, and that’s awesome.”

26:45 “Forbes tells us that by next year, half the nation’s jobs will be freelance.”

Here are some resources mentioned in our discussion:

Seth Godin, This Is Marketing - https://seths.blog/tim/

Gary Vaynerchuk at VaynerX - www.garyvaynerchuk.com/

Where to learn more about Don Wettrick:

Don’s Foundation - https://startedupfoundation.org/

Email - dwettrick@startedupfoundation.org

Twitter - https://twitter.com/DonWettrick

Linkedin - linkedin.com/in/donwettrick/

For more information about his work as Innovation Coordinator for Noblesville High School, visit www.theinnovationteacher.com

Where to learn more about Enrollhand:

Website: www.enrollhand.com

Our webinar: https://webinar-replay.enrollhand.com

Our free Facebook group: https://www.facebook.com/groups/schoolgrowth/