Kim Carr, Ishpeming High School business and technology teacher, teaches classes that I wish would have been available to me when I was in high school. Her students use the tools they have learned in her classes to run a small business, Hematites ‘R Us, at the school. The store carries a plethora of Hematite (the school’s mascot) items such as t-shirts and blankets.

The entire responsibility for the store lies with the students. From ordering inventory to scheduling other students to work at the store as well as all of the business operations like paying bills and making deposits.

Carr’s classes teach the students the various skills needed - computer basics, computer information systems, accounting, and designing web pages. What a great idea and concept! Here is a teacher that knows how to teach the subject matter to students in a way that makes it interesting to the point where they want to learn and can excel.

Even in college I never had a class that allowed me to directly apply what I was learning in a ‘real world’ scenario. My experience with learning was a stagnant, time tested (in other words - we’ve always done it this way), ordeal that usually left me bored and wondering if I had chosen the correct career path (accounting).

Like I said, Kim Carr should be commended for making the subject matter relevant and interesting for her students. My only complaint is that when I tried to access their school store from the Ishpeming Schools website I received an error message. I wanted to check out their t-shirts.

Let me know if anyone has a way to get to their store website.