Environmental and Political Opportunities and Threats of a School

Environmental:

threat: to much use of paper causes damage to environment, consuming too much energy, constructing a new road

strategy:

increase the amount of boxes to recycle paper in class, reduce the energy loss by using energy-saving light bulbs, using the roads that already exists or plant more trees 

opportunity: recycling, plant trees, collecting funds to help the environment(global warming, deforestation.. etc)

strategy:

they can increase the recycling boxes, collecting funds for plantation, do much more of funds from students and teachers to help environment

Political:

threat: using a different curriculum, changing the program when an inspector comes, self-managing( if it is not appopriate for the government)

strategy:

use the curriculum government gives, planning a proper program at the beginning so they don’t change later, it has to be proper for the government too( not too irrelevant)

opportunity: private (not depending on government for financial resources), not choosing a political side, more freedom in school managing, having students that have different types of religion (muslims, jews, christians )

strategy:

using money from Koç foundation, it is not only for one group of people where they choose the same political side, being independent and relaxed to run the school as they want

'Specialization is good, but not that good'

       The dictionary defines specialization as concentrating in a certain field. For example, a math teacher specializes on math. So how can we relate this to business?

       Specialization is connected to the size/scale of organizations. Actually, it is directly proportional.  The bigger the company is, the more you need specialists and departments. Departments only exist because you have specialization fields.

       In my opinion, specialization is an advantage for companies. For instance, in the Kellogg’s case study, we saw that Kellogg’s only works in its specialist area, manufacturing. By concentrating in only manufacturing, they can manufacture better products and provide better services to their customers. Even though I strongly believe that specialization is good for companies, I agree with Mr. Sen also. He said that, if you, as a company, specialize too much, you can’t see the other connections between your job and other things. Well, I agree with this statement either. If a company is not aware of other sectors, it might have some difficulties. So, I ended up agreeing with the statement; ‘specialization is good, but not that good.’ 

System Diagram

Soooo, the example that helped me to understand this diagram better, was the school example. What was that school example?
      Inputs: In a school, inputs are desks, boards, chairs, teachers, students, books etc.
      Throughput (process): This is the education process. Students are educated and they graduate.
      Outputs: The students that graduated, the money they earned.
      Feedback: Actually all outputs are counted as feedback. For instance, the students who graduated, their success and comments are the feedbacks.
According to these feedbacks, our teachers and deans are able to analyze themselves. So it is a cycle, the feedback turns into an input and it continues like this.

Let’s catch up! Our diagram from the 4^th of October:

So how did we end up with this diagram?

We started the class by discussing whether ‘profit’ is the purpose of a business organization or not. To be honest, I taught it was; however the perfect example that Mr. Sen gave, made my understanding of a business purpose clearer. So I will explain my way of understanding, by using Mr. Sen’s example. Profit, for a business organization, is like eating, for people. So profit is not the purpose of business organizations; it is an essential factor for them to survive. Profits are required as a means to the purpose, not the goal. In other words, without profit, business organizations cannot continue working. It is the oxygen of businesses. After making this clear, we concentrated on the purpose of a company. If you’re looking at the purpose of a company, you must look at its mission. The purpose of a business simply defines the reason of its existence. The purpose of a business reveals the big picture of it.

After jumping from topic to topic, we ended up discussing about entrepreneurship, and that’s when we drew this diagram. We listed some of the qualities that an entrepreneur should have. An entrepreneur is the person who starts and manages a business. So an entrepreneur should be brave. She/he should be taking risks, in order to have a greater income. Other than that, they have to be innovative and creative. We supported this idea by giving ‘Sultanahmet Koftecisi’ example. This ‘kofteci’ is the combination of ‘fast food’ and ‘Turkish food’. It was an innovation, at the time it was created, and it is still very successful.

Actually this diagram fits for an IB student also!!

Rubric for our blogs

With my partner Oya Goksahin, we made this rubric for our blogs:

	Excellent  (5)	Good (4)	Satisfactory (3)	Mediocre (2)	Poor (1)
Engaging	The blog is very original, has great ideas supported with great comments. It is also visually great and attracts the readers.	The blog is original, has very good ideas supported with very good comments. It is also visually very good.	The blog is satisfactory, has ideas supported with comments. Colors are often used.	The blog is unsatisfactory, rarely has ideas and comments. Colors are rarely used	The blog is not original, doesn’t have ideas, nor comments. No colors or any other techniques are used to attract readers.
Informative	Information provided is excellent and is correct. It is also supported with other great resources and very accurate comments are made.	Information provided is very good, and it is mostly correct. It is also supported with other good resources and comments are made.	Information provided is good, but often not correct. It is also not supported with enough resources and mostly inaccurate comments are made.	Information provided is not good, and most of the time it is incorrect. It is supported with a few resources and inaccurate comments are made.	Information provided is irrelevant, and is incorrect. It is not supported with any resources and there are no comments made.
Persuasive	Fully concise and accurate interpretations. Rational comments, connected with the topic.	Almost fully concise and accurate interpretations. Generally rational comments and connected with the topic.	Often concise and accurate interpretations. Often-rational comments and mediocre connection with the topic.	Almost inaccurate. Mostly irrational comments and almost no connection with the topic.	Inaccurate. Irrational comments and no connection with the topic.
Language	Completely clear, logical and appropriate, using relevant business terms. Almost no errors.	Almost clear, logical and appropriate. Using some relevant business terms. Some small errors.	Often clear, logical and appropriate. Using few business terms. Few errors.	Almost unclear and inappropriate. Using almost no business terms. Some errors.	Unclear and inappropriate. Using no business terms. Full of errors.

Online Dershane

Today I had a chance to talk about the Busines&Management course with a friend who is a senior right now.  After I made a quick summary about what we are studying, he shared one of his assignments with me. His assignment is about an ‘Online Dershane’, which Mr. Sen mentioned earlier in class today. I found the idea quite innovative and creative because it directly aims students and covers a common problem that most of the students have. However I strongly believe that this idea both has advantages and disadvantages. First of all, the system is simple, people who are interested become members of the website for one year. So it is certainly more economical and affordable. People will save both money and time by using this online database. The time they spend for transportation will be used for solving tests, which will increase the success of the student. On the other hand, this ‘Online Dershane’ cannot be used as a primary source because it is something new and people cannot rely on this source easily. So it is a risky attempt. However as Mr.Sen stated earlier in class today, one must take risks in order to be successful. The courage and determination is needed in order to form a new business. Overall, I think that this idea is innovative and it is worth taking the risks, because it covers a problem that almost every student encounters and it is a logical solution.