Education is first and foremost about the relationship between the teacher and student. A teacher can be completely proficient with the information and still not connect with the students at the developmental level required for the information to come alive in the classroom. Students who come from challenging backgrounds often haven’t been taught how to bond with others, trust adults or focus in the classroom so they struggle and can take valuable teachable time away from the rest of the class.

I created SchoolToolsTv (STTV) to help teachers and students connect and create the kind of relationships necessary to allow the class to achieve at the highest level possible. STTV focuses on emotions, manners, bullying and the basic social skills all students need to succeed. STTV creates a conversation in the classroom that fosters a deeper and more meaningful connection between teacher and students. In only 1 minute a day, STTV offers classrooms common sense tools and strategies they can talk about and use to acquire the skills they need to deal with the reality of their situation in the classroom and beyond. When all students realize it’s more about them than it is about their tests score, a safer and more positive learning environment is created in the classroom and everyone benefits.

Problema

The main need is that schools are going to have to provide proof that they are dealing with bullying and other social issues at school to avoid law suits the same way they have to for any other learning disability. How U.S. graduation rates compare with the rest of the world Twenty-five percent of Americans that start high school do not graduate. Entering the workforce without a high school diploma means an unemployment rate three-and-a-half times the rate of those with a college degree. And for those who do find full-time work, they on average earn less than half of what a college graduate makes each year. Thirty percent of high school graduates do not go on to college right after graduation. In the workforce, a high school graduate earns on average more than someone without a diploma, but still only 60 percent of what a college graduate makes each year. Forty-three percent of students who start college will not graduate in 6 years. Women graduate at a six-percent-higher rate than men within six years, and outnumber men in higher education by a ratio of 3-to-2. How does this compare with other countries? In 2008, the U.S. high school graduation rate was lower than the rates of the United Kingdom, Switzerland, Norway, South Korea, Japan, Italy, Ireland, Germany, Finland and Denmark. That same year, the U.S. was the only developed nation where a higher percent of 55- to 64-year-olds than 25- to 34-year-olds had graduated from high school. What about college? The U.S. once led the world in college graduates. As an example of this, Americans age 55-to-64 still lead their peers in other nations in the portion with college degrees (41 percent). But this number has flat-lined for Americans. In 2008, the same percentage of Americans age 25-to-34 and age 55-to-64 were college graduates. Meanwhile, other nations have caught up, and some have pulled ahead. Among this younger age group, 25- to 34-year-olds, all of the following nations now have a larger percent of college graduates than the U.S.: Australia, Belgium, Canada, Denmark, France, Ireland, Israel, Japan, South Korea, Luxembourg, New Zealand, Norway, Sweden and the United Kingdom. http://globalpublicsquare.blogs.cnn.com/2011/11/03/how-u-s-graduation-rates-compare-with-the-rest-of-the-world/

Solución

SchoolToolsTv.com is the only show of it's kind in the market and it is growing daily through word of mouth and grass roots efforts. Teachers love what it's doing for them and their classes and this is just the beginning. We are proving that we can teach social skills using media and positive messages. We want to expand that into interactive programs that will walk students through social experiences and actually teach them how to make different choices.

Ejemplo

Create a local conversation from a distance. Encourage teachers to connect with students. Bring socialization back into education.

Mercado

Elementary and Secondary Education Enrollment In 2009–10, there were about 13,600 public school districts (source) made up of over 98,800 public schools, including about 5,000 charter schools (source) . During this time, there were about 33,300 private schools offering kindergarten or higher grades (source). In fall 2011, over 49.4 million students will attend public elementary and secondary schools. Of these, 34.9 million will be in prekindergarten through 8th grade and 14.5 million will be in grades 9 through 12 (source) . An additional 6.0 million students are expected to attend private schools (source). About 1.1 million children are expected to attend public prekindergarten this fall. Enrollment in kindergarten is projected to reach an all-time high of approximately 3.8 million students (source) . This fall, about 4.1 million public school students are expected to enroll in 9th grade—the typical entry grade for many American high schools (source). Teachers Public school systems will employ about 3.2 million teachers this fall, resulting in a pupil/teacher ratio of 15.5. This ratio is lower than the 2000 ratio of 16.0. Close to 0.5 million teachers will be working in private schools this fall, resulting in an estimated pupil/teacher ratio of 12.9, which is also lower than the 2000 ratio of 14.5 (source) . Expenditures Public elementary and secondary schools will spend about $525 billion for the 2011–12 school year. On average, the current expenditure per student is projected at $10,591 for this school year (source) , the same as actual expenditures in 2008–09 (source) . This is just in the US. We have classrooms watching in Canada, New Zealand and Australia. There is no competition in the market for daily social skills videos.