Blackhawk educator wins statewide award

Seeley-Swan High School business instructor Michele Holmes was presented the Innovation in Education award by the Montana Chamber of Commerce on Oct. 30 during the Chamber's Titans of Business award ceremony.

This fall, Holmes was selected as an Empowered Teacher of the Year, acknowledging her comprehensive use of the Empowered curriculum, which allows business instructors to use hands-on, real-world activities to teach business concepts like costs of goods sold or project pitching. Through that curriculum, provided by the Montana Chamber of Commerce, students can apply for start-up money for business ideas, just like they would apply for a loan to start a new business.

Holmes said the strategies promoted by the Empowered curriculum are amazing and that, "it seems kind of ironic to receive an award for doing something that is so great," she said.

Not all business instructors use all the Empowered strategies, like Holmes does. One that she particularly encourages is the market days competition. This year, the Seeley-Swan High School Blackhawks market days - the Holiday Student Market - will be hosted at Lindey's Prime Steak House on Nov. 24. Before the event, business students had to pitch their ideas to community members and received feedback on how to improve before selling their products at the pre-holiday event. Fourteen students will be participating this year.

"I never have so much fun teaching as I do seeing this," Holmes said of market days, where she gets to watch students gain confidence in their ideas and in their ability to interact with strangers.

For high schoolers, business classes give students a taste of the real world, which is something they show up for, Holmes said. Last year, Holmes started offering an Entrepreneurship II class and only had two students register. This year, she has eight and six in Entrepreneurship I.

"It just kind of speaks for itself. The kids are engaged, they typically are here at school. I think kids like hands-on and they like the relevance, and it's easy in my content area to show the relevance," Holmes said.