Autonomy Day in Grade 10

In keeping with my attempt to give you a bit more freedom in your studies, Friday's Grade 10 Business / Economics class will have a period to explore the Web, with a bit of guidance from me.

Below are a list of links that I hope you will be interested in exploring during the period. There is no quiz on these, or assignment associated with them. You can just explore, click, follow links, find things you didn't know existed. I will come around to see what you're up to and don't expect to find you on Facebook.

The first link is a great food blog called Orangette. Molly Wizenberg is a fantastic writer and a wonderful example of two lessons that we will learn in the human resources unit: do what you love and there is no plan. Read her profile to see how she came to write the blog and what happened to her since she started. She and her husband have a pizza restaurant in Seattle called Delancey that just celebrated its first anniversary. Delancey's Web site is beautiful, a great example of the use of white space. In Orangette, she explains how Delancey got started and all they help they got from friends. It's a moving piece, but I was also impressed by the links to all her friends and supporters. Many are also "sole traders" doing interesting work and have beautiful Web sites. I could spend hours just browsing here.

Growing Business Online Magazine has a list of young entrepreneurs under 35 who achieved remarkable success with their innovative ideas. Click on the link to see their pictures and read about their success. You may find some interesting ideas for your own hypothetical business for this class!



The last site is a platform called Etsy, that helps small entrepreneurs sell handcrafted items. There is an amazing variety of goods for sale on Etsy. I've bought a custom, made-to-measure skirt from a designer in New York (Sohomode), a necklace and a handbag. The quality of all the goods has been fantastic, the service very friendly and prompt and I feel good about helping new start-ups achieve success with their designs. Poke around the site to see what's available, how the process works and all the ways that the site helps visitors to find new things they might not have been searching for.