Academies @ Roxborough teacher featured on the Notebook

Former tech exec teaches entrepreneurship in Roxborough
Teaching, he says, “is all about selling.”
by Makoto Manheim

August 5 — 10:26 am, 2019    teacher feature, teacher quality

“I created a culture where kids expect hard things and get it done.”

Frank Fesnak strongly believes in the potential of his students. He has reinvented the business and technology program at Roxborough High School to the extent that his students have been able to win awards and understand concepts that were never introduced to prior classes. Fesnak is also one of the 60 teachers who won the Lindback Award for distinguished teaching this year.

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The advantage of business, he argues, is that everyone wants economic success, so they are more willing to learn about the material in a business class than a math class.

The final factor in teaching for Fesnak is confidence. He always wants his students to be confident in what they have learned, motivating them to learn more.

“I tell them, ‘Hold your head up. You’re doing just as well as kids from Stuyvesant (in New York), Harriton (in Lower Merion), and Central,’” he said, noting the scores his students receive in the national business test that all Pennsylvania business students take their senior year.

He tells his students they could wow their friends and neighbors with what he’s taught them.

“Once they accomplish something it boosts their confidence up,” Fesnak said. “They need the confidence, they need the experience, they need the wins, and that makes it easier after that. I really believe that.”

Read the full article @

https://thenotebook.org/articles/2019/08/05/former-tech-exec-teaches-entrepreneurship-in-roxborough/