Personal Information:
Room: 302B
Email:Shirley.Poelstra@mpls.k12.mn.us
Phone: (612) 668-1336 

 "If you help enough people get what they want, you will get what you want out of life." Zig Ziglar

My Bio:
I received my Bachelors degree at South Dakota State University in Business Economics and my Masters at the University of Minnesota in Marketing Education.  I have been teaching and managing programs full time at Thomas Edison High School since 1999.  Prior to Thomas Edison, I worked as a sales representative for ten years and for the Minneapolis Regional Chamber of Commerce for six years implementing and managing the Voyager:  Direction for Learning and Careers Leadership model.

My current responsibilities at Thomas Edison are to develop business partnerships for the school and to manage the following four programs and assist with the High Tech Girls and High Tech Boys programs. All programs are designed to help Thomas Edison students achieve their mission and vision, which are:

Mission: All students will graduate with the skills necessary to excel in their post secondary aspirations; and

Vision: Through innovation and personal empowerment, the Edison community will partner with our students, igniting a passion for lifelong learning, instilling the ideals of international mindedness, leading our students to succeed at Edison and beyond.

(1) Voyager:  Direction for Learning & Careers Program:  two-year leadership program that prepares today’s students to be tomorrow’s skilled workers by combining high school and post-secondary instruction with career-oriented, on-the-job experience.  The program is delivered through my weekly Career & Worksite Seminar and continuum of worksite and post-secondary clinical experiences.  (95% of Voyager students attend post-secondary options)

http://edison.mpls.k12.mn.us/Voyager2.html

(2) Target Email Mentor Program:  exchange of weekly emails from junior & senior students and Target employees.  

(3) International Baccalaureate CAS Program:

Creativity - arts and other expressions that involve creative thinking

Action - physical exertion contributing to a healthy lifestyle, and involvement in activities which enrich your life and teach you new things

Service - unpaid, voluntary actions which do not earn credit and are not for family which result in amelioration of both small-scale and global problems, enrich the lives of others, and make the world a better place. http://edison.mpls.k12.mn.us/ib.html

(4) Junior Achievement Company Program: a weekly program that partners with Corporate Bet Buy to prepare young people for the real world by showing them how to create a company, produce a product, market/sell the product and write an Annual Report. Five officers are selected to compete in the Regional Competition in April. In April 2012, students took FIRST place and were selected to attend the Junior Achievement Leadership Summit in Washington, D.C. in August. Only 15 teams can compete and over 100 apply. In July 2010, students took FOURTH place at Nationals for designing an international cookbook. Program runs from October-May. Students meet one day a week after school.

High Tech Girls Society Program:  a vehicle to introduce females to non-traditional careers and pathways in math and science. High Tech Girls Society

High Tech Boys Society Program:  a vehicle to introduce males to non-traditional careers and pathways in math and science. High Tech Boys Society

Paid Internship Programs:  Step-Up, Wells Fargo, Xcel Energy and Genesys.   

COORDINATING DUTIES:

• Site visits and job shadows to surrounding businesses
• College visits to two and four year colleges
• Classroom speakers

Useful websites:

Achieve Minneapolis

FAFSA

ACT

 Links below are the syllabi and other materials for the classes and organizations that I operate. Click the document to download.