Workskills

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Workskills

• A Business Simulation Class

• Presented by
• Bess Williams, Teacher Vocational Director
• Susan Lindsey, Teacher

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presentation
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The Need

• Level II difficult in small school.
• Level II unsuccessful in isolation.
• Skills repeated each year and still not learned.

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The Answer

• Design a business simulation class that will
  cover Business Management Technology meeting the
  requirement for Level II.
• This class could also be implemented to meet the
  requirements for Level III, Business Management
  Administrative Services.

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The Unique Solution.What is Workskills About?
Workskills is designed to provide students an
opportunity to

• Work with others in teams.
• Learn about the workforce through business
  simulations.

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Why Structure a Class This Way?

• Brain based learning expert Carolyn Pool,
• Students learn if they are immersed in complex
  experiences and are given the opportunity to
  actively process what they have learned.
• Brain theory expert John Abbott,
• Until the early 1800s people learned in
  real-life, on-the-job situations.

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Why Structure a Class This Way?

• Abbotts new model of learning
• As adolescence ends, young people will already
  have taken full responsibility for directing
  their learningPupils are progressively weaned
  from their dependence on teachers and
  institutions and given the confidence to manage
  their own learning the empowerment of the human
  mind to learn spontaneously, independently, and
  collaboratively, without coercion.

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What Abilities Will This Class Require?

• RECALL who did something, what, when, where,
  and how it was done
• ANALYZE compare, evaluate, judge, assess
• CREATE invent, imagine, suppose or design
• USE put into practice, implement, or show use

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What Skills Will Be Gained?

• Teamwork Cooperation
• Computer Work Processing, Data Processing,
  Desktop Publishing, Accounting
• Business Communications, Entrepreneurship,
  Marketing

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What is the Ultimate Goal?

• Thomas Cardellichio, principal, and Wendy Field,
  teacher
• The goal is to create explorers who have an
  idea of what they are looking for, who have a
  methodology with which to search, but who come to
  the exploration with open minds so that, should
  they discover America, they will not assume they
  have landed in India just because thats where
  they intended to go.

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What is the Ultimate Goal?

• Workskills students will direct their own
  learning by
• Creating a business simulation that will interest
  them.
• Seeing the simulation through from start to
  finish.
• Experiencing a number of successes and setbacks.
• Deciding on how each will be handled.
• Reporting the results of their decision to
  others.

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What is the Curriculum?
Each team will work through a number of
situations in each of six major areas
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What is the Curriculum?

• While studying each unit, teams will randomly
  draw situation cards that will present them with
  a situation they will be asked to respond to.
• Students will consult experts in the field of
  their business simulation for advise on their
  response.
• They will report their response as well as how
  they reached it.

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Who are Experts and How are They Used?
Brain theory expert John Zahorik, People
dont simply discover knowledge but make or
construct it. . . By comparing and contrasting
students constructions with experts
constructions, the students gain insight into
both and begin to reconceptualize their
constructions in a direction of those of the
experts.
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Who are Experts and How are They Used?

• A local business person who has agreed to work as
  a mentor will be assigned to each team.
• These experts will be available by phone to
  discuss situations confronting the team.
• Teams may or may not use the experts advise, but
  such advise must be sought and teams will be
  asked to justify why they did or did not use
  their experts advise.

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How Will Students Be Graded?
Brain based learning expert Carolyn Pool, If as
a teacher, I am in charge of the curriculum, you
as the student are supposed to learn what I say
you must learn. I know the answers that you have
to get. Im also going to tell you how long it
will take you to learn this and when its due.
And, not only that, I evaluate you and your work.
In this approach, where is your input? Where is
your self-efficacy? And what are you learning
but compliance?
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How Will Students Be Graded?
Brain theory expert Robert Sternberg, Creativity
and the practical application of
informationordinary or common sense or street
smartsare two abilities that go unappreciated
and unrecognized. They are simply not considered
relevant to conventional education Thus,
students who excel in memory and analytical
abilities get good grades. Practically
orientated learners, however, who are better able
to learn a set of facts if they can see its
relevance to their own lives, lose out.
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How Will Students Be Graded?

• Students will be evaluated similar to how workers
  in the work forces are evaluated annually or
  before getting a raise.
• These evaluations, called Performance
  Evaluations, will reflect Productivity and
  Personal Performance.
• In other words, students grades will not simply
  be an average of what grade they receive on each
  project.

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PRODUCTIVITY Grade

• Productivity Grade Equals 50 of the Total Class
  Grade
• QUALITYThe teams project as evaluated by the
  teacher and the individuals contribution as
  evaluated by fellow teammates (40).
• TIMELINESSIf the project was completed on time
  (5).
• PARTICIPATIONHow much the student participated
  with the team to complete the project as view by
  self and teammates (5).

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Personal Performance Grade

• Personal Performance Equals 50 of Total Class
  Grade
• COOPERATIONHow student cooperates with requests
  from evaluators/teachers and follows workplace
  rules (25).
• ATTENDANCEShowing up to class or making up time
  missed (12.5).
• PROMPTNESSReporting to class on time (12.5).

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What Will This Look Like?

• PRODUCTIVITY
• QUALITY (80 pts)
• TIMELINESS (10 pts)
• PARTICIPATION (10 pts)
• PERSONAL PERFORMANCE
• COOPERATION (50 pts)
• ATTENDANCE (25 pts)
• PROMPTNESS (25 pts)
• FINAL GRADE _____/200 pts

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Late Assignments

• Students are expected to complete ALL assignments
  in this class.
• If a student is missing ANY assignment, he/she
  will not receive a grade but an INCOMPLETE until
  all missing assignments are completed.

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Late Assignments

• Work turned in late will be accepted not only
  throughout the semester, but throughout the year.
  This means if a student receives an incomplete
  on any progress report, quarter or semester
  grade, he/she can complete the missing assignment
  any time before the end of the school year and
  the incomplete will be changed to reflect the
  grade earned by the student. Incompletes not
  made up by the end of the year will become Fs.
• As per the Performance Evaluation, a penalty in
  points will be assessed for late work.

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How Will Absences and Tardies Be Handled?

• Students will receive points every day they
  attend class and are on time.
• Each tardy will result in a loss of a point.
  Tardies cannot be made up.
• Absences not made up will result in a loss of a
  point.
• To make up an absence point, the student must
  fill out an absence slip setting an appointment
  to meet with the teacher to receive make-up work.
  Missed appointments will result in a lost point.

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How is Cooperation Evaluated?

• Cooperation equals 25 of a students entire
  grade.
• Students will begin each semester with 50
  cooperation points.
• If a student is not meeting the behavior
  expectations of the workplace, he/she will sign a
  Loss of Points slip indicating he/she is aware
  he/she has lost the point for that day.
• A second Loss of Points slip will follow if the
  behavior continues, so it is possible to lose
  more than that days cooperation points in one
  period.

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Continued Lack of Cooperation / Teamwork?

• Students who receive excessive Loss of Points or
  who are deemed by their team to not be working
  can be put on probation.
• A student on probation must go two weeks without
  receiving a Loss of Points and must successfully
  complete two projects on his/her own before
  he/she will be allowed to rejoin the team.
• A student can only be placed on probation once
  throughout the year. After that, they will work
  independently in the Welfare Pool for the
  remainder of the year or until a Welfare team can
  be formed.

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The Units
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Hiring Personnel

• Set up teams based on business interests and
  personality inventories.
• Create business details.
• Design personnel positions and create job
  descriptions.
• Learn to evaluation applications and resumes.
• Post positions, conduct interviews and offer/deny
  applicants.

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Hiring Personnel Communications

• Write job descriptions.
• Complete applications and resumes.
• Write good news and bad news letters.

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Hiring PersonnelProblem-Solving

• Simulations
• Youve offered the job, turned others down, now
  the person you offered it to turns you down.
• Once on the job, you find the person you hired
  attended the coursed outlined on his resume, but
  simply does not have the skills.
• Once on the job, you find the person you hired
  lied on his resume.

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Ethics

• Study videos of employees handling
  situations/temptations differently in the
  workplace.
• Learn to analyze situations and all possible
  solutions using T-Charts.
• Learn to role-play situation/solutions.

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EthicsProblem-Solving

• Simulations
• An employee who called in sick was seen out with
  his/her friends.
• An employee working the cash register has not
  been ringing up all of the items friends come
  through with.
• An employee is taking home office supplies.
• An employee is punching in for another employee.

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EthicsCommunications

• Conduct a meeting with an employee dealing with a
  negative situation.
• Write a follow-up memo after meeting with an
  employee.

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Advertising

• Study basic concepts of advertising purpose and
  design.
• Study examples of TV, radio, and print
  advertising.
• Create print advertising for students
  businesses.
• Evaluate other students advertising.

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AdvertisingCommunications

• Create business letterhead and logo.
• Create print advertisement.
• Create print flyer for special offers.

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Law Finance

• Learn basics of business laws of incorporation,
  limited, etc.
• Keep a financial ledger.
• Calculate the cost of payroll.
• Calculate the true cost of a raise.
• Write checks and balance a financial ledger.

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Law FinanceProblem-Solving

• An employee declares discrimination based on sex
  or handicap.
• Business owner must run a meeting of the board
  using Parliamentary Procedure.
• Workmen's Compensation increases and the owner
  must figure out what it is going to cost for each
  employee.

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Career ExplorationCommunications

• After experiencing a business simulation, and
  being exposed to various types of businesses,
  students will choose a career that interests them
  and prepared a report giving specific information
  about that career.

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Other Skills

• FilingStudents will rotate rolls filing
  documents for their business. Each team will
  retrieve and return a notebook with their teams
  items from a file drawer each day using proper
  filing format.
• Bonus PointsStudents who put forth extra effort
  or come up with innovative ideas will be rewarded
  with extra cooperation points.
• Copying, Faxing and Phone SkillsStudents will
  experience with these items throughout their
  simulations communicating with their mentors.

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Other Skills

• CommunicationsStudents will write letters of
  introduction and thank you notes to mentors which
  will be 100 error free.
• Team BuildingStudents will participate in a
  variety of team building activities learning ways
  to break the ice with a group.

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Other Skills

• Self/Peer Evaluations--Team PaychecksStudents
  will begin each project filling out a paycheck
  explaining what each person in the team is going
  to do. These will be collected then
  redistributed at the end of the project where
  students will have 100 to split between the
  three team members according to who did the work
  as planned. Students quality grade will be
  reduced or increased according to the average
  paycheck percentage score of how much work he
  did.

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Other Skills

• For Example
• Project Quality Score for Team80/100 pts
• Student 1 paycheck average--50 (150 of his
  work)
• Project Quality Score Adjusted to 120/100 pts.
• Student 2 paycheck average--33 (100 of his
  work)
• Project Quality Score Adjusted to 80/100 pts.
• Student 3 paycheck average--17 (50 of his work)
• Project Quality Score Adjusted to 40/100 pts.

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Final Word

• Good Luck
• Have Fun
• Be Innovative and Open to New Ideas
• This Will be the Best Class You Ever Teach!

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• Susan Lindsey
• Slindsey_at_saffordusd.k12.az.us
• 928-348-7000 ext. 3222
• Bess Williams
• Mom1_at_cableone.net
• 928-428-0436