Good Tuesday to you friend!I missed you greatly on Monday and hope you had a relaxing day off. If you spent your time yesterday remembering a loved one, I again want to thank you for your sacrifice. So, are you as excited for Week 4 as I am? Great! If you are reading this thinking, what the heck, Brittany? I have no idea what you’re talking about, then you should catch up. Click on the images below to read past posts. This is the perfect year-end project when testing is over and you’re not sure what else to do. Use this time to have some fun, teach your students a lot of real-world skills, and be truly amazed at how awesome your students are!All caught up? Great! This week, your students have learned about Goods and Services, completed their business plan or plans, decided what specific types of flowers they will be selling and how to obtain them, completed a brand board and marketing plan, and created drafts of marketing materials. Whoa nelly is that a lot! Good for you and your students.Week 4PBL STANDARDS
- Key Knowledge, Understanding, and Success Skills
- Challenging Problem or Question
- Sustained Inquiry
- Authenticity
- Student Voice & Choice
- Reflection
- Critique and Revision
Academic Standards
- Constructing questions
- Writing cohesively about a topic
- Collect information from multiple resources
- Reading charts and graphs
- Creating charts and graphs
- Understanding plant needs and how to provide them in an artificial environment
- Speak audibly and express thoughts, feelings, and ideas clearly.
- Participate in collaborative conversations with diverse partners
- Participate in shared research and writing projects
- Collaboration with peers and other adults
- Participate in elections
- Basic operations to calculate money
- Counting money
This Week,you will be teaching your students how to collaborate as you begin division of labor. Write the jobs below on the board. You can tailor the specific jobs and openings for your class numbers. Just make sure the categories stay the same.Executive Management
Board member
Board memberMarketing
Social Media
Graphic design
Digital and print materialsFinance
Specialist
Specialist
SpecialistSalesStore manager
Store manager
Employee
Employee
Employee
EmployeeJanitorial
Manager
Employee
EmployeeProduction
Packaging specialist
Supply specialist
Plant care specialist
After you’ve written the jobs on the board, explain the purpose of each job and the responsibilities involved. I’ve provided an outline below.Executive managementBoard member- helps make final decisions about the company and oversees all aspects of the business. Involved in big decisions, not daily details. Meet with specialists and managers to set goals for success.SalesStore Manager- oversees operations at the store and makes sure things run smoothly. In charge of creating the schedule for employees and making sure employees are working toward the success of the store.
Employee- works in the store, either taking care of plants, ringing up customers, putting up decorations in the store, or helping answer questions for customers. Sales employees are also responsible for packaging orders.JanitorialManager- in charge of making sure the store is kept clean and safe. Managers purchase all cleaning and bathroom supplies for the store.
Employee- store employees can also fill this role. Janitorial employees are responsible for following the Janitorial Manager’s instructions for keeping the store clean and safe.MarketingSocial Media Specialist(optional)- Depending on the resources in your school or classroom, you may not want to have this position. That being said, Social Media is a definite focus for most businesses, whether it’s a large or small focus. The Social Media specialist will choose two of the most popular sites for their campaign, ie: Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, etc, and create a company profile. Once the profile is complete, the Social Media Specialist will be in charge of researching how to create a successful Social Media Campaign.
Graphic Design- The Graphic Design Specialist is in charge of all visuals. He or she will create artwork either on paper or on the computer for all flyers, Social Media posts, and any other advertisement. You may want two of these positions.
Digital and Print Materials- This person is in charge of editing all material and if necessary, printing it.FinanceSpecialist- A finance specialist is pretty self-explanatory. They put together all the financial information. They keep track of how much money is spent and how much product should cost so the business can make a profit. They create charts and graphs to show what is happening to the money.ProductionPackaging Specialist- works with Graphic Design to create a system for packaging plants to look nice for the customer.
Supply Specialist- gathers the plants from the supplier and works with the supplier on all issues.
Plant Care Specialist- researches proper plant care for the plants being sold by the company. Shares proper plant care instructions with the Store Manager.Volunteers?Ask your students if they already have a job in mind they would like to do. If there are no contenders for any given job, write the student’s name by the job. If there are contenders, have students either draw jobs or names out of a cup or can of some sort. What Next?From here, students set off to complete their roles within the company. If a student is left without work to do based on his or her role on a given day, have him or her choose a different role. You may want to include Week 5 as part of this week as it includes some crucial decisions some of your administrative positions need to make. Better YetHave students fill different roles on different days. During the planning and research stages, there will be more need for administrative, production, and finance jobs. Once the store is active, there may be a greater need for store level positions. Your students can have different jobs on different days and journal about their experiences in each role. If you’re looking to accomplish the goal of graph or chart creation, have each student be in a graph or chart-related role at some point. There’s a great deal of flexibility.Don’t Forget the JournalAt this point, your students may be collecting a large number of papers, and be a little confused about how to organize them. Here is my suggestion: Use a two-pocket, three-pronged folder. In the prongs, a stack of notebook paper, with a divider. As I mentioned in Week 3, divide the “journal” to include a brainstorming half and a reflection half. Regarding charts and other loose papers, you can three-hole punch and put in the prongs as well, or put them in the folder pockets to keep them separate. Your choice.Your week is complete. I think that’s enough for a week, don’t you? Hold tight, because next is the BIG STORE OPENING! Your students will be running their store and collecting money, or “money.” They will be tracking their cost, income, and profit, and learning why income doesn’t equal profit. If you have any questions or other ideas, PLEASE feel free to comment below. I would love to hear how this is going for you.Have an awesome week!