One thing many teachers often ask is "What do I do with all the other students when they are not interviewing?" Typically once interviews start for placement of personnel in your virtual business, many students are just sitting around and often this valuable time is just wasted. So in this blog, I will discuss some strategies you can use to make this a productive time in your class.
Typically, the leadership interview happens first and during that time the support staff is working on working on completing their application packets with job applications, cover letters, and their resume. I typically have them turn them in on the last day of leadership interviews and they are required and graded. I also post the jobs and have sign-up sheets for the student to sign up for interviews for the departments they are interested in. I will run two-three department interviews each day so that I can have them completed by the end of one week.
The biggest challenge is keeping the remaining student not interviewing busy and not playing around, surfing the internet or just sitting on their phones. Below are some things that I do when they have free time before they begin working in departments. I would assign all my students the following before they started in the company departments.
Thank You Letter
It is always good practice to have students who have been interviewed write a Thank You letter to the person that interviewed them. The physical letters are a bit outdated in our fully digital society, so you can go that way or you might have them send an email and CC you as evidence. Following interviews you can post the mailing address or email of the panelist to allow them to respond. Just a warning, most students do not know how to address an envelope so this might be a great Carpe Dieum moment to teach them how to address an envelope for “snail mail”. Download this Thank You Letter Guide to provide them with a go-by to help them write the letter.
Company Branding Assignment
Once the company industry has been established by the class and is set for the year the next steps are defining the sector of the industry, determining the name of the company, slogan, and establishing a logo. In this Company branding exercise, all students have an opportunity to input their ideas to help name and brand the new company. Download a copy of the Branding Exercise. Have students come up with a name idea, a slogan that goes with the name, and design or draw a logo. I highly recommend if they are not good at drawing that they go to Canva for Education to design the logo and then print it out and tape it to the logo space on the assignment sheet.
Personal Finance -Establish Their Budget
The first thing that the students will do is develop a budget for the year so they can plan their personal finance. This time of year is a great time to get some of the foundational elements of personal finance established. I would have them download and go through the personal finance budget exercise in the HUB or have them work through this personal finance Budget Sheet so they can establish some guidelines for the next step in the personal finance process where they will buy a car and find a place to live
Personal Finance - Buying a Car
After the students have established their budget (which included the car payment amount) it's time to start looking for a car. Students tend to enjoy this and it gives them good insight into the cost of buying a car in the real world. I tell them they need to stay within their budget and more times than not they need to look for used cars and not new ones. Leadership can afford new cars. Have them download this Personal Transportation Exercise and begin the process of looking for a car in their budget price range. This can take a couple of days in class as they shop around. The biggest obstacle for this assignment is the district firewall and the blocking of used car sites. If that is the case make this a homework assignment. When done they can print out the sheet, turn it in digitally or download it as a PDF and turn it in.