Author: Cyndi Whitton
First Authored: January 31, 2012
Last Revised: June 13, 2018
In this lesson, the students create a weekly schedule for a small retail business. They will be working within the constraints of an allotted amount of hours, employee availability, and high traffic times. Upon completion of making the schedule, the students will be given daily management problems that would typically happen. (For example: an employee calls out sick, there is a last minute request for time off, or an unplanned large delivery.)
Hooks / Set
(8 miutess) Show YouTube video
After the video the students will answer three questions on what they believe to be acceptable reasons to call in sick to work. Questions are on the guided note taking document found under the resources and materials section below.
Lead class discussion on what are appropriate reasons to call in sick for work. What implications does that have on your employer? customers? profit?
Resources and Materials
Lecture
Prior Knowledge: This lesson will take place towards the end of the "Store Management Unit". The students are aware of the responsibilities of a store manager, expense control, cost of labor,etc.
Note:There is a PowerPoint attached in the material needed section that can be used, if you do not have the equipment to show a PowerPoint you can print the notes and use them as a guide for you to give verbal directions or write on the board.
(8 minutes) Hook - Show the YouTube video and then have the student answer the three questions on the guided note paper. If you are unable to use YouTube in you class you can still use the opening activity. The video is a one minute video on funny excuses.
(10 minutes) Present the Power Point teaching the basic guidelines for making an employee schedule. The students will be using the guided note taking paper. Slides #1- #7 Purpose of the guided notes is to save time and so that they can have organized notes for each lesson. (It makes it much easier to grade!)
( 27 minutes) Using slides #8-10 explain the assignment and have the students create the schedules for a 2 week period of time. The guidelines for the activity are on the Power Point as well as page two of the guided note paper.
(10 minutes) Game - This can be found on the last few slide of the PowerPoint (#11-#23) they start with a series of questions to see if their employees would be happy. (Employee requests were made)They can earn 50 points for getting this part correct. Second, they are given a series of problems that come up during the week. If you need more you can just make them up as you go until you are out of time or you have only one student left. The students really enjoy this part of the lesson! I have included points in the Power Point and you can use those as real points, point to get the top ten students or in any way you feel appropriate.
Guided Practice
(27 minutes) Using page 2 of the note taking guide, the students will make a two week schedule for a small retail business. The students will have plenty of questions so circulating in the classroom will be very important. The students will use guidelines identified on the note taking guide to help them (for example: list of employees and the hours that they can work, and high traffic hours.)
Assessment Types: Demonstrations, Observations
The assessment will be the 2 weeks of employee schedules that the students made. The first part of the game where they check to see if the employees are happy is really just a check to see if they followed directions. If for some reason the students are having a bad day and there are too many errors, I would stop and have them make the corrections before going on. If needed, you could make this into a 2 day lesson. The second part of the game really check their critical thinking skills that they will need as a manager. How well can they adjust to situations that come up on a daily basis?
There is no "one" correct answer to the schedule. The students will be self correcting as the play the first part of the game.