Welcome to the online support page for the Marketing & Entrepreneurship program. My name is Melissa Burchett and I am the instructor at Berea-Midpark High School, through a satellite program of Polaris Career Center.
I teach Business Foundations, Office Management, Professional and Technical Sales, and Strategic Entrepreneurship. Previously, I worked as a graphic designer in the sign shop now run in our program. i also have my own photography business. I truly enjoy watching my students solve problems and creatively satisfy customer needs daily in our student run business.
MBA Research - www.mbaresearch.org MBA Research is a not-for-profit, research-based support for all Business Administration educators: entrepreneurship, finance, hospitality, management/administration, and marketing. Many resources including student handouts, presentations, and assessments that align to the curriculum. Material is easy to share with students and also edit to better fit their needs.
Canva - www.canva.com Canva is a graphic design platform that allows users to create social media graphics, presentations, posters and other visual content. It is available on web and mobile, and integrates millions of images, fonts, templates and illustrations. Free education version for educators, I used this great tool to allow students to create professional signs, banners and presentations all year. Students had free access when working remotely as well. We completed many projects using this platform.
Google Classroom - www.classroom.google.com The primary purpose of Google Classroom is to streamline the process of sharing files between teachers and students. I used this all year long to share assignments, assessments, projects and any pertinent information. Easily organized for online learning.
Morning Brew - www.morningbrew.com The daily email newsletter covering the latest news from Wall St. to Silicon Valley. Informative, witty, and everything you need to start your day. Great for bell ringer activities and keeping students current on business related news. I continued to share the articles and facilitate class discussions using flipgrid during remote learning.
Business Educators Facebook Group - www.facebook.com A group for business teachers to collaborate and share resources! I have gained so much knowledge from this group. Fellow teachers share lesson plans, projects, classroom management strategies and more. This is a great resource for sharing resources and collaborating with colleagues in the CTE field.
Sample online weekly agenda with learning target
Weekly agendas - this made things easier for the student to plan their week and manage their time with online learning projects. I included a sample agenda to the left.
Communicate daily with students - even if it was just to check in, I made sure to communicate in some form daily. This was done either through zoom meetings, flipgrid, email or a simple post in Google Classroom.
Communicate frequently with families - keep families in the loop, not only when a student is struggling, but also send frequent "positivity" notes
Use real world situations in teaching - for example, my students created postcards to send to local businesses to offer thanks during the pandemic. We did this during a lesson on business ethics and employee morale.
Provide feedback quickly - by providing guidance, it leads to less confusion and helps the student correct any issues in a timely manner. Students were able to complete projects with greater ease when I made myself available and provided timely, detailed feedback.
The following video shares a bit about my online experience. I do consider myself fortunate. My students all had computer access and internet connection. Overall, my students we successful during the remote learning process and 3 even started their own businesses!
Business Professionals of America (BPA) - Business Professionals of America is a career and technical student organization that is headquartered in Columbus, Ohio. BPA aims to develop leadership, academic, and technological skills in the workplace among students and leaders within the community. We conducted our state competition virtually this year. After a few bumps in the road, I had 2nd and a 3rd place award winners!
Advisory Board Members - Members include representatives from business, labor, community agencies, faculty, students and other members. The primary purpose of advisory committees is to provide direction and guidance for the specific career and technical area within the college to strengthen and enhance the success of college programs. My board is comprised of sign industry professionals, designers, business owners and a former student as well. I have 2 graduates from the district that are excited to be giving back to the community,