The top of discussion this week was Marketing and Outreach. How are we going to the greatest amount of people?

After brainstorming with Kristy, we decided that it was in Learning Leaf’s best interest to reach out to local publications and publications that Learning Leaf already has access to a membership.

We searched free advertising in the Columbus are and decided to put an ad in their news letters/event calendars

-Columbus Dispatch Parents

• -Hulafrog
• -KidsLinked
• -Macaroni Kid
• -Coffee Connections
• Upper Arlington School District
• Bexley School District
• Worthington School District
• Hilliard Chambers
• Dublin Chambers

We are going to reach out to local news outlets and magazines such as

• 614 Magazine
• This Weeks News
• Columbus Kids Events
• 10 TV News

to see if any of these publications would be interested in writing articles about the Kids’ Business Fair.

With the Kids’ Business Fair quickly approaching, it’s time that we start piecing all the components together.  This week I met with Kristy and Manru (our education intern). Manru is developing a free mind-mapping workshop for for parents and children to attend, and we figured we could advertise the two events across the same avenues. Kristy granted me access to Teachworks, which is how she manages her tutor business, and from there I emailed all of the parents that currently have children tutoring. My thoughts are that these parents would persuade their child into participating in the events associated with Kristy because they have already formed a relationship together, or spread the event by word of mouth. I think we will most defiantly generate a few participants in both the business fair and the workshop by those emails. We also discussed the need for volunteers in a previous meeting, so while I had access to Teachworks I then send out an email to all to the tutors that Kristy employees and invited them to be a volunteer at the Kids’ Business Fair. We are looking for trust worthy, reliable, adults to assist the children throughout the fair. Why not reach out to the employees you already trust?

This week I had the opportunity to meet with the other intern who works for Learning Leaf. She is an Education Intern who is an Ohio State Alumni specializing in Psychology. She working on a free workshop she is going to host with Learning Leaf. We met at a great Japanese Bakery called Belle’s Bread, which I highly recommend. We spent our time discussing what her ideas were for the workshop and how we are going to advertise. My plan is to make flyers and post them around local libraries as well as send out an open invitation to all those that subscribe to the Learning Leaf news letter. We also decided that it would be beneficial to post the workshop on Learning Leaf’s social media platforms and Facebook groups that are directed towards Mom’s so that we could touch a larger audience. The workshop that she will be hosting will be for younger children, and the activities she will introduce to the children will allow them to think about other people rather than always being focused on themselves. She finds that younger kids are often very self centered and she thinks its beneficial to help them think outside the box and others to aid in their development. I am eager to attend the workshop and learn from the other intern. I am also excited to see how many people attend and how our advertising strategies will pay off.

This past weekend the whole Learning Leaf team gathered at Coffee Connections in Hilliard, Ohio to discuss study techniques the tutors can use while working with their students. We all received several hand outs that the tutors can refer back to. I found these hand outs can be useful to everyone..not just students! They covered topics such as:

A Study Plan – write it down!

• prioritize – do the subject you like the least FIRST
• take breaks – take breaks about 20% of your study time to maximize effectiveness; 1 hour study = 10 minute break
• switch up topics – switching between a topic you dislike and a topic you like breaks up the monotony.
• set up your study area for success – make sure you have all the materials you need
• graph your progress – an interesting way to show the work you have completed vs the work that still needs to be done.
• actively study – meaning rewriting notes, creating a song, watching a video. Keeping the mind active
• have visible affirmations that students can look at when feeling discouraged.

We also went over topics such as:

Memorization

• Creating a story
• Location Association
• Visual Association
• Mnemonics
• Clusters (helpful with numbers)
• Repetitive Writing

What to do when you’re stuck

• Have the student try and teach it back to you
• Think of something that reminds you
• Keep saying it out loud or rewriting it

Study tips for Kinesthetic Learners.

• Make a poster
• Watch videos
• Make info-graphic
• Use real objects or make a model when possible
• Take active breaks (walking, stretching, moving etc.)

Study tips for Auditory Learners

• Read notes out loud
• Talk before writing
• Do math out loud
• Watch video or audio book
• Make a jingle

Study tips for Visual Learners

• Find pictures that relate to the subject
• Color coding things
• Use outlines
• Written repetition
• Watching videos

All of the take home hand outs were created using Canva. Which I have had the opportunity working with to create my own posters and hand outs.

Today, January 17, 2020, I had my first “official meeting” as a Business Intern for Learning Leaf. I met with the owner Kristy and the manager Stacy to discuss ideas for the children’s business fair in April, and issues that Kristy is facing with some of the tutors and the family’s utilizing Learning Leaf. The main issue was that there was a lack of communication from the tutors when there is a cancellation and that some of tutoring were entering their “session notes” wrong. While they were completing their notes, they are forgetting to submit their notes to the parents. We brainstormed and came up with a couple ideas on how to address these situations. 1st: was to have the tutors “flag” the session that was canceled. By flagging the session, it automatically sends an email to Kristy’s inbox, so she could then keep track of the cancellations and address the parent  if it becomes a reoccurring problem. 2nd: To combat the forgetfulness of the tutors we created a sample “session note” and highlighted the required sections that must be filled out and sent it to all the tutors. This allows for the tutors to have a copy that they can refer back to if they are having trouble remembering what they have to fill out.

Secondly, we discussed the Children’s Business Fair that will be held in August. Both Stacy and Kristy filled me in on the basics of getting the ball rolling with this. There will have to be fliers designed and advertisements made to market the Children’s Business Fair to a wide range of audiences as well as reach out to local business that would want to sponsor the event or participate as a business mentor. They shared the previous years Google Doc’s with me and we are going to loosely base 2020’s fair on those that were held in the past. We have another meeting next Friday to touch base again, and hopefully begin to discuss a plan of action.

Hello readers!

The purpose of this blog is to share my experience and skills I’ve developed throughout the internship experience, as well as my likes and dislikes that comes with running a small business.

I am excited to learn and build connections within the community, and create new professional relationship to those I am working along side of. I hope to hone my communication skills and learn tips and tricks directly from the owner of Learning Leaf. It is my goal to really submerge myself into the opportunities given to me throughout my internship and ask many questions as I am tackling work that is assigned to me. It is also my goal to leave this internship with quality skills and knowledge I can add to my portfolio and that I can refer back to when applying to my future endeavors.

This is an exciting opportunity that will give me hands on experience while also both personally and professionally. I can’t wait to share my experiences. 

Jessica Miller