Episode 11: DECA Project Prep Framework with FREE Resources

0:01 Merry Christmas. Yes, I'm releasing an episode on Christmas Day, but rest assured that I am spending time with my family. So yesterday I got to see my eight month old granddaughter walk, yes walk at eight months, eight months old, she's practically running at this point. Not surprising though, since both of her parents are track athletes, and I'm pretty sure she's trying to keep up with her two older sisters. So as we wrap up this year, I'm spending some time on DECA. So last week I focused on the roleplay for DECA prep. This week, I'm talking about a DECA project prep framework. It consists of three parts. One is actually talking about the project development. The second part is the presentation. And the third part is administration. It's a lot. So grab your notepads and pens and be ready to take lots of notes. Because this is going to be a full packed episode of information. Also, stay tuned to the end for information on how to access all of the resources within this DECA project prep framework.

1:16 You're listening to marketing EdVenture, the hub for business fashion marketing and other CTE educators who integrate marketing into the learning experience. I'm your host, Jackie Walker. Each week, I'll cover marketing, education concepts, strategies, tips, trends, frameworks, and other information to equip you to connect your classroom to digital natives while cultivating an engaged learning environment. So come on into the room, where your favorite beverage snacks, and even your cell phone are all welcome.

1:56 All right, so let's jump right in here to it. Let's start talking about the project prep. This is the first part of the whole DECA project prep framework. So by this time, this time of year, all of the projects have already been presented and already submitted to the different DECA regions, right. And now all you have time to do is prep yourself for the presentation. Well, before we get into talking about prepping for the presentation, let's just backtrack a little bit. So for your DECA written project prep, each DECA project has their guidelines that they have to follow for the written project. So you've already done your

2:50 reading of your project, you've already done the activities that are involved to be the meat of your project and everything. But what I'd like to present to you right now is let's rewind to the beginning of the year, or maybe even at the end of the season last year, because as soon as ICDC is over, you can begin to do your prep for the next DECA season, you can begin to start doing your activities, whatever it is that you're going to need to do to put into your written project for the actual project that you're doing. So what I've developed is over time running these projects, and running multiple projects, at one time, you are a project manager, the teacher is a project manager because you are managing several projects, okay. And that can be very overwhelming. Because you have to know at any given point in time, what part the student is on

3:59 what they need to be doing as far as the activity within their project, helping them manage those activities of the project. And just you know, you've been pulled in different directions to help these students complete their projects that have several parts to them. Some are longer than others. Some are 10 pages, some are 20 pages, you're just being you know, pulled in all directions. Well, what I did to help kind of manage this when I was teaching is I created a timeline for the students to submit their parts, various parts of their written project to me, because all the projects have Roman numeral parts that have to be covered in their written projects. And so for me to manage that I wanted to have the students to complete at least one section each week if it was possible

5:00 Some of the bigger projects like the chapter projects did require more time to perform the activities. But anyhow, so I took that in mind as I was creating the project timeline. So I tapped into some of my project management, from experience from corporate America pulled that into the classroom, I was like, Okay, let's throw these all in a spreadsheet. And we're going to divvy up what section is going to be due this particular week. And so I did that for the whole outline of each written project. And I put them all in one spreadsheet together. And so I was able to see week one, this is what was due week two, this is what's due week three, and so on looking at the project timeline, the project scope up to 14 sections, you know, so it can range anywhere up to 14 sections of information that has to be filled out. So what I did is I took those all those sections, divided them up by weeks. And I have a chart that outlines every single DECA written project by their phases over a 14 week period of time. So I've created that resource. And I've made it available to teachers to have that as a guideline for getting the project's accomplish with their students. And so that resource is going to be available to you and I will have that linked at the end of this episode. So look out for that.

6:35 I also took the time to take those individual sections that are like introduction, and customer segments, the growth plan, the schedule of activities, you know, the revenue, information, all those different things that you have to come up with, for various projects that are listed here. I've taken those and I've created phases. And in those phases, it talks about these individual tasks, so to speak, and how those tasks what those tasks really mean, what are those key words within those tasks. And what does it mean that you should be the students should be gathering for the output of that particular task. So it helps them formulate their ideas about what information they should be including in this particular section of their written project. And the task that they should be accomplishing is just a jumpstart to help them with writing the project, completing the actions of the project, and bringing it all together to complete a comprehensive project for DECA.

7:52 So I'm talking about this in part one, because this is all the project prep, this is all doing the writing for the project. And like I said, I know that it's already been done by this time. But this is just to give you a lead up to the presentation and let you know that I have some resources for you that are free for you to access and be able to use because even though they've submitted their projects for their first round of competition, they're going to have state and then they're going to have ICDC coming up pretty soon. So it's still a good idea to use these to help polish up those projects for the next rounds of competition. Okay, so now in your part one, we're still in the project prep phase. That also means that you have to develop the visual aids for the project. And there are guidelines for visual aids that need to be followed. So the students need to make sure they read through the guidelines of their project to ensure that they are meeting the requirements for the visual aids. It tells you how big your posters can be, whether you can use tech equipment, like your laptops, and your iPads and all those different things. So just make sure that they're reading through those guidelines to ensure that they are using the proper aids if they take anything at all, which I do suggest that they have aids to help them do the presentation to their judge.

9:28 Okay, now that we've gotten the whole project, the written project prep done, and the visual aid done. We are now at part two of the framework, which is the presentation. Now, I want to just go through an outline of what you should do during the presentation when they are stepping in front of the judge and telling them about the project that they've worked on them.

9:59 This whole semester, or even going back to the springtime when they started, or what have you. So the presentation should begin immediately, once the student steps in front of the judge. Now all of the written projects have 15 minutes to present. So they want to be able to use their time wisely to present all of their information. Because as I said, before, these projects, these written projects are up to 20 pages of information. So they want to make sure that they have the time to go through the information in their project in that 15 minute period of time, leaving at least five minutes for the judge to be able to ask them questions, okay, so they need to start their time presentation immediately doing their introduction, if it's one, the most of the projects can have 1 to 3 students. So they want each person needs to introduce themselves. And then they want to immediately get into the hook of their project, what is the hook, the hook is what is going to capture the judges attention and draw them in to the project that they're speaking about. And then once they've gotten the judges attention, and curiosity, then they want to begin the presentation of the materials going through the outline, making sure that they hit every Roman numeral point that was listed in their written project. And again, like I said, they need to do all of that up in about 10 minutes. So they can allow at least five minutes for the judge to ask them questions.

11:38 All right. Now, some may say, and my students have, they've come to me many times Miss Walker, the judge stopped us in the middle of our presentation. And it made us nervous, or we almost forgot, or we stumbled or what have you. That can happen. We don't know how the judge is going to engage with the students. During the project, even though the judges are given guidelines on how they should communicate with the students. We don't know how that particular person is going to act, because maybe there's something that's presented that makes them ask a question, or maybe something isn't that clear. Or maybe they're just so into what the student is saying that they can't wait, and they want to find out some information right then and there. Or maybe they recognize that the student is a little nervous and having a hard time communicating. And they want to help the student to get their point across. Could be a variety of reasons, we don't know. But I want the students to remember for ours, if the judge interrupts them during the presentation, help them remember this. First of all, remember where you are in your presentation. Make a mental note, immediately think about we are right here. We're talking about this, at this very moment in time, at least one of the students who is in that presentation, if it's more than one needs to remember where they are in the presentation. Then secondly, they need to recognize what the judge is asking him the question, they can say, That's a good question and answer the question they want to respond. Number three is respond, respond by providing a brief answer. And then they want to resume their presentation. So they want to remember recognize respond and resume.

13:33 Okay. And they want to make sure that each person who was on the team presenting has a part this is very key because the judge can take off points, if they see that one person is the main speaker and the other two, or other person are just standing there. And they're pretty much just a prop holding up the visual presentation, the visual aid, so everyone needs to have their part. And I've seen this done really well. I was really impressed with this one team. The last time I was working in a event at State. This one team was so smooth with how they moved during their presentation. It was three of them, and they had a board on an easel. And they when it was their turn to talk they stepped to the front. In front of the judge, the other person moved to the left to the side of the board. Whereas the third person kind of stayed behind the board until it was their time to step in front of the judge. The other person moved to the left and they just had this really smooth rotation. And each person came in with a power with a bang when they started their part of the presentation. So students need to practice and work on sharing the information and know their parts and work out system on rotating and be impressive when they start their presentation part.

15:03 And then they also need to use their 21st century skills. Okay, that's again, something that the judge can grade them on at the very end of the presentation. There is a part that where the judge can give points based on professionalism, and a variety of things on how the student answers the questions. And some other things is a differs for each project. But it is a small group of points that can be awarded for the 21st century skills.

15:34 Okay. And as in the roleplay, you do have to do the greeting and the clothes with the judge. So the greeting is, when you first walk up, like I said, Do your introduction, you want to shake the judges hand, introduce yourself by name. And then once everybody has introduced themselves, you can ask the judge, may we start our presentation, or you can just go into the presentation. Most of the time, when you're doing a written project presentation, you're standing because you may have a board that has your visual information on it, or you want to stand because the project that you're doing just may require you to move around or what have you. So that is your greeting. Next is the closing, this is what you will do at the end of the presentation. Once the judge has completed asking their questions, then you can ask the judge for their buy in to your project. Now, you may have an opportunity to ask the judge prior to them asking the questions if they have not been engaged with, you know, asking questions along the way. If they've been sitting there listening to you, and waiting for you to complete your presentation, then you can ask the judge for their buy in to the information that you're presenting. And then they may start asking their questions at that point in time. Once they are done. Once your 15 minutes is up, you want to thank the judge for their time and then do a handshake and exit the competition area.

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18:12 Part three is the Administration of prep for the DECA project practice. So before you have your students step into a conference competition, they need to have tons of practice, you want to make sure that they are you comfortable standing before someone presenting their project. Now I liked to do it first in the classroom, to have the students to do peer evaluations. So they would present their projects to one another and then get feedback and correct their projects, update their projects, whatever they needed to do. Then I the one of the final steps. Sometimes it was the final and sometimes it was the step two next to the final was having them to present directly to me or a another advisor. And they would have to present their full project fully professionally dressed as if they are in DECA competition at that very moment.

19:23 So we have two different times of evaluation when I would scored them. It would be a great. Okay, so let's talk about the setup for this whole practice and presentation of the project. So very similar to when we they do the roleplay practice. We're going to set the room app just like competition. So you want to have one table per competitor. Or if you don't have tables, you'll have desk so you need to have the set number of desk per project. So a project can have 123 competitors. And then you would have three desks facing one desk, which would be the judge. And then you want to space enough room for privacy. So they don't really run into hearing one another and all that counts, I mean, they're gonna hear each other, but where they're not so close that it interferes with the presentation, then you're going to assign a judge and the competitors numbers, so that when the competitors get ready to come into the room to sit with the judge, they know which table to go to, you want to allow the judges enough time to prep.

20:42 Now with the written projects, the judges need to review the project guidelines. So they know kind of what to what to expect, when that group comes up to present their project, they may even have a copy of the student's written project so they can have an idea of what the content is going to be about. Because in real life, the judges have had the opportunity to read the projects, and get a little bit of understanding of what information is going to be presented by the students. Most times, I will tell you, at the first competition of DECA, they're only reading the executive summary. So the executive summary now is up to three pages. It used to be where you can only use one page for the executive summary. But they've extended that because they realized that most executives in real life don't have time to read through a whole strategic plan, project plan or anything like that. So the executive summary does have to have a quite a bit of information in it, so that they can quickly glance at it and determine whether they want to approve it, throw money at it or whatever that executive needs to do whatever that organization is trying to get the executive to buy into. So the projects have changed to reflect industry standards. And so the judge has a three page executive summary that they can read. So they're likely not to read the whole project at the first level of competition. Now we'll get all the way up to ICDC, the judges have more time and are likely to read those documents, so they can have a full understanding of the project. Because there's more at stake, we're talking about international competition, okay. So it'd be good idea to go ahead and print out the projects and give the judges an opportunity to read through the student projects. And then once the judges have had time to read over the projects, then you'll have the competitors to go ahead and exit the room.

22:54 So while the judges are reading, the competitors can just be preparing themselves, they may be doing their last minute practices of their project. And um, so you'll have the competitors to exit the room. At the end, when they're standing outside the room, you'll give them the rules of engagement, reading the judge shaking their hand, doing their closing shaking hand before they leave the judge all that good stuff, kind of like what we do, as a, as an advisor, when we're talking to the students that competition, we just kind of give them the rules and guidelines to help relax them, get them prepared mentally. All right. And then so once the students come into the room, they go to their judge with the assigned number that matches theirs. And then you will start the timer. And then once the 15 minutes is over, you will then allow the judges about five minutes to complete the evaluation form and encourage them to put something a little feedback on there, you know, they can write it in the columns on the back of the paper, or what have you, but just encourage them to give a little feedback. Maybe it's something where the students have said, um, too many times, maybe they're reading from their their index cards, which I highly discourage students having index card. I don't encourage students to have anything in their hands, except for a visual aid that they may need to hand the judge to look at. But anywho so they give the judge about five minutes to complete the evaluation form. And then the judges and the competitors will switch places and then you'll go through that whole routine again.

24:29 That's the way I like to do it to set up the classroom for practice. Now when the students are coming to present their projects to me, I make this like a whole competition environment. I put a list on the wall that has that the time slot for all the different presentations. So the students know that they're going to be number one to sit with Miss Walker and do their presentation. And or number two, number three or what have you. And then there that allowed them to, you know, really feel just like it is a competition when they have their time slots for presentation. And when they come with me to do their presentation, I videotape it, because I want them to see how they look how they sound, so that they can then go back and work on their presentation and see the areas where they need improvement. So once they do their presentation with me, I do their evaluation. And I put that aside, I don't give it to them immediately. And then I prep for the next student to come in, sit with me and do their presentation. And then we keep going until we've gone through the list of students for the practice presentation and videotaping of their project.

25:57 Now, if I have them to go to another teacher or advisor, I just give them the evaluation sheets, the students presentation, the students project, so that they can read through it. And generally they've had that beforehand, so they can read through it. And then when the students come in at there a lot of time that the teacher has available, whether it's during their planning period, or after school, or when what have you, then they go ahead and do their presentation with the with the teacher. Now, if we can get someone to go and videotape them, we will. But that's not something I really focus on when they're presenting to other people, I just really like to videotape them when they're with me, because it's a controlled environment.

26:44 As with the roleplay, prep activity, I do grade the students for their participation, and actually their presentation. So they will have two classroom activity grades, one for being a judge, and one for being a competitor. And I do have the grading forums in my resources here that you will have access to that allows you to grade the student judge in the student competitor. Then, for the test grade their presentation score their evaluation form that comes with their guidelines for their project, that counts as a test grade. Again, you can use your own judgment, if you want to take the actual score, or if you want to create a scale for the score that the score falls into, and give a grade accordingly. And then I have professional dress because yes, we are dressing professionally. We are practicing professional dress number one, because you need to know that the student knows what to wear for professional where you need to make sure that they have what they need. Number two, because you want to see what they're wearing, you want to be able to say yes, no, you can't do that. Or perfect, though, that looks wonderful. I do have a professional dress guideline score sheet that you can use to with your students that also comes as a part of this resource that I'm offering to you for free. All of these resources that I'm talking about within this framework are free.

28:36 Now I will have in the springtime, a complete DECA project prep bundle that I will make available on my website and then that will be at a cost because it's going to be all inclusive is going to have detailed information about helping the students prep for their project written project presentation, not only the presentation, but the actual written project portion of their presentation their DECA project. So that wraps up part one, two and three of this whole DECA project prep framework. I hope that you find this information very useful as you move forward in the competition season of DECA and for next year to get a head start on organizing and project managing your projects.

29:34 As promised, I have all of the resources mentioned available to you in one place. Just click the word framework in the episode description or the show notes and you will be able to access this information to share with your students for success in DECA this season. 29:53 Now this is going to be my last episode for 2023. I've done 11 episodes. I'm so excited about that, you know, the average podcast only lasts about 10 episodes. I'm so proud that I've made it to number 11. But please come back for more because 2024 is going to bring so much more information, students sharing their experiences, teachers coming on here and sharing their best practices. I'm gonna get CTE specialists we're going to have and we're gonna have a whole range of guests that will be coming on in 2024. I'm so excited about it.

30:34 All right, so until then, I hope you're having a wonderfully blessed holiday season and enjoying a restful break with family and friends. Thank you so much for listening this year in 2023.

30:51 Thanks for listening to Marketing EdVenture. Remember to subscribe, rate, review and share this episode with someone you think benefit from the information shared here today. If you have any questions, or want to connect with me, find me on Instagram at Marketing EdVenture. All links and resources discussed this episode can be found in the show notes at marketingedventure.com.