1. February 13 & 18, 2015

2. http://hfa-pgh.org  Get the office involved in helping to find tasks  Take out to the other offices for “field trips” – meetings, network with others  Have students provide perspective on projects ◦ Increases understanding of value of work  Last 10 minutes of day: use for going over impact of the day  Industry/research articles – have students prepare summaries of topics that you’ve been “wanting to get to”  Set aside a student folder with a backlog of work that’s not time sensitive  Explore other Microsoft systems  Practice typing

3. http://hfa-pgh.org  Reading/Learning about organization  Think about personality when deciding on tasks ◦ Back paperwork ◦ Prepare folders/documents ◦ Events preparation and clean-up ◦ Computer work  Organize files – areas of office with “stuff that’s been around for a long time”  HFA online typing practice and working on work study PowerPoint assignment

4. http://hfa-pgh.org  “Just Do It” – teens are used to being critiqued, but their memories are short! ◦ Remember positive reinforcement, particularly when it’s an improvement in response to your correction  Be direct in coaching on body language and behavior  Weekly meeting with the people the student work with to get input  Short talk at the end of the day

5. http://hfa-pgh.org  Ask them for feedback in return … “if there was one thing that we could change….”  Have fun conversations to have them be comfortable with you  Do not overthink  Set the expectations – no surprises

6. http://hfa-pgh.org  Get work that interests students  Show the value of the work  Positive feedback telling them what they have done well  Continually overview of work (quality feedbacks)  Adjust work to student level/interest  Before they start the task, brainstorm on what “a good job” looks like – have student help to describe a well-done task. Write bullets on whiteboard or paper. Use them as an early check and final quality check

7. http://hfa-pgh.org  Have student take notes and run them by the supervisor  Help them understand the importance of the work  “No job is too small” – for you or for them!  Give them their own “quality check” ◦ Ex: after scanning, give them 3 electronic files to go find … similar for manual filing ◦ Give them a break between completion of task and quality check

8. http://hfa-pgh.org  Make students aware of the time required to do the task  Tom – provides watches for each student because “time is important in a business setting”  Give students a list of tasks to be completed in a certain time frame  Outline task on an index card, give to student – task is not complete until index card returned (this may help alleviate students who don’t report back after finishing a task)  If they’re going to use PowerPoint, Publisher, Excel, start with something easy & maybe an online tutorial first 8

9. http://hfa-pgh.org  Have them work alongside college interns  Have them work on ongoing or repetitive projects  Help them understand why they are doing the tasks – give context!  Follow-up and give them recognition for their work.  Mix up the tasks to keep it interesting 9

10. http://hfa-pgh.org  This is hard… don’t feel bad!  Ask open-ended questions  Make them feel comfortable  Establish common grounds/interest  Know their likes and interests  Get students involved in staff meetings if possible  Ask what they’re doing at Manchester Craftsmen’s Guild (art classes) … are they going to after-school activities  If none of this works … don’t feel bad! 10

11. http://hfa-pgh.org  Where do they feel comfortable  Specific Goals – 2 conversation per day  Pair student with seasoned presenter  Need someone with specific skills about interactions  Building exercises 11

12. http://hfa-pgh.org  Administrative  Events/special projects  Templates  Soft skills and professionalism focused tasks  Eating lunch with staff  Rotating departments and mentors  Business letters/Excel  Professional email address/correcting spelling and grammar mistakes  Data entry  Project (small) that students can handle from start to finish, because they take pride in the project being their own work  Copying, scanning, composing emails/memos  Filing documents 12