Senior Project Reflection

PART I: Two-Hour Presentation
(1) Two-Hour Presentation Student Assessment


P+, because I met all the requirements for the content and activity, but I exceeded the expectations for the creativity.
(2) What are you most proud of in your 2 hour presentation and why?


I am most proud of the way my room decorations turned out and the reactions I got from the class for my room and presentation. I'm also happy that everyone participated with all my activities. 
PART II: Overall Senior Project Experience

(3) What do you think you did well on in the project? What could you have done better? Please explain.
My service learning because it is where I learned the most and supported my answers through my experiences. I could have gotten perspectives from different bakeries and bakery owners instead of focusing all year on just one.

(4) What is your EQ and what is the best answer to your EQ? 
What is most important to running a successful bakery distribution company? Having a quality product and consistency. 

(5) How has the last month of culminating events (e.g I-Search, Two-Hour, Exit etc) affected your answer to your EQ? Has it changed? Why or why not? 
The answers to my essential question were further defined and went into more detail. For the I-Search paper I had to think about where exactly my answers came from. This helped me remember my experiences at the bakery and apply the things I did to my answers. 

(6) What suggestions do you have in order to improve the senior project?
I think the final projects at the end (creative expression, I-search, exit interview, service learning and 2 hour) should try and be spread out a little more. 

(7) Overall Senior Project Assessment

AE P AP CR NC


P, because I've meet the requirements for everything throughout the year. 

2 hour Presentation Rough Draft

Sponge Activity

• Some kind of teamwork activity. Later I will explain to them how it relatates to my answer good manager-employee relationship.

Introduction

• What is most important to running a successful bakery distribution company?
• Running your own bakery means you are the owner and you are handling all the finances and make all the decisions.
• Success is making enough profit to live a leisurely life with a positivly veiwed business.
• Bakery distribution company is selling your product to others, wheather it's store front or to other companies for resale.
• I decided on owning your own bakery as my senior project topic because I want to own my own bakery one day. I thought this was the best opportunity to learn how to do it.
• I'm going to explain the 3 answers I discovered to my essential question and after each one we'll see what you learned by doing an activity. Then i'll wrap it up by tellling you my best sources, and my product of my whole senior year journey.

Fondation

• What it takes to be a baker.
• Early mornings.
• Patience with products. Making sure they come out right every time.
• What it takes to be a bakery owner.
• Also early mornings.
• Helps to know yourself how to do every job in the bakery.
• Management skills/knowledge--> financial decision making skills, understanding employees (explain more in detail later)
• An owner needs high energy and passion for the business. A manager's attitude influences the attitude and performance of other employees.

Body

• Answer 1: Manager-Employee Relationship and Customer Satisfaction
• Communication between managers and their employees is important to meet all the bakery needs and reach success.
• Prevent misunderstandings.
• Empower employees. Offer them different job opportunities. Don’t try taking  on all the jobs, that’s the reason you hire employees.
• By empowering employees, the employees gain the manager’s high energy and passion, increasing success. Employees feel valued and important, useful.
• The whole staff is working together as a team striving for the goal of success.
• Employees are happy and friendly and this leads to happy customers. The bakery is also kept clean with a welcoming environment. This image  of the bakery influences returning and potential customers. By ensuring customer satisfaction, sales will continue, maintaining bakery success.
• Activity: 

• Answer 2: Quality Product and Consistency 
• Find strengths and weaknesses of employees. Success increases when employees strengths and weaknesses are identified.
• Understand ingredients, tools and equipment and know how to properly and effectively use them. 
• Quality product comes from using all natural ingredients and baking fresh everyday. Measure everything correctly. 
• Quality product also comes from the display or packaging of the product. Appealing to the eye. Show students displays and packagings of products.
• Activity: In groups have students arrange a small basket of baked goods. Not sure if it should be real products or something else. Provide them with ribbon baskets or bags etc. (?)
• Answer 3: Execute effective Marketing Skills
• Establish your target audience. You need to know who you are trying to sell your product to so you know whose attention you are trying to grab. 
• Use surveys and city demographics. Companies that do it for you. 
• Develop and keep business connections. They will help maintain business quality and performance by giving a competitive edge. 
• When you product is being sold in another market it helps your own business because other people recognize your product. (Service learning)
• Marketing Mix and 4 P's of Marketing.
• Keep adding new something new.
• It attracts new customers who were not interested in your current products and services.
• It generates repeat sales from existing customers who also want to have your new product.
• It enables you to get bigger sales by combining 2 or more items into special package offers.
• Separate yourself from your competition. Signature product or specialty. Also putting coupons in different magazines for the community. 
• Community involvement--->Farmer's markets.
• Tools available. People/sources. It is their job to help you get research and market. 
• Activity: Have students in groups "own their own bakery". They chose a one form of marketing i talk about (adding something new, signature product, coupon ad). Using one of the strategies they have to market their bakery. If they add something new they have to say what it is, why they chose it, how they think it will improve sales. If they have a signature product they have to say what it is, why they chose it, the different things that they offer with that specialty. (I don't know about this one. It's not that well thought out. 

Conclusion

• My best answer is having a quality product and consistency. This is because if no one likes the product that you are selling then nothing else is going to matter. It needs to look and taste good each time the customer buys it. 
• My most important sources were my service learning at Old Town Baking Co., Adam Bishop, Michael Peyton, and different articles from a website called Entrepreneur and U.S. Small Business Administration.
• Adam and Michael were my 3rd and 4th interviews so i learned from them both directly and indirectly. They both basically lead me to my answers, but most of what I learned from them was keeping the customers happy and the relationships with other employees. 
• At service learning I experienced the different things Adam and Michael were saying and this helped me better understand what they were talking about. I also learned by watching what different employees were doing around me. Example how to roll the dough, package bread, wrap a pie, help a customer.
• Entrepreneur had different business articles, like 'Get Your Product to Market in Six Steps' by Tamara Monosoff. I liked her explanation of marketing and how you can be creative and there are endless possibilities. She said you are the best person to market your own product. Since i don't have my own business her explanation I felt i could still relate to it.
• My product is the experience I got through my service learning. It was my first job and I experienced working with others in a work environment. Obviously I have worked in groups at school for the past 4 years, but the workforce is not entirely the same. I gained people skills by working the front counter and helping customers. I've gained problem solving skills from dealing with orders that were incorrect. 

Creative Expression

1. What type of art could you study to help improve your understanding of your senior project topic?
Baking in itself is a form of art. I could chose one ingredient, (lets say chocolate), and find all the different ways it can be used when baking (which there are tons). Because the art in baking usually comes from what you produce in the end, which has endless possibilities.


2. Give me ideas of what you could do or make for a creative expression presentation.
I could make an artistic display of products that I make. It could be a store front display, or an arrangement of my products, or the most appealing picture that can be used for advertising. 
I'm really not to sure what to do.------->Help!

Final Draft

A. Introduction (1-2 min) 

1. My EQ "What is most important to running a successful bakery distribution company?"
2. Ask 3 people what they think are important factors of running a business. 
3. I chose to talk about the importance of location in running a bakery, because it has a great impact on the success of your business. Deciding on the perfect area is one of the first steps in starting your business.
4. My objective: After listening to my presentation, I want my audience to have a better understanding of what makes a good location for any type of business, specially for a bakery, and what factors can affect choosing a location.  I also want them to be able to determine what the best location in a given situation would be. 

B. Body (8-9 min)

1. 4 types of location 
• homebased 
• retail
• mobile
• commercial 
2. Factors to consider: Demographics
• affordable
• accessible
• pedestrian traffic and target audience-----> Collecting Data of area. 
• Primary and secondary
• parking
• location history
• competition
• business requirements and equipment needs
• distribution- market coverage 
3. Activity (6 min)
• Partners will be given different locations and they have to determine if it appears to be a good location. Then they have to answer what kinds of things would they need to know that they can't tell from the picture to determine if it really is a good location. Discuss each location as a class.

C. Conclusion (1 min)

1. Location, location, location! All work put into running the bakery may not matter if the location is not right. As you can tell with the activity, there is a lot you have to consider and pay attention to when choosing a location. You can't just look at a location and know it will be successful. 
2. Most important source- to be determined.
3. This semester I plan to bring together all of my business research with my baking research and make it apply better to my EQ.
4. Q&A

D. Materials 

1. 4-5 locations for 13 partners
2. Powerpoint: Projector.

Presentation 2 Rough Draft

A. Introduction (1-2 min) 

1. My EQ "What is most important to running a successful bakery distribution company?"
2. Ask 3 people what they think are important factors of running a business. 
3. I chose to talk about the importance of location in running a bakery, because it has a great impact on the success of your business. Deciding on the perfect area is one of the first steps in starting your business.
4. My objective: After listening to my presentation, I want my audience to have a better understanding of what makes a good location for any type of business, specially for a bakery, and what factors can affect choosing a location.  I also want them to be able to determine what the best location in a given situation would be. 

B. Body (8-9 min)

1. 5 types of location 
• homebased 
• retail
• mobile
• commercial 
• industrial
2. Factors to consider 
• affordable
• demographics - accessible, parking, pedestrian traffic and target audience, location history, competition.
• business requirements and equipment needs
• distribution- market coverage 
3. Collecting Data of target audience and area
• primary and secondary
4. Activity (6 min)
• Partners will be given different situations that entrepreneurs have to go through.  They will have to determine the known factors of the situation, and if the location is the best choice or what they think would be the best location, and why or why not. 

C. Conclusion (1 min)

1. Location, location, location! All work put into running the bakery may not matter if the location is not right. 
2. Most important source- to be determined.
3. This semester I plan to bring together all of my business research with my baking research and make it apply better to my EQ.
4. Q&A

D. Materials 

1. 4-5 created scenarios for 13 partners
2. possible projector.

5-Minute Presentation Reflection

What would you say stood out about your presentation performance and why?
I think what stood out the most was where my information came from. My interviewee has a long history in baking, and I was able to teach the class what I learned from her. I think that might have made my presentation a little more interesting because it came from my experience of working with her, instead of only research anyone could have looked up on their own.

What was the most challenging to do why?
I think the most challenging thing was trying to make sure I hit all the main points within the time. I was worried I would go over the 5 minutes so I might have gone through it too quick, looking over key points that could have enhanced my presentation.

5-Minute Rough Draft #2

Objective

• Give students a better understanding of baking and talk about my interview.

Procedures

     1. Introduction

• Ask students if they have ever baked/cooked before. If yes, what did they bake/cook, and was it enjoyable.

     2. Talk about interview

• Chef Erin. Graduated from California School Culinary Arts Le Cordon Bleu. Been a chef for 15 years. Owns own catering business, teaches at Art Institute of America.
• Always knew she wanted to pursue a career in the culinary arts.---> grew up with it, family.

     3. Baking according to Chef Erin

• It's a science. A lot different from cooking.
• Need a passion for it. A form of art, can be creative.

     4. Conclusion

• I am hoping to find out if baking is a possible career choice I want to pursue. I want to one day own my own bakery.

Check for Understanding

• Ask students how they think baking is different from cooking. 

Resources/Materials

• Baking tools

5-Minute Rough Draft

Objective

• Give students a better understanding of what bakery distribution is.

Procedure

     1. Introduction

• Ask students if they have every been to a bakery before. If yes, what kind (mom and pop, chain) did they specialize in anything (cupcakes, decorating, chocolate). Ask if they ever see their products anywhere else. Ask what they think bakery distribution is.

     2. My definition of bakery distribution as it relates to my topic.

• The selling of products to other companies. Larger orders of products being delivered. (to markets/stores)

     3. Where I did my summer service learning.

• Old Town Baking Co. 
• A family owned bakery with over 16 years in business. 
• How it relates to distribution.
• Distributes their products to markets, sports arenas, convention centers and hotels. Where they get most of their business.

     4. Conclusion

• Why distribution?
• It is one thing to just bake something and sell it in your own store, why not take it a step further and distribute that product. I figure there has to be a reason why other companies want to buy your products. I want to learn more about what makes a product good enough to distribute (how would you know) and how you can reach that point.

Check for Understanding

• Ask students if they can give me a place they have been to or seen that distributes their products, based on the definition I explained.
• Ask for questions or comments

Resources/Materials

• Drawing of the distribution process. (?) 
• Pictures of different independent bakeries and known products that are distributed. (?)