St. Matthews Station: Biztown Field Trip

Two years ago I went with my fifth grade students on a field trip to Biztown. Biztown is a grant sponsored program where students learn to write checks, and advertisements. They also learn a little of how the work world runs with breaks and lunches scheduled. Students are put into groups of five or six students into various businesses. As with my last trip to Biztown I was in the newspaper shop or as it is called in Biztown, the Courier Journal. We started to day with a town meeting where everyone sat in front of their jobs. The people who run Biztown gave us an overview of what we would be doing for the day.

Each business had written a newspaper advertisement before coming to Biztown. The newspaper employees got busy typing the advertisements and then collecting the money. With several students as "advertising executives" (including the student below that is an ESL graduate and his friend who I had in 21st Century culture club) there were some disputes over who had to type and who got to ask for money from the CPAs at the other businesses. We also had several reporters busy typing stories and interviewing Biztown citizens and even the mayor. Our photographer also was busy taking pictures of all the activities. Perry would have been proud.

The reporters had some trouble getting started with ideas for writing. They had about nine pages of newspaper to fill and the interviews were rather short in the beginning. For some of the students this was the first time they were under the gun to produce a typed piece of writing. Typos in the newspaper could be a big problem, especially with one of my ESL students as a reporter.

To get started with the interviews the students first made a list of all the CEOs and CPAs (and the mayor) as important citizens of Biztown. They divided the list into groups and each reporter went of to interview those students that were playing those roles. Because Fairmont is a small school (at least for the time being) we were at Biztown with Green Valley, another school from our school district. They were given several businesses that they were in charge of and this year that included City Hall and the mayor's position. The reporters at the newspaper were anxious to meet the mayor and the other students from Green Valley.

Each computer in the newspaper office had a different computer program on it with labels at the top of the computer screens for who was supposed to be where. The programs were simplified software to enter articles, advertisements, or as in the case of the CPA, documenting checks and deposits. The CPA even had to print payroll checks since the "employees" got paid twice during their workday at Biztown. My after school tutoring student worked hard to get everything right.

After checks were collected from other businesses for advertisements or after someone purchased a newspaper the CPA would have to enter the amounts received and hand it to the CEO to take to the bank for deposit. Part of the learning experience was remembering which checks had already been recorded and which bill had already been paid.

Our CEO was in charge of the layout of the newspaper. He decided where the advertisements and articles would be placed. He was pretty quick to figure the software out. (Did I mention he is one of my graduates?) Ironically at least four of the newspaper staff were ESL.

Biztown also had a radio station that played music upon request and did shout outs. They also had radio advertisements for the businesses. They ran the equipment and the music played through loud speakers throughout the day.

I had helped the radio station employees prepare for the day. We had named the radio station DownTown music and had come up with a jingle. The students were anxious about what kind of music they would be playing. I had to settle a dispute between the country music and the pop music groups.

All three of the following kiddos are in my READ 180 group. They were working in the environmental shop. They collected recycling and made things out of the materials that were recyclable. What they made they then sold for a profit. It was a very cute program.

These three kiddos are also in my READ 180 class. They were working at UPS delivering supplies, and packages that students sent to each other.

The bank was a busy place with students learning how to make deposits and withdrawals. I had several students in the bank that were either READ 180 or ESL or in some cases both! It was great practice of their soft skills.

The bank CEO is also a ESL graduate. He was very careful when loaning money and making sure the loan payments were properly distributed.

The international shop was sponsored by Churchill Downs and was a gift shop. The TV station was busy filming an ad when I stopped by.

Lots of kiddos enjoyed stopping by the TV station. It seemed to be a little chaotic at times but it went well eventually.

Some of my lower English speakers worked at Walmart, the supply center. Without them the other shops wouldn't have been able to open since Walmart had all the supplies. Hmm...a little like real life in some ways.

They enjoyed getting all the things together and being needed.

We even had a restaurant. It was sponsored by Papa John's. The students were very upset to realize that they only sold lemonade and popcorn. They all had wanted to eat pizza.

Utility workers came around and read our meters...and then billed us! All the students then started to be more aware of turning out lights and such.

After everyone got their initial supplies from Walmart, they started to get replenishment. The newspaper desperately needed pencils.

At the end of the day another town meeting was called. CEOs were called up to discuss the day and give a report of how they did. It reminded me of Market Place on NPR. This was also a great economy lesson.