Great Free Newsletters

Here are a couple of great free newsletters to subscribe to.

1. NRF SmartBrief brings you the retail news that really matters. Their editors handpick key articles from hundreds of publications, do a brief summary of each and provide links back to the original sources.

In other words, they do all the research...and you get the news you need, without the fluff.

http://www.smartbrief.com/nrf/

Make sure you also check the box for the shop.org briefing.

2. Trend Watching - One of the world's leading trend firms, trendwatching.com and its 8,000+ trend spotters scan the globe for emerging consumer trends.

http://www.trendwatching.com/

3. Advertising Age - A free daily newsletter about current events in the advertising industry.

http://adage.com/register.php

What do you see?

I had a guest speaker the other day who held up a sheet of paper with the image below and asked the students what do they see. Post a comment and tell me what you see, I will post the answer in a couple of days.

Whats New?

Take a minute and think about why people check their Facebook, email, text messages so much?

Being awake way too early before work the other day I began to think about this and I came to one conclusion. They are looking for something new.

Every time you log onto Facebook there is always something new that one of your "friends" posted. This could be a status update, profile update, friend update or a picture. The next time you are with a group of people watch how they check their phones to see if someone called or texted them and the same goes true with email.

This leads me to my over caffinated deep thought of the day: What is new with your classroom / teaching style / lesson etc... every time a student comes back in to your classroom? How do you harness this concept in your classroom?

National Debt Video

This post comes courtesy of Chris Scanlon AVHS...

"Perhaps you have seen this but here is a great video (documentary) that explains the national debt - very informative. I showed it and only one of my kids slept, everone else was watching the entire time. I think that says a lot. Check it out and pass it on to someone who might want to use it."

Don't You Hate It When...

Your students come to you and say I can not do any work today because another person in my group is absent and they have all the files. I have found a way around this by using PB Wiki. PB wiki is a free website where students can upload files, make comments, post videos, add links, add new pages etc...which ultimately makes group work more efficient and less stressful. I have a group working on the DECA Creative Marketing Project right now. I have only seen one student in the room working on the project but when I log into their page ( I require them to give me access in order to check up on them and also provide assistance as they go) I see that they are all working quite hard on this project just at different times.

I have also used PB Wiki for other projects such as introduction activity in Sports Marketing class. Click here to see what my project was. In order to get the grasp of this project make sure to look on the left at the sidebar box to see all of the students pages.

If you have a website...

I was talking about our blog with another contributor and mentioned how it would be nice if we could get some information on who is viewing our site. Just by doing a little digging in blogger we came across the Google Analytics feature. Because so much of what we do with technology is just clicking we clicked on it and set it up. I will warn you, in order for this to work on your site you need understand basic HTML coding. It is not as easy as just clicking.

The next day my colleague brought over the full report from Google analytics. I was so impressed. I was able to not only get the # of views and page views but also a bounce rate, average time on site, % new visitors, unique visitors and more. There was a world map overlay that told me we had visitors from Alaska, China and Cambodia view our site. Granted the China and Cambodia were bounces but still. It also told me what pages were looked at the most as well as how they found our site in the first place. It even goes as far as letting us know what type of browser was used when viewing our site and connection speed.

Not only is this an awesome tool to see if people are actually looking at our site but what a great tool to help me explain to my students how internet marketing works. I forgot to mention the best part of Google Analytics. It is completely FREE!!!! If you would like to see a sample report from our site send me an email.

To Twitter or not to Twitter

Do you Twitter? The social networking website Twitter has been receiving a lot of buzz in the media lately as an awesome marketing and brand building tool. So with some extra time remaining in class, due to a home room earlier in the day, I set one up for my DECA students. At first it seems extremely easy to use but I found people had problems finding my account or my "Tweet". See if you can find me our account name is IrishDECA.

I am considering using this at the next DECA conference in March to give the parents an idea of what is happening, but after investigating this, I am unsure. What is the difference between this and a blog an email or a text message. Has anyone else ever used Twitter for their organization, class, etc...

The truth and nothing but the truth...

An insightful look at the new Pepsi logo from adage.com

"Breathtaking," a 27-page document purported to be the thinking behind Arnell Group's recent revamping of Pepsi-Cola's logo. Littered as it is with marketing jargon, images of yin-yangs, mobius strips and Da Vinci's Vitruvian man, you'll maybe wonder if Michael Phelps worked on this project.

"Breathtaking" goes on to explain how "consumers will feel a gravitational pull elicited by the new logo, one that will lead consumers to fill its shopping carts with Pepsi."

This is a good document to show to your students what 1 Million dollars will get you for a logo design. CLICK HERE TO READ THE DOCUMENT FROM THE ARNELL GROUP

Lesson plans at your fingertips...

Need inspiration for a class?  Looking to find the “perfect” activity to round out a lesson?  I invite you to check out something I recently stumbled upon...www.lessonplanet.com.  I was impressed by the wide variety and quality of the lessons hosted by the site!  I initially signed up for the 10-day free trial, but have enjoyed it so much that I found it well worth the $29/year price tag to commit to the service.  Happy hunting!

Great Keyboarding Filler!

I tried something new today in my Keyboarding class and it was a hit!  Some students needed more time to finish their assignments, leaving the faster students with time on their hands.  We had a Text Twist Competition (located at the games.com website).  Students recorded their high score on the board and the top scorers were rewarded with a treat.  I am considering keeping a running scoreboard for the Trimester.  I enjoyed seeing how engaged my students were while knowing that the game encourages the building of speed, accuracy, and thinking on their toes.  Have fun!

What is in it for me?

The other day I was discussing our blog with another person and they brought up a point that made me think. "In order for collaboration to work effectively we can not expect an immediate return on investment for what we share. If you get one item back in return for sharing ten wouldn't that be a success?" As I thought about this statement I started to relate back to the business world, as I do with most issues in MBE. In the advertising world it would be considered a huge success if you get a 10% response to lets say a Super Bowl commercial where 97 million watched. Not to mention the long run effects of your ivestment. People are already calling Denny's 5 million dollar investment a success where less than 2% of the viewers responded to their commercial and giveaway.

On the same lines people often think what we have is not good enough...WHO CARES...everyone knows that when someone shares something, you always modify it anyway. I was just looking through "Best Practices Vol 3" and saw some great concepts but I knew I needed to modify them to fit my class needs.

Bottom line is this, this blog is a new step for me as it may be for most of you as well, I am not going to worry about how good my stuff is I post or when I will get something in return. Instead if I can work WITH another teacher and help them out then I will have produced a significant amount of short run and long run ROI. I know we are all strapped with time, so am I but if we all can make contributing, commenting, reading this blog a minor priority we will all be better in the end. I look forward to taking new steps in the right direction with all of you.

FREE Alternatives to The Stock Market Game™

With the current market and school funding being the way they are we as Business and Marketing teachers need to find ways to cut costs in order to stay afloat. Here are a couple of alternatives to The Stock Market Game™. These are FREE!

Market Watches Virtual Stock Exchange - This was recommended to me by Diane Luhman, Business and Marketing Teacher Rosemount High School.
http://vse.marketwatch.com/Game/Homepage.aspx
Nice Features
- Can host private games
- Full ability to control starting dollar amount
- The ability to Short Sell
- The ability to buy on Margin
- The ability to use Limit Orders
- The ability to use Stop Loss Orders

Downfalls
- Students Need an Email Address

How The Market Works Stock Market Game. This was recommended to me by Paul Kovach, Business and Marketing Teacher at Eagan High School.
http://www.howthemarketworks.com/stock-market-game/create-a-contest.php
I have yet to review this game. I would imagine that this site has the same functionality as the other site.

If you have another please post a comment with its review and web address.

Articulation Agreements from a New Teachers Point of View

As this is my first year as a teacher I hope to post reflections that may help new and maybe some veteran teachers. Yesterday I went to an articulation agreement meeting. I had this meeting originally scheduled for a different day and was going to use the day before the meeting to pull together the information I needed to get the agreements approved. To me these agreements are a great way to market your classes. There are many students out there that look for these classes to earn credits so to me these are a big deal. When I came in and asked Harrison about the meeting and he told me it was today my stress level shot through the roof as I didn't want to lose the agreement.

I really did not know what to expect so I gathered the information that was suggested by the lady organizing the meeting. I was really stressed about this meeting thinking that if I don't have this agreement my school will not be able to offer credit. To add to the stress I wanted to add two more agreements, one of which I have not yet taught. The materials I brought were the course syllabus and final exam.

All together once I got the materials and the easy forms filled out the meeting went smoothly. I was able to renew my Local and Regional Articulation agreements for Accounting and establish a new local agreement for Computer Applications A&B along with Advanced Accounting.

The process was really informative and I learned quite a bit.

Hope this helps someone!
Gg

You Tube is great but...

Have you tried hulu.com or used iTunes for the free podcasts, or even teachertube.com?

What other video sites do you use?