I need to get my 2013 book adoptions in this Friday.  That’s why I’m sitting on a McGraw-Hill webinar about Connect.  I’m looking for interactive grammar learning exercised for my BUS 125 – Business English course.

Hopefully — in the next 30 minutes – I’ll know how to do this!

Wow – on Monday, April 22nd, I ‘m going to a client meeting for Avanir Pharmaceuticals along with the agency, Motionstrand.  This will be the FIRST time that I’m on the opposite side of the fence  (the agency side).  Usually I’m the client!  I can’t WAIT to be the agency — perhaps even feel a little Don Draper like — looking forward to see how we strategize on the way up and how we decide what to talk about/present to the client.

I just edited my Twitter, Professional Facebook, Blackboard, LinkedIn, Blog, YouTube and MORE accounts to ensure the same look and feel. Now they all state Mary Cassoni (or M Cassoni) as the user AND have the same photo of me — it makes it easy for students (or my followers) to know they’ve found the same person – regardless of the network.  It’s branding 101 — and it applies even in the digital world.

Attending a McGraw Hill Webinar right now on the Flipped Classroom.  Good information that is really quite common sense for me.  There’s a lot of information on “gamification” — basically making a game out of learning.  I love this because I’ve been doing this since my early days in training sales reps.  And, I’ve created many of my OWN games that I’ve been using in the classroom since I started teaching.  What’s nice now is that the publishers (and many other web sites) are in on this now with technology that enhances gamification.

What I learned today on this site is the power again (of Twitter) for teaching.  I like the idea of making a hashtag for class (#BUS150) and allowing students to discuss and share information outside the class.

Also – the presenter on this call (Jason Seitz) really likes LearnSmart – a gaming program through McGraw Hill – that I’ve been intrigued with.  He suggests starting slow — which I think I’ll do on the Fall.  I’ll try LearnSmart with a few chapters in BUS 155 — looking forward to see how it works.

I need to find a textbook for BUS 150 (Advertising) that focuses on CREATIVE, rather than media.  In addition – I don’t want a textbook that is too academic (like my current McGraw Hill one).  Of all the things I’ve learned on my sabbatical – the one that applies MOST to advertising is that regardless of the media (which will ALWAYS be changing) – the idea of CREATIVITY and STRATEGY remains the same.  If I can find a book that concentrates on THAT, I will do the class (and the students) justice!

Hello!  I just realized this week is Spring Break.  It’s funny how when you’re TEACHING, you’re counting down the days to Spring Break.  That’s because Spring Break is a great time to get caught up on lessons, grading, Blackboard work, etc.  However, Spring Break SURPRISED me on Sabbatical.  Ha ha ha….so I guess I don’t have to OFFICIALLY post — but I WILL say this!  Sabbatical is about half way over and I’m satisfied with the work I’ve done thus far.  Happy Spring Break all!

Toby Danylchuk from 39 Celsius asked me to be a guest blogger for his company.  He also gave me a few great ideas on running Facebook and Google Ads — not only to try it out — but to actually attract TRAFFIC to my web site (blog) and increase enrollment. Here is an excerpt from his e-mail:

“You have a solid foothold in academia and all the foundational concepts of marketing/advertising, but you also have all this really great work experience in product mgt, communications etc so you have a unique perspective from that standpoint and are not just preaching from the proverbial ivory tower — that’s really unique. You’ve gone through all the processes of marketing and communications so I know you must have a wealth of info stored away on even things as mktg process, planning, or connecting the end user etc. And perhaps the focus could be more targeted towards the medium sized business since you worked in environments that were closer to that versus a small business. In other words, maybe there’s an angle on one particular small area of marketing or advertising in academia you could write about and bring in your work experience, a particular area where people made mistakes in a larger corp environment, or top 10 mistakes made, or the importance of planning/coordinating efforts between different areas…I’m just throwing ideas out there. Thoughts? The post doesn’t need to very long, we usually like to get at least 600- 700 words or so, but no hard rules.

Anyway, let me know what you think.

On a different note, as part of producing experiential data for your class, why don’t you consider running a Facebook campaign targeting everyone that has any association with Palomar, or any of the nearby colleges? You could create a landing page on your blog detailing it that then links over to Palomar and its registration page. More on targeting, you could target people with some interest in Palomar, Cal State San Marcos, Miracosta or any of the other JCs and promote your class. You could probably even target seniors in the high schools too! Then you must have an email list? Pull all the emails together of all the students from the years you’ve been teaching and upload those to FB and run ads to those people too. Create a couple different ads, could be something like,

Want to learn the basics of digital marketing? Take my crash course. Hurry, limited availability. Or something like that.”

How GREAT it is to STILL have friends in industry who can provide guidance and assistance!

So, here’s a book that wasn’t on my sabbatical reading list – -that should be!  I keep seeing TONs of references to it in all the articles and webinars I’m going to.  So — I’ll add it to the list — I’ve already read 3 1/2 books (only HAD to read ONE) – but I think this one is worth it . It covers lots of psychological and economic implications of social media — plus it’s a tad academic — always good for a sabbatical!

Last night I finished my Web Marketing Strategies class.  Our final project was due and a few students had to present theirs.  What’s interesting are the feelings I felt as the class was coming to a close. I’m sure that these are not unlike the feelings my students have when my classes are over — so it’s important that I reflect on these.

1)  The final project was a bear! And I know students feel the same about the final project in my class.  At times, I wanted to give up on it.  I think it’s because the Professor did not allow us enough class time to practice the new concepts we learned that he asked us to apply in the final project.  So when I was writing the paper – it was the FIRST time I was putting what I learned into practice.  And that caused some stress and self doubt.  It’s important that I use class time to allow students to apply what they are learning so that they can go into their final projects with confidence.

2)  Thinking about having to present my final project was anxiety provoking!  And I’m a marketing professional, so I can only imagine how students must feel on final project presentation day.  It’s good that the Professor provided a supportive and safe environment. He told us that the presentations were about making our projects better and that all feedback was to be good feedback.  That helped a lot because I found that my understanding of the project was different from others — and that made me a bit uneasy during the presentations — but in the end – it all worked out.  It’s important for me to think about how I felt last night and makes sure that I always make the classroom environment one that feels safe and open to feedback.  I think my classroom environment IS already that way — but feeling what I felt last night (as a student) really opened my eyes to the importance of classroom culture.