An exciting year lies ahead!

Our new Young Enterprise group had an informal meeting and seem to be brimming with ideas, confidence and committment. That is important I feel. We also have three distinct advantages over last year's plucky group.

1. We are starting earlier
2. We have a cash and carry card!!!
3. We may be able to use a very exciting technology which I am not saying anymore about.

I have also been approached to help out with the Yearbook which I would be delighted to get involved in, especially since I have had some magazine experience before and also I have a couple of ideas on how to keep the cost down (so our punters can afford it with their pocket money) and how to get it ready in time for June. But I'm keeping that close to my chest also.

The last major thing to look forward to was the success of our bid with the Faculty of Performing Arts. I am really excited about getting my teeth into a very big project. It will make my old Big Roch Digital pale in comparison (but then again I did that with zero budget!!!). It will be a step on from blogging and podcasting.

I'll need to get cracking with some more Screencasts also, especially as the S1 and S2s love it.

All in all I am glad to be back at school although I have been decanted along with my colleagues from ICT out into the modular accommodation (that's CouncilSpeak for huts!!!).

It is not perfect but it is not as bad as I feared. It is an extra challenge we will have to overcome together!

Incidentally, the new PCs are fab. The kids certainly love them more than the old bangers we had!

Higher Business Management Class of 2007-08

Time to bid a fond farewell to the lads and lassies of Hamilton Grammar School's Higher Business Management 2007-08. They are all off to pastures new, be that work, college or university. Some are going to to Civil Engineering, Primary School Teaching, Optometry, Risk Management, Fashion Marketing, Psychology, Accounting, Geography, Music and of course Business!

There are a few missing from this picture but I wish every single one of them all the best for the future. As a group they were a brilliant bunch, and individually they were highly talented. I am sure we'll hear from them again in the future. Perhaps a few budding Donald Trumps? As long as when they've made their first million they come and make sure they see their old teacher alright!

It is safe to say that they were a special group, and in fact they reminded me of my very first Higher class at Mearns Castle High School, who were also a unique bunch of students. There is nothing more satisfying when you bump into former pupils and they are pleased to see you. I have met a few of my former MCHS class in various places and it's such a great feeling when they thank you for your help!

As for my HGS bunch: I am very proud of them and I am not afraid to say I will miss them! I do have one major regret though. I never got them to do the whole Dead Poets Society thing... "Captain, o my captain!". CARPE DIEM!

Screencasts for Administration

I am now in the process of putting what I have learned from Screencasting courses into practice.

The first short videos I have created are basic spreadsheet skills and can be viewed and listened to at: http://spreadsheetskills.blogspot.com/

I hope to add more each night and develop from Standard Grade into Higher.

The purpose is to create a bank of materials that can be accessed by students in school or in the home, and making it a bit more lively rather than just the core notes or even using booklets with screenshots.

I hope you pay it a visit and I hope you find them useful.

Screencast Course

Attended an excellent CPD course today (yes, there are some out there) on Screencasting led by Eddie Mack of Glasgow University.

I found it very interesting as they used Camtasia which I have the old version 2 of. I have tried Screencasting before, using the free Auto Screen Recorder but it was hard and time consuming to edit.

With Camtasia it is much easier. I'm hoping that that will be my main mission for 2008-09 to raise attainment by creating my own screencasts for use with Higher and SG Admin.

At Saint Roch's I think my very basic screencasts did help the EAL students a little in Int 2, but if I could do a whole course worth, then who knows?

Perhaps I could even record the past paper solutions as a screencast so the students can just load it up and learn from it?

So hopefully in the next few days I will be bombarding TeacherTube with my own versions. I did like Teach-ICT.com and the way they did it, so I think I will be looking at them as a template.

I do get a bit excited when using new technology and I know my kids do also.

Hopefully I will start publishing more student material online such as their own podcasts... but I am currently involved in a very hush hush project that I don't want to talk about in case it harms our bid. But I think it could be brilliant, if done properly.

Anyway I think I am going to create a few screencasts tonight and upload them to TeacherTube.

Be warned!

SIFE

Looking forward to meeting Andrew Marr and the SIFE team again this week.



The University of Strathclyde students are going to put some 30 or so of our S3 pupils through real life business challenges to encourage the entrepreneurial spirit.



They did a good job with our seniors at Christmas at the Hunter Centre for Entrepreneurship so it will be nice to welcome them on home turf.

Young Enterprise 2007-08

Klass Act, Hamilton Grammar's YES company is in a mad rush to finish off their report and presentation for the Lanarkshire Area Finals in April.

The size of the group does seem to have been an issue as individually the students are brilliant and confident, but as a group they have become rudderless and lacking motivation. Perhaps I have something to do with it, but on the other hand I was so confident with this group I haven't been as much of a motivating force as perhaps I should have. A lesson learned there, I think.

I quite enjoy being the Link Teacher as it does give you another focus and I like working with the seniors, though don't mention the word 'Prefect' when I am around. (Cue in-joke private laughter).

Anyway, I am very proud of the students and I hope we do ourselves and the school proud... if we get everything finished.

At worst it has been an invaluable experience for me and the kids. We did start incredibly late so I won't make that mistake again. And even my mentor for YES at Lenzie had a few goes before being successful in the Area Finals. Though she did go on to win the Scottish twice!

Mind you, as they say from my neck of the woods: "Nae bother tae the wee man".

Was that my head swelling... mibbe. Because... READ THE POST BELOW!!!

We Are The Champions

Told them.

I had said in no uncertain terms to the seniors who did the grand job of organising a quiz for The St Andrew's Hospice that I was going to win.

Armed with a ramshackle team of Mr McAlpine (Mastermind subject: Music), Mr Alexander ( (Mastermind subject: Politics), Mr Pellegrini ( (Mastermind subject: Maths & Physics) I knew it was gonna be an uphill battle.

Just as well I had a trial for Blockbusters eh?

The lads romped home scoring 81 out of 90 to win by ten clear. We all felt like Tiger Woods, unlike Mr Arthur (Mastermind subject: Thunderbirds) who thinks he is Tiger!

Seriously, it was good fun and I enjoyed myself.

What a great performance and effort by the seniors, many of whom I teach in S6 or know through Young Enterprise. They raised something like over £400 which is just fantastic.

The Carrigan's venue in Hamilton was pretty good also. Everything went superbly.

Though I do have to say that the young chap who does Advanced Higher Music needs to go to Maths more often. I told him it was Beethoven's FIFTH and not the sixth as he insisted.

I look forward to making it two in a row next year!

The EDGE Programme

Two Hamilton Grammar pupils are going for the EDGE programme, an event run and sponsored by Scottish Enterprise.

EDGE is all about encouraging the young entrepreneurs of the future and getting them to work on a team based project within real companies.

I am going to be involved in some capacity, so I am quite excited also. And as one of the candidates remarked I am NOT only going because there is a quite stimulating social calendar. Shame on you!

Good luck to the both of them, and we wish them success.

Social Media Ideas for Business Education Subjects

Here are just a few thoughts from me about the whole Digital Curriculum or Social Media phenomenon related to the Business Subjects.

Please add your comments and share your ideas with me!

Listen to the podcast here

SBEA Mini Conference

I attended the SBEA mini conference in Stirling on Saturday 23rd Feb.

It explained a bit more in detail exactly what aCfE is going to be all about. The good news it seems for us in Business Education is that we may actually have an opportunity to have Business and Enterprise subjects taught at S1 and S2.

I do hope this doesn't mean we lose out on our IT classes to Computing!

But it must be a step in the right direction to gain more credibility for our subjects.

On another personal note, I would like to see Enterprise Education become timetabled in more schools and that the PT Enterprise & Creativity jobs are given more to Business Teachers rather than subject disciplines that may be enterprising in the sense of effecting learning and teaching, but do they have the necessary COMMERCIAL experience?

I would love to see our Business subjects be seen as important in the way they are in the USA. Business Degrees are right up there with Law and Medicine in the States.

On a final note, I watched with my class a video about John Caudwell and his star graduate recruitment programme. It was like a proto-Apprentice. The best bit was when his HR manager sifted through 2,500 CVs and only allowing 10 seconds for each. She picked up one and said: "This degree is non-commercial. Not what we're looking for." And she put it in the file going to the shredder. The sighs and look of despair from my Higher students was scary.

Perhaps also Teachers who have careers influence will think about this when they are telling kids to pick their subject!

Employers want practical skills and Business know-how. We can offer both at a High School level.

Anyway rant over!

Prelim Results

Looking over the results for both Higher Admin and Higher BM, it is obvious that there is some work to do!

The Higher BM results were overall excellent, though there is a small group who will have to attend supported study to develop their exam technique. I know you know the content, but you need to get it down on paper.

Higher Admin poses a few more problems since Paper 2 can be difficult and time is the enemy. I do believe that perhaps the wording of the questions confused some candidates. Therefore there will probably be a second Prelim to come.

The most important point to make is to make sure candidates are sitting the correct levels. Some people who get Ds can go and and achieve Cs and Bs, while there are other D candidates who would perhaps do better at Int 2.

I really urge you to view and use this blog more often as it is a good way to revise and you can ask questions which gives me the time and resources to put up better answers than a 30 second chat in class.

PR - Public Relations

Public Relations is a form of unpaid promotion.

PR tries to put a positive spin on events surounding the firm and can do this by:

writing and preparing press releases that are sent to newspapers and magazines informing them of upcoming events (perhaps the launch of a new product - The Angus Burger?)

Prepare and hand out company literature for potential customers to read and be influenced by.

Another job for PR is to try and respond to critics but in a good, positive way. To put a spin on it. For example if a company is caught out employing workers in Thailand who are getting poorly paid, the PR Dept will be on the case trying to argue that compared to other Thai workers they actually get a decent wage.

PR people arrange Press Conferences where the media can speak to people involved in the product or organisation for free. Think about Movie Stars publicising their latest blockbuster.

PR can also try to improve their image by arranging and organising donations to charrrrrriiitttteeeeeee (as Smashie and Nicey would say). So they look good and caring etc.

PR can invite in visitors or stakeholders in for a tour to try and develop good relations with them. Or even with the local community. Schools do this all the time! Getting parents in to see the new facilities or to show off some new initiative and show off how good we are!!!


One of the most famous faux pas by PR people was the blunder by Jo Moore who worked for the Labour Government. As the 9/11 attacks were going on she decided that "Today would be a good day to bury bad news". She knew the world's media had only one story to write so she tried to sneak her bad story out (I think it was to do with job losses) but unluckily for her, her email was leaked to the press. Jo Moore had to resign.

Research and Development

This is really part of product development.

So what's good about R&D?

• You can create a competitive advantage by having a product that outstrips rivals (i-Pod?)


• company image is improved if it is seen as innovative and forward thinking (Virgin, Apple?)


• you can get a PATENT which then again increases competitive advantage due to limiting imitators


• Prototypes can be developed and tested to try to satisfy customer needs


• R&D could also mean that the firm becomes more productive with the development of new technology which in turn could mean they become more efficient and also reduce costs.


• New production techniques can be created and implemented (again increasing production and lowering costs)


• Staff may be highly motivated because they are being creative

Interestingly...
99% of products don't reach market
Dragons' Den deals with much of the R&D as they meet inventors who need cash to turn their prototype into a reality
R&D is very expensive, but if firms want to be around in the future they have to invest in their future or be left behind

Outsourcing

Outsourcing is when a company contracts out work to another firm.

eg. The School can and probably in the past has created a Yearbook. But normally it is contracted out to a Printer.

Indeed even the School Modernisation could have been done by the Council, but it was contracted out to a Construction company.

So why?

The good things for the company are:

• the work will be done professionally and of high quality.


• They can focus on their own, main business.


• They can buy in the contractor on a job by job (or project by project) basis (saving labour costs)


• They do not have to buy specialist equipment (as the contractor will provide the equipment)


• The firm may not have the staff or indeed the equipment to actually perform the job

Bad things are:

• it can be very expensive


• you have less control over the job (there may be delays which you can't influence)


• information may be accessed by the contractor that is confidential


• the firm may layoff workers who were doing the job in order to bring in the contractor

2008 Prelim Advice for Higher Business Management

If you follow the link for my Higher BM page you will find the links to the 2007 past paper and the solutions.

Remember the COMMAND WORDS.

Remember SECTION ONE is compulsory.

SECTION TWO is the one you get to pick 2 from 5.

Also in Section One remember that the first question involves looking at the case study and mentioning the PROBLEMS of the company and not the solutions.

The following topics will be discussed over the next few days online:

POCGADSCIE
OUTSOURCING
STAKEHOLDERS
DOWNSIZING
SOURCES OF FINANCE
PRIMARY & SECONDARY INFORMATION
R&D
PUBLIC RELATIONS
TRADE UNIONS

2007-2008

My focus for the blog this year is Higher Business Management.

I am also teaching Higher Administration this year, but it is really a lot of work to try and update two at once as I found out last year.

So my aim is to pick one course every year and put my files online.

I am also going to create a blog for my Higher class at HGS who are all S6 pupils. It will allow them a place to come and share their thoughts about the course.

I have also created a new account on edublogs, but I am not sure what to do with it! It would take too much time to transfer over the materials, plus I like Blogger's simple and straighforward style.

Slides

I have uploaded some of my slides and embedded them into the blog.

All of my Int 2 BM slides are up, as are my Int 1 Admin ones.

I have uploaded some SG BM slides (all of unit 1, some of unit 2 and one from unit 3).

My Higher BM slides are monsters (though they are comprehensive) and I will upload them whenever I get time!

My focus for this session is Int 2 BM and SG BM, though I will try and upload more material for Int 1 Admin.

Please leave comments on how helpful or not (!) the material is to your studies.

Images and Pictures

I will try and spruce up the pages a bit with pictures of famous Business people, company logos, successful and not so successful products, and others related to Business.

I will also throw in pictures of some of the most amazing places I have visited, just to add in a personal touch! Who knows, it might inspire you to go see it for yourself!

How to use Blogger

I have written a guide to help teachers and pupils use Blogger.

Download it at the link below:

How to use Blogger pdf

I will endeavour to publish more material in the next couple of weeks as I have been very busy of late!

The pupils, especially the Int 2 Business Management classes are doing a great job and seem quite enthusiastic.

I have also met with a bit of self-pride from my Int 1 Admin class, who I thought would be reluctant to want to see their work published. Quite the contrary!

My focus this term has to be the Standard Grade pages and of course my Int 2 BM.

Administration will have to take a back seat for the moment.

I welcome ideas and contributions to make this a resource that can be used for all Business Students, particularly ones studying in Scotland.

I will also eventually create an Accounting and Finance page, an Economics page, and perhaps even general ICT as in Scotland Business Teachers teach ICT skills to S1 and S2.

One thing: I do wish we'd drop 'Education' and 'Studies' from our subject. Studying Business sounds far better!

Welcome

Hi there.

I hope you find this blog and the links useful in your learning.

I aim to have up and running soon materials for Standard Grade Business Management and Intermediate 2 Business Management.

With more to follow!