Last year, I taught an elective for Christ Church Academy on Marketing and Media. The focus of the class was to help the high school students who enroll in my elective on what marketing is and how it affects business. We looked at both businesses for profit and not-for-profit. The media aspect was on how media, primarily social media, has influenced our culture today and created a new form of marketing, social marketing, and expanded our understanding of viral marketing.

There were fifteen students in my course, ranging from 10th-12th grade, and I loved my time with them! Many of them are taking the class because they want to or have already started their own business. When I was a junior in high school, I opened up a window-washing business called Open Heaven Services and loved that experience, so I think there will be a lot this class was able to accomplish for them as they start and begin to grow their business.

The course went for a full semester (18 weeks) and I created a course website for the students. Feel free to check out http://marketingandmediaclass.com if you would like to see what they learned on a weekly basis. If there is anything I am covering that you would like to learn about, email me on that site (click contact) and ask for my notes.

I’ve been asked to the course again next year with new students. The principal of the school asked if I would consider making it a graded course instead of an elective, but I’ve opted to keep it an elective due to the amount of time necessary to turn it into a graded class.

Do you have any suggestions for me in this endeavor? I would appreciate any support, comments, or direction so that I can offer these students everything they want to learn.