PRos in Training

Taking Flight: “Best Of” Student Blog Posts from Winter 2014

My Strategic PR Writing students blogged twice a week for seven weeks this term. It’s a feat to get all those posts done! I picked a “best of” from each blog to share with you. You can learn more about the background on the students’ assignment here.

Congrats to all 16 of my students on their blogs! In no particular order… here are this term’s best ofs:

Just Keep Swimming: Week 7 Linky Loves

We’re on the downhill slide of the term. Just three weeks to go (and a ton of grading), and winter term will be in the books. So just keep swimming! We’re almost there.

This week’s links feel very random, to me, but each interesting on its own merits. You can learn more info about these “linky loves” and the background on the students’ assignment here.

Making the Most of Office Hour Meetings

I truly enjoy meeting with students. One-on-one chats provide time to explain a confusing topic, go over feedback on an assignment or just chat about career (or life) goals. And everyone’s time is valuable – your time as a student, my time as faculty member and a PR pro.

I ask students to make appointments with me using an online calendar system because it helps me manage my schedule and be more available and present for students.

Gold Medal Linky Loves for Week 6

The 2014 Winter Olympics in Sochi, Russia are in full swing. I must admit that I haven’t been watching much, just keeping up on the periphery. However, this week’s linky love best of posts seem to have naturally gravitated toward sport this week on their own with the Olympics, college football signing day and a high-profile NFL potential draftee “coming out.” Even if the topic is sports, the ideas are bigger.

Snowmageddon Week 5 Linky Loves

As I finish this week’s list of best of links, we’re watching another snowstorm dump inches and inches of snow. We had so much snow in December and it stayed for so long. I’m not a happy camper. Part of the reason is that, regardless of the flake factor, the work goes on. Part of that work for my students is their blogging project! Yay!

This week’s links are a bit of a hodgepodge. You can learn more info about these “linky loves” and the background on the students’ assignment here.

Celeb PR Not All Red Carpets and Paparazzi: Ask Scarlett Johansson

I can’t pretend that I don’t respond with amusement (and bemusement, for that matter) when a student says that he or she wants to do “entertainment PR.” I know it comes from our celeb-obsessed culture and they hope it means working on red carpets, setting up press junkets and coordinating with the personal stylist to ensure the dress and jewels are fierce.

I know that there’s plenty of that for the select few who rise to that level (and we’ve all seen the awkward publicists hovering and herding on the red carpet at awards shows).

We’re in the Groove, Now! Week Four Linky Loves

At this point in the term, we’re all finding our groove. We’re far enough into the quarter to have some routines established and expectations for each class calendared out for the term. I’d say that “in the groove” for me this term is more about learning to dance with new partners to new music than to finding routine. But I’m starting to get the hang of that, too.

In my strategic public relations writing class, students have been blogging for two weeks, so they’re finding their own groove. You can learn more info about these “linky loves” and the background on the students’ assignment here.

Time Warp Linky Loves for Week Three

Is it possible for time to both speed up and slow down simultaneously? This time in the term, it both amazes me that we’re already a third of the way through the term (we’re still finding our groove!) and yet, somehow, how is it only week three.

This is our second round of “best of” posts for my students in Strategic Public Relations Communications. You can learn more info about these “linky loves” and the background on the students’ assignment here.

On with the links!

Back in the Saddle with the First Herd of Winter Term Linky Loves

Winter term is always my favorite in the academic universe. Students seem more focused, I seem more focused and productive. We could probably blame the dreary weather — after all, what else do we have to do in Oregon in January and February in Oregon? It lacks the distractions of Spring and is more settled in than Fall.

This term, I’m teaching Strategic Public Relations Writing (J452) for the first time in two years. In this class, students blog twice a week for the duration of the term.