Student Guide Corner

On July 25, 2016, I posted a blog entry describing a class supplement I was building for my introductory financial accounting class.   I have spent the summer creating electronic flashcards using Power Point so that I could embed audio clips and link to videos that I had made.   My goal was to guide students through each chapter of the textbook to help them in organizing and reviewing complex material (or to serve as the preliminary coverage for a flipped classroom).  In that earlier posting, I stressed the need for careful sequencing of the individual cards. I emailed the finished product for Chapter One to my students yesterday.   I am a big believer in the power of communications so I explained what I was trying to do and why.   I asked for their feedback.   After all, the product is for their benefit.  Students are in the best position to say what works and what doesn�t. If you would like a copy of what I created for Chapte...

If I offered you $1,000 to teach my dog (Fido) to roll over, how would you go about doing it?   Even if you have never taught an animal to do anything, do you think you could come up with logical and reasonable steps?  Sure you could.  For that kind of incentive, my guess is that we would all probably do a pretty decent job.  It might take awhile but we could do it. I have written well over 200 blog postings about teaching during the last 6-7 years.   One particular entry from early in 2010 has really been on my mind recently�probably because a new school year is starting and I�m thinking deeply about teaching my 56 students.   In that original blog, I talked about teaching Fido to roll over.  Earlier today, I went back and reread this old post.   I loved the idea but I did not seem to develop my thoughts particularly well.  I am not sure I knew what I wanted to say.  Heck, I was only 62 at the time.  Maybe I hav...

Welcome to Teaching Tidbits , a new blog hosted by the Mathematical Association of America, written for mathematics instructors by mathematics instructors. As seasoned instructors and professors, we recognize how challenging it is to keep up with all of the latest educational research and pedagogical practices that are coming out each year. We all want to engage our students and invigorate our classes, but it can be a struggle to find the time to research, plan, and execute these ideas. To help you find the latest advancements in pedagogy, we created Teaching Tidbits : a blog that will provide quality instruction ideas in succinct posts that you can read before class and implement the same day. You can even read it on your smartphone or tablet while you walk to class! Teaching Tidbits will post our first tidbit in a few weeks, at the start of the new academic year. Our experts , Jessica M. Deshler, Dana C. Ernst, Rachel Levy, Lew Ludwig, Rejoice Mudzimiri, and Julie Phelps will be pr...