Student Guide Corner

As most people know, I am a full-time faculty member here at the University of Richmond.   Over the summer, Dr. Ronald Crutcher was named the 10 th president of our University.   I was at one of the opening ceremonies for the fall semester this morning.   President Crutcher spoke and was kind enough to mention this teaching blog.  He said that he had been reading it since he was appointed to the position of president.   So, I want to wish President Crutcher a true welcome to the University of Richmond.   No matter how good you think we are, your job is to make us better.   Make it happen. **   I was at a conference in Chicago last week and was part of two panel presentations on teaching.   In such wide ranging discussions, I inevitably talk about quite a number of ways to become a better teacher over the course of the next academic year.   Not surprisingly, I tend to give a variety of answers...

My next set of classes starts on Monday, August 24.   However, I emailed my students their first assignment back on April 28.   I did not want them to waste their summer.   More importantly, I wanted to start having a positive influence on them as soon as possible.   The assignment had several parts culminating in their writing a short essay on the characteristics of a great student.   I just wanted them to think about what that meant.   I�ll write more about the results of that assignment during the fall when I see whether it had any impact on the students. Today, though, I want to give you an assignment to complete before your fall semester begins.   When I put on teaching presentations, I often begin by instructing my audience to do the following exercise.  Standing in front of all those teachers, I ask every person to close their eyes.   (I always warn them that they cannot fall asleep.)  ...

As I have mentioned on my last two postings, I will be part of a panel discussion on April 17, 2015, in Asheville, NC, at the Southeast Regional Meeting of the American Accounting Association.   I am thrilled to be joined by three great teachers:   Lynn Clements of Florida Southern, Eric Bostwick of the University of West Florida, and Scott Showalter of North Carolina State.   We are planning to have a simple conversation about some of the most basic issues in teaching.   I am very much interested in knowing how other teachers deal with the challenges that I seem to face every day in my classroom.   I have long believed that we need a more open exchange of ideas if college education is going to improve as it must. I am not sure what questions we will end up discussing in Asheville but here are ten that we are considering.   How would you answer each of these questions?   There are no right or wrong answers here but th...

There are many times in teaching that a teacher needs to explain things to students. In many college classes, they are young people with limited experience. Occasionally, they simply don�t understand, especially when things are not as they have experienced them in the past. Part of my job as a teacher is to explain things beyond my subject matter. There are stories that can sometimes help them come to a better understanding. I often have students come to my office after I return a test. They are upset that they didn�t make the grade they had wanted or expected. It is common for me to hear something like �I cannot tell you how hard I studied. In fact, I studied with Mr. A and Ms. B and I knew just as much as they did. We worked every question from class 8 times apiece. Yet, they made a 95 and I made an 83. What am I supposed to do?� I guess this is on my mind because one of my students told me this afternoon that the 83 he got on a recent test was the first grade he had received in coll...

I started a new semester last week. Last night, at the end of that first week, I sent the following email to my students. Now that they see what we are doing, I want them to understand my goals. I want them to see what I am trying to accomplish. I want them to believe that the work that I am asking them to do is worth the effort. To achieve your ambitions, your students have to buy into the process. If they do the work just because they are scared of you or your tests, the amount they can achieve is truly limited. To: Accounting Students From: JH Okay, you�ve had my class now for a week. It is obviously a different approach. Some people like it and some people hate it. I can live with that. But, I do want you to understand what I�m trying to do. I think you�ll do better if you see what my goals are. I realize that you are more used to lecture and memorization and may not even see what benefit comes from what we are doing. If you have a free ten minutes this w...