Student Guide Corner

A few days ago, I posted some advice that I had given to my students about the amount of true study time they needed to invest to succeed in my class.  In that essay, I made the point that students need someone to give them some direction now and then.   That is one of the reasons many of them come to college.   I doubt that anyone disagrees with the idea that a college teacher can provide guidance to students about their study habits.  You might not do it but I do not suspect that anyone thinks it is a problem. Today, I want to talk more about sharing advice with students.  This might be a bit more controversial.   I never take class time to give advice outside of subject matter.  Never.  However, I do use email to do so.   If I see or read something that I think students should consider, I put it in an email and send it to them.  Most of the time it is about a book or a movie that I think is worthwhile.  Is tha...

I suspect none of us who teach probably appreciates fully how much guidance students need.   Every class is unique and has its own keys to success.  To us, who have been doing this forever, the way forward looks as clear as the yellow brick road that Dorothy was told to follow by the munchkins.  To the students, the path looks like an overgrown mile of swampland with no visible markers.   I realize that they look like adults but most students probably need guidance almost every step of the way. I think one of the biggest challenges in college education (and I have said this often on this blog) is that students are under-prepared when they walk into class.   They are just are not ready for the depth of conversation that I want.  So, we teachers wind up guiding them using a long, boring lecture.   If they are not prepared, what else are we going to do? I often accuse them of being prepared for a high school class.  The response i...

If you have followed this blog for a while, you know that I try to use the summer to get the students ready for the fall semester.   I want everyone to be ready on the first day to take off and fly.  Time is short.  I want to use it all and use it effectively.  Consequently, I send periodic emails to my new students from May through August although I am never sure whether they pay close attention or not.  However, one email does seem to catch their attention.    Last week, I cut and pasted one of the questions included on the final exam last spring into an email.   I then sent it to the new students to give them a feel for what they are going to learn this fall.  Most students do not understand in advance the purpose of a course.  A final exam problem gives them an illustration of what they will be able to do after we spend the semester working together.   The reality of seeing a question that the previous class had t...

Happy Holidays!!!   I hope this semester has been wonderful, one where your students were inspired to think deeply and find joy in learning.  As I often tell my students:  the more you learn, the more the world opens up to you.  So, I hope you helped to open the world a bit wider for every one of your students.  Could any job be more rewarding than that? ** I needed an old picture last week for a project so I went searching through my college yearbooks.  They have remained on my book shelf, rarely opened, for nearly five decades.   Although I discovered hundreds of scenes of college life, my attention was captured by one tiny picture�about the size of a quarter.  Oddly enough, it was a photo of a sheet of paper�a paper that had 8 words handwritten on it.   The sheet looked like it might have been tacked to a wall.  I have no idea why this particular photo was included in a college yearbook but the words on that paper certa...

I read recently an opinion column that stated the obvious:   Americans have become very angry people.  And, it is not just the recent election.  For months (well, more like years), news reports have conveyed an ongoing story:  People across this country are angry and upset for one reason or another.  I am not here to judge whether such feelings are justified.  That is not my point.  I just find the current level of anger especially sad since we are not involved in a world war that is killing millions or trying to live through the horrors of the Great Depression or having to watch our children perish with the bubonic plague or living with rampant inflation that makes our money worthless before we can spend it. I think one reason for such universal anger is that most people simply don�t feel appreciated.  That is a basic human need that we tend to overlook in our daily lives.  People need to feel that their efforts have been noticed. ...

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...

I just checked the statistics for this teaching blog.   Sometime over the next day or so, it will likely reach a total of 200,000 page views.   I am always amazed and pleased that so many teachers read these essays.   Since there is no publicity, the word only spreads because readers like you pass along the URL.   Thanks for doing that!!  Whenever you read an idea that you like, I hope you will share it with your colleagues, friends, neighbors, and even your enemies.   I love it when people send me teaching ideas.  Likewise, I appreciate your sharing my thoughts with others.  Teaching ideas should be shared and not hoarded. ** If you have read this blog for long, you know that I am always thinking of possible ways that I can improve my teaching.   I am a big believer that the more ideas you have then the more ideas you will have.  If you have one idea, a second idea may be difficult to produce. ...

As I have said occasionally on this blog, one important step in having a great class is selling the class to the students.   If they are not convinced that the sacrifice is worth the reward, even the best teacher will have trouble getting the strong effort from them that is needed.   Most college students have had plenty of classes over the years that seemed like a total waste of time.   They often start each new semester with that cynical expectation.   As early as possible, I want to begin selling them on the vital importance of what we are going to be doing.   I want to create that positive mindset.  I want them to anticipate something special. Thus, although my classes do not begin until January 11, I have already sent out an email or two just to introduce myself and start building momentum for the semester.   This morning, I sent out the following email message to my future Intermediate Accounting II students.   I want the students to underst...

As I try to mention every now and then, if you want me to send you an announcement whenever I post a new blog entry (about 20 times per year), send me an email at Jhoyle@richmond.edu . *** My good friend Bob Jensen passed along the following URL a week or so ago: https://www.insidehighered.com/news/2015/11/06/qa-laguardia-community-college-president-new-book-college-teaching?utm_source=Inside+Higher+Ed&utm_campaign=1d9d10a57e-Insider_Update_201512&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_1fcbc04421-1d9d10a57e-197565045 The related story talks with one of the authors of the book Taking College Teaching Seriously :   Pedagogy Matters!     The story begins with an interesting assertion:   �The call to increase the number of U.S. adults with college degrees and improve college completion rates across the country has only grown louder in recent years.  But relatively little has been discussed about the actual teaching that occurs inside the thousands of...