Student Guide Corner

My life is now officially complete.    I was mentioned recently in the Huffington Post. http://www.huffingtonpost.com/ethan-senack/back-to-school-back-to-sk_b_3845386.html Life will surely be downhill for me from here on out. ** I have written about Ken Bain on this blog on a number of occasions.     He is author of What the Best College Teachers Do , a work that I have recommended to hundreds of teachers in my teaching presentations.    Several years ago, Dr. Bain spoke on our campus.    In the evening, he met with probably 75 faculty members.    During the program someone near the back of the room raised a hand and asked the direct question:    How do you become a great teacher?   Okay, the question that everyone really wanted to have answered was officially on the table.    What does a teacher need to do to become great? Dr. Bain responded immediately with a response that went something like this: ...

Before I get started today, I want to send out a big Thank You to all the readers of this blog.    Several days ago, we went over 90,000 total pageviews.    When I first started writing these essays, I would have bet a gazillion dollars that I�d never get 5,000 pageviews.    And, I would not have gotten to even that lower mark without folks like you passing along good words about this site.    Thanks � I would have probably stopped writing years ago except that the traffic remains strong and actually seems to grow over time.    You provide the energy.   I continue to be convinced that people really do like to think and talk about teaching because it is both extremely important to our lives and our future and a whole lot of fun. ** A new school year is starting.    For me, it will be my 43 rd year in the classroom.    I have written before that I believe every teacher should consider the �teaching perso...

As some of you might know, besides being a college professor, I am a cofounder and president of CPAreviewforFREE.com.    In that role, I send out email lessons to about 20,000 past and future CPA candidates two or three times each month.    These lessons talk about how to pass the CPA Exam and, hopefully, encourage and assist those candidates in achieving their goal.    I�ve actually written these motivational email lessons now (off and on) for nearly 20 years.    The following blog entry is adapted from a recent one of those lessons.    Obviously, I�ve changed the goal from �pass the CPA Exam� to �become a better teacher� but I believe that this basic message applies to teachers just as much as it does to CPA Exam candidates.    Success is success whenever you face a genuine challenge. ** Two to four times each year, over the past 10-12 years, I have given presentations around the country on teaching.    I am always ...

I am beginning an experiment today to help more of my students be successful in the classroom. If you look on the upper left hand side of this page, you should see a link titled �FINANCIAL ACCOUNTING � 2nd Edition.� If you click on that link, you will come to a page that has a series of audio clips between 8 and 11 minutes in length. These audio clips were created by me to accompany the Financial Accounting textbook that I have written with CJ Skender at UNC (and published by FlatWorldKnowledge). Although these audio files are specifically designed for our book, they could probably be used quite well with any book. Debits are debits and credits are credits in every textbook. Right now, I have five audio files posted but I hope to have many more soon. If you are teaching financial accounting, please feel free to suggest that your students listen to these files to see if they are helpful. Heck, they are free. What do they have to lose except for a few minutes of their time? Each fil...

Happy holidays to all the teachers out there.    This blog just went over 67,800 page views.    I have been thrilled throughout the year to have the chance to interact with so many wonderful educators.    ** When I give teaching presentations around the country, I am often asked how my teaching has changed during the past 42 years.    Because I stress working for 5 percent improvement each year, that particular question is certainly a legitimate one.    Invariably someone will jump up and ask:    Okay, how are you managing to improve over time? I actually have a couple of different answers for that question.    But, there is one response that I always give:    During the past decade, I have come to spend a lot more time writing my test questions.    I used to throw tests together hurridly with one goal:    to be fair.    Now, though, I view testing as a much more important ...

Last week, in each of my three classes, we were covering some extremely difficult material.    The students came to class well prepared for the most part.    They did a good job of analyzing and discussing the issues.    They came up with reasonable solutions.     They were certainly not perfect but they demonstrated a solid understanding of some truly complicated concepts.    I was proud of them.    They had come a long way. We are now down to the last few days of the semester.    I was extremely happy to see such a good effort here near the end.    Even a grump like me had to be pleased.    Virtually every student in class had demonstrated a real improvement since we began back in August.    They not only knew more financial accounting but, just as importantly to me, they knew more about how to be good students.    At times like these, I am always reminded of a quote ...

This blog went over 50,000 views a few days ago. Obviously, no one would have ever heard of this blog over the past 27 months if it weren�t for people like you who have spread the word. First, I want to thank you from the bottom of my heart. I cannot tell you how very much I appreciate your helping out by telling other people about my writings. Second, I�d like to ask you for a very personal favor. The second edition of my Financial Accounting textbook that I wrote with C. J. Skender (of UNC) came out today. (Today!!!!) I feel like I just experienced the birth of another child. I thought the first edition was good but I honestly think the second edition is great. It approaches the introduction of financial accounting differently because it is written in a Socratic Method style. It is the book that I have always wanted to write and I am thrilled with it. It covers what I think college students should learn in an introductory course. And, although I am obviously bia...

Before I write about my next favorite quote about teaching, I have a quick announcement. I know that a lot of the folks who read this blog teach accounting. As most of you probably know, I am the coauthor of an Advanced Accounting textbook (McGraw-Hill) and an Introduction to Financial Accounting textbook (Flat World Knowledge). Over the past 6-8 months, I have spent an incredible amount of time helping to create the second edition of the Financial Accounting textbook (with C.J. Skender of UNC). That second edition will be coming out in the next 4-5 weeks. The book was very successful in the first edition but (as you might imagine) I�d love to increase that adoption rate for the second edition. We didn�t make any huge changes but we must have made 1,000 small tweaks. I was pleased with the first edition but I�m truly ecstatic about the second. I know it is a clich� but we set out to build a better mousetrap. For example, it is the only Socratic Method textbook that you ...