Student Guide Corner

I am now halfway through my 42 nd year as a college teacher.    This semester (like all semesters) had its ups and downs.    There were days when every student seemed brilliant and days when no one seemed to be able to count to four.      I don�t think I taught any geniuses but almost every student appeared capable and, hopefully, gained something of lasting benefit.    I started with 73 students and a total of 16 finished with the grade of A.    I always hope for more excellent work but 21.9 percent was not bad.    I try not to contribute too heavily to grade inflation. At the end of every semester, there are always a few students that I wish I had handled differently.    I often ponder them long after class has ended.    With 73 students, it can be difficult to get an accurate read on each student at the beginning of the semester.    Some need carrots to do well and some need sticks. ...

I am always a bit amazed by how many readers we have on this blog. I never expected to get to 1,000 and we have now had (as of 8 minutes ago) 54,309 page views. Many readers are accounting profs but a lot teach all kinds of other things. I am busy so I rarely pay attention to which blog entries get a lot of readership and which get less. However, because of an unrelated project, I had to go back a few days ago and look at all the entries to date and noted the number of hits for each. Most got hundreds, some got thousands. However, the following entry (from May 30, 2010) only had 14 hits. 14??? Heck, some of these entries get 14 hits in the first two minutes. I�m not sure why no one read this entry because (even rereading it today) I think it raises a valid question as to what you actually want to be as a college prof. I especially liked the comment about the baseball team needing different types of players. Are you in an environment where different talents and roles are recognized? So,...