Student Guide Corner

Greetings from the annual convention of the American Accounting Association.    One of the plenary speakers was Jimmy Wales who founded Wikipedia.   He is truly one of the most impressive people I have ever seen.   Very inspiring person.   Hope you get to hear him one day. ** The following blog entry is, to some extent, an extension of my previous essay on this blog. ** Below is a note that I wrote yesterday morning to my intermediate accounting students.    Even before the semester begins, I am trying to stack the odds of success in my favor.    Based on my 43 years as a classroom teacher, I have found that most C students make C�s, most B students make B�s, and most A students make A�s.    Okay, there is always some movement in the ranks but I often get frustrated with the rigidity of this alignment.    Students bring to class a self-image that seems to create an upper barrier that limits how good they can be. ...

One of the great benefits of teaching is that the summer is available.    We can do research and writing.   Or, we can work to improve our teaching.    �How can my next class be better than my last class?� is a great question to ponder during the summer break.    You have had a couple of months of break � how often have you addressed that question?    I am a strong proponent that everyone needs to learn to think differently about the challenges they face.    If you think like everyone else, you will wind up being average by definition.    In my book Don�t Just Dream about Success:    Stack the Odds in Your Favor , I devote an entire chapter to the challenge of learning to �Think Differently.�    Here is just one of the suggestions that I put forward in that book: ��How could this have been improved?� is a great question to consider throughout your daily wanderings.    It stimulates critical ...