Student Guide Corner

My classes for this coming semester will start one week from today.   One of my classes will be an introductory course with 24 freshmen.   I want to make sure those students are clear about what I want from them.   So, I sent them an email today and I tried to explain things as best I could.   I want to inspire them without seeming silly.   I want to challenge them without scaring them.  Here (in part) is what I wrote to these 24 freshmen: �Over the past few weeks, you should have received quite a bit of stuff from me by email.  Read it all.  Think about it.  I want the coming semester to be absolutely great for you.  I want this to be the best educational experience you�ve ever had.   I want you to learn more than you ever thought possible. �I like to make things crystal clear.  Things simply go better if you understand what I expect from you and why.  As I mentioned in one of my emails, I wi...

On Friday morning, April 8, 2016, I will be speaking at the Ohio region meeting of the American Accounting Association on the topic of �Perspectives of High-Quality Teaching.�   If you are in the Cleveland area, I hope you will show up.  I would love to meet you and chat about teaching.   Here�s the URL. http://aaahq.org/meetings/2016/ohio-midyear-meeting ** I am teaching three classes this semester�two Intermediate Accounting II classes and one Financial Accounting class.  I have 78 students.   I realize that some of you teach hundreds but, for me, 78 is a fairly large number.  That provides some challenges when trying to get each student to do outstanding work. I always give three tests every semester and a final exam.   I believe that gives the students a chance to show me what they have really learned.   After the first two tests, I usually have a good group (50-60 percent) who are doing well and have an excellent chan...

As I have mentioned, I was involved with two panel discussions recently at the annual meeting of the American Accounting Association.    At one point, I was asked about the best teaching advice that I ever received.    Over a 44 year period, everyone hears a lot of good teaching advice (and some bad advice also).    Deciding which advice is best can be a challenge.    But, my mind always goes back to something my boss told me during the first year I was teaching.    The advice came at a time when I was struggling to figure out who I wanted to be as a teacher.    Those first few years are so important because they form the structure on which a teacher builds an entire career. One day the head of the business program was talking with me about teaching.    He looked at me and said �If you truly care about these students, you will push them as hard as you can to be great.�    There was a lot that I liked about ...

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.)  ...

If you have followed this blog for long, you know that one of my primary recommendations is that every teacher should work to get 5 percent better every year.   If all of us could manage to improve by just 5 percent during the next 12 months, imagine how much more effective our educational system would become.   I think 5 percent is a realistic goal.   It would not take radical change.   If every teacher truly pushed for a 5 percent improvement, our schools and students would benefit in unbelievable ways. As we start each new year, I like to step back and think about how I might achieve my 5 percent improvement.   This is my 44 th year as a college professor and I am no longer a young person.   However, if I am not willing to push myself to improve, then it is probably time for me to retire.   Because I really do not want to retire, I am actively working on my 5 percent. Are you? As I mentioned in an earlier blog entr...

This will be my 201 st entry on this blog.   That is roughly 190 more than I expected to write when I first began.    Over the years, the blog has had 130,000 page views and was recently named one of the top 50 blogs in accounting for 2014.    ( http://www.accounting-degree.org/50-best-accounting-blogs-of-2014/ )     Unfortunately, it was the only blog on the list that dealt with education.    I would honestly love to be reading 50 different blogs about teaching and learning.     At that point, I think college education could really begin to improve.    So, start a blog.    Share your opinions.    Share your questions.    Share your doubts.    Share your frustrations.    We need more of that.    You will never be able to estimate how much the blogging process can improve your own teaching until you start typing and posting. As always, I want to pass al...

  A good friend emailed me a few days ago and asked for some suggestions on writing a test.   S tudents were mostly getting good grades on her tests but she wasn�t sure that they were learning as much and as deeply as she wanted. I think testing is a teaching topic that we do not talk about frequently enough.    Too often, we are probably afraid of exposing our weaknesses.    Few people are trained to write good test questions.    She was creating an accounting test but I believe the basic discussions around testing are pretty much universal across the various disciplines.    Here were the thoughts that I sent to her. Rule 1 � Testing is just about the most important thing a teacher does each semester because it sets the tone for the students.   It tells them what you really want and expect from them.   If you test memorization, they will learn to memorize.   If you test mechanics, they will learn nothi...

I will be leading a 75 minute discussion on teaching (�Coaxing More Excellence from Your Students�) starting at 10:40 a.m. on Saturday, September 27, 2014.    The presentation is part of the 2014 North Carolina Education Forum at the Embassy Suites near Raleigh, NC.    If you are in the area, I hope you will consider attending.   You can get more information at www.ncacpa.org . ** The September 6-7, 2014, issue of The Wall Street Journal had a great article on teaching:    �Four Ways to Spot a Great Teacher.�     It is on page C3 and I would urge you to read it.    Here, I just want to address the four highlights to whet your appetite.    The author (Dana Goldstein) talks about the importance of teaching and how a parent (and I suppose a student) can recognize great teaching.    Here are the four keys as well as my own observations. �Great teachers:    Have active intellectual lives outside thei...