Student Guide Corner

Education is highly criticized these days for (a) costing too much and (b) achieving too little.    And, if we are perfectly honest, those criticisms are not just idle chatter.    I have long argued that much of college education is not radically different than what I experienced when I started as a college freshman 47 1/2 years ago.    (Okay, we do have PowerPoint now and teachers did not have that back in 1966, but I am not sure if that is progress or regression.)    The world has changed radically over those decades but a lot of education has barely flinched. I believe that there is not enough innovation in education.    Think of the sheer number of teachers working in the United States.    Why are there not more innovative ideas flowing from those minds?     If each teacher came up with one innovative idea, the world of education would be radically transformed almost immediately.    We would be fl...

  After a sabbatical semester, I am back in the classroom.    It is interesting to be away for 8 months and then walk in to face young faces again.    In the first week, I try to do as I always do:    Set the tone that I want for the entire semester.    I see no reason to wait to say �this is how I want the semester to go.�    During the first class, in different words on several different occasions, I explained exactly how I wanted the class to operate.    I always believe that it goes better if you are very open with the students and clear on your goals and expectations.  I think, for the most part, students rise to a challenge if they are convinced that the benefit is real. �During this semester, I will devise weird situations each day and then I will guide you as you figure out proper responses.    We�ll make lots of mistakes along the way but if we work hard we�ll eventually get to good, firm, logic...

  I am delighted to report that last week this blog went over 100,000 page views since its inception.    That is certainly a dream come true for me.     Many thanks to everyone who has been kind enough over the years to mention this blog to all of the teachers around you.    As a new year begins, please continue to let people in the education profession know that I try to post my thoughts on teaching 2 or 3 times each month.    Thanks!!! ** About 10 days ago, I released my new book on Amazon:    Don�t Just Dream about Success:    Stack the Odds in Your Favor .    As the title clearly implies, I believe that everyone can become more successful more of the time by following certain tactics.    Proceeds from the sale of this book go to finance CPA review for FREE, the website ( www.CPAreviewforFREE.com ) where candidates can prepare to pass the CPA exam without having to spend a fortune.    I sim...

�Too often, we settle for dreams that merely scratch the surface of our abilities and then wonder why we are dissatisfied with the results.� From the book:    Don�t Just Dream about Success:    Stack the Odds in Your Favor By:    Joe Hoyle (to be published in January 2014)   Returning from Thanksgiving break, virtually all college teachers start looking forward to creating and then grading final exams.    It is a necessary part of the job but it is also an event that can impact the education of each student rather significantly.    Below is a rewritten version of a blog entry that I posted 3 � years ago.    I thought it made a good point back then.    I believe the same thing today. ** Why do you give a final exam to your students? What do you hope to accomplish?   I have talked with many professors over the years and their strategies for final examinations vary greatly from one to the next.   Here ar...

There are numerous options for meeting the needs of all learners in our classrooms. One area that teachers often find challenging is how to adjust the reading level or adapt the content for students who are English Language Learners, have intellectual disabilities or need information cognitively rescaled  for any reason. Here are some free tools to try: 1. When conducting a Google Search , did you know you can adjust your search by reading level? Learn how to do that here . This can be invaluable for many students. 2. Did you know Wikipedia offers a more user friendly version for students who need information simplified called Simple English Wikipedia ? Here's the home page to explore more. 3. Auto summarize tools scale back the amount of information a student must decode and comprehend. Two free autosummarize  tools are TextCompactor and TLDR - Chrome  (Too Long, Didn't Read) TLDR - Firefox. 4. A fantastic tool which modifies language in classic books, online articl...

As some of you might know, about five years ago I cofounded the website www.CPAreviewforFREE.com .    Since that time, we have provided CPA exam candidates with 2,400 free questions and answers which are (in my opinion) well written and well explained.   We do this because we firmly believe that everyone needs access to affordable materials so that they have a reasonable opportunity of passing the CPA exam.   The CPA profession should be open to all people, even those who cannot afford expensive study guides and review materials.   Over the years, many candidates have passed the exam solely using our questions and answers.   These are often young people with very limited resources.    These are the kinds of folks who keep the profession fresh, active, and innovative. We have been searching for some way to fund this site so that we can continue to offer this assistance for free.    Over the last couple of months, I have been writing an ...

Quick note:    This teaching blog went over 95,600 page views yesterday.    Thanks a million (and a half) to everyone who has mentioned these random writings to someone else who teaches.    I�m convinced that people throughout the world of education really do want to have conversations about better teaching just so they can bat some ideas around.     Sometimes, though, it is hard to get those conversations started.    Perhaps something that is written here can serve as a conversation starter.    College education gets beaten up a lot these days in the news.    I�m convinced that more conversations among teachers would be a good way to start solving some of those problems. And, in case you wondered, a total of 95,600 page views is roughly the equivalent of one page view every 21 minutes, 24 hours per day, 7 days per week for the past 3.6 years.    Hopefully, that translates into a whole lot of better teaching...