savageinfidel

I received the following email from Dennis Beresford about my previous blog posting.    In that earlier essay, I had indicated that I expected my students to study before each class as if a quiz were scheduled even though no quiz was going to be given.    I want them to motivate themselves to do the work rather than leaving the motivation up to me as the teacher.    It is their education.    They should care enough to have the discipline needed to do the work. I have long argued that students will always do much better in any class if they feel a sense of urgency.    The only question is whether that urgency needs to be externally driven or whether the students can be expected to create it for themselves.    As many of you will know, Professor Beresford served as the chairman of FASB (Financial Accounting Standards Board) from 1987 until 1997.    Since that time, he has been the Ernst & Young Executive Professor o...

At this moment, I am half-way through my 42 nd year as a college professor.    Tomorrow morning at 9 a.m. I walk back into class to see if I can do it all again.    This semester, I have 28 students in one Intermediate Accounting II class and 26 students in another Intermediate class.     I also have 15 students taking my Governmental Accounting course.    I have an opportunity to make a difference in the lives of these 69 young people.    Hopefully, that will be a positive difference.    That is not a responsibility that I take lightly.    Whether each of these students is better off on the last day of the semester depends in large part on how well I do my job.     After all this time, I am still thrilled when I think about going into class and leading the conversation.    I never fail to get a stomach full of butterflies before the first class.    You could describe my feel...

  Before I get started today, I want to wish every teacher out there a wonderful 2013.    During the upcoming year, go out and make a positive difference in as many lives as you possibly can.    This teaching job might not always pay well but having the opportunity to be a positive influence on so many lives (especially the lives of young people) is absolutely priceless.    Enjoy every day you have in the classroom!!    Happy 2013!!!! ** I want to experiment more in my teaching.    I guess that is my new year's resolution.   This is my 42 nd year in the classroom and it is easy to get into a rut.   There are days when I can do this job in my sleep.    Sometimes I really have to stop and push myself to get outside of my comfort zone.    I never want to get into a position where I just go through the motions.    I do better work when things aren’t so easy. For that reason, in the c...

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. ...

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 ...

Joe’s Top Ten List This past Thursday, I had the great good fortune to lead a 3 ½ hour discussion of teaching at the New Faculty Seminar put on by the Virginia Community College System.    The VCCS had about 150 folks there who had joined their teaching ranks in the last year or so.    We spent our time together chatting about how to become a better college teacher. Whenever I lead this type of discussion, I always like to give the participants something at the end that will keep the thought process moving forward even after we have parted.    Here is what I typed on Wednesday night and then distributed to these folks after our time together on Thursday. ** One of my favorite class assignments is to ask my students to read a chapter and pick the top 5 or 10 things they found important in the material.    I think that does a lot for them.    It forces them to think more deeply about the subject as they read.    It also r...

College education has numerous critics these days.     I believe the recent fascination with MOOCs comes – at least in part – from dissatisfaction with the perceived quality of the current educational experience.    We promise development of critical thinking skills in our students but often appear to deliver little more than well-rehearsed memorization.     The argument then follows that we don’t need small classes and individual attention simply to teach memorization.    Massive online courses can achieve that goal with much less cost. In my spare time, I often ponder how modern college education can become better.    For example, is the education that a college student gets today really superior in any way to the norm 40 years ago?    Cars get more miles per gallon of gas than they did back then.    Computers run thousands of times faster.    But, has college education gotten better during that same ...