FOUR STORIES ABOUT THE JOY AND WONDER OF BEING A TEACHER

Last week, the School of Professional and Continuing Studies here at the University of Richmond held its opening meeting for the new semester.   I was asked to give what I would describe as a keynote speech to kick off the semester.  Often, when I am asked to speak in this way, I will present some type of Power Point slide show where I discuss a topic like “My Top Ten Favorite Teaching Tips.”   In truth, I can do those programs fairly quickly and often with good results.

However, I decided that I wanted to do something different this time.   Our world has become so cynical and sour.   Every politician with a microphone will stand in front of a crowd and spew anger and hatred.   The news channels do not help as they debate the pros and cons of every single political decision often deriving people who are trying to do their best.   I fully realize that people in every community can be frustrated but I am tired of the sole political statement being:  “I am mad and I am going to tell you about it.” 

Plus, I often believe that teachers are just under appreciated, especially by themselves.  Without teachers, we would have no doctors or lawyers or engineers or accountants.

I decided to use my microphone time to talk about the excitement and thrill of being a teacher.   Sure, I could have stressed the bad days that happen in the classroom (and we all have those) but I wanted to talk about the wonderful influence we can have over so many people, especially young people.   I am glad they pay me for this job but I might well do it even if I wasn’t paid.  I love the thrill of making a difference.  Don’t you?   I can’t see how anybody would not love being a teacher.

In case you would like to watch that speech and judge whether I was really positive and optimistic enough, you can check out the URL blow.   The first nine minutes are announcements.  I start speaking after that.   Eventually, I ask the group to answer a question.   I’d love to know how you would have answered that question.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nT428yjJ0Ls&feature=em-subs_digest

If nothing else, fast forward to the very end where I read a couple of sentences from a famous book.   Those words are worth hearing.

USING THE SOCRATIC METHOD TO TEACH MORE THAN JUST STUFF

If you have read this blog for long, you know I began using the Socratic Method in my accounting classes way back in 1991.   I often get questions about why I started and how I use the Socratic Method.   I always tell people that it is hard to explain unless you are there to watch the process.    People simply don’t believe that you can teach complex accounting theory by firing hard ball questions at the students.  

I was asked last fall to discuss the Socratic Method at a faculty forum here on campus and give a demonstration.   I wasn’t sure how well that would work.   But I talked for a while and then I, along with nine of my students, did a bit of a typical class using this approach.   It normally runs more smoothly in a real class environment but it worked fairly well in this artificial setting.

In the presentation, I do put a focus on the book and the movie that forever changed how I taught my classes.

If you are interested in the possibility of using the Socratic Method (for accounting or any other topic), the URL for a video of this presentation can be found below.   You might decide that it is something you want to try.   On this blog, I am always stressing the three E’s:   experiment, evaluate, evolve.   Perhaps this could be the basis for an experiment.

I am told that this video will not run on Internet Explorer but will work on Google Chrome or Mozilla Firefox.

http://urctlt.com/streamthis.php?ID=652422

WHAT DO I REALLY WANT FROM YOU?

My classes begin tomorrow morning for the spring semester.   I just sent my students one final email to make sure they understood what I wanted from them.   I figure I might as well let them know upfront.   Here is what I told them:

Tomorrow morning at either 9 or 10:30 a.m., we will meet and Intermediate Accounting II will begin.  Over the past few weeks, you have received quite a number of emails from me talking about this class – why it is important and what it takes to do well.   By now, one question should be rattling around in your brain:   What does this guy really want from me as a student?   Clearly, this class is not exactly like other classes and the teacher is not exactly like too many other teachers.   What am I looking for from you over the course of the next 3 1/2 months?

Last year, in downtown Richmond, my wife and I went to a play (Equivocation) about William Shakespeare.   At one point during the first act, a young actor comes up to Shakespeare and asks (or almost pleads):   “You said I was brilliant.  Did you really mean that?”   Shakespeare looks at him for a long time and finally responds:  “You are brilliant, at your best.”   I leaned over to my wife at that moment and whispered “that’s what I want to tell each of my students.   That is the essence of my teaching.” 

I am convinced that you can be brilliant over the course of this semester.   But I am equally convinced that you are only going to be brilliant on those days when you are at your absolute best.   That is my one and only goal – to bring out the best in you.   You don’t know what your best really is.   I don’t know what your best really is.   So, we both have to push and challenge and work and debate and argue in order to get you to a point where you are at your best.   No matter what I do in class, whether it seems funny or mean or insightful, I have only one goal:   To bring out the very best from you (not the person beside of you or the person behind you or the person on the other side of the room from you but just YOU).   And that’s because I am convinced that you can be truly brilliant, not average or mediocre or even good but truly brilliant, but only when we are able to work together to get the best from you.   My guess is that you’ve had enough average in your life.   Surely, you are sick of mediocre.   The world has a lot of troubles.   It needs more people willing to step up to the challenge and be brilliant.   Isn’t it time for you to see what you can actually accomplish when you are at your very best?

I look forward to starting to work with you tomorrow morning.

PS – Here’s a movie clip that you might enjoy.   It has one of my all-time favorite quotes:  “It’s the hard that makes it great.”

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ndL7y0MIRE4​

GIVING TEACHING ADVICE TO SOMEONE YOU WILL PROBABLY NEVER MEET

I am giving a speech on teaching tomorrow evening here at the University of Richmond.   I look forward to it with great anticipation.   There is a genuine thrill in talking with teachers about teaching.   It is a wonderful way to get the new semester off to a great start.  

As always, I am a big believer in preparation – both my own preparation and that of the audience.   For this program to go well, everyone needs to spend some time and be ready.   To get that process started, I sent the 105 participants a message about an email that I had recently received.   I asked them to read the question that I had been sent as well as my response.   Then, I asked them to add one additional tip to my response.   What did I leave out?   What more should I have suggested?   What other idea should have I have given this young person?

Okay, I have the same question for you.   Read the question.   Read my answer.   Tell me what else I should have added.   That's your assignment.

THE EMAIL

I received the following email from a person whom I did not know and will likely never meet.   But, I appreciated her question and the sheer interest she had in reaching out to a stranger for advice.  

“I am a TA for Organic Chemistry at Ohio State University. Over the past several semesters, I have become very interested in teaching, and I started reading your blog a few weeks ago. I have found it incredibly helpful and insightful, and your passion for teaching is admirable. I was reading through your blog post about teaching tips for the new semester, and I would love to hear yours (at your earliest convenience, of course).”

MY RESPONSE TO THE TA’S QUESTION ABOUT TEACHING TIPS

Thanks so much for writing about my teaching blog (have you seen my Teaching Tips book -- it is also free on the Internet).   I'm always delighted to hear from teachers, especially new teachers.   From my perspective, it is one of the most thrilling and rewarding careers that you can have.   Enjoy every day.

As far as advice for you as you begin the spring semester, I could probably write three thick books of advice and honestly believe that each new idea was even more important than the previous one.   But, having said that, here are a few that I view as absolutely essential.

--Figure out how to get your students to prepare before they walk into your class.  99.9 percent of students are under-prepared when they enter the classroom each day and that sets a severe limit on what any teacher can accomplish.  There are a lot of ways to get students to prepare (threatening bodily harm might be one) but student preparation in my mind is the number one key to great teaching.  Without that, everything is a challenge.

--Communicate with your students early and often.   For example, I've already sent a couple of emails to my students ​ and my first class is not for nearly three weeks.   During the semester, I send emails to the students roughly once a day.   But, I work to make those emails worth their time.   I give practice problems.   I give study hints.   I talk about interesting developments that I read in today's paper.   I occasionally talk about books I'm reading or movies I've seen because I want my teaching to go beyond just accounting.   If you limit your interaction with students to 150 minutes in class each week, it is difficult to be a great teacher.

--Teach by using puzzles.   That, I think, is one of the most missed paths to great teaching.  I don't know anything about your field (organic chemistry) so I cannot give examples but think about questions that begin:  "Why would it work like this?"   "How might this be different in a science fiction story?"  "What happens if we do something backwards?"   "If X happens, what is most like to happen next and why?"  Everyone loves puzzles.  They make you think and reason.   Any boring class can become immediately engaging through the use of puzzles.

--Students come to learn based on how they expect to be tested (or graded).   No matter what you tell them, if they believe you are going to test their memory skills, all they will do is memorize.   The hope of developing their critical thinking skills will then fly out the window.   One way to avoid this problem is to give open book tests (I actually allow my students to bring in three pages of notes to every test which forces them to make decisions as to what they should include).   Open books tests are good for you because they will force you to learn to write good test questions and that will make you a better teacher.   They are also good for the students because they will quickly understand that you are not going to test them on memory since you are allowing them to have access to notes or books.

--I don't know how big your classes are but, if possible, never say more than 50 percent of the words in class.   Teachers are hypnotized by the sound of their own voices.   Teachers love that they can easily fill up the passing minutes with their own words.   Students let the teachers rattle on because they like to sit and daydream.   Force your students to do half of the talking.   I do that by using an intense Socratic Method where no student can hide.   But there are other approaches that work.   Teachers feel an obsession to convey information.   Get over it--there are books and videos that do that.   Use the class for talking—especially student talking.  

--Follow the three E's:   Experiment, Evaluate, Evolve.   You are never going to stand out by doing things the way everyone else does them.   Try new things each week or each month just to see what works and what does not work.   This is especially important as you get older and the age gap between you and your students gets wider.   Most teachers experiment less as they get older.   They settle into a comfortable rut.   You should experiment more as you get older to keep things fresh for you and your students.

--Care for your students.   These are real people and not robots.   Yes, they can be lazy.   And, yes, they can be annoying.   But this is their one chance at learning this material.   Whether you are good or bad as a teacher, you have a big impact on their lives.   Care enough for them to push them to be great.

Hope this helps.   One warning:   Sometimes you have to read a lot of ideas to find one that really helps you.

ADDITIONAL TIPS THAT MY AUDIENCE FOR TOMORROW NIGHT SENT TO ME (I challenged these folks to add one tip and I got loads – here are a few that I received, selected somewhat randomly)

--Establish a class culture of respect and provide a safe environment for sharing diverse opinions.

--Make each class real, relevant and riveting.   Find examples of the subject matter you're teaching, and weave them into every class to help students connect with the content. Tell stories and share examples.

--I give students "mini cases.”  The case is related to the topic for the class and presents a hypothetical situation in a company. The students work in small groups to develop a response and then report that to the class.

--Be willing to fail and open to learning from failures. Risk-taking is not well-rewarded in academic circles because failure is seen as an ending rather than a transition. Be willing to try, fail, and admit failure to students. And be willing to let students fail at certain aspects of the class without earning a failing grade in the class.

--Captivate the students with good openers, words of wisdom, useful tips.   Collaborate often because we learn from each other.  Celebrate all accomplishments and "understandings"... no matter how small

--Differentiate your instruction based on students’ readiness for the content, their interests, and the different ways they approach learning.   This is the most challenging aspect of teaching and requires you to get to truly know your students as individuals.  Remember that your students are very much alike in some ways and very different from each other in many ways. 

--Remember the power of active engagement, which allows students to interact and reflect on the content.  This type of learning increases meaning and understanding.  It provides an opportunity to communicate with others in order to share perspectives and experiences.

--Part of each student's grade is participation in class. I give them class labs that they have to solve and each student must participate. Also, I assign each student (prior to class or during the first night of class) to write a one page paper on their expectations of the class and me. This allows me to evaluate their writing ability and it helps me design sections of my class.

Starting a Marketing Campaign

As I have said occasionally on this blog, one important step in having a great class is selling the class to the students.   If they are not convinced that the sacrifice is worth the reward, even the best teacher will have trouble getting the strong effort from them that is needed.   Most college students have had plenty of classes over the years that seemed like a total waste of time.   They often start each new semester with that cynical expectation.   As early as possible, I want to begin selling them on the vital importance of what we are going to be doing.   I want to create that positive mindset.  I want them to anticipate something special.

Thus, although my classes do not begin until January 11, I have already sent out an email or two just to introduce myself and start building momentum for the semester.   This morning, I sent out the following email message to my future Intermediate Accounting II students.   I want the students to understand that I am not looking for them to sit calmly in their seats taking notes.   I want them to be very active participants in the learning process.   More importantly, I want them to have a completely different view of the learning process.   Learning is not a punishment to endure.   Learning is exciting.   Learning is not an obstacle to fight past.   Learning is a journey to be cherished.  

One email is never going to change the mindset of all my students but, hopefully, they will now begin to think about the possibility that this class will be different in a positive way.   I will have tickled their curiosity.   Of course, I still have to make the class different and challenging and unique and interesting and rewarding.   But, if I have opened their minds to that possibility, the chances of success for everyone has already gone way up.

**

To:   Intermediate Accounting II Students

From:   JH

Happy Holidays!!   Hope you got the GPA from the fall semester that you wanted.   The system that I always want to see is:   You work very hard and you learn a lot of amazing things and you get very good grades.   I trust that worked for you. 

About this time each semester, I receive a number of emails from future students who pose a question like this:   “I understand your class is challenging and I understand you have different goals than some of the other professors.   What can I do now while I have some free time so that I am ready to do my best when the semester begins?”  

Good question.   In many ways, I don’t care much about the amount of accounting you already know.   In my class, C students can (and often do) become A students.   With some effort, all of this accounting stuff can be learned.   It is neither rocket science nor brain surgery.    Although it is nice if you have a 4.0 GPA, it is not a requirement for doing well in Intermediate Accounting II.

What do I want from you?   I want a raging curiosity about how the world works.   I want enthusiasm and energy.   I want a willingness to put in an hour or so of study each and every day.   I want to see a genuine excitement about learning and education.    I want to see you set priorities rather than simply march ahead in a random fashion.   I want you to decide what success means to you and then go full speed ahead to make that success happen.   I want you to take control of your life rather than have it take control of you.  

I am not nearly as interested in students who seem bored by everything they don’t already know.   I am not wild about students who find an endless variety of excuses for not working.   I am not excited by students who want to give up the first day they are asked a question that requires them to think rather than spout a memorized litany. 

As odd as this might seem, I really do want you to walk in to class each day excited to be there, excited by what you might learn.   I want you to learn this material so deeply that you will come to the point where you won’t need me—where you have a true understanding so that you can figure out new and unique problems by yourself.   That is what college is supposed to feel like.

   

If this intrigues you, let me make a suggestion.   If you go to the following URL, you will find a speech that I gave a few years ago about what I wanted from my students.   Because you are going to be in my class, you might find it “educational.”   You can skip the first ten minutes or so.   That is just a bunch of introductions.   Watch the speech.   

At the end, I pose a question and ask the crowd for an answer.   How would you answer that question?

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LjwHxVbZq1o

THINKING ABOUT TEACHING -- HOW DO YOU GET THEM EXCITED????

As I try to mention every now and then, if you want me to send you an announcement whenever I post a new blog entry (about 20 times per year), send me an email at Jhoyle@richmond.edu.

***

My good friend Bob Jensen passed along the following URL a week or so ago:

https://www.insidehighered.com/news/2015/11/06/qa-laguardia-community-college-president-new-book-college-teaching?utm_source=Inside+Higher+Ed&utm_campaign=1d9d10a57e-Insider_Update_201512&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_1fcbc04421-1d9d10a57e-197565045

The related story talks with one of the authors of the book Taking College Teaching Seriously:   Pedagogy Matters!    The story begins with an interesting assertion:   “The call to increase the number of U.S. adults with college degrees and improve college completion rates across the country has only grown louder in recent years.  But relatively little has been discussed about the actual teaching that occurs inside the thousands of lecture halls, labs and classrooms on college campuses.”  

Do you agree or disagree with that statement?   I think that very assertion is worth a discussion.   My tendency is to mostly agree with the statement based on what I have seen as I go out and about.   But there are some wonderful exceptions.   For that reason, I found the comments at the end of this story almost as interesting as the story itself.   In colleges, do we discuss teaching a little, a lot, none, or what?   What do you think?

Thanks to Bob for sending that along.

***

As I have mentioned previously, I led a couple of teaching programs here at the University of Richmond recently.   In the most recent, I began with one of my all-time favorite quotes about teaching (a quote that I have mentioned in this blog a number of times over the years):  

“Great teaching is not about the number of years you do it.   Great teaching is about the amount of time you spend thinking about it.”

Whenever I bring up this sentiment, I get very little resistance.   It has a common sense appeal that people like.   But, never once, over all these years that I have been doing this, has anyone ever raised his or her hand and asked the perfectly obvious question:   “So, what do you think about when you are thinking about teaching?”   If “thinking about it” is so darn important, shouldn’t someone address the issue of what thoughts we should be pondering?   Do we get hung up admiring quotations or do we actually consider their implications?

I raised that very question in my presentation.   And, then I told a story about one of the things I think about as I consider how I want to teach my classes.    When my older son was a senior in high school, he did extremely well in his art classes and decided that he might want to attend the Rhode Island School of Design (RISD).   Over my winter break that year, we scheduled a trip to Providence, Rhode Island, to tour the campus.   As luck would have it, the area was recovering from a huge snow and ice storm.   On Friday, January 7, 1994, we were spending our last day on the campus before heading home the next morning.   As we walked across campus in the snow and ice, we saw announcements that the students were putting on a presentation of videos that had been made in some of their classes.   It sounded fascinating so we came back to campus that evening for the show.  Because of the bad weather, we arrived early and wandered around in one of the classroom buildings to kill time.   In a computer lab on the basement level, we found a young student working at a computer monitor.   We asked her what she was working on and she was ever so enthusiastic to show us.   Okay, this is nearly 22 years ago when computer programming was primitive.   She had been working on designing a stick figure on her monitor that could toss a ball and then catch it.   And, sure enough, as we watched, the stick figure did exactly that.   The student was so thrilled.   She told us all about how hard she had worked that entire day and how exciting the whole process had been.   Her enthusiasm for the exercise was contagious.

As my son and I walked from the room, I turned to him and asked the question:   “I wonder how many of my accounting students work this hard on their Friday evenings?”

To which my son replied, “Better still.   How many of your students get that excited about learning accounting?”  

We both laughed but I have thought about that conversation for over two decades now.   How can I get my students so interested in financial accounting that they will gladly work on Friday evenings and be ecstatic when they finally manage to solve the assigned problem?

It is very easy for me to rationalize and say “well, she was doing computer programming and I’m teaching accounting” but is coming to understand the essence of financial reporting truly more boring than getting a stick figure to throw a ball?   Or, do I just assume that my students will think it is boring and, therefore, I accept that as inevitable?

Since January 7, 1994, I have spent a lot of time thinking of ways to make my coverage interesting/engaging/intriguing.   As far as I’m concerned, it should be a pleasure to learn how the world of accounting works and not drudgery.

What have I learned from all this thinking?   There are lots and lots of things I could bring up but if I had to list just one thing, it would be this:   Excitement in education is all about the questions.   The questions you ask your students (in class and on tests) have to be interesting.  They have to be challenging.   They have to be worth the effort.   They have to be puzzling.    Focus on the questions.

If all you do is provide some type of rule or fact or process and then ask the students to memorize it, no student is ever going to be excited about your class.   Think about the questions.   What questions can you throw at them that will make students stop and wonder?   What questions can you ask that will puzzle them enough so that they will truly want to work out the answer for themselves.   

That has been on my mind now for an awfully long period of time.

Lots of Teaching Tips for the Next New Semester

My good friend Paul Clikeman (University of Richmond accounting professor) forwarded the following quote to me.   It is from the poet Robert Frost and was recently mentioned in the CPA Letter Daily:  

“I am not a teacher, but an awakener."  

Isn’t that just a wonderful quote?   Most importantly, doesn’t that put a fabulous spin on what we do every day in the classroom?   In many ways, we are working to awake the natural curiosity of our students.   I am convinced that, somewhere deep down inside, virtually all students really do want to learn.   They seek inspiration and guidance (from us).   I think a great quote such as this one can change our entire outlook in a positive manner.

***

I recently gave a teaching presentation here at the Robins School of Business at the University of Richmond.   I wanted people to think about teaching as we near the end of the current semester so I asked the members of our Business School faculty to respond to the following scenario:    

   “Let’s assume that a brand new Ph. D. shows up to join our faculty and asks you the following 

   question:   ‘I want to be a really good teacher here at Richmond.   I don’t have much teaching 

   experience so far.  What one piece of advice would you give me to help me get started on my 

   way?’”

Seems like a valid question.   What really are key points to becoming a better teacher?   I received quite a number of great responses from my fellow teachers.   They are listed below.  

Okay, other than read this list of suggestions, what should you do with them?   Well, I am a big believer in the power of evaluation.   Here is my advice:   Read through them all carefully and then pick the three that seem most appropriate for you and your teaching.   You cannot possibly follow everyone’s advice.   You need to evaluate, rank, and choose.   Read them all, pick three, and try to work those three into your teaching in some way during the spring semester.  See if they really do work.

You can never improve without experimenting.   Here are some suggestions that might lead to some worthwhile experimentation during the coming semester.

And, of course, I’ve picked my top tips.   If you are curious about my selections, drop me an email at Jhoyle@richmond.edu and I’ll tell you which ones meant the most to me.

**

---Keep experimenting and make at least one change (e.g., new case; new assignment; new pedagogical approach) each semester.  Even if the “experiment” fails, you’ll still very likely learn something from it, and it keeps boredom and burnout at bay.

---Cold call. It's simple, but it works. Students will be more prepared and more engaged.

---Know yourself and be true to who you are.  Celebrate your students for who they are as unique persons. 

---The starting point is being prepared and enthusiastic. Don't be too ambitious; not everyone in your class is going to graduate school! 

---Mix up the floor plan. When discussing more personal topics, I move the tables to the side and make a circle with chairs. This changes the tone of the class.  

---My advice is to avoid using Power Point supported formal lectures to present materials.

---Understand the material so well that you can take it apart from the students' perspectives.   

---At the end of each week of teaching, ask students to answer two questions on a sheet of paper. “What was the most important thing you learned this week? What is it that we covered but you still don't understand?”  Then collect the papers. During the next class, go over the topics where there was some consensus that they didn't get it.  You will be a better teacher and your students will also recognize that they learned something! 

---In Week One, give students a simple example of a typical problem covered in the course. In finance, I tell them that this course is about making investment decisions which is a creative process based on assumptions, intuition and experience. Accounting and mathematics are tools that we use to help make good financial decisions.

---Be enthusiastic and creative.  It's pretty basic, but it works for me.

---Some use of the Socratic Method - Asking a lot of questions and guiding students to solve problems on their own. 

---Making students do the problems - helping them to learn by trial and error.

---Balance - Trying to find the right balance between me doing a lot of the work such as using power points / diagrams / charts / explanations to frame out the key issues and thus simplifying things for them vs. teaching the students to start doing this type of analysis / thinking on their own.  Want to turn them from simply "regurgitating" information into learning how to become problem solvers, which will be a key to future success in business.

---Vary your voice level - a monotone is the worst! - but if you add what are called "paralinguistics" or what I call "peaks and valleys," - word emphasis, loudness, body language - you are more likely to keep students' attention.  You can then use the old—and extremely effective—trick of dropping your voice to a whisper all at once or stopping completely.  The absence of sound wakes even the heaviest sleeper!

---I think my advice to a new professor would be to make one's expectations of the students very clear at the outset and emphasize them repeatedly.  For example, I post my notes, take my exam questions from my notes, and post a review sheet for each exam that clearly outlines topics that will be covered.  I also explain in class and on the syllabus that this is my methodology.  For their group presentations, I post the score sheet that I will use (and that their peers will use) in grading them.   By using this approach, I have found that most students meet my expectations, and it is VERY clear which ones are not applying themselves. 

---Ask for feedback from your students regularly during the semester and take is seriously.  Be willing to modify syllabus or schedules or assessment, based on what is helping students to be engaged and to learn.  I learn a ton from listening to my students—and have almost always made modifications (well-communicated to the students) over the course of the semester, based on how a given class learns. 

---Here is a method that I’m trying to use in my intro classes since students may not have enough background to understand how businesses work. I try to start with an appropriate real life example for the topic. For example, when I cover accounts receivable in introductory accounting, I use a short 5-minute video showing how ZZZZ Best Carpet Cleaning Co. recorded faked sales using receivables.   Tomorrow, I will be teaching variance analysis in 202 and I start with an example from McDonald’s.  It is about the significant price variation (90¢ vs $2) in chicken wings after McDonald’s introduced its McWrap menu.  

---I think most college students aren't adventurous thinkers.  I want the students in the class to think boldly so I've tried two things:   1. Ask them to and 2. Give them support when they do.  A student recently responded adventurously to an assignment about a marketing idea. The idea he presented to the class was silly, but it was clear he was stretching.  After talking through the merits and shortcomings of the idea, the class and I gave him a round of applause for boldness.   The compulsion to be correct inhibits bold thinking.  I think we should fight that. 

---Assign seats in the 3rd week of class. I did this for the 1st time this semester and it helps a lot with the classroom atmosphere, in my opinion. It splits up the various groups and lets them know that you are serious.  I spend 15 minutes after doing so and have them introduce their seat mate. They get one extra credit point on the final for filling out a questionnaire that I give them (so perhaps they don't see it as punitive). I am also going to do it again tomorrow because the class needs waking up. I assign the seats using excel and the random number generator in it. 

---Make a written plan for every class with specific goals and activities to achieve those goals.  Immediately after class, review how that class went within the context of the plan and make notes of what worked and what did not.  In light of this information, make a list of the changes that you will make so that this particular lesson will be more effective the next time when you teach the class.

---Don't waste the first day of class - it is the most important day of the semester. Don't tell them you use the Socratic method - start asking them questions. Don't describe what they will learn in class - put a question from last year's final exam on the board and ask them to answer it. Don't hand out the syllabus until the last 15 minutes.

---Resist the temptation to give them the answer too soon. It's hard to watch people struggle, but it's worth the extra (eternity-seeming) minute. 

---I find I'm most effective as a teacher when I remember what first got me excited about an idea or a topic and I am able to transfer that excitement and enthusiasm to my students.  Enthusiasm and true excitement are contagious or at least do not go unnoticed, and students seem to respond positively to it.  

---I've scrapped power point and I couldn't be happier. Students look at me and each other rather than trying to frantically scribble everything on the slide.