MAKING GOOD USE OF THE SUMMER

When it comes to my classes and my students, I worry about many things.  Perhaps worrying makes me a better teacher.  Here are two things I at worrying about at the current time.

--I worry that students will not make good use of the 3-4 months they have off each summer.   I know that college students are very busy people.   Many have jobs or internships.  Others are taking summer classes.   However, learning simply cannot cease for such an extended period.   That is not a good use of available time or brainpower.  Learning should not be limited to formal classroom experiences.   College students need to be getting themselves prepared for what educators refer to as “lifelong learning.”  In our fast moving society, that becomes more and more important.  No one can afford to stop learning at 22.

--I worry that students will wind up in a program or a major that does not really intrigue them.   College should be a time of exploration when students discover their passions and then set out to follow them.   No one wants to hear a senior say at graduation “I earned a major but I didn’t find it very interesting.”  

As anyone who has followed this blog for long knows, I send out emails to my students over the summer.   Below is one that I recently sent out to the juniors in my upcoming fall class.   I am not sure how many will read the recommended book but I hope some/many do.   It will be good for them and, perhaps, it will help them become more interested in their major.  If nothing else, I have raised the issue of “are you in the right major?”  At the start of the junior year, that is probably a good time to consider that question.

I realize that many readers of this blog do not teach in the business area.   Okay, find a different book.   What book could you recommend that might have this impact on your students?   Surely, there has to be some book available that would work, some book that would be a good use of student time over the summer.  Introduce it to your studies and make it sound interesting, make it sound worth reading.

 **

  

To:  Accounting Students for the fall semester

From:   JH

I was sitting on my front porch a few minutes ago reading the June 5, 2017, edition of Time magazine.  I read something I wanted to share with you.   The magazine had a discussion with Bill Gates, the richest person in the world and one of the most influential.  The conversation was about the books he is currently reading and books he has previously read.   The second question in the article was “What one, two or three books changed your life?”  That question always fascinates me so I studied his answer carefully.   Here is the second book he mentions.

“Warren Buffett loaned me his copy of Business Adventures by John Brooks many years ago.  It’s still the best business book I’ve ever read.  It’s a collection of Brooks’ New Yorker essays about why various companies succeeded or failed.  The essay titled ‘Xerox Xerox Xerox Xerox’ should win an award for most clever chapter name, and the lessons inside the book are even better.  I took inspiration from it while running Microsoft.”

I really don’t worry about teaching you accounting.  I know this confession doesn’t sound like my reputation.  You are bright and I suspect you will be willing to do the work necessary if I make it a fair (and not impossible) amount.   What concerns me is whether you enjoy business enough?   To me, business is absolutely fascinating.   It is like playing in the Super Bowl where you are trying to figure out a product and a manufacturing process and a marketing process and the like that are so well done that people will give you their money.   If you do all those things better than anyone else, then your company wins. 

I have created and eventually sold two businesses and few adventures are more fun and more satisfying. 

If that interests you, the fall will be a great semester.   If that doesn’t interest you, then I’m not sure Intermediate Accounting is the course for you.   You only have one life to live.   I much prefer for it to be in an area that you love. 

I say all of that to encourage you to get a copy of Bill Gates’s recommendation and read it.  Hopefully, it will excite you about business.   No, this is not an assignment.  If you are only going to do what is absolutely required, then I already know you are in the wrong program.   By this age, you should be doing stuff that interests you so much that you don’t have to be bribed to do it.

To be honest, I have not read this book.  Nevertheless, Bill Gates has made more money than I have so his advice is probably better than mine.  If you do read it, come by in the fall and tell me what you liked and what you didn’t like.

Hope you have a good Memorial Day.​

Prime the Pump (What Does It Take to Become a Great Student?)

This website recently went over 146,000 total page views.  That is about 145,000 more than I ever expected when I began.    I want to take a moment this morning to thank everyone who reads these postings and shares them with other teachers.  Obviously, there is no real marketing of this site.  People tend to learn about it from other teachers.   Word-of-mouth.   So, thanks for sharing!!!  I sincerely believe that most teachers want to think more deeply about the art of teaching.   I hope this website serves as an occasional prompt for such thoughts.

This will be my 211^th posting.   Several of these essays over the years have gathered more interest than others.   In terms of readership, here are the Top Ten in case you would like to check out some of the more popular postings.

--What Do We Add?  (July 22, 2010)

--What Is the Purpose of A Final Exam? (May 12, 2010)

--Introduction—Teaching Financial Accounting (January 7, 2010)

--Great Teaching—What I Learned from My Students (March 5, 2015)

--If I Challenge You to Become a Better Teacher, What Is Your First Response? (July 30, 2013)

--Fourteen Characteristics of Great Teaching (April 23, 2015)

--Conversation with Bob Jensen (October 8, 2013)

--What the Catcher Tells the Pitcher (August 21, 2011)

--A Good Suggestion (June 1, 2013)

--What Do You Really Want to Accomplish? (August 28, 2010)

---

Several of my most recent posts have dealt with becoming a great teacher.   I have always been fascinated by that jump from “good” to “great.”   I believe there are ways to make that jump successfully and I am not sure enough of us have that as our goal (in teaching as well as in other aspects of life).   Why stop at good?   Why not try for great?

But, today, I want to tell you something that you already know:   If you have great students, then becoming a great teacher is a much more manageable challenge.   Bright, energetic, and curious students are just easier to teach.   

Recently, I have been thinking about how I might get more great students.   I have almost no control over the quality of the students who show up in my class.   I cannot put a minimum SAT score limitation or a required GPA as a prerequisite for my classes.   I am responsible for teaching everyone who enrolls.   How can I turn more of them into great students?

I decided I would try to get my students for the fall to start thinking well in advance about what it means to be a great student.   I bet that few, if any, of them have ever really considered what it takes to be a great student.   If I can get them to consider the question, will that alone improve the chances that more of them will be great students during my course?  

Luckily, my students register in April for next fall and I have access to their email addresses.   I decided to try an experiment.   I wanted to encourage them to focus over the summer on what it really means to be great students.   I figured it could not hurt and it might have a positive effect on some of them.  

Below is an email that I sent a few weeks back to all of the students (I think it was roughly 60 in total) who have signed up for my class in the fall.   I have already heard back from a couple who seemed to be intrigued by the experiment.   Will this help?   I don’t know—that is why I am trying it.   If you’ve read this blog previously, you probably know that one of my teaching mottoes is:   Experiment, Evaluate, Evolve.

**

Email to students who are enrolled in my class for the fall semester:

Okay, I have your first assignment for the fall semester.   And, I dearly hope that you won’t go running away in horror and panic simply because I am giving you an assignment four months before the first class.   I actually think you will enjoy this assignment.   More importantly, it might make you a bit better as a student going into the fall semester.  That is a good goal.

In addition, I don’t want you to start trembling over the upcoming fall semester like some scared and frightened cat.   About two weeks ago, I gave the keynote speech at the Richmond College Senior Recognition Dinner.   One of my comments to the group was that Richmond would become a better educational institution when more of the students stopped being so timid.   At your age, a bold challenge should bring out the very best in you and not send you fleeing to drop-add.

That is one thing that you should demand of all your professors:   “Bring out the best in me!!!”

There are three steps to this assignment.

(1) – For many years, I have written a blog about teaching, primarily about how I teach here at the University of Richmond.   Over the years, the blog has had more than 140,000 page views.   A few days ago I wrote about the characteristics of great teaching.   I want you to read that blog entry because it will explain why I do some of the weird things that I do.   Reading should take you under five minutes.   I want you to read the whole thing but I want you to focus on 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, and 12.   Those are the ones that will impact you the most in my class in the fall.

Here is the URL for the blog entry:

http://joehoyle-teaching.blogspot.com/2015/04/fourteen-characteristics-of-great.html

(2) – I want you to spend some time over the summer talking with someone (your parents, a trusted high school teacher, a friend, a co-worker, a stranger on a bus) about the topic:   What is the purpose of a college course?   At the University of Richmond, you have to take at least 35 of these courses.   What are they supposed to accomplish?  Surely, it is not so that you will memorize a bunch of trivia just so that you can pass a test.  Given the cost of the University of Richmond, that would be a darn expensive test.   Surely, it is not so that you can get a first job that you might well quit within the first year.   The goal has to be longer than the first few months after you walk across the stage at graduation. 

It is very hard to put a lot of work into a college course if you are not sure why anyone even takes a college course.   You are going to be stuck with me for a semester.   What am I supposed to do for you?   What do you want me to do for you?   In many cases, your parents are paying a lot of money for you to be in my class – why are they doing that?   What do they believe is the purpose of a college course?   You ought to ask them. 

(3) – Some time before the first class in the fall, I want you to write a short essay and email it to me.    Be sure to put your name on it and which class you are in.   In one paragraph (or more, if you wish), I want you to tell me what you believe are the characteristics of a great student.   You might well be a great student but, if you are not, you surely have known great students here at Richmond or in your high school classes. 

For you, what are the characteristics of a great student?

You’ve got four months.   I hope all three steps in this assignment intrigue you a bit.   I hope they tickle your curiosity. 

  

HAVE A GREAT SUMMER!!! 

**

I am not sure what I am going to get from them.   I am not sure how I will use those essays.   But we will do something and maybe, just maybe, it will push a few more of my students to become great.   That would be fabulous.   I guess I will just have to wait and see what happens.