Ask-Dr-Kirk

Tell Your Students That Spelling IS Important!

Another example of the importance of spelling.  Apparently many items are not bid on at eBay because they are spelled incorrectly and the public cannot find them using the correct search term.  There is now a tool called e Boo Boos to hunt down these auction items that are misspelled.

Thank you to Eszter's Blog for sharing this link.

How to Grade Participation and Attendance?

Recently a colleague asked me for a suggestion on grading class participation and attendance.  Here is the format developed by Professor Charles E. Cardwell at Pellissippi State.  He has the students fill out the form each day and says it only takes a few minutes to record these in his gradebook.  According to Professor Cardwell, having to complete the form encourages the students to come to class on time and to do the reading assignments.

Date ______________

By circling the scores below, I, ______________________ hereby solemnly declare and affirm that: 

Attendance: circle the scores for ALL that apply         

I came to class       1
I arrived on time      1
I stayed in class the full class period   1

Preparation: circle the ONE score that best applies

I didn’t read the assignment before class  0
I scanned the assignment quickly before class  1
I studied the assignment carefully before class  2

Participation: circle the ONE or TWO scores that apply

I didn’t pay much attention to class discussion 0
I listened attentively to the class discussion  1
I contributed to class discussion    1

Add the circled scores for your DAILY GRADE   _______

I like the idea of letting the students take responsibility for their own attendance and participation.

Math Classes Pay Off

So the next time your students ask you why they have to take math classes, point them to this article. A team of professors and tutors in Great Britain devised a system of mathematical probabilities to pick the winning lottery number and won 5.2 million.  Makes you want to do that math homework...

Giving Back To The Students

Timothy Johnson at CarpeFactum has come up with a great idea.  For each copy of his book, Race Through The Forest, that sells on Amazon between now and the end of November, his publisher, Tiberius Publications, and he will be donating a dollar each ($2 total) that will be split among three United Way affiliated agencies.  I've asked Tiberius to do the same for my book, Taking Back the Classroom.  As Tim says, it's a win-win.  You get a book on tips from me and others on how to be a more effective teacher, and three organizations (and the hundreds of children they serve) get some great benefits.  Pass the word, OK?

What To Do When Your Students' Cell Phones Ring During Class?

I attended a session led by Susan Crosson (Santa Fe Community College) at the 2006 Colloquium on Change in Accounting Education on Saturday.  She gave this tip for handling cell phone usage in class.  Any student whose phone rings during class is fined $5.00 which must be paid prior to taking the next exam.  The student who gets the highest grade on that exam then gets the monies collected.

I'm thinking of using this policy for students who are tardy to class...

How To Talk To That Tardy Student

You may have thought out your expectations and communicated these in class, but everything hinges on how you deal with those students who ignore your policies, whether aggressively or passively. 

One method for addressing behavioral issues is the DESC model (Bower and Bower).

D.  Describe the situation.  Be specific as to time, place, and frequency and describe the student's behavior as clearly as possible.  Use incidents or examples whenever possible.

E.  Express your feelings relevant to the behavior or conflict.  Let the student know clearly that the problem is not acceptable and must be resolved. 

S.  Specify what you want to happen.  Be specific about the changes you expect in the student’s behavior. 

C.  Consequences.  Clearly and concisely let the student know the expected result if their behavior does not change to meet expectations.  Emphasize the positive results as well if the requested changes are made.

Guidelines for using the DESC model:

1. Give feedback as soon as possible after the undesired behavior occurs (before the behavior becomes a habit). 

2. Focus on specific behavior that the student can change, not on the person.

3. Don’t generalize (you must be lazy since you are late to class); instead describe the specific behavior (you have been 10 minutes late to class 2 days in a row)

4. Explain why the behavior is a problem (Other students will come in late also.  Or they will resent that you do not have to follow the same rules as they do.

EXAMPLE:  Jeff has come to class tardy twice in the last two weeks.  Today he is once again late to class.  What do you do?

Jeff, I need to see you for a minute right after class.

Describe.  Jeff, one of the expectations in this class is that students will be in class, seated, and ready to participate at the beginning of the class time.  You have been late to class twice in the last two weeks. 

Express.  Your coming in tardy is distracting to me as I begin the day's lecture.  It is also not fair to your classmates as they have made the effort to get to class on time.  They find it disruptive as they stop listening to me and look at you when you come in.

Specify.  I will expect you to make every effort to get to class on time from now on. 

Consequences.  I am concerned as you are losing participation points which will make it harder for you to get a good grade in the class.  If you find it is not possible to get here on time, I can sign your drop slip and perhaps you could take the class at another time.  However, I hope you can work this out as when you are here, I find your comments very insightful and you are a great addition to the class discussion.

The most effective teachers are aware of what is going on in their classrooms and enforce their policies quickly and fairly.  If a student is coming in tardy and you do not address the problem, he or she will not suddenly decide to come to class on time.  If you do not say anything, you have essentially rewarded the wrong behavior.  In addition, the rest of the class is looking to see whether you enforce your own policies.  In order to handle inappropriate student behaviors, you need to be proactive in addressing issues that come up in the classroom. 

When Your Student Says Something Inappropriate, Use It As A Teaching Moment

Lee Warren (Derek Bok Center for Teaching and Learning at Harvard University) gives tips on "Managing Hot Moments in the Classroom" which advocate turning these into teaching moments that help the students learn when topics of religion, race, class, gender or politics come up in class.  As Professor Warren notes, "it is the teacher's responsibility both to help students learn something from the moment and to care for and protect all the participants, perhaps particularly the student(s) who has generated the hot moment. This does not mean that discomfort can be avoided: sometimes learning about hot topics is difficult and uncomfortable. But no one should be scapegoated. Everyone should be protected so that learning can happen."

When a student says something that is inappropriate (sometimes without realizing it), it is important that we address the issue.  Professor Warren's suggestions:

"Hold Steady. If you can hold steady and not be visibly rattled by the hot moment, the students will be better able to steady themselves as well and even learn something from the moment. Your behavior provides a holding environment for the students. They can feel safe when you appear to be in control; this enables them to explore the issues. Your behavior also provides a model for the students.

Breathe deeply. Take a moment. Collect yourself. Take time if you need it. Silence is useful -- if you can show that you are comfortable with it. A pause will also permit students to reflect on the issues raised. Deep breathing is an ancient and highly effective technique for calming adrenaline rushes and restoring one's capacity to think.

Don't personalize remarks. Don't take remarks personally, even when they come as personal attacks. Such attacks are most likely made against you in your role as teacher or authority figure. Remembering to separate self from role can enable you to see what a student is saying more clearly and to actually discuss the issue. It's not about you. It's about the student and his or her feelings and thoughts, though often articulated clumsily and from an as yet unthought through position.

Don't take remarks personally when they are about issues that you feel strongly about, or even about groups of which you are a part. Again, remember that both you and the group will be better served if you can keep some distance from the comments and find ways to use them to enhance people's understanding.

Don't let yourself get caught up in a personal reaction to the individual who has made some unpleasant remark. It's easy to want to tear into a student who is personally offensive to you. To do so is to fail to see what that student and his or her ideas represent in the classroom and in the larger world. If you take the remarks personally, chances are you will not be able to find what there is to learn from them.

Know yourself. Know your biases, know what will push your buttons and what will cause your mind to stop. Every one of us has areas in which we are vulnerable to strong feelings. Knowing what those areas are in advance can diminish the element of surprise. This self-knowledge can enable you to devise in advance strategies for managing yourself and the class when such a moment arises. You will have thought about what you need to do in order to enable your mind to work again."

Taking Control of the Classroom

I'm off this morning to Sedona, Arizona, to speak on "Taking Control of the Classroom" at the 2006 Colloquium on Change in Accounting Education.  Below is one of the handouts from my presentation:

Teaching has become more challenging because college students have become more aggressive and demanding.  You may have thought out your expectations and communicated these in class, but everything hinges on how you deal with those students who ignore your policies, whether aggressively or passively.  Some tips to taking control of your classroom are:

1.  Develop Your Philosophy of Teaching
Think about what it is you are trying to do in the classroom.  Are you passing on a body of knowledge of a specific subject to the students?  Are you teaching them how to learn? Are you giving them practical information on how to be an expert in their field of study?  Are you role-modeling skills to help students become productive, useful members of society? Or, perhaps you aim to do all of the above?  The readings, assignments, and exams you choose to give your students should reflect what you are trying to accomplish.  Your students should understand why it is important to complete the work you assign in order to be successful in the class and the work world.

2.  Establish Your Credibility
Beginning the first day, you need to establish that your students will benefit from taking your course.  Share your professional and academic credentials.  Bring in newspaper and journal articles with examples of applications of the topics you are teaching.   Illustrate that your knowledge is current.

3.  Determine Your Class Culture
You will need to decide how formal, or informal, you want your class to be.  This affects everything including how you dress for the classroom, how your students address you, and how you take questions.  Keep in mind you also get to decide on your attitude each day when you walk into the classroom.  You want to be upbeat and enthusiastic so that the students will be excited about the course also.  Show students that you care about them as people: learn names, and create a classroom culture where they can feel comfortable asking questions.  Your students are less likely to be disruptive if they know you know their name and if they believe you will hold them accountable for being professional.

4.  Be Clear About Your Expectations
Set expectations and be consistent in enforcing them.  If attendance is important to you, then tell the students this and let them know you will be noting any absences.  If you want assignments turned in on time, then either don’t accept late papers or take off points if they are late.  Whatever you do, be consistent.

5.  Handle Discipline Problems Right Away
Remember the importance of “withitness.”  The most effective teachers are aware of what is going on in their classrooms and enforce their policies quickly and fairly.  If a student is coming in tardy and you do not address the problem, he or she will not suddenly decide to come to class on time.  If you do not say anything, you have essentially rewarded the wrong behavior.

Knowing what you are trying to accomplish, establishing your credibility, being clear about expectations, and handling problems right away will help you manage your classroom so that learning can take place for all your students and teaching can be rewarding for you.

Using Videotaped Presentations in the Classroom

For many of my management classes, I require some sort of team project with a presentation of the results of their research at the end of the semester.  However, in order to keep team sizes down to 4-5 students in a class with 40 students, it takes a lot of class time in order for each team to present.  In addition, many of the students are anxious about speaking in front of their peers and the feedback from the other students is that they believe listening to team presentations to be a waste of class time.  I am been considering requiring the students to videotape their presentations which either I could review myself or with the team members in order to give constructive feedback and to grade.  I just came across an interesting article by Dr. S. Alan Silliker in the Journal on Excellence in College Teaching, in which he reports that students prefer videotape over live presentations.  His students felt that videotaping their presentations not only reduced their anxiety but also allowed them to be more creative and have more control over the quality of the final presentation. 

I'm considering giving the students the option to videotape their presentations.  Has anyone else had experience with this?

Advice For Students: Ten Steps to Getting the Job You Want

Recently I was asked to give a one hour presentation to senior level college students as to what employers look for in a resume or in an interview.  Below is an outline of my discussion points you could share with your students.

1.  Find out what you don’t want to do/Learn skills along the way

There is a lot of pressure on college students to pick a major and then find a job in that discipline after graduation.  However, many do not know what they want to do both in and after college.  I tell my students that I did not discover my career choice until I was 28 years old.  In the meantime, I worked several different types of jobs (accounting, marketing research, management), learning what I liked to do and what I didn't enjoy.  I reassure them that they have 6-7 years after graduation thus to beat my record.  Working these other jobs helped me to narrow down my choices until I found something that was a good fit for me.

2.  What employers look for on a resume: Presentation

• Keep length to one page (unless have lots of relevant work experience)
• Make good use of white space
• Make user friendly (easy to find info)
• Professionalism (no typos)
• Don't use bold or italic fonts as resume will be scanned
• Use bullet points
• Use active verbs (google "resume action verbs" for these)
• Put contact info on all pages (if have more than one)
• Think about your email address ([email protected] is not good)
• Also, make sure your voice mail message is professional sounding
• Quality and color of paper (white, off white best/good quality paper)
• Personalized cover letter increases your chances
• Remember that you have about 30 seconds to impress the reader

3. What employers look for on a resume: Content

• Objective—be specific to the job or put none at all
• Skills, experience, education (what makes you qualified/what have you accomplished)
• Start with most relevant info
• Related coursework, organizations, computer skills
• Tailor your resume to the position applying for
• Use headings used in the ad or job description
• Use keywords for your occupation
• Gaps in employment (address these in cover letter)
• Include websites of former employers
• Give examples (not just a manager but how many ees, what did you do)
• “Canned” resume? (no, write your own)
• Time to “beef up” the resume (internships, organizations—leadership roles, volunteering)
• Include generic skills if applicable (communication, teamwork, self-starter, organizational)

Consider your resume as an ad that highlights your value as a potential employee: make it short, proactive and a good marketing tool.

4.  Prepare for the Interview

• Know why you’re interested in the job (interviewer may ask)
• Learn about employer and job (ask for copy of job description before interview)
• Determine your strengths and weaknesses (ask your friends for help)
• Major accomplishments
• Previous job responsibilities
• Prepare questions to ask at the interview
• Look around at culture (do you want to work there? ask employees what they like about the company)
• “Train” your references (give them copy of your resume, list of your strengths)
• Make a good first impression
• Arrive a little early
• Try to relax—take deep breaths
• Be polite to staff members

5. Purpose of the Interview (interviewers are looking for the answers to two questions)

• Can you do the job?
• Are you our kind of person?

The company is interviewing you to see what you are like as a person.  Your desire to work.  How you get along with others.  Positive attitude.  Communication skills.  Will you fit in?  Technical expertise can be determined through tests and by looking at resume.

6. During the interview

• Use the name of the person interviewing you (but not first name unless asked to do so) several times during interview
• Avoid “yes” or “no” answers
• Do not bring up salary or benefits unless interviewer does
• Avoid use of negative terms as answer questions (if ask about past conflict, make sure your example has a positive ending)
• Be specific – use examples of accomplishments in the past
• Ask for the job

7. Appearance & enthusiasm important

• Wear professional clothing
• Good grooming
• Firm handshake
• Don’t wear anything that connects you to religious group, political cause, association, etc.—don’t want to bias interviewer
• Breath mints
• Don’t wear perfume or after-shave lotion
• Don’t smoke
• Wash/clean out car (shows attention to detail)
• Turn off cell phone!

8. Be prepared for questions

• Don’t lie!  (this includes your resume also)

• Use three steps and a bridge strategy

Example:  “What are your strengths?”

You: 
a) skills (you are good with numbers)
b) knowledge and experience (that are pertinent to the job)
c) personality
d) bridging statement:  your motivation to seek this job or choose your major

• If asked, “What are your weaknesses?”

Have to say something--everyone has weaknesses.  Be honest.  Mention something minor that you are working on such as lack of public speaking skills (but you are taking a speech class) or that you tend to take on too many activities (but you are learning to prioritize what is most important)

9. After the interview

• Send a thank you letter
• Express your interest in job and company
• State will be in contact and mention date (next week?)

10.   Debrief

• Go over what went well and what didn’t so can learn from process
• If do not get job, call to thank them for their time and ask for tips for future interviews.  Don’t ask why didn’t get job.

Keep in mind that the process of getting a job is one of the toughest things you will ever do.  It is much harder than working at the job you’ll get!

Attitude Does Matter!

I am really enjoying my day classes this semester but have been struggling with the night class. The students seem to resent that I keep them the full three hours, they whine about the workload, many did not do well on the test.  As I mentioned in a earlier blogpost, one complained to the Dean that I had kept them 18 minutes after the class was to have ended one night.  I was starting to have negative feelings about going back into the classroom, just six weeks in.  Yesterday I realized that I had another ten weeks to go and that it was up to me to change the climate of the classroom. 

So last night I put on one of my best suits, put a smile on my face, and made a point to make small talk with many of the students individually as they came into the room.  I made sure that I sounded energetic and enthusiastic as I lectured, using lots of examples and gestures.

And...the class was great.  I enjoyed it.  And they appeared to have too.  I'm looking forward to next week's class.

What a difference attitude makes.

You Gave Us More Than We Paid For!

I kept my night class 18 minutes after the normal ending time in order to finish discussing the material so that they would be ready for their first exam the following week.  One of the students contacted my Dean to complain...

Suggestions as to how I should have handled this?  I had told them the first night of class that I would not change the test dates so they could plan ahead. Also, I was going out of town early the next morning and did not have time to redo the test.

I told my Dean to reassure the student that I would not charge him/her for the additional teaching received.

There WAS a Full Moon...

It's been an interesting last three days.  On Thursday, I met with the VP of Human Resources for the Home Shopping Network (HSN) at their headquarters in St Petersburg, Florida.  I was given a tour as well as lunch and came away very impressed with their operation.  They have over 3,000 employees, including 60+ in their HR Department.

Friday night I went out for a beverage with a new colleague (Rita) from the University of South Florida.  We met up with her roommate, LeeAnn, who had two friends with her.  One friend (Diana) works as a Recruiting Manager for HSN and recognized me from the company lunchroom on Thursday. While talking to her, I find out that one of my students is interviewing Diana for a project in my HR Management class.

On Saturday morning, LeeAnn and Diana came by my house after the Race For The Cure 5K in downtown St Peterburg. It turns out that both had been in my townhome this past summer before I bought the place as they were friends with the former owner.

Then on Saturday afternoon, I drive into Tampa to do some shopping at Nordstrom's and run into the VP of HSN that I had just met on Thursday.

Patti Digh and Tim Johnson talk about synchronicity...

I'm thinking I should buy a lottery ticket.

Some Cheese With That Whine...

We've all heard students complain that they don't have time to do the homework, that there was too much memorization, the course covered too much material, they can't see how the course is relevant, or they deserved a good grade either because they spent a lot of time studying or because they had paid good money for the class. 

Professor Steven Dutch has some insightful responses to comments such as these.  He even takes on the "Are students our customers?" debate.  As he notes, students are customers in that they have the right to complain about unprofessional behavior or professors who are not current in what they teach.  However, he goes on to say that students are also products and that employers are our customers.  Thus, employers have the right to complain if we turn out graduates who do not have the skills, knowledge, and motivation to be a good employee.

Pet Peeves

One of my pet peeves in the classroom is students leaving in the middle of the class (I assume to go to the restroom). I put on my syllabus that I expect them to remind in class during the entire class period.  Classes are either 75 minutes long or if they are longer, I give the students a break after 75 minutes.  I explain to the students that we are modeling appropriate professional behavior in the workplace--you wouldn't get up and leave an important meeting with your boss.

However, Sunday night I was at the Aaron Neville concert in St Petersburg, Florida, and was absolutely amazed by the dozens of people, mostly baby boomers like me, who left during the 90 minute concert and then returned.  I find this disrespectful to the artist and to the other audience members.  When did this inability to sit and focus for less than two hours begin?

Another Job Search Website to Share With Your Students

Mike Sansone shared this job search site with me:  www.indeed.com  You type in the job title you want and city where you want to live and it brings up job postings from a number of websites such as CareerBuilder, CareerBank, and OfficeTeam, as well as various company sites.  Great website to share with your students.

Job Search Tips For Your Students

The following are websites you might recommend to your students to help them find a job or to determine salary ranges for various job titles and locations.  Most of the sites also include articles on interviewing tips, career planning, writing cover letters, etc.

www.salary.com  Contains free salary surveys and reports on compensation for a number of industries. 

www.salaryexpert.com  Can search by either job title or location to find salary ranges.  Also includes benefits information.

www.collegegrad.com  Has listings for jobs, tips for writing a resume and cover letter, and suggestions for interviewing and negotiating salary.

www.monster.com  This website claims to be “the biggest and most comprehensive internet job search engine on the web."

www.hotjobs.com   Another site to submit a resume or scan for jobs on the job board. Includes career tips.