My Favorite Quotes About Teaching – Number One

My Favorite Quotes About Teaching – Number One

(I’m writing this in the middle of a final exam. I figured I might as well do something useful while I sit here.)

I am a person who likes quotes. I have numerous books of famous quotations and I’m surprised by how often I read through them. They can be inspirational; they can make you think. In each book, there are always several quotes that I find touching or meaningful. Certain of those thoughts seem to have been lifted directly from my brain without me ever having formed them consciously. I am surprised by how often I find myself muttering “oh, yeah, that’s what I believe.”

There are a number of quotes about teaching that I really like. Over the years, they have come to mean something special to me as I try to do my job well each day. They have helped me better consider what I am attempting to do in this life as a teacher. Several days ago, I decided to write a blog entry about several of my favorite quotes on teaching. After some consideration, I decided that entry might well be far too long. I’m not trying to create Hamlet here. As a result, I decided to write short essays on each of my favorite teaching quotes. Please feel free in the “comments” below to add your own favorites.

As everyone who reads this blog must know by now, I teach using the Socratic Method. I love to structure my classes around questions, questions, questions, and more questions. In fact, my Financial Accounting textbook is written entirely in a Socratic Method style. I find that if I ask questions (in class and in the textbook) students are able to get away from trying to memorize and start to ask their own questions. Through the learning process, they come to the point where they know enough to pose really insightful questions. And, hopefully, they become curious enough about what we are doing so that they actually start to ask those questions and seek the answers themselves.

Knowledge plus curiosity equals questions. (Joe Hoyle’s formula for learning.)

Each semester, I know that my class is moving in the direction that I want when I walk in and hands all over the room are raised to ask questions. The questions that really impress me are those that take what we have covered in class or in the textbook and move forward. The students are taking the next step on their own: Where does this topic go from here? How can I use this information to solve some problem?

If the questions are basic and easily figured out, that is still okay because it is a step in the right direction. However, what I want is the question that begins “We covered this in our last class and I was wondering if we can use that same logic to ….”

So, here is my first favorite quote. About two months ago, my elder son sent me an email saying that he had read a quote in a blog about home schooling that he thought I would like. Sure enough, I loved the insight:

“The process of learning is asking sharper and sharper questions."

Notice that the word here is “learning” and not “teaching” which is, I think, the key to the quote.

We traditionally think about the learning process from the perspective of the teacher but this quote focuses the emphasis where it should be: on the learner. What do I want from my students? I want them to be so curious that they can and will ask sharper and sharper questions as they learn more about each topic. If they become genuinely curious about the topic, everything else kind of takes care of itself.

The quote here is not about the teacher; it is about the student. I ask questions in my classes to prime the pump. A questioning atmosphere leads students to start asking their own questions. When that happens, the learning process can quickly evolve from memorization to something quite wonderful.

Favorite Quote Number One: “The process of learning is asking sharper and sharper questions."

One of My Favorite Days

Okay, I post a blog entry like this about every six months but I think it is important enough to be redundant. If you ask your students to leap tall buildings in a single bound and they manage to do it, I think you owe it to them to acknowledge what they have accomplished. Simply putting an anonymous A on a grade report doesn't seem to properly recognize those students who have done truly outstanding work.

Every semester, when I finish my grading and I sit down and write this note, I am amazed by how good it makes me feel. I had several truly outstanding students this semester and I wanted them to know that I did notice. I did recognize that they worked incredibly hard and learned an amazed amount. I noticed and I wanted them to know that I noticed.

Thursday

Dear Mr./Ms. XX,

I just wanted to let you know that I have finished grading the final examination and computing course averages. Only six students in my two Accounting 201 classes earned the overall grade of A for the semester and you were one of those six. Congratulations!! I am very pleased for you. It was a very difficult class (and a tough final exam) but your work was really outstanding. You very much deserved the A grade. I had 47 students in Accounting 201 this semester but only 13 percent managed to earn an A. I really believe that every student in these two classes was capable of making that grade but it did take a consistently strong effort throughout the semester and you accomplished that. Good for you! I’m very pleased. You should be proud of yourself. You managed to get the grade. Many came close but you earned it with your excellent work.

As you might know, I would like for you to do me a favor. I always want more of my students to shoot for the A and make it. Frequently, though, they seem mystified by the challenge. They are never really sure what I want from them. Too often, students take an entire semester simply trying to understand what I want them to do. What does it take to be great? I will have another Accounting 201 class in the spring. I’d like for you to tell those students how you managed to earn your A when so many others did not. What did you do that set your work apart? I would very much appreciate your writing me a paragraph or two (as soon as you can) on the topic – how I made an A in Professor Hoyle’s class. What was your secret? What worked for you? What information can you pass along to the next group of students that will help them do better? I really want more than 13 percent of my students in the spring to make an A and you can help. I'll pass along your advice and, hopefully, it will make a big difference.

I’d like your paragraph as soon as possible. There are only two rules: take it serious and be totally honest. Beyond that, what else could I want?

Again, congratulations!!! You did the work and you did it well. I enjoyed having the opportunity of working with you and I very much appreciate your excellent effort. I hope to work with you again at some point in the future.

Rudolph The Red Nose Reindeer Promotes Bullying! (sniff, sniff)

People of my generation got used to seeing Rudolph the red-nosed reindeer at least a hal-dozen times each holiday season. It was so ubiquitous that asking someone my age "What do bumbles do" would have about an 80% chance of being answered "Bounce".

It was only a matter of time before the PC crowd got a hold of it. Special ed professor George Giuliani claims that St. Nick's behavior in cartoon is tantamount to bullying, and sends the wrong message to children watching the family favorite. In response, he's written a new book, "No More Bullies at the North Pole," which re-tells the story of the triumphant reindeer (I checked - it's not available at Amazon in case you were thinking of getting it).

"Santa has ten policies that are very unfair, and Mrs. Claus sets out to correct those policies, and what you just saw, where Rudolph is being treated very very badly, and that should never happen," Guiliani said.

Here's an interview of this guy on Fox. It's also notable because they have a response from Brad Stine, one of my favorite comedians. I'd say he does a good job of treating the good professor's idea with all the seriousness it deserves.

In case you're not aware of him, Brad Stine is best knows for his routine "Put a helmet on!" here's a clip


HT: Ace of Spades Headquarters

Ah well - enough wasting of time. Back to work. I have an exam to write, a paper to finish, and a presentation to check (my student-managed investment fund group is making their end-of-semester presentation to the fund's advisory board in two days, and this time we're doing it on-site at the offices of a major investment management firm).

update: The Unknown Daughter thought I was kidding when I told her someone had made up a story about Rudolph being bullied. She's finding out that the world is not only stranger than we imagine, but stranger than we can imagine. Then she proceeded to make fun of Professor Giuliani. That's my girl.

The Joys of Customer Service at Dailysteals.com

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Random Thoughts

It's been a busy month or so since FMA, so I've been out of touch blog-wise, So her are a few snippets:

• We're now in the final throes of the semester (only two weeks left once the students get back from Thanksgiving), and they just had their second exam in my principles class). So, I had about 1000 pages of grading to do (I don't do scan-tron graded exams). But they did extremely well, so I feel good about it. Now all I have left to cover is CAPM and WACC, so I'm right on schedule.
  

• I've been experimenting with online web-conferencing software as an enhancement to my classes. We use a really clunky system called Sakai, which has limited web-conferencing capabilities (only 15 or so concurrent users). So I and another faculty who's also a techie have been looking into using a commercial vendor that will allow us to do deliver online instruction (and review sessions) for 50-100 students at a time. I figure that this (along with my pre-recorded videos) could be the backbone for a fairly thorough and well-done online class.

• The little guy is talking up a storm, and is a riot to be around. He loves to get a running start and then do a running headbutt. Unfortunately, he's at just the right height that he hits his dad in a very sensitive area. But it was pretty funny at Thanksgiving when he caught his uncle unawares. It probably didn't help that I distracted him at just the right moment. when he wasn't. Not nice, I know. But funny
  

• Trying to get a paper out this weekend, another one in the following week, and a third one over December break. And then I'll do the usual scramble to get a new piece together for the FMA deadline in January.

Finally, I came across a pretty good quote (by Aristophanes) that will probably make it onto my door: “Youth ages, immaturity is outgrown, ignorance can be educated, and drunkenness sobered, but stupid lasts forever.”

Gotta get to bed. Later.

Putting on a Last Minute Push

Football coaches across the country work constantly on getting their players to play especially hard at the end of each game. Often, the difference between winning and losing is based on who can put on the strongest push in the final moments. One last valiant effort can lead to a victory that will be remembered with fondness for years to come.

When my students return from Thanksgiving break, they will have one more week of classes and then final exams. In less than 2 weeks, it will be all over. They can be lethargic or they can be energized. I know what I want. I don’t want them to coast out. I want them to finish strong. Why do all this work throughout the semester only to fade out at the very end? If the material is worth learning, now is the time to put on that push to add even more knowledge and understanding.

Here at the end of the semester, I like to challenge my students to keep pushing forward. I think it is human nature; people need motivation. For students, it is quite easy to start operating on auto-pilot and just coast out. I don’t want that.

So, this morning, I went through my grade book and divided my students into six groups depending on their grade so far this semester: A students, high B students, mid-range B students, high C students, mid-range C students, and students with averages lower than C.

For each group, I composed a general email where I first reminded them of where they stood going into the last few days of the semester. I didn’t want anyone to be delusional about their grades at this point. I think students can get used to “Santa Claus graders” – teachers who give them better grades for a course despite their averages. They need to know that I am not going to play Santa Claus. You can catch a student’s attention very quickly by simply reminding them: “If you don’t do better on the final exam, you are going to get a C in this course.” Reality sets in, or maybe panic.

Through these emails, I hope to challenge every student to give their very best efforts here at the end of the semester. Below is the email that I sent out to the students who were in the high B range. I really want to see if I can’t get many of these students to step up and go for the A rather than settle for the B. I always say that I like aggressive, ambitious students who play for the win. I think they’ll remember this course with pride for a long, long time if they are able to do well on the final exam and turn that B into an A.

“I am writing this note to the students who have a relatively high B average (84.5 – 89.4) going into the final week of classes. First, let me congratulate you on a very good effort this semester. You have done well and I’m quite pleased with your effort throughout this semester. This is a challenging class and you've done well.

“I am writing, though, to urge you to put on a good push here at the end of the semester and shoot for the A. It won’t be easy but you do have the chance. Every semester, I have students who move into the A range by doing a great job on the final examination. It is the biggest part of your course grade. It can make a big difference. You are capable of that. I’m always so very pleased when a student hits a home run on the final exam and goes from B to A.

“And, I do give grades of B+ and A- so even if you don’t quite make an A, you can still improve your grade.

“There’s no shame in making a B in Accounting 201. I actually made that grade myself when I was a sophomore in 1967 and my life hasn’t been ruined. But you’ve worked so hard. I would love to see you make it all the way.

“Good luck. I’ll be cheering for you. Win, lose, or draw – it has been a pleasure working with you in class this semester. You really should consider taking more accounting. As I like to say – you seem to have the knack for it.”

How to Read a Student Evaluation

Interesting article in The Chronicle of Higher Education on what a professor can learn from student evaluations. The article is insightful as are a lot of the numerous comments that were left by readers.

http://chronicle.com/article/How-to-Read-a-Student/129553/