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Adjunct Certification Program

The New World

Lately I have been feeling maybe the way Christopher Columbus felt when, on his first
trip, he landed in the Bahamas instead of India.

Part of my success during my career in the oil and gas industry can be attributed to my
people skills. I could easily talk to and relate to people in all levels of an organization. I
took care of the people who worked for me. I listened to them, respected them and did
my best to insure they were challenged and appreciated. Being a big believer in cross
training, I spent a lot time doing just that. During those sessions it occurred to me that I
wanted to teach after I decided to leave the corporate world.

Well, here I am. For almost three years, I have been using the approach that got me here.
Has it worked? To a degree it has. I am flexible in my dealings with students. I understand
that many of them have jobs and lives that sometimes interfere with classes. I avoid
ambiguous test questions. I manage to get their test results by the next class. And I know
they appreciate these things.

So, I know what works. How about the things that don’t work? Accounting is regarded by
many as a boring subject. So how do I try to make it exciting? I use actual events to help
explain how accounting works in the “real world”. These events are often humorous. How
do I make it easier for my students? I add a bonus question to each test that is worth 10
points. That is a morale booster for many students. I also drop the lowest grade of the
five tests each semester. This means that a horrible test day does not necessarily ruin a
semester grade. I provide tutoring sessions before class, after class and even on Friday.
From the information I receive after each semester I know I have a higher than average
number of students who pass. However, I still lose a couple of students every semester.

One of my students performed poorly on the first test of the semester. I know the student
works until 6:00PM every weekday. My class begins at 6:30 so the student is usually late.
I was contacted just moments before the second test to let me know this student had to
work late and would miss the test. On the next class day, I gave the student a copy of the
test and sent this person to find an empty study room. About half way through the class
the student brought back the test with only a couple of questions answered. In a low, but
desperate, voice, the student said, “I don’t get this stuff! What can I do about it?” A couple
of days later, we had a three and a half hour tutoring session. I discovered that the student
is extremely bright and catches on rather quickly. A question was posed asking me if I
could add two more columns to a worksheet to make it easier to understand a certain
process. Not only did I add them for that session, but I will include the extra columns from
now on whenever I cover the topic. I allowed a retake of the test and the student nailed
it. On the third test a few weeks later, the student did quite well again. So, I think I might
have saved one. I hope so.

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