Sharpen Your Teaching Skills Sessions

Presented on Friday and Saturday at the meeting, sessions in this track will feature presentations by educators from across the country sharing valuable teaching tips that you can put to use immediately in your classes.

Session 1.01 Creating Teaching Moments for Our Students Through Student Organizations, Service Learning and Cooperation
Presenters: Virginia Cortijo, Stonehill College, Liang Song, University of Massachusetts-Dartmouth, Christopher Jacobsen, University of Massachusetts-Dartmouth, Jia Wu, University of Massachusetts-Dartmouth
In this session we will explain how cooperation between our honor societies and student-run clubs can help us achieve our learning goals, improve our students' presentation skills, ethical perspective, business literacy, and global awareness. Attendees will learn different strategies that can be tailored to their own institutions to; promote events organized by their honor societies and student-run clubs, expand the boundaries of the traditional classroom, engage students in great academic experiences, and achieve their departments' learning goals. We will also discuss service-learning in an educational approach that combines learning objectives with community service to provide a pragmatic, progressive learning experience while meeting societal needs. Service learning is essential to accounting education and including service learning components in courses will help students develop skills in leadership, communication, and interaction.

Session 2.01 Activities and Games in the Accounting Classroom
Presenters: Jeannette Landin, Landmark College, Roxanne Hamilton, Landmark College
Business courses tend to be highly formal learning environments, and accounting is one of the most intense of the business disciplines. As such, accounting classrooms are not known for being fun environments. Students perceive accounting classes with arduous detailed work. An often-ignored piece in accounting instruction is the link between emotions and learning. Green and Batool (2017) have linked students' positive emotions about course content to enhanced academic achievement. The use of relevant, content-specific games and activities during class sessions leads to students' development of positive emotions about content, which leads to enjoyment of the class, the belief in successful assignment completion, and improved retention of course content. This session will contain ideas about content-specific activities and games that teachers can use to enhance the accounting classroom. Participants will be able to discuss the use of activities and will gain insights into the practical aspects of including activities and games in the accounting classroom.

Session 3.01 Teaching Millennials and Generation Z Students
Presenters: Douglas Chene, Salem State University, Joann David, AICPA, Nancy Osborne, University of Massachusetts-Dartmouth, Stephen Scarpati, Sacred Heart University, Frances Skypeck, Framingham State University
New generations of students are not the same as prior generations. Millennials and Generation Z students (also know as Post-Millenials) respond differently to instruction. Teaching methods, course content, and objectives must therefore be relevant and engaging to this new generation of learners. Our panelists will discuss how learning styles have changed and how using technology and different teaching styles may improve student engagement and learning outcomes. We hope that an animated discussion with the audience evolves.

Session 4.01 Engaging Financial and Managerial Students: Real-World Assignments
Presenters: Carolyn Christesen, SUNY Westchester Community College, Daniel M. Boice, Ulster Community College, Julie A. Boice, Ulster Community College, Pamela Pirog, Housatonic Community College, Christa Kelson, SUNY College of Technology at Canton
There is no better way to engage students than with assignments that connect classroom learning with what is happening out in the "real world." In this session, we will present assignments we have successfully used in our financial and managerial classes to help students apply their learning. These include: Applying break-even analysis to a unit at the college, preparing a personal budget using realistic numbers, analyzing the investment potential of different companies, accounting for a new business, and managerial costing techniques for coffee bean production. Come join us for an interactive session where we can share ideas about ways to make accounting come alive for our students.

Session 5.01 Managing Your Research Career: Strategies to Build Your Research/Publication Record
Presenter: Ronald Huefner, University at Buffalo, SUNY
Based on his experiences over a 50-year research career, the presenter will offer several tips and strategies to sustain and advance your research career, whether you are a new academic or an experienced one.