Examining Perspectives:
Increasing Your Ability to Connect with
Students
Marsha L. Bayless, Stephen F. Austin State University
Joshua
changes my
perception.
How Do You Relate to Your Students
▪ First, you need to understand your perspective
▪ Second, you need to understand your students’ perspectives
▪ Third, develop ways to adapt your teaching techniques to suit your
student’s perspectives
How long have you been a business teacher??
▪ Started in Fall 1975 teaching vocational office education at Hays High
▪ Since then have taught at vocational school level, community college level,
and university level.
▪ Just finished teaching 40 years as a business teacher at five schools in
three states.
What have I learned in 40 years?
▪ You have to keep learning and teaching yourself new things because
business education is a discipline that is always changing.
▪ It is better to laugh than to cry.
▪ If you teach in a College of Business, you can’t wear pink (it isn’t a power
color) and you can’t let people see you write shorthand (they will not treat
you well).
▪ Enthusiasm for your job and for life is something you must try to pass on to
your students.
▪ When you make a mistake, fix it.
▪ If you are bored with teaching, it is your own fault.
My Book of Useless Business Knowledge - 2015
▪ Chapter 1
Typewriters from Manual to Memory
▪ Chapter 2
Using a Rotation Schedule --You Don’t Have Enough Machines for All
▪ Chapter 3
How to Dictate A Letter at 140 words a minute
▪ Chapter 4
Learning and Teaching Symbol and Alphabetic Shorthand
▪ Chapter 5
How to Calculate a Five Minute Timed Writing
▪ Chapter 6
How to Use Exotic Office Supplies like Carbon Paper and Whiteout
▪ Chapter 7
Operating Machines like Spirit Duplicator, Mimeograph, & Transcribers
▪ Chapter 8
Knowledge of Outdated Software Like WordStar, WordPerfect, Lotus 123,
Paradox, dBase III
Chapter 1 – From Manual to Memory
▪ IBM Selectric – Ball Element
▪ IBM Proportional Space Typewriter
▪ IBM Correcting Typewriters
▪ IBM Wheelwriter
▪ IBM Memory 50 or Memory 100 Typewriters
▪ IBM was the brand that was the Gold Standard for the Business Teacher
▪ Usually had several new machines each year – not a whole classroom
Chapter 4 - Shorthand
▪ Symbol – Gregg Shorthand (Some schools used Pitman)
– Anniversary – 1929
– Simplified – 1949
– Diamond Jubilee – 1963 (THIS WAS MINE)
– Series 90 – 1978
– Centennial – 1988
▪ Alphabetic
– Forkner, 1955
– Speedwriting
– Stenoscript
– Personal Shorthand
Do You Have More Chapters to Add
What the book would tell you
1.
You LEARNED it all and much of it you taught yourself.
2.
If you learned all that information in the past, you can learn a bunch of
new stuff in the future.
3.
Forge ahead – don’t let the idea of how much work it is, slow you down
when it comes to learning new things.
Is it a trip down memory lane --- or ---Is it like Jurassic Park – a completely different world!!!
Perspectives
Think back to one of your years in high school. Here was my
junior year because it was the year of my first business
course.
1970
Kansas
Dodge City
Senior High
School
I almost learned how to type on a
manual typewriter. Instead, I was
in the half of the class on an
electric typewriter
Curriculum – Dodge City Senior High School
Junior Year – 3 hour block
Senior Year – 3 hour block
▪ Typewriting
▪ Typewriting 2
▪ Shorthand
▪ Shorthand 2
▪ Accounting
▪ Office Procedures
▪ PLUS 15 hours of cooperative
office work. My job was in
Superintendent of School’s office
at new minimum wage of $1.45 per
hour.
The Environment - 1970
▪ Girls had to wear skirts or dresses
– They had to be knee length (the
60’s didn’t get to Kansas until the
70’s.)
– 1970 was the first year that more
pantyhose were sold than
stockings.
▪ Boys had to worry about being
drafted to the Vietnam War. Or,
could get into the National Guard
like my cousin.
▪ Saw movie Romeo and Juliet for
English class.
▪ Shared a 1956 Ford with manual
shift with my sister.
▪ Had a party telephone line.
▪ We didn’t have the much sought
after Princess Phone.
▪ Television was black and white with
no remote control. Not until 1972
were more color sets sold than
black and white.
▪ We watched 2 and a half channels
on TV.
QUIZ? What is it? Define the following.
Item A
Item B
Answers
A
B
An electric collator. One of first
machines I ever used on the job so
that you could sit down and
assemble up to 10 pages at one
time.
A mimeograph machine. Type a
stencil.
Some more items
Item C
Item D
Answers
Item C – IBM Magnetic belt
transcriber
Item D – Apple II e
computer
Today’s Students - Perceptions
Environment
Technology
▪ Always been around a world at war
–Iraq, Afghanistan, and terrorists
▪ Not familiar with a world without
computers and cell phones
▪ Economy went downhill in 2008
impacting many in society
▪ Ask Google questions instead of
adults
▪ Personal safety for children
▪ Do not use cursive handwriting
▪ Helicopter parents
▪ Some have sense of entitlement
▪ Want to have an example of
assignments
▪ Would prefer to watch You-tube
instead of reading to learn.
Other Perceptions
▪ Texting is favorite way to
communicate.
▪ May lack face-to-face people
skills.
▪ Use social media to keep up with
friends and family.
▪ As a generation, may be the first
not to exceed the success of their
parents.
▪ As a generation, seeking a balance
between work and life. May be
more likely to choose life instead
of work.
▪ Interested in working for charitable
causes.
▪ Interested in green goals and
saving environment.
Strategies
How to use perceptions to improve teaching
Overcome Obstacles with EAR-E
▪ EXAMINE your perspectives and that of your students. Students can help
define what is important to them, what is life like, what are challenges, what
do they think of the future. Use group activities to define perceptions.
▪ ADAPT your skills and knowledge to a changing environment. It will
always be changing.
▪ RE-ASSESS your stories and examples. Get newer and better ones that
students can relate to. If you can’t think of any, recruit students to help
you with ideas.
▪ ENTHUSIASM for learning. You have to be both an educator and an
entertainer. Develop your own style. Relate to what is of interest to
students. What do you have in common? Hobbies, music, art?