Career Tips on Teaching, Presenting

and PublishingFrom Norm Miller nmiller@sandiego.edu

Today we will discuss Becoming a better teacher Some martial arts for defensive teaching Becoming a better presenter Improving your chances of publishing

Your subject is an important subject Many business stories have a ______

impact. Every trend has implications for your field.

Put it in context. Explain the importance before you start a new

topic in any depth.

Becoming a better teacher or presenter. Some key points: Don’t do too much Have a plan Take feedback seriously Does presentation skill impact your career?

Presentation skills are like selling skills and the most highly paid professionals are those who can help establish expertise and sell products, services or ideas.

Good teaching evaluations are self-rewarding.

Prioritize Your Topics You can’t teach everything. It is better to teach less and teach well.

Keys to effective teaching using experiential learning Engage the students and use all the senses you can. Use cases and in class problems where possible. Force them to pay attention, call on them by name even

when their hand is not up. “What do you think?” Force them to think, vote, then ask why? Don’t worry about being entertaining. Be competent and clear and speak up. Take control, give and command respect! What if they talk softly? Back up while looking at them.

Every good teacher and presenter tends to do the following: Put the topic in context, set up the

expectation Present the key ideas, models or methods Analyze what you present with examples,

problem, or discuss implications. Review the conclusions and findings and

how it fits into course, college, life, career or other research.

Check comprehension. Test.

Avoiding problems down the road or “a little self defense for teachers” Once in a while you will have a student that

seems to think you are the greatest obstacle in his/her life. The key…

Communication, i.e. After every homework, send out an email telling

the students grades are posted and if they don’t see a grade but turned it in to let you know.

Ask in class if students are getting your emails. Send out a select student note for those who are

doing poorly or haven’t turned in assignments. Tell them you are available; remind them of office

hours and or your availability, suggest references to them for help.

Lectures Good lectures without discussion must be very

done well or you will lose them! More than 30 attendees and you get less

interaction. Above 100 and you get almost no questions.

A good rule of thumb - go 5 minutes and then ask a question - re-engage the minds or ask if they have questions.

Quick surveys re-engage everyone.How may of who have ever…?

Should you use power point? Not always! And yet it depends on your

language skills.When you do: not too much text

You still need them taking some notes (they learn more) If room is bright, light on dark shows up better than…

Dark on light which works fine in dark rooms

Keep fonts BIG, BIG, BIG!

Walk to the back of the class and check reading level.

Not too much cute art work or dynamics but some is okay and can be helpful, for example…

Real Estate Investing Is Still A Great Way to Build Wealth

It is also possible to mess up…

All this dynamic stuff takes time Some dynamics are nice but remember it doesn’t help learning or retention

If you put all the text up at once They will read it rather then listen to you

and it doesn’t matter what you say until they get done reading what you have put in front of them just like you did right now.

The worst teaching is when you stand with your back to them and you read it – it will result in the entire class texting messages behind your back!

The rules that apply to teaching apply to presenting papers as well Don’t copy text papers directly into slides!

What should you do? (Only key words) Don’t use formulas that can’t be easily

understood (use common notation) Don’t expect to do much more than titillate! Put the topic in context and explain why it

matters.

Publishing Tips Remember publishing is a game requiring

strategy and not the prize. What is the prize? The prize is having a real impact.

Decisions, decisions, decisions Finding important topics and new ideas

Where and how? Finding work that is wrong or misinterpreted Monitoring the news and thinking about the big issues What are the hot conference topics?

Decisions Quality versus quantity Theory versus empirical Where and how to disseminate What kind of department colleagues do you have? Where do

they publish when they hit the top journals? Journal rankings matter

Tips No one keeps up on the literature in an area by

reading existing print journals, they use web resources and more…

You must attend presentations and get into the topic expert circle and distribution list at conferences and high level industry research meetings.

There is a secret caste system but you can enter the inside of any group by proving your ideas or stimulating new ideas. The organization you are at may influence the difficulty of getting attention but can be overcome.

Tips Cite probable reviewers Cite the Editors or Editorial Board

Members wherever and whenever possible

Circulate the paper ahead of time to key colleagues working in the same area and or to senior colleagues

But don’t perfect the paper before you send it out

Ask senior colleagues where to send it

Publish or perish The value of each article is huge early on

It shows you can write even if the journal is not highly ranked

Citations via Google Scholar are becoming more important and it is a good way to check your influence.

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