It’s one thing to say that students matter. It’s another thing to demonstrate that they do. Sarah Borchers，会计学助理教授和Theresa Yaw，经济学讲师是太阳城娱乐官网的两位教授，他们践行着这一信条。 他们都认真对待自己的教学，并努力改进教学。

努力改进

博尔彻斯在纽克大学的课堂上既当过攻读学士学位和MBA的学生，也当过教授，这对她的教学有帮助。 “I am constantly trying to develop and evolve. See what works and doesn’t work with the students.” 她承认，她需要愿意尝试不同的事情，并进行调整。 “It’s similar to industry where you are trying to problem solve and innovate to figure out what works. You ask, what do we truly want the students to learn and then figure out how to get them there.”

“太阳城娱乐官网 is great about giving instructors a lot of flexibility and freedom to try new things, try new tools.” 偏航说。 “During Covid we had to really adjust to keep student engaged and motivated.” She said that her and Borchers keep coming back to this principle: “The goal is to have students walk away from class remembering as much about that class as possible.”

向他人学习

To accomplish their goal of improving as teachers, they both attended the 硕士教学研讨会 run by Harvey Brightman. 他们在亚特兰大和他们的校园里参加了培训。

The goal is to “learn how college students today learn and what types of things you can do that engage today’s students,” 偏航说。 While you may be teaching two sections of the same class, Borchers explained, “classes can be completely different. Listening to your students and how they learn is important.”

学生在变化，教室也在变化，不再局限于一个物理空间。 为了成功地教授在线课程，两人都认为转移和倾听很重要。

Borchers sees it as a balance to present things in a way that “meets the students, their needs, and where they are at” while trying to “give them an in-person experience.” She admits that discussions and interactions are a challenge, “but I’ve had classes where we’ve been able to pull from different areas and do a lot of real-life stuff and get from our students the perspectives you wouldn’t see in a face-to-face classroom.”  

行业经验是关键

Besides joining 太阳城娱乐官网’s 工商技术学院 one semester apart, Borchers Fall 2015 and Yaw Spring 2016, they both spent years working in their industries after college, which allows them to bring earned and learned knowledge to their teaching.

Borchers worked for a CPA firm and “did a lot of government audits, which helps as I teach the government classes and audit classes.” Yaw spent 25 years “in manufacturing in both the finance and marketing departments.” 

“I also recruited for my firm,” Borchers said. 了解这个行业以及雇主在寻找什么，使她能够帮助学生培养行业所需要的技能，并帮助她向联系她寻找人员的雇主推荐学生。 “Kearney is a great size for being able to network, and a great size for helping students get jobs.” It’s knowing a student well enough to know if a position “would be a good fit or maybe not a good fit.”

课堂外与学生的互动

以前的行业培训也告知他们所参与的太阳城娱乐官网学生组织的建议。

Yaw is involved with 是, the business student organization that is the collegiate branch of Future Business Leaders of America. 每年春季的重头戏是与其他高校的州际比赛，获胜者将进入全国比赛。 This past summer, Yaw took 9 students to nationals and the 太阳城娱乐官网 chapter had 7个前五名，14个前十.

Borchers is the advisor for α Psi, the accounting student organization. She sees this as a “good bridge between industries, professionals, and the students.” 她想让学生们思考各种可能性和职业道路。 来自不同行业的演讲者被请来，公司被参观，还举办了一个招聘会。 

When asked why students should join the student business or accounting organizations, Yaw stressed that membership gives students “a lot of networking experience with other students and business leaders” and offers opportunities to grow and learn as individuals. Borchers says it helps students get jobs, “learn about different paths in accounting, and makes students more rounded as individuals.”

关于教学最好的部分

这两位老师最喜欢教学的是学生。 “I like how deeply we get to know them,” Borchers said, often having them in several classes and “watching them grow, not only in their education, but as people. It’s amazing how connected with are with our students.”

Yaw对此表示同意，并补充说，她喜欢与学生交往，帮助他们克服困难，为他们的成就欢呼，为他们的人生阶段庆祝。 “Last week I had a student email me to let me know she got married. Another that she’s pregnant.” 

When she started teaching at 太阳城娱乐官网, Borchers did not know that these close student connections “could be so rewarding.”

Yaw上的是一所小型学校，她自己也经历了这些有意义的师生关系。 “That’s what makes teaching at 太阳城娱乐官网 so attractive. Hopefully I can mean something to my students, like some of my professors did to me.”

Yaw and Borchers are working each day to be the kind of teachers that make a positive impact in their students’ lives.