Faculty Spotlight
March - April 2005: Dr. John Wachowicz
Bio
John Wachowicz began teaching at the University of Tennessee in 1977. Prior to teaching, he received both his undergraduate and master’s degrees in accounting from the University of Illinois. After spending two years in the Army, Dr. Wachowicz returned to the University of Illinois to pursue a doctorate degree, this time in finance. He felt the switch appropriate as “it was a chance to do more applied accounting, take the numbers, and make some decisions.”Tools of the Trade
His many years of teaching have provided Dr. Wachowicz with ample time to test numerous methods of relaying information to his students and helping them learn. “You keep adding things over time that work, and throw out things that don’t.” According to him, “you’ve got to sell the students on the whole idea that [the material] is important. It’s easy to lose them; you look out there, you can see the eyes glazing over, or people start to lose interest. I have to try to think of different things to engage the students.” What are some of his favorite tricks?Professor Wachowicz has mastered the art of overhead transparencies. At the beginning of each class, he displays an overhead or two that perhaps humorously touch on the lesson for the day, or he may use them to review the topic he discussed during the previous class period. Sometimes the transparencies have nothing to do with finance at all. For example, his top-ten list of Amish spring break activities elicits a reluctant chuckle from the students who arrive early. The objective is to “get people awake.”
During class, Dr. Wachowicz uses a separate transparency for each point that he presents. Because the room he teaches in contains two projection screens, he is able to refer to one transparency while keeping the preceding one visible to allow students to process the material at their own speed. He uses overhead transparencies that have a white border around them which enables him to write notes around the edge. With the proper equipment, several of these techniques could translate to the use of PowerPoint slides as well.