School of Business
Salem State College, 352 Lafayette Street, Salem, MA 01970.
PAUL F. MCGEE, CPA, Associate Professor, ACCOUNTING & FINANCE, B.S., M.S., Bentley College.
TEACHING PHILOSOPHY
I try to make my classes interactive. I do not use overheads, but like students to give me the answers to homework problems so that I can put them on the board, right or wrong, for discussion in the class. Most of my experiences come from working as a CPA, this is my first teaching job, hence, all my classes include "real world" experiences. I often show students that text book problems are a lot easier that what they will be experiencing in the working world. (Students tend to think that the problems in class are difficult, but in class, all the information is readily available to them, and in a working environment you must get the information first and then interpret the information.) I usually lecture on a chapter and expect students to be ahead of me in their readings so that I can ask questions as I lecture.
All my classes require written assignments, and computer usage. I will bring my computer to class to demonstrate, with current software programs, how information is processed in the "real world". For accounting courses I will demonstrate Accountants Trial Balance software and in taxes I use Pencil Pushers to demonstrate to students the latest software programs available. I learn every student's name and I expect them to be able to participate in class. For students that have a problem speaking in class, I do not make class participation a requirement for how I grade but I hope to assist the student in being able to overcome the fear of speaking in class. (I had this fear when I was in school). I like to think that I make accounting classes as interesting as possible.
