Category Archives: Teaching Tips & Strategies

How Our Accounting Basics Solution Facilitates Learning

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Accounting Basics from Labyrinth Learning

When teaching accounting courses, financial information must be conveyed in a clear and concise manner. Here at Labyrinth Learning, our Accounting Basics solution offers an easily understood introduction for students who wish to gain general accounting knowledge but may not be working toward an accounting degree.

Often students want accounting basics to utilize as part of their job, for personal finances or to be able to understand the importance of accounting  while taking a course like QuickBooks.  While things like cash flow and payroll accounting are the responsibility of the accounting department, it is valuable to all to be able to read a ledger sheet, track business performance, and understand the basics of profit and loss.

Labyrinth Learning provides this new basic accounting solution.  It begins with a comprehensive overview. This particular program introduces a fictional business and the accounting cycle they follow. Each new topic also includes detailed explanations so each student understands how the process works.

This is solution provides practical and easy to understand accounting basics, along with practice sets at the end of each chapter, an ongoing end of chapter problem which builds off the previous obstacle, and a scenario at the end of the course allowing students to put their recently gained knowledge to use.

For more information about our Accounting Basics textbook along with our many other interactive teaching tools, please contact us at Labyrinth Learning today.

Learn Why Payroll Accounting is Important for Students

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Like so many other occupations, accounting has now become a career choice with specialized fields. There is specific training for areas including construction accounting, tax accounting, and one of the most security sensitive: payroll accounting. When teaching students payroll accounting, it is important they understand how having a separate payroll accounts and an accountant assists in maintaining proper internal controls:

  • One reason to separate the payroll account is for reconciliation simplicity and time management. When payroll checks and taxes are paid out of the same bank account as routine general ledger invoices, it generates numerous transactions which in turn makes monthly bank statement reconciliation more complicated and time consuming.
  • Internet identify theft and online scams in relation to payroll services is rampant these days. By creating a separate payroll account, which is linked to the company’s main banking account, money can easily be transferred to cover payroll with an additional protective layer of security guarding against fraud and theft.
  • A payroll accountant is privy to personal information including social security numbers and financial legal proceedings such as wage garnishment. Employing a separate payroll accountant who understands the confidentially requirements helps keep internal controls in place and ensures only authorized personnel have access to private payroll files.

For accounting instructors, Labyrinth Learning has a new solution available: Payroll Accounting: A Practical Real World Approach by Eric Weinstein. For information on our other outstanding curricula and teaching aids, please contact us today.

projector

Enhance Lessons with the Labyrinth Learning Video Library

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projector Teaching with video tools, in addition to traditional lectures, group work, and assessments, can be an effective way to engage a wide spectrum of learners. However, if videos aren’t used correctly, they can become a “passive” teaching tool and will not have the same impact on your students’ learning process.

Here are tips for enhancing your lessons with the Labyrinth Learning video library:

Provide a synopsis. Take a little time before the video begins to “prime the intellectual pumps”. Explain what the video is about, the highlights and the key takeaway points students should be watching/listening for. This pre-viewing period is especially helpful if you feel there will be parts of the video or lesson that will challenge the students. Highlighting them beforehand will make the information more accessible.

Viewing activities. While you don’t want to interrupt the video too much, or assign a viewing activity that is too distracting, providing a few questions for students to answer, and/or selecting specific “pause points” to recap a video lesson’s main points, can be a productive way to keep students engaged.

Post-video review. Afterwards, to ensure the video’s lessons are translated to students, you should have a post-video review session, going over whatever worksheet, questions and assignments students were to complete during the video. Discuss the new material so students can further synthesize what they have learned.

Contact Labyrinth Learning for more information about teaching with video and other multi-media tools that will make your classroom a more dynamic learning environment.

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voice bubbles

Teaching Accounting Using Twitter

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More and more accounting teachers are using technology in the classroom to help their students learn both in and out of the school. Social media is a great example of a technological innovation that lets teachers and students communicate with each other outside of class.

voice bubbles
Answer questions outside of the classroom, and provide handy links, by using Twitter.

Used in the right manner, social media sites such as Twitter can produce astonishing results in accounting students. Here are some suggestions for using Twitter to teach accounting:

  • First, when teaching accounting, there will be a ton of information out there for your students to try to digest. That is why setting up a Twitter account to push out helpful links and information directly is a great way to help the students and relate to their everyday lives.
  • Second, Twitter can be used to support two-way conversations between teachers and students, which can help teachers engage their students while also ensuring that said individuals retain more of what they hear.
  • Third, Twitter’s ease of use also makes it useful for asking questions in the middle of accounting lectures. This is beneficial because increased student engagement produces better results, whether the material consists of the basic accounting principles or more advanced topics, and students can tend to be very shy. Twitter questions may help everyone get their questions in and answered.
  • Fourth, Twitter can lead students to other online material such as recorded presentations used to create a collaborative learning experience.

For more on ways to improve your teaching through new technology and new ideas, please contact us at Labyrinth Learning, today.

typing

Easy Strategies to Increase Your Typing Speed

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Increase your typing speed with a few of these simple tips.

Have you been looking to improve your words-per-minute on the keyboard? Here are some quick and easy shortcuts on how to increase your typing speed:

  • Research has shown typing ability is broken down into 80 percent technique, 10 percent speed, and 10 percent accuracy.  Proper hand placement technique is vital for increasing typing speed.
  • Practice makes perfect when it comes to improving your typing skills. While practicing might not seem like a very quick strategy, as little as 30 minutes a day works wonders on increasing your speed.
  • Fast and accurate typing skills are based on muscle memory and just as when learning anything new, repetition is the best way to train those muscles.
  • Keep your eyes off the keyboard. This might be difficult at first, so try covering the keyboard or consider starting out with a blank keyboard until you build up your confidence.
  • Correct posture while sitting at the keyboard ensures your hands are resting in the proper position and reduces strain on your back and neck. This also keeps your energy levels up and allows you to type faster and without injury.
  • Realize your errors are great learning tools. While it is frustrating to make the same mistake over and over, keeping a positive mindset while working to correct the problem goes a long way in improving both speed and accuracy.

If you’re looking to update and improve your teaching style and curriculum, please feel free to contact us today at Labyrinth Learning for more information on everything we offer!

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Cloud Computing

How to Use Cloud Computing for Homework Help

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Cloud Computing
Stay connected with your students by assigning homework on the cloud.

Cloud computing is a technology that can be incredibly helpful in any number of environments, including a school environment. In fact, cloud computing can provide teachers with the opportunity to increase interaction with their students, allowing them to help students by using cloud computing with homework as well as in-class lessons.

Cloud computing services, such as the use of Google Docs, has a huge advantage over traditional methods of teaching. For example, when a teacher assigns an essay to students, odds are the teach won’t see any progress until the students hand in their final essays. Once they’re turned in, the teacher will have to take 30 some essays from each class home in order to grade. Most students won’t seek help before assignments are due, either. It’s much easier to guide students to a successful assignment with the use of a cloud computing service such as Google Docs.

Through cloud computing, a teacher is able to ask for prompts for a subject in-class through the use of Google Docs and receive them from students within minutes. The teacher can then project these prompts and discuss them, thereby helping students develop their essay’s subject matter. It also makes it easy to track the progress of students by having them send in works-in-progress that teachers can look over quickly. This is much less complicated than having students print or write out their work and having to sort hundreds of papers at home.

Contact us at Labyrinth Learning for additional information on using cloud computing with homework.

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Accounting

Learn Why Payroll Accounting is Important

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Accounting Payroll accounting is a critical foundation of any business. This is especially true now that most companies are required to provide health benefits for their employees. Having accurate and up-to-date books ensure that a company is complying with federal regulations, and it will improve economic transparency for owners, management and employees.

Learning solutions, like Payroll Accounting, provide a sensible, streamlined and hands-on approach to appeal to a broad spectrum of students, including those that do not have previous accounting experience. The course is divided into six sections, all of which cover the basis of a thorough payroll accounting system, including:

  • Salaries
  • Wages
  • Overtime pay
  • Commissions and bonuses to employees
  • Payroll taxes and costs
  • Employer paid benefits

This course is ideal for small business owners or employees who are ready to take their accounting and bookkeeping knowledge to the next level, especially if they are expanding, adding new employees to the books, or growing their benefit and retirement programs.

Labyrinth Learning offers Payroll Accounting: A Practical Real World Approach, for those who teach accounting. We are also hosting a webinar, led by the book’s author, Eric Weinstein.

Contact Labyrinth Learning to find out more about Payroll Accounting and other interactive teaching tools.

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How You Can Engage Introverts and Extroverts in the Classroom

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No matter the class size, lesson plans should be designed for introverted and extroverted students.

One of the biggest issues in teaching is being able to engage a large number of students at the same time despite their differences. The teaching strategies that capture and retain the interest of extroverts won’t produce the same results in introverts — extroverts tend to be more eager to participate in the open.

Teaching extroverts and introverts at the same time is not an impossible task, though it does mean that teachers will have to be observant and take both groups into account when crafting their lesson plans.

Here are some suggestions for teaching extroverts and introverts in the same classroom:

  • Facilitating both extroverts and introverts begins with telling which people are which. Extroverts tend to be more social, meaning that they will make more of an effort to talk with more people. In contrast, introverts tend to be more reserved — they need time to process their thoughts before participating. Bear in mind that both extroverts and introverts fall on the same spectrum, meaning that teachers must be flexible in handling their students.
  • In class, let extroverts speak first so that the introverts will have time to mull over their thoughts. This ensures that both will be able to participate without being pulled out of their comfort zones.
  • Set up a means for the class to communicate outside of meetings. Extroverts can continue to socialize, while introverts can communicate at their leisure.

Are you looking for more tips on teach introverts and extroverts? Contact us at Labyrinth Learning about more resources for engaging students.

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Using eBooks to Prepare Students for College

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Although learning in a classroom environment is the strongest foundation for students, eBooks are a great way to supplement their education. Not only are they beneficial for teachers, but they are a great way to prepare students for college.

Here is detailed list on how teaching with eBooks can be beneficial for students about to head into college:

  • Preparing for the use of technology – Students will most likely be introduced to new uses of technology for their education in college. eBooks are a great way for them to acclimate to the use of technology for studying.
  • Improve problem-solving skills – Students that use eBooks enough will most likely run into a few glitches like they would with any technology. Learning to face and handle such problems is a valuable experience.
  • Learning to try new things – Using eBooks for the first time will take students out of their comfort zones, an experience they should become accustomed to if they are to learn to try new things in life.
  • Learning to collaborate – Many eBook platforms allow students to interact and collaborate within the text. This type of collaboration is a great learning experience, especially for students planning on taking online courses.
  • Learn to think outside the box – Using eBooks is a way for students to learn in a nontraditional manner forcing them to think for themselves without the help of an instructor.

Teaching with eBooks is a great way to prepare students for college. For more information, contact us at Labyrinth Learning today.

Geometry Class

Effective Ways to Use PowerPoint in a College Classroom

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Geometry Class Once an office staple, PowerPoint has gained new respect in the classroom. More instructors are incorporating it into their lesson plans because lectures can quickly be updated and additional multi-media features like video, images and audio can easily be added.

Students are much more sophisticated than in the past due to rapidly changing technology. No longer are they satisfied to learn by rote. They want and expect to be challenged and engaged, therefore, when teaching with PowerPoint, it is paramount that PowerPoint lesson plans be carefully thought out.

Getting students interested in a lecture from the opening sentence can easily be achieved using a PowerPoint presentation. Including highlights of the lecture at the beginning gives students a visual aid as to what they will be learning. Building off that by asking open ended questions allow students’ prior knowledge to be gauged and lesson plans adjusted.

The body of the lecture should be broken down into short 10-15 minute segments. Often instructors get so wrapped up in what they are teaching that they forget this important tip. Remember to design a PowerPoint presentation to include active learning strategies so everyone can take a break and redirect their focus.

When teaching with PowerPoint, the conclusion is just as important as the beginning. Determine how effective the lecture was by including a slide requesting students write down what they felt was unclear or hard to understand.

For additional information on adding PowerPoint in your classroom, please contact Labyrinth Learning today.

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