F eatures Teachers use quill to make their points Computers ‘account’ for Stennick’s success By J. J. Schoessler Of The Print In the halls of our school are many fine teachers, some of which have an eye on more than the time in class when they try to improve. If there is a short­ coming, they work to invent new ways to solve the problem. One avenue of improvment has been to write tex­ tbooks that help the teaching. One such educator is Jan Stennick. Stennick is a teacher who has been with the College for ten years, teaching office administration before moving into the business technology depart­ ment to teach computerized accoun­ ting. Stennick has a' Master’s Degree in education, is working on a Doctorate in Education, and has written a prac­ tice set to be distributed in February. Jan Stennick Photo by Dan Wheeler Madsen adds experience to help students succeed By Toni Madsen Of The Print David Madsen, Drafting Technlogy instructor, has done more for the col­ lege and his classes than just teach. Madsen has written and published books for use in drafting classes, and is awaiting the arrival of three more books in the next year. Madsen has three books that are completed and available for use. One book, Basic Drafting, is an elementary book for beginners. The other two books, Geometric Dimensions and Tolerance and Civil Drafting Technology (co-written with Terence Shumaker), are workbooks being used in classes here at the College. two years to research, complete and get published. To finish up work on these projects, Madsen has taken a leave of absence this term. There is also another book, due out next year, on engineer­ ing drafting. “It took quite a bit of time, but I felt there was a need. When I came to the college (in 1972), some course material needed to be developed for geometric dimensions.” Madsen developed these course materials and put them into a packet. Since not much else was on the market, Madsen decided to try and sell this in­ formation and sent manuscripts to several publishers. “I like writing, and really enjoy “It took quite a bit of time, but I felt there was a need...I like writing, and really enjoy drafting, so I just started doing more things.” Madsen has had success with these last books as Geometric Dimensions and Tolerance, written in 1976, is now in its fourth printing. This spring, Madsen is expecting two major textbooks out, Mechanical Drafting and Architectural Drafting (co-written with Alan Jefferis). The two books have taken Madsen over Page 4 drafting, so I just started doing more things.” What’s next for Madsen? “I’d like to continue writing, but I don’t have anything specific in mind at this point,” he continued, “I need to do a back-up-problems workbook and other than that, I’d like to do some audio-visual materials.” Stennick said, “The practice set will have taken thirteen months from the start of the concept to the time it will be available. The practice set can be us­ ed on a computer with any general ledger program.” “It gives the student an opportunity to use their accountinq skills by the in­ put of data into a computer,” she said. What necessitated the practice set is that Stennick wanted data input infor­ mation that was more realistic and not overly instructional, she said. Stennick said that practice sets have always been an integral part of accoun­ ting instruction. Stennick developed the practice set “Sight and Sound Elec­ tronics” to enhance the student’s aweareness of the computer’s value in the accounting process. As in an elec­ tronics business, the students will work with data that is familiar to the con­ sumer, in the class “Computerized Ac­ counting”. “Sight and Sound Electronics” has been written as supplementary material for another system, but it has the flex­ ibility to allow a student to work the practice set manually. When asked if she planned to write more in the near future Stennick said “not for a while.” The accounting course is available Tuesdays and Thursdays at 8AM and it has a night section ity to allow a stu­ dent to work the practice set manually. When asked if she planned to write more in the near future Stennick said “not for a while.” The accounting course is available Tuesdays and Thursdays at 8AM and it has a night section being taught by Phyllis Parker, said Stennick. Math books keep pace Both books have enjoyed good suc­ cess around the country as well as be­ Did you ever wonder where all those ing popular with the students here at college textbooks that you take home the College. come from? Well, a large number of them are written by actual college pro­ fessors, and several of them teach at the College. One of them is long-time math instructor Jim Streeter. Streeter grew up in the Seattle- Tacoma area and graduated from the University of Washington. He is no novice at writing, either. He’s been writing for the past 15 years and had some study guides published by Harper and Row before his two books came out. His first book, Basic Mathematical Skills, came out last year, and his se­ cond book, Beginning Algebra, has just been released. He has co-written both of them with Gerald Alexander and both books have been published by McGraw-Hill. In’ designing a format for the books, Streeter got a lot of in­ put from students as well as teachers at “We have a number of colleges us­ other colleges. “We used the other texts, but they ing them”,Streeter states. The local critics have a high opinion weren’t able to satisfy the student’s total needs. So we tried to simplify it of the books too. Of the Beginning and make it easier for the students to Algebra book, fellow math teacher Jacque Arellano calls it,“Excellant. read,” Streeter said. Students like it because it’s straight for­ Of his latest book he comments, ward and easy to read. Organization is “The book (Beginning Algebra) is it’s most outstanding feature.” designed for college students who may Although Streeter has no immediate have not had algebra for a couple of plans for another book he says he’s years, and it serves as a good review for “always writing”.This serves as good them. It also helps those who haven’t news for future math students whose had any algebra and need some life and homework eill be made a little preparation.” easier thanks to his books. By Mark Empey Of The Print Clackamas Community College