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