{"id":16416,"date":"2018-09-26T09:00:44","date_gmt":"2018-09-26T16:00:44","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/?p=16416"},"modified":"2018-09-25T09:56:10","modified_gmt":"2018-09-25T16:56:10","slug":"know-your-profs-keith-yacucha-on-going-with-the-flow-and-students-aversion-to-stats","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/2018\/09\/26\/know-your-profs-keith-yacucha-on-going-with-the-flow-and-students-aversion-to-stats\/","title":{"rendered":"Know Your Profs<\/em>: Keith Yacucha on going with the flow and students\u2019 aversion to stats"},"content":{"rendered":"

Know Your Profs<\/i> is an ongoing series of profiles on the instructors at Camosun College. Every issue we ask a different instructor at Camosun the same 10 questions in an attempt to get to know them a little better.<\/p>\n

Do you have an instructor who you want to see interviewed in the paper? Maybe you want to know more about one of your teachers, but you\u2019re too busy, or shy, to ask? Email editor@nexusnewspaper.com and we\u2019ll add your instructor to our list of teachers to talk to.<\/p>\n

This issue we talked to Economics instructor Keith Yacucha about dumping coffee, flying low, and loving tacos.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

1. What do you teach and how long have you been at Camosun?<\/i><\/p>\n

I have been with Camosun since January of 2016, primarily teaching Introduction to Micro and Macro Economics as well as Elementary Business Statistics.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>
Camosun College Economics instructor Keith Yacucha (photo by Katy Weicker\/Nexus<\/em>).<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

2. What do you personally get out of teaching?<\/i><\/p>\n

Typically speaking, economics and statistics are those courses which students dread taking. Personally, I find them fascinating. Every so often I am able to convince a few students just how fascinating and applicable both are. That aha moment [is] when things click\u2014not just in terms of subject matter, but the application of subject matter to current events, allowing them to begin to explain and view the world around them through a different light. \u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

3. What\u2019s one thing you wish your students knew about you?<\/i><\/p>\n

Talking to many, I think an aspect which most faculty wish their students knew is just how much we care and want to see them succeed. Typically speaking, we are always willing to bend over backwards to help any student (who is willing to put in a solid effort) learn and succeed in our courses. \u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

4. What\u2019s one thing you wish they didn\u2019t know about you?<\/i><\/p>\n

My first year of university, I spent more time in the student union pub playing card games than I did in class. If it were not for some last-minute, serious cramming, I may have actually failed Econ 103, one of the courses I now enjoy teaching the most. In fact, it was not until my third year that economics clicked for me, and I chose to pursue it as a career.<\/p>\n

5. What\u2019s the best thing that\u2019s happened to you as a teacher here?<\/i><\/p>\n

The little things like the \u201cthank you\u201d at the end of each semester\u2014maybe this is going back to your second question, but those little statements of gratitude go a long way.<\/p>\n

6. What\u2019s the worst thing that\u2019s happened to you as a teacher here?<\/i><\/p>\n

Oh, where to start\u2014there have been so many embarrassing situations. You just have to flow with it as a lecturer. I have \u201cchecked my watch,\u201d dumping my coffee down my front. I have taught a lecture with my fly undone. That\u2019s just to name a few; there definitely have been many others.<\/p>\n

7. What do you see in the future of post-secondary education?<\/i><\/p>\n

I see that we are entering an era of accelerating technological change. Well, truthfully, we have been experiencing this since the early \u201990s, if not earlier. But, as this technological change continues to accelerate, we\u2014and I do mean we\u2014need to continually update our skills and technical experiences to keep relevant. As a result, I would expect that the average individual will attend a post-secondary institution several times over their working life. Additionally, given the acceleration of technology, the role of post-secondary needs to continually update itself and adapt to stay relevant in a changing economy. \u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

8. What do you do to relax on the weekends?<\/i><\/p>\n

On a weekend you can find me shuttling kids to hockey and soccer, or, if I can find the time, out on the trails mountain biking.<\/p>\n

9. What is your favourite meal?<\/i><\/p>\n

Tacos.<\/p>\n

10. What\u2019s your biggest pet peeve?<\/i><\/p>\n

Academic dishonesty. Any student who has taken a class with me probably knows this. I start every semester off with an entire lecture on the importance of academic honesty. We are here to learn, to grow, and to develop skills, which will last with us through our entire lives\u2026 you cannot cheat your way through that.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Know Your Profs is an ongoing series of profiles on the instructors at Camosun College. Every issue we ask a different instructor at Camosun the same 10 questions in an attempt to get to know them a little better. Do you have an instructor who you want to see interviewed in the paper? Maybe you […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":16417,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[15,219],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-16416","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-campus","category-september-26-2018"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16416","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=16416"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16416\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":16418,"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16416\/revisions\/16418"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/16417"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=16416"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=16416"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=16416"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}