Friday, May 30, 2008

My Minimester Hiatus: More Great Classroom Ideas to Follow!!!

Readers,

I am nearing the END of my minimester and I have lots of interesting ideas that have emerged during the past few weeks. Please subscribe to my blog, because you will receive MANY millennial professor ideas in the next few weeks.

I am excited about having the summer off and I am going to focus on the blog and the scholarly research.

Via Con Dios! I will be back in a few days! Minimester awaits!

Sincerely,

MP

Monday, May 12, 2008

Millennials and Minimesters

The Semester is Complete!

Well...the minimester starts in a few days. I am actually excited about teaching yet another minimester because the students are engaged with the course content for 2 1/2 weeks. They are not taking any other classes and the professor usually forms a strong connection with the students during those weeks.


The past few times that I taught a minimester course, I served as an adjunct at a community college. That course would usually have students from two of the flagship institutions in my state and some local students who attended other community colleges and universities.


The course was one of the most rewarding courses in my career, because the students in the course became very close (both traditional and nontraditional). Since the course lasted 3 1/2 hours, I would have divide the students into groups and I would have the groups of students bring snacks for other students on designated days. This small gesture helped the students look forward to the next class day. Of course, I would bring snacks on the first day to "model the way".


I have to leave all of your with this correlation between millennial students and minimesters. Please remember, millennial undergraduate students usually want to finish their courses and their college career in a short amount of time. The enrollment in the minimester course that I am teaching in a few days reiterates this "millennial" point.
MP