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

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

6:00 p.m. - Professor... Are You There?

Over the past few weeks, I conducted research on virtual office hours and if they are effective. It seems that an additional form of communication is needed with the new and growing undergraduate classes of millennial students.

As I stated in a prior blog, I use virtual office hours during my actual office hours to reach my students who may not be able to physically come into my office. In my experience this year, I feel that the virtual office hours are needed. This year, only eight to ten students of my 110 students have visited my office this semester. However, over 30 students have communicated with me via Yahoo Instant Messenger this semester.

The conversations ranged from requesting help for finding sources and proper APA citation to absences and grade inquiry. In addition, students used their computers, cell phones, and blackberry devices to communicate with me via instant messenger.

In the future, I plan to offer virtual office hours through a program like Meebo, which would enable me to use MSN Messenger, Yahoo Messenger, and other messenging systems at the same time. In addition, one might want to examine virtual office hours through facebook and myspace IM. I have not reached that level of technology yet, but I hope to explore it in the future.

I distributed a survey to all of my students this semester regarding virtual office hours and I am looking forward to coding the responses.

I will post the results soon! Let me know what you think about virtual office hours.

MP

The Importance of Understanding Millennial Mannerisms and Lingo

Greetings Readers! I conducted research for the past few days and I was unable to post to the blog. The interesting thing is - I have experienced a few epiphany's over the past few weeks.

Soon, I will be 26 and I have realized that I will be an additional year older than a majority of my undergraduate students. I have enjoyed teaching (with my doctorate) at a very young age, because I feel that I relate to my students on many levels. For example, I listen to the music that they listen to and if a student orally recalls a phrase from a popular rap song, I know what he or she is referring to.

In fact, I think that seasoned professors are at a disadvantage when it comes to millennial culture. However, I am wondering if my students relate to me differently than their other professors. In addition, I am African American and this may contribute an entirely different dynamic to the situation. Most of my students are 90% Caucasian American.

What do you think?

MP