Shout out to GEN 300 Students @ UOP!

One of the benefits of teaching at the University of Phoenix, as the nation's largest private, accredited university, is the variety of students that I get to meet. I have been with University of Phoenix for about four years now and have taught non-stop year round. I drive to Tulsa, Oklahoma, two nights a week and teach 4 hour sections for 5 weeks ( and I teach a great many directed studies courses) and it is highly accellerated, and students have to be highly motivated and disciplined to make it or they drop like flies. For almost two years I also taught flexnet (online) courses in addition to teaching on the Tulsa Campus. Well, since every 5 weeks at two classes per week, over the past 4 years I have had hundreds and hundreds - maybe thousands of students. You don't always get to know them like you do in a public traditional institution. However, I have a class that will end next Thursday night and the course is called Skills for Professional Development. (A course that many people I have known or worked with in the past really ought to try to take sometime!)

This class has been awesome. Everyone gets along great and has great attitudes; they are psyched up every class night; they turn all their assignments in on time; and treat each other with the greatest of respect and courtesy. We have had a lot of laughs for the past 4 weeks and I am going to miss them. Last week they did their powerpoint presentations about conflict resolution or team building issues. Every single one of them was unique and it was obvious that they had each put a great deal of time and effort into the presentations. I use Power Point for every class I teach rather than lecture notes, so I know how time consuming it can be to get them just the way you want them.

So...these kids got creative and had music, sound effects, humor, great transitions and custom transitions, and they knew their topics. It was great. Next week they will be presenting their team research papers and giving me a presentation that is a wrap of of the five intensive weeks of study. If last week was any indication of what to expect, then when that much creativity and ambition is combined on a team - watch out. I can't wait to see them. They also decided we are going to have a potluck dinner celebration. This is a class that I am really going to miss, but....as I told them all - they have probably not seen the last of me as I am certified to teach 34 courses and generally get the same students somewhere down the road in their program.


UOP shout out to Tim, Kelly, Julie, Wade, Jennifer, Chris, Toni, Giavanni, Paula, Bob Nelson, Burhan, Michael, Alex, Heather, Retina, Gianno, and Tammy.