Honor Society Award

Induction into ALPHA LAMBDA DELTA Honor Society

I was greatly honored to be inducted into the Alpha Lambda Delta national freshman honor society as an honorary member on October 22.

According to a letter from the society, "Each year we invite faculty and/or administrators who have challenged, moved or made an impact on students, especially freshmen, in some important way to become honorary members."

Thoughts on Teaching and "Generation O"

I have tried to develop my own teaching style based on feedback from students as well trial and error over 15 years teaching at the Southampton Campus (full-time) and the Brooklyn campus of Long Island University.

In terms of marketing, students are our customers, and teachers should meet their needs and wants in education in order to offer the best customer service. The product that we are selling, of course, is education.

An article in The New York Times Style Section (Sunday, November 9, 2008), just after the election of Barack Obama as our next President, described the young generation today as Generation O instead of the less popular name of "The Millenial Generation". We will see if market researchers, educators and Madison Avenue pick up this new name to follow Generations X and Y before them.

One quote emphasized why my teaching style appeals to students who grew up with MTV, the Internet, iPods, blogs and later Facebook and YouTube:

"It would be hard to overestimate how much communication and an informal tone means to this generation. They have poured out their foibles and triumphs on blogs, MySpace, Facebook or Twitter. Older Americans see this as dangerous exhibitionism, but young adults believe the conversation leads to open-mindedness and consensus."