The making of a teacher

Well I have been thinking about doing this for a while and have finally gotten started. I have been a formal instructor for just over 1 year now. I love my job--I mean I really love it! It is always an adventure. I never know what is going to happen from day to day or session to session. I have my bad days, don't get me wrong, but the good makes up for those in immense ways.

So what do I teach you may wonder. I teach the adult nurse aide program for my local community college and several of the medical assistant courses also. I have improved immensely from my humble beginnings where I was handed a great big notebook overflowing with various papers, quizzes, and so on, a flash drive that contained copies of said quizzes, examples of syllabus, and the course books and wished well. I went in to that first class session with big plans and not at all sure how to make them occur. Thankfully at the same time I was beginning my role as an instructor I had also gone back to school to learn for real how to be a teacher. I am a proud Walden University student and I will graduate next August with my MSN with an emphasis on eduction. My students will tell you I work them hard but they leave my class having a pretty good idea of what is expected in their role and having been exposed to a variety of topics. As time has gone on and I have gotten more comfortable with the content of my courses I am branching out in the things I have to teach the topics to my students. For example, yesterday I made stool specimens to show my students the difference in a small, medium, large, and extra-large stool specimen (they were made from chocolate frosting and corn starch and actually looked pretty realistic I must add!). I also had a variety of urine specimens for them to examine to see firsthand what a normal urine specimen looks like vs. an infected sample, a sample with blood tinge, a concentrated or amber specimen, and a sample with sediment such as would be seen with someone who had kidney stones or other issues going on in their system. The students loved it! Oh and they got to shave each other (regular razors with caps on them), they did partial bed baths on each other, brushed each others teeth, and transferred each other on and off the potty and into and out of wheelchairs. Overall a very productive day I must say! Now I am on the lookout for further lab activities to enhance the experience of my students and expose them safely to the abnormal things they may encounter in real life in practice.

Now my challenge to myself, is to update this blog semi-regularly as a way to preserve some of my own funny moments and maybe teach others what works and does not work and of course network. Only time will tell if any of this occurs but we shall see.