Titles and Teaching

Dates and times, while beautifully simple and clean, give no information about the following post. From here on out, entries will have titles. Most likely alliterative titles or silly ones and clever ones.

So, that covers the "titles" part of the title. On to "teaching."

BU has been teaching the EMT class here at Brandeis since the beginning of the semester, and I have been volunteering as a TA assistant (A teaching assistant assistant? Sort of!) Basically, the class is divided into lecture and lab: lecture is, well, lecture. "This is glucose. This is how you administer it. This is when you administer it." Lab is learning how to use the skills learned in lecture as part of patient treatment and assessment. In some labs, it's very hands-on (O2, CPR, trauma, splinting, etc) and in others, it's mostly talking through a call.

As an assistant TA, I work with a lead TA, someone who has been leading lab groups for a while and knows what to do. We get a set of scenarios and talk the students through it. "You are dispatched to a 38 year old female who was in a car crash on the highway at 8 AM. Go."

It's interesting being in the teaching position so soon after having been in the student position. When the students completely didn't know what to do in their first assessment lab, I remembered what it was like on that lab--I was the kid who didn't know what the instructor wanted to know. "I don't know what you're asking--I just want to know about the pulse."

They're learning the little acronyms for things and sure enough, a few assessment labs later, they're no longer struggling to remember things like "color, temperature, condition" and "rate, rhythm, quality." It's also very reassuring for me--as someone with very little field experience, I haven't had the opportunity to do most of the things I learned about--but the lead TAs tell me that I know my material very well. My only problem TAing? Telling people when they're doing something correctly. I ought to write "COMPLIMENT SANDWICH" on my hand next time.

It's fun, I get CE hours, I'm technically getting job training.

(Also, EMT students: "Common complaints" ARE NOT THE SAME AS "pertinent negatives.")