It is official, we have begun the semester! It has been a fragmented start, with festivals, foundation day's, retreats, and hartel's but alas we have finally been able to put it all together and open the classroom door! Which is room 308- and that door closes abruptly if you are more than 5 minutes late.
Our first class was actually organized by one of our student's... we had yet another 2 classes cancelled due to the religious festival and he approached us to see if we could have a make up class... I know right? We had been hoping to schedule a make up class- which is VERY common here and an expectation that the students will attend (even if it is on the weekend); however we had no way of reaching the students. Then along came Hadi.... he assured us he could get all of the students in our classroom the next day- all we had to do was pick a time and arrange a room. Done and done. Here is the email he sent us to confirm his recruiting success:
Our first class was actually organized by one of our student's... we had yet another 2 classes cancelled due to the religious festival and he approached us to see if we could have a make up class... I know right? We had been hoping to schedule a make up class- which is VERY common here and an expectation that the students will attend (even if it is on the weekend); however we had no way of reaching the students. Then along came Hadi.... he assured us he could get all of the students in our classroom the next day- all we had to do was pick a time and arrange a room. Done and done. Here is the email he sent us to confirm his recruiting success:
Dear Madam.
Good morning! How are you? I am your student MD.HADIUZZAMAN from IUBAT. Today all the students of NUR 219 ( Medical - Surgical Nursing) are coming to attend the first class at 11:45 am. Please come and teach us. We are waiting for the first class with all the instructors of NUR 219. If you have any problem please call me. Mobile:
Sincerely,
Hadi
And off to our first lecture we went....
We started off with class expectations. The students seemed a bit shell shocked at first... we think they may have underestimated us. We may LOOK young, nice, and innocent... all of which we are of course, but after hearing all of the stories from other instructors about the fast ones that students pull on you, you better believe we were coming out with full forces. That means: doors close after 5 minutes of class starting, you may enter but you are considered absent for the class- and after 3 strikes your out. If a cell phone rings, its ours for the keeping of class. If your three days late on an assignment its an automatic zero, but you still have to hand it in. Plus there are many more. It seemed strange to have to be so clear and assertive with these class expectations, and repeat to no end the importance of them, but it doesn't come as second nature to many of the students as it does to us when we entered post secondary school. Why? we wondered.
It all starts from the basics. For many of the students (let us be clear that it is certainly not all), primary school fails to build a strong and consistent foundation of learning; instead theirs is built unsteady and often incorrect. So when they enter post secondary schooling, it is sometimes the first time that an instructor has actually demanded punctuality EVERY time. So our jobs are even more than we thought, we are helping to teach students discipline and responsibility. We give the students the independence to determine how important is this education to you? The email above demonstrates clearly that for many of the students it is even more than just important.
Our first class we teach on Sunday and Tuesday mornings (0835 to be exact in case any of you want to teleconference in ;) is adult medical surgical nursing- it has been a great way to expand our knowledge and step out of our comfort zone. We spend quite a long time prepping for each lecture... we too are reading the textbook alongside the students... well at least we pray every night that they are actually reading the text. So far our lectures in med surge have been about the more 'theory' based nursing- nursing process, critical thinking, and health education. We start to really get into the thick of things when Heidi introduces Peri operative nursing on Sunday.We have had one quiz so far (we have one almost every day) and the students did quite well. In total there are now 6 students in our class... 6 is small but it has doubled from 3 since Thursday... hooray!
Our next class is pharmacology in the afternoons of Sunday and Tuesday. Here we have also learned a ton about meds- we realize how few we give in Peds. Although the class is devoted to pharmacological treatments we were so delighted that one of our students brought up homeopathic medicine. We were quite impressed!
Tomorrow is deemed our first clinical day, although we will be spending probably the next 3 weeks in the lab before we enter the hospital. We are excited and keen to teach and lets be honest, engrain a good foundation for these students. After tomorrow's lab we will be heading to a convention in the afternoon which will be until Sunday morning. We are not yet positive about the details of this convention other than it is centred around "training the trainer" and promoting nursing education in the country. Dr. Karen Lund (our program director) has been working on this for quite some time so we are eager to learn more! The second piece we know about it is that it is on a boat...need we say more? Due to our last trip we have some reservations; however we are trying really really hard to stay positive, haha. No it will be fine, and ANOTHER adventure!
Love you all at home and miss you,
Heidi and Ricki
No comments:
Post a Comment