Teaching

Ryan and I have recently gotten a little flare of teaching.

First, I was asked to give a presentation on BONES to my dear friend, Christy's kindergarten class. It was so much fun. I brought a skeleton from the office and an adult sized spine. I taught them that there are 206 bones in the body. Christy would try to trick them with, "What was that, 206 hairs on your head?" and "200 STICKS?" We sang "The toe bones connected to the foot bone...." and drew pictures of an Xray of our skeleton (black paper with chalk). Christy had prepared her students for me. They all wrote stories about me and called me Cheyneyous Webberous like Christy did in highschool. I am worried that I had chosen the wrong profession because it was so much fun. I taught for about 30 minutes and had fun with the kids for the rest of the day. I wasn't even the teacher and was exhausted. You have to give a heck of a lot of energy to keep twenty-five 5 year-olds in line.


Second, my friend from church got wind that I liked to give presentations at elementary schools. She asked me to talk to her 4th graders during Career Week about nursing. Forth graders are a lot different from kindergarteners.... so I brought stories of using leeches to keep the circulation going on a little girl who had her fingers cut off. They liked the blood and gore more than the helping people part of nursing.

I was asked speak to the kindergarteners too. I had to take out all the blood and gore. This was an elementary school in Durham, with kids in lower socio-economic class and parents that didn't or couldn't come and share their careers. I was the only person to come. The kids were pretty dang cute and were taught to give great compliments to each other and me. I read "Curious George goes to the hospital", watched them read, and made sure they all had a heart beat reflexes. They preformed CPR on the skeleton.

Third experience: Children are pretty forgiving; adults are not. I was asked to give an hour presentation to nurses and nurse practitioners about Back Pain. It was fun preparing a power point presentation like the good ol' grad school days. Giving the presentation wasn't terrible. I made it through without any boos, hissing or passing out.

I started getting that teaching bug and applied for a teaching position for an extra part-time job. I got the job but wasn't able to work it out with my current job. Maybe something will work out in the future.

Even Ryan has had some recent teaching opportunities. He is a much better teacher than I. He was asked to give a presentation on Depression and Mental Health to LDS women in Durham (enrichment night). He sat down in a chair and ran the lecture like a group therapy session. He is a true social worker. Everyone loved it and we learned a lot.

I am from a family of teachers and should be more aware of all the effort that goes into it. Cheers to all the teachers.