My biggest challenge is the writing of the lesson plans. I am late and it takes me all night to complete them. I have the disk from the state, several books with lesson plan, the internet and tons of other information, but when it comes to the pencil on the paper--I just get overwhelmed about all the possibilities and then I can't write one word. Everyone tells me that I am putting too much into them, but I want the best.
Another problem with my lesson plans is that I think more holistic and the information is in sections. For example medical terms, health career and vital signs are in different units, but I want to combine the information in some way to keep the class more interesting for the students and myself. If I combine the information the way I want, then I have too many standards to cover in one lesson. I know that there is a balance to this all and I continue to look for it. I have to go now--I have lesson plans to finish. :)
If you have a lesson plan template that will help. Our school has several and really doesn't care which you use as long as it is complete. Maybe you are trying to cover too much in one lesson. I try to keep my focus on one topic for a class period. That's not to say that I don't bring in other information like med. term. or info. from a previous lesson but that's just to compliment the days lesson, not have additional content to teach. If you give the students too much at one time it will become confusing. Stick to one main idea per day. Then the next day you will need to build on the previous day, not go to another chapter. I hope this helps. Keep trying and I promise it gets easier (not more fun, just easier)HA!
ReplyDeleteTemplates really do help but to be really honest, I use a note book. I have one page for each class period, divided into the five days of the week, put the dates on it,and write out a rough sketch of what I need to accomplish that day (lecture, quiz, skills practice, group activity, etc.) Then I add in the worksheets, handouts, or what ever I need to give to the students. You could then add in the essential question, set induction, or what ever you want to call the warm up activity you are going to use. Lastly look at the GPS and figure out which one you are addressing.
ReplyDeleteYou know the big picture of how all the parts in healthcare work but think back to your own school. You learned things in steps and you don't need to know about how to take vital signs if you are learning about what a nurse is. You don't need to know ALL the medical terms to learn just a few that apply to the topic of the day. When you discuss careers you focus on education requirements, salaries, license and certification with a brief description of where they work and very broad statement of what they do. (That is one GPS). Then when you get to vital signs you lecture on medical terms that apply and would need to be known so as to assess and report correctly. You go over terms like pyrexia, diastolic, systolic, apnea, bradycardia, etc as examples. You also say, "remember when we studied careers. Well it is the responsibility of people like a MA, PCT, CNA, LPN, and RN." Reinforce what they learned by saying a MA, PCT, CNA are similar and have less then one years education, LPN is higher and requires at least one year experience, and RN a high level nurse who has 2 or more years of experience." You are teaching the medical terminology GPS and vital sign GPS but not the career GPS.
I think that the GPS's for our area really do flow in logical manner, especially level one, and I teach each GPS as one unit focusing on getting indepth on that information always knowing that you pull in really life examples and pull in past knowledge learned.