Narrative Reflection

1/27/09

I chose my preceptor last semester so I had the opportunity to start my teaching practicum last week. The first class day was on Tuesday and we were reviewing the clinical schedule and syllabus for the semester. The clinical group has approximately 20 students so it was not too overwhelming. I was able to introduce myself and learn a little about the students. We asked the students to write about what they wanted to learn about maternal-newborn nursing. You could sense the excitement about seeing the labor and delivery process from some students. Then others said basic things like starting IVs. My preceptor reviewed each students comments with me and gave me her impressions based on experience about how to work with each student. I thought this was a very creative way to start the semester.

Wednesday we were in the classroom for lecture with approximately 75 students. I was overwhelmed when I walked into a classroom that size. When I was in nursing school we had lecture with our clinical groups of about 15 students. I realized in that moment that this teaching experience was going to prepare me for teaching at the university level.

The students viewed a childbirth video to prepare them for the real experience. I was tickled by their reaction to the process. After the video Dr. Arnold instructed the students on various massage techniques. She used myself and other instructors as her assistants to demonstrate the techniques. The students were given the opportunity to practice on each other. I was excited when the students asked me questions about my experiences. I realized how much I enjoy sharing my experience with others and especially enthusiastic students.

1/28/09

Today the lecture was done by Barbara McAlister RN, MS, CNM who is the course manager. I found the different teaching styles interesting. Barbara started the class off by giving the students sample questions. They were free to raise their hands and support the answers they believed were correct. Then Barbara gave the answers with the rationales.

The lecture covered reproduction principles, conception, and fetal development. She used the powerpoint to outline the notes for the students. She also gave several examples of her clinical experiences to enhance the students understanding of the lecture. The students would even raise their hands and share personal experiences. There was a lot of dialogue between the instructor and students. I found that when the instructor only read from the notes then there was less engagement among the students. She knew how to lighten the intensity of the lecture by presenting cartoons. Overall, I was excited about the amount of laughter and dialogue between the instructor and students.

2/4/09

Today I finished up a very busy week between clinicals and lecture. Monday was my computer orientation Care Connect at Presbyterian hospital. Clinical groups are required by the hospital to complete online training and in class training in order to attend clinicals.

Tuesday was my first day of clinicals. It was considered clinical orientation day. Dr. Arnold oriented us to Presbyterian hospital's L&D, High-risk OB, Postpartum, Nursery, and NICU. Dr. Arnold and I familiarized the students with assessing newborns, interpreting electronic fetal monitoring strips, and unit chalkboards. I felt like I was in orientation with the students because though I worked on the High-risk unit for 3 months, I was not given the grand tour. I definitely needed this orientation so I can feel comfortable when navigating the students through clinicals. Dr. Arnold and I set up a strategic plan for how we will approach clinicals this semester. Overall, I feel a little more at ease now that I know the clinical site and expectations.

Today was lecture by Dr. McAlister. The lecture was a continuation from last week focusing on pregnancy labs, pshychology, and common terms. There is a new technology that the school adopted. Basically, the students have remotes that they can key in answers to questions or questions that they have anonymously. I thought that was a great idea for those students who are too intimidated to talk in front of the class. Besides the training for the students and instructors, they are excited about what the new technology has to offer. Another important contribution Dr. McAlister uses in her lecture are fill in the blank notes. The students have fill in the blank notes while Dr. McAlister posts the entire lecture notes for the students. I asked the students what they thought about this approach and they agreed that it kept them more alert and focused on the lecture.

I also started working on my Intrapartum lecture this week. Though I spent 8 hours on the lecture on Tuesday, I realize that I haven't even scratched the surface of all the work involved in lecture preparation. I talked to Dr. Arnold about feeling overwhelmed and she said it is overwhelming and most faculty do not teach their first semester. If they do, they teach at the end of the semester to give them plenty of time to prepare. Unfortunately, I don't have that kind of time so I decided to change some of my clinical hours to allow for more time. She made me feel a little better by helping me realize that these are common feelings. At the same time, I still have tons of work to do!

2/10/09

This week we had a lactation consultant present a lecture. She shared various videos throughout the lecture (I thought this was a great idea to break up the lecture and maintain interest). She had the students blow up balloons to represent the breast and then everyone brought dolls from home. They were given an opportunity to practice breast feeding techniques. I thought the idea was great, but I think they could have used more practice time and less lecture time. There were also several picture visuals to enhance preparing students for the actual experience.

I am continuing to prepare my lecture that I will present in a couple of weeks. I have chosen to use Bandura's Social Cognitive Theory to guide the lecture. Throughout the lecture I will be presenting principles, giving the students the opportunity to respond, and I also intend on providing positive reinforcements (treats) along with praise. The students do not have to respond, but they have the opportunity. I believe their interest and active participation is apart of their self-efficacy. I will also be playing off their clinical environment (from things they are witnessing in clinical) and bringing it to the classroom. I recognize that the social environment within the classroom may be comfortable for some while others may not feel comfortable responding. From my experience thus far with these students, they are very comfortable with the classroom and very participative. For those that are not comfortable with questions and participation, I am going to encourage them to approach me outside of class for further discussion. I expressed to Dr. Arnold that I feel like there is too much information to cover in a 50 minute time frame. I don't want the lecture to consist of me rapidly reading the notes. Her response was encouraging and I know that the primary goal is to focus on appropriately educating the students on the content. She reassured me that she was continuing the lecture (it is a three week lecture) in the following week and would pick up where I left off. Whew! I feel a little better about the lecture without so much pressure to get through all the notes.

2/16/09
Brainstorming
David Ausubel makes an interesting point about relating new information to knowledge already learned. I was thinking about using segments from Hollywood films that many students have already seen to analyze cultural diversity, psychological aspects, and even the physical experience of childbirth. A few of films that I was thinking of using were Knocked Up, Baby Mama, 9 months, and Juno (if you are familiar with these). These are just some brainstorming ideas. I was wondering if others had tried this teaching technique before and if you could share from your experience. I am just wondering if this is a crazy idea because I am definitely exploring here.

2/18/09
Lecture Meeting
Today I had little time for class lecture because I had a meeting with Dr. Arnold about my upcoming lecture. The more I work on this lecture the more I feel pulled between the expectations of my graduate course verses the expectation of the undergraduate course. Instructors of undergraduate courses have a large amount of content to cover in a short amount of time, which leads to little time for creativity. This has been frustrating as I feel like my creative mind has little room in the classroom. Today we had to remove creativity to add content, yuck! The more I work on this lecture, the more I feel like others control what I say and do. This is definitely giving me a taste of the world of instructing!