Sunday, May 17, 2015

To my future students


Dear future students,

I started out teaching students like I was taught in nursing school.  My instructors had all the knowledge and I was the sponge waiting to soak in that knowledge, believing that it was their job to impart all of their knowledge to me in order for me to become a great nurse.  I soon learned after I started teaching, my students also had the same expectations I had as far as demanding all the knowledge and work from me; however they were quickly bored and zoned out during lecture.  So I started to mix it up a bit, adding critical thinking discussions, group presentation projects where the students were required to find that knowledge on their own, interactive power points that made them think and encouraged them to provide course content to the lecture, and used various videos and other activities.  After that first year of teaching and now going to school specifically for nursing education, I have found that the traditional way of learning is not quite as effective as one would have thought.  I now have learned many technological teaching and learning strategies to encorporate into my classes to engage students in the student-centered learning process.  It is important that education be student-centered and not teacher-centered as was how I was taught.  In order for you to learn you need to be self-directed, eager, and have a thirst for the knowledge.  Future nurses also need to be tech savvy because health care is shifting to technology with many electronic data bases and systems in place.  My job will be to help facilitate your learning by presenting classroom content via various neat and engaging ways using technology.  By teaching you through various technologies you will become familiar with technology and can take that knowledge and skill forward into your practice. 
 

No comments:

Post a Comment