Instruct the Instructors

I officially received my CPR Instructor card today. Yay! I spent a considerable amount of time and sweat quite a bit for it. No kidding. But I have fun doing it, that's the main point.

I especially had more fun than usual when I had some of my instructors in my very first class. They needed to renew their CPR card, so there they were, sitting there in the classroom and did their assignment like everybody else in there (all of the others were 1st semester students). I had the opportunity that just happened once in a lifetime to instruct my instructors

I had to say, it's not easy to teach them, as they are a very different kind of students. They would shake things down to see how it work and inquire and inquire about it until they get to the root of everything. It's like they alienated themselves from the world when they set their mind on something. And all four of them would ask their questions at the same time, usually beginning with "what if" and "how", which are usually not easy to answer. In short, they were unruly, hilarious, seemingly disorganized but really effective with their ways of doing things. No wonder they became such good instructors.

I loved to see it when Ms. Call, my clinical instructor from last semester, tiptoed through the crowd of people standing there to get nearer to the front of the class, where the instruction video was playing. Because of her hyperopia and the distance between her and the TV, she also had to raise her head while purposely letting her black-framed reading glasses fall down on the tip of her nose to be able to see it clearer. She just went out of her way to make sure things were right. I remembered those times when I was in clinical, I asked her some questions and then she just sat there, letting her glasses positioned on her nose exactly like that, and looked at me with her quizzical expression. She was waiting for me to blurt out my guess for the answer before she confirmed or dismissed it, which helped clear up my brain a whole lot because I had the chance to get more feedback from her. And she was also a special instructor because she always made sure I had a hug or a word of encouragement when I needed. Not all instructors do that.

Anyway, at the end of the class, because these instructors are specially treated (the way they should be), they don't have to do a skills check off or a written test. Hm, they were lucky, I was going to pull out my red pen to give them a grade (just k/d, I'm sure they all got 100).

My professors had taught me a good lesson about learning today, that learning can be unruly, can be hilarious, can be disorganized but can also be effective all at the same time.

This is a long entry, because it is at the heat of the moment. I think that's enough torture to read (I know it is to write ;). Just some last word, I whited out my last name on my card before posting it to make sure nobody can do illegitimate things with it (I know, I know, I am overly careful :)