About me

I am a RN BSN and am currently an adjunct instructor in the Medical Assistant program at Brown College in Brooklyn Center, MN. I was awarded in October the very first excellence in teaching award which was voted on by my peers and students. I have been teaching at Brown for going on 2 years next May and taught a year before that in Yuma, AZ in the certified nursing assistant program.

I began my medical career back in 1978 as a CMA, then spent the next 11 years as a CNA before moving on to my LPN program in 1990-91. After my divorce in 1992, I went back to school for my RN and graduated in 1994 and received my BSN in 1996 from Moorhead State University in MN. Currently I am enrolled in Walden University for my masters in Mental Health Counseling. I have a 4.0 GPA and am in my 3rd quarter. I was recently invited to be part of Chi Sigma Iota, an international honor society for counseling.

I have two grown adult sons, with my youngest being married and my oldest and his girlfriend having my 4 year old grandson. I have a Corgi-Collie mix dog, Sara Janey, who just turned 7 on Thanksgiving and I live in Shoreview, MN after moving back to MN from AZ in 2010. I enjoy live theatre as an actor & director, counted cross stitch, the ocean, snow (not driving in it), walking, and reading. I have recently began my 1st Christian based romance novel.

Interests

live theatre as an actor/director, counted cross stitch, the beach & ocean, snow (not driving in it), walking, writing, & reading

Skills

clinical skills - hematology, pharmacology, clinical review, ekg, vitals, assessment, iv insertion

Activity

Catherine Abarno

Blog

ED309

I enjoyed this course because it presented new & informative information about advising, and since I'm now in my Masters program for Mental Health Counseling, the theory based concepts made sense. I always think it's a good thing to review concepts like communication because it is such an integral part of our job as instructors. My eyes have been opened even more in relation to my students because of this course.

Catherine Abarno

Blog

ED 101

I really liked this course. I was surprised to learn that most adults only have a 15-18 minutes attention span, remember only 25% of what you hear, 40% of what you read & you hear 4x faster than you speak. I liked the ideas about icebreakers in class - the 3x5 cards, having the students get to know each other.

I would highly recommend this course for any instructor just starting out. It has lots of good ideas.

Cathy

Catherine Abarno

Blog

just finished 103

I thought it was very interesting. Some of the information I already knew like the 4 types of learners & not using negatives when writing a multiple choice test. I like the video's from the Business professors @ Harvard. I learned some new things especially about questions. It was a good course. I really like the online ability - as it saves time.

Catherine Abarno

Discussion Comment

question

How do you deal with students who have no real ability to "want" to learn - they simply wish it to be handed to them on a silver platter? How do you deal with students of lower socioeconomic lifestyle such as the ones I deal with on a daily basis? I have students that really apply themselves & do great but then I have students who are "hit & miss" - sometimes they do good & other times they don't? And when they don't - then Im made to look like the bad person in all of this....

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