Professional Development
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Marsha Buchanan

Marsha Buchanan

Location: southern california

About me

Good morning,

I am Marsha, I started a new position as Surgical Technology Program Director.

Interests

i love to listen to bagpipes and i embrace my scottish heritage.

Activity

Marsha Buchanan
Marsha Buchanan
Blog
Real Life

It is important that ST instructors bring 'real-life' expereince into the lecture, especially if there is no hands-on skills that go with the lecture.

Students like a varitiy during lecture. Breaking lecture up and showing surgical procedure videos, then having a discussion about the 'procedure', not only encourages the student to look forward, but relate it to the current subject.

Marsha Buchanan
Marsha Buchanan
Blog
engaging students

I try to engage students during lecture by asking questions about the subject. There have been times I have assigned portions of the lecture to each student and let them speak using two to three power-point slides and have them ask the questions. Students that are struggling seem to get more out of the subject.

Marsha Buchanan
Marsha Buchanan
Blog
Weekly Check-Ins

I have noticed that when I go into the classroom at least once a week, if not more, the students become accustom with me. This lessens the "PD sitigma", and helps students realize that I am as much part of their education and training, as their daily instructors are. The students seem to stay in class knowing they have extra support.

Marsha Buchanan
Marsha Buchanan
Discussion Comment
Professionalism with students / soft skills

*In the past, I have used alpabet puzzle pieces (foam). I break the class into even teams of 3 or 4; objective is to spell as many drug names in a set time frame. Three out of four tries wins. Spelling has to be complete and correct to get credit. All students enjoyed do this.

*Jepordy; I have a set of four buzzers (all different sounds) and when the team knows the answer they hit the buzzer. Again, all students of all ages got involved and set their own rules for the competion.

*Mayo Stand drapping competion: who can put… >>>

Marsha Buchanan
Marsha Buchanan
Discussion Comment
Classroom motivation

Thank you for the feedback Sharly. I presume this is over a week or more, figuring out which learning goes into which catagory. My consern has always been in how to reach all types of learners in the short period of time of lecture hours.

Marsha Buchanan
Marsha Buchanan
Discussion
Classroom motivation

How do you motivate adults that are in their mid-fourties and equally motivate a student who is twenty? When both are at the same level of learning.

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