Random Thoughts about Nurses and Teachers

Working in an emergency room can be really interesting some days. I'm not a nurse, so I don't deal with patients, unless they call on the phone, but even then, I transfer them to an individual that can meet their needs. One good thing about my job is the fact that I am in the center of the action. I hear almost everything that goes on around me, whether it is doctors talking about patients, nurses talking to patients or the usual gossip that happens when we have a quiet morning, I hear pretty much everything.

I heard a conversation today that I had been hearing on and off for many years. What was interesting about it is the fact that I can relate it to the things I am learning in my pre-service teaching program.

Teachers and nurses aren't really that different. They get into their jobs because they care about people. Teachers want to educate the world, while nurses want to make sure the people in the world are healthy. Both work their butts off for hours on end to make sure that the people they care about are taken care of. The pay is crappy, the hours are crappy and sometimes the people you are doing the job for just don't seem to care. A cranky patient can ruin a nurse's day just like a rude parent can ruin a teacher's day.

Going back to the conversation I heard earlier, another connection can be made between these two careers. Each has a higher up that control everything, they even try to control things that really can not be controlled. Administrators are constantly trying to control every aspect of what happens in the... let's call them "care areas" (classrooms, patient areas, etc).

They seem to care more about numbers and money than they do about the people that come to these places, patients and students.

The ER has time constraints, if these numbers aren't met the nurses get in trouble. It doesn't matter if a patient needed extra time and care or if a patient's discharge was delayed because there was a coding patient in the next room. Wait times are all that matters.

The SOLs are what keep teacher's on edge. They are forced to teach to a test and it doesn't matter if their students are engaged and having fun. Test scores are all that matter.

I understand that administration is important when it comes to keeping order, but it would be nice if they understood what goes on in the "care areas" and know that the people they have running them know what they are doing and to stop restricting them because of numbers and statistics.

I guess what I'm trying to say with all this is that nurses and teachers are awesome. I have been lucky to have had this experience in the ER for the past six years. Though I hate it some days. It is awesome to work with such dedicated hard-working people. I am glad I decided to become a teacher, because then I'll be on the front-lines instead of being on the outside listening in on what is going on around me.

Maybe, just maybe my experience here will help me make a difference.

I'm such a failure at this whole scheduling mission... quest... thing.

I am really bad at time management, like really bad. I guess that is pretty evident since I said I was going to post once a week and I haven't posted a thing since the end of January!

So it is now March and I am hoping I can get my time management issues under control.

Since it has been a whole month since my last post, let's catch up!

First off DISNEY WORLD!

It was so much fun and I enjoyed every minute! Seeing all of the different parks was really cool, as was meeting the different characters. The rides were amazing, sensory overload though; they all felt like you were inside a movie. They are mostly geared towards kids (my four year old cousin was able to ride everything but the big roller coasters) but they were still so much fun. The Star Tours ride was a huge highlight for me because of my obsessive passion with Star Wars.

Here are some pictures!

Buzz! This was part of the Toy Story ride in Tomorrowland

Cinderella's Castle, beautiful except for the large construction crane behind it... 

Donald and Carson

The map of our hotel resort

Carson and Ellie on a speederbike! 

The entrance to Star Tours

 So after my wonderful Disney vacation in 70 degree weather, I was thrust back into the freezing weather of Virginia, not something I missed.

Being back home meant it was time to get back to work and school. I had missed two classes, so I had plenty of work to make up, but so far I have been loving all of my classes.

I already discussed YA Lit, but this class is my favorite. I am reading and discovering so many new books and new ways to introduce these books to my future students. It is so much fun and I am always excited for this class, even though it has me reading four books at once...

My second favorite class is my Methods class. I am so so sad that I missed the first day, this class has been nothing but fun. We do various activities we will be doing with future students. We are currently discussing social injustices and beginning to learn to lesson plan. My favorite part of this class is how we are forced to think outside the box. I think that is a very important skill for a teacher to have.

My third class is Educational Psychology. This class is fun, but it has been mostly lecture based with a few activities here and there. My teacher is really funny and interesting though. On the second day of class (which was my first day) she ate a candle... it wasn't really a candle, but she totally blew our minds just to illustrate one of the theories we were learning in class that day. It was so awesome!

So these three classes have been keeping me super busy, lots of reading and lots of projects.

This workload has really made me begin to figure out how I can manage my time better. The first thing I have done is to go part time at work. I have been working full time and going to school full time for as long as I can remember, but lately it has been really hard for me to concentrate on school and work. I think this will be a good decision in the long run, especially since I haven't been happy at my job for a very long time.

Time management is a work in progress but I am hoping once I go part time at work and I get my school work under control, I'll be a little less stressed and I can concentrate on my other goals.

Here's a quick update on how some of them are going:

1. Read 27 books - Read five so far and will probably have three more finished before the end of the week. I'm currently reading Angela's Ashes, The Fault in Our Stars, and Partials. I am about to start Touching Spirit Bear.

7. Do well in school - I am loving school and I think I am doing well so far!

8. Level up Holden to 55 - I finally got Wreynn to level 55 and I have Holden up to 18 now. He is still a work in progress, but I think we have double XP weekend coming up!

11. Make friends at school - I have done this. My classmates are pretty awesome. It is so much fun taking classes with people that are so passionate about teaching English!

12. Apply to substitute teach and tutor - Done and waiting to hear back!

15. Organize my closet - Had to do this a couple of weeks ago to make room for Preston when he moved in! Still not super organized, but it looks a little neater.

These are goals I have made some progress on; all the others are either works in progress or will be made a priority when there isn't a foot of snow outside.

Well I don't want to promise another post next week because who knows what the next few days will bring. I can say once I get my life in order, I'll try my best to get back on track and posting more interesting things!

Thanks for reading!

-Laura