The School Nurse as Educator: Be Creative and Have Fun While some school nurses are also regular classroom teachers, most of us get invited to come to the class as a guest speaker, to supplement or reinforce a health topic. I love being invited to step into a classroom! I have found that the kids and the teacher look forward to my occasional visits and so do I. In making the most of the opportunity to promote wellness, I try to make each class fun and memorable. Like most school nurses, I do not have a planning period, and any time I teach, the added work must be squeezed around my other responsibilities. In the same way that forms save us time when documenting, a class presentation template can save time when planning lessons. Here is my general lesson template: 1. I tell the kids I am so glad to be in their classroom for an opportunity to help them prevent a problem, make a healthful choice or stay well. I remind them that nurses think this is very important, for I never want to miss an opportunity to promote nurses as proactive specialists in health and wellness. 2. I introduce what I am going to talk about. 3. I begin with a story illustration, which serves to capture the interest and attention of the students in a dramatic way. I choose my stories carefully, for I want to establish an immediate personal connection for the kids between what I am going to say and their own lives. This might be a true story, a news article, or an experience from my nursing past. I always strive for something very compelling, something that will touch the kids in some way in order to personalize the topic at hand. I keep these stories about 5 minutes in length. 4. I pause dramatically when I am done with my story. I look at their faces. At this point, they are often holding their collective breath. I know I have engaged their interest. 5. I ask the kids a few questions, of the "tell me what you think" type. The goal for this step is one every effective presenter uses: I want to draw the students in, link what they have heard to something they either already know or have experienced. Because, as every educator knows, no one learns in a vacuum. Building upon and linking to what the student already knows is the first step for any new learning to take place. Helping students make this link can mean the difference between their passively listening to you talk, versus their understanding and incorporating new information and new understanding, the first steps in new learning. My questions are intended to help the kids make these connections themselves, by either answering or hearing the answers of their peers. 6. I deliver my information. 7. I respond to their questions and allow time for them to share stories and experiences that my lesson may have brought to their minds. 8. I summarize by giving them three statements of intent I want them to take away from my lesson. This is a very important step, for here is where you crystallize what you have offered in the lesson into an action plan for the students. Example: "In summary, boys and girls..1. Kids your age need a shower every day; be sure you take one 2. If the clothes you put on are not clean, you will not feel clean OR smell clean" etc 9. I thank them for being such wonderful listeners and participants in my class. I thank the teacher for inviting me. I tell them to come and see me if they have any questions or thoughts to share. Finding the dramatic illustrations for these classes is the creative and fun part. Here are some examples: For a class on the dangers of huffing delivered to 6th graders, I used a letter I found on a scouting listserv. It was written by a scout leader about the sudden death of a 16 year-old boy in his troop. The details were real, emotional, and touching beyond words. The writer said at the end that if sharing the pain helped save even one child from experimenting with huffing, it was worth having taken the time to share. I decided not to use the boy's real name, and I edited out a few lines of the letter. But knowing that it was a true story that happened to someone just like them, made the letter convincing, relevant and very engaging to this tough audience of kids. For a class on the dangers of alcohol abuse, I shared stories of three teenage patients from my days as a nurse on an acute care chemical dependency unit; the fifteen year-old who had a baby which she has no recollection of conceiving, because she was intoxicated; the boy who drowned because alcohol impairs judgment and coordination; the one who died of alcohol poisoning after chugging 8 ounces of straight vodka on a dare at a party. The stories are everywhere: get them from the Net, the news, from colleagues, from experience, from the literature. Keep in mind that engaging illustrations need not always be sad ones, especially for less scary topics. Humor can be very illustrative and engaging too, when used appropriately. That's why so many presenters begin workshops or talks with a funny story or a joke. I used humor to engage my students' interest for my class on hygiene and had great fun adaptingShel Silverstein's poem, The Dirtiest Man in the World by rewriting it and calling it, The Dirtiest Kid in the World. |
The School Nurse as Educator: Be Creative and Have Fun While some school nurses are also regular classroom teachers, most of us get invited to come to the class as a guest speaker, to supplement or reinforce a health topic. I love being invited to step into a classroom! I have found that the kids and the teacher look forward to my occasional visits and so do I. In making the most of the opportunity to promote wellness, I try to make each class fun and memorable. Like most school nurses, I do not have a planning period, and any time I teach, the added work must be squeezed around my other responsibilities. In the same way that forms save us time when documenting, a class presentation template can save time when planning lessons. Here is my general lesson template: 1. I tell the kids I am so glad to be in their classroom for an opportunity to help them prevent a problem, make a healthful choice or stay well. I remind them that nurses think this is very important, for I never want to miss an opportunity to promote nurses as proactive specialists in health and wellness. 2. I introduce what I am going to talk about. 3. I begin with a story illustration, which serves to capture the interest and attention of the students in a dramatic way. I choose my stories carefully, for I want to establish an immediate personal connection for the kids between what I am going to say and their own lives. This might be a true story, a news article, or an experience from my nursing past. I always strive for something very compelling, something that will touch the kids in some way in order to personalize the topic at hand. I keep these stories about 5 minutes in length. 4. I pause dramatically when I am done with my story. I look at their faces. At this point, they are often holding their collective breath. I know I have engaged their interest. 5. I ask the kids a few questions, of the "tell me what you think" type. The goal for this step is one every effective presenter uses: I want to draw the students in, link what they have heard to something they either already know or have experienced. Because, as every educator knows, no one learns in a vacuum. Building upon and linking to what the student already knows is the first step for any new learning to take place. Helping students make this link can mean the difference between their passively listening to you talk, versus their understanding and incorporating new information and new understanding, the first steps in new learning. My questions are intended to help the kids make these connections themselves, by either answering or hearing the answers of their peers. 6. I deliver my information. 7. I respond to their questions and allow time for them to share stories and experiences that my lesson may have brought to their minds. 8. I summarize by giving them three statements of intent I want them to take away from my lesson. This is a very important step, for here is where you crystallize what you have offered in the lesson into an action plan for the students. Example: "In summary, boys and girls..1. Kids your age need a shower every day; be sure you take one 2. If the clothes you put on are not clean, you will not feel clean OR smell clean" etc 9. I thank them for being such wonderful listeners and participants in my class. I thank the teacher for inviting me. I tell them to come and see me if they have any questions or thoughts to share. Finding the dramatic illustrations for these classes is the creative and fun part. Here are some examples: For a class on the dangers of huffing delivered to 6th graders, I used a letter I found on a scouting listserv. It was written by a scout leader about the sudden death of a 16 year-old boy in his troop. The details were real, emotional, and touching beyond words. The writer said at the end that if sharing the pain helped save even one child from experimenting with huffing, it was worth having taken the time to share. I decided not to use the boy's real name, and I edited out a few lines of the letter. But knowing that it was a true story that happened to someone just like them, made the letter convincing, relevant and very engaging to this tough audience of kids. For a class on the dangers of alcohol abuse, I shared stories of three teenage patients from my days as a nurse on an acute care chemical dependency unit; the fifteen year-old who had a baby which she has no recollection of conceiving, because she was intoxicated; the boy who drowned because alcohol impairs judgment and coordination; the one who died of alcohol poisoning after chugging 8 ounces of straight vodka on a dare at a party. The stories are everywhere: get them from the Net, the news, from colleagues, from experience, from the literature. Keep in mind that engaging illustrations need not always be sad ones, especially for less scary topics. Humor can be very illustrative and engaging too, when used appropriately. That's why so many presenters begin workshops or talks with a funny story or a joke. I used humor to engage my students' interest for my class on hygiene and had great fun adaptingShel Silverstein's poem, The Dirtiest Man in the World by rewriting it and calling it, The Dirtiest Kid in the World. |