Elementary School: Boredom Punctuated by Terror
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Mexican hat dance at the Historical Museum of Southern Florida during the Traditions Festival. -By State Library and Archives of Florida, 23 March 1986. Public Domain. |
High School: Home of the Face-palm
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Mrs. Jane Jacobs, chairman of the Comm. to save the West Village holds up documentary evidence at press conference at Lions Head Restaurant at Hudson & Charles Sts. -By Phil Stanziola, 31 December 1960. Public Domain. |
Workplace Learning: L'esprit de l'escalier
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Post-mortem pathology; a manual of post-mortem examinations and the interpretations to be drawn therefrom; a practical treatise for students and practitioners. -By Cattell, Henry Ware, 1862-1936. [from 1905 Lippincott catalog] No restrictions. |
My missed professional learning opportunity was in Toronto's morgue. It was the ideal of Andragogy. The pathologist, who ran the private lab where I was working weekdays, asked me to watch his autopsies on Saturdays. By standing next to him at the table, I learnt to distinguish blood clots formed before and after death. I learnt to identify tissue damage associated with bladder infection and smoke inhalation. I saw deaths by hanging, burns, suicide, and alcohol poisoning. I had agreed to attend on my spare time only because my boss asked me, and I didn’t want to be rude. Now I realise what an ingrate I was, in the arrogance of youth. I should have returned for more unpaid observations, as he requested. The pathologist offered me an opportunity to better myself that few technicians receive.
Upshot
These three learning memories still inform my teaching strategy:
- Use realia
- Limit lectures
- Scaffold the student
- Applaud initiative
- Tell how the student will benefit in future