Why I'll be doing class prep Wednesday...

Lecture in Medic class tonight was burns. Interesting enough, but mostly a repeat of what I learned in EMT class and PHTLS class.

At work my students are gone as of tomorrow afternoon, but I'll be doing class prep. Why? Because a couple of weeks ago the instructors of my medic class approached me and asked "hey [dj], did you know the state tells us to ask experts in a field to teach a lecture when appropriate"? I, being the ever bright one, say "Oh, that's cool". I really didn't see the next part coming, and I admit that makes me a little slow. The next question, as you likely guessed, was whether I would be willing to teach a 3.5 hour lecture (the section on head and brain trauma). I am not an expert on the head nor brain, though lasted I checked I have at least one of each (get your mind out of the gutter as it is already crowed with mine). Nor trauma. I am an expert on some types of cognition, which, in the end, is admittedly driven by the brain. They figure my background puts me in a better position to lecture on this topic than them (despite the fact my pre-hospital care experience is shy of a year). This is what we call an "Empirical Question". I hope the data are consistent with their original hypothesis, because it is easily falsifiable.

I am a bit tweaked about this, but also excited. I lecture most days for my job and I am very good at it in the setting I am in (yeah, yeah, I know, sounds bad, but it is true based on evaluations from my students and my peers- Professor of the year and all...). What makes me nervous is that the medic class is a MUCH more diverse group of people (in terms of age, education level, intelligence, coming to class prepared, etc.). Not only that, but the stakes are different. If someone in a class on human cognition doesn't want to learn the difference between declarative and procedural memory, it is no skin off my back. On the other hand, the folks I am talking to Wednesday night will be making life-or-death decisions based on this material (and depending upon where I crash my car, it could literally be skin off my back!). Different ball game.

I'll let you know how it goes.

DJ
Who, while not a Super Freak, is very willing to dance with his kids to with some Rick James pounding in the background (poor parenting, to be sure, BUT IT IS SUPER FREAKY!)