I'll leave the teaching to my mom, sister, and fiance.

[rpames]

Thursday I went to a middle school and taught a bunch of 6th graders about the eye. My father was going to do it all, but when he spoke to the teacher, she said she wanted him there all day long! My dad was up to leaving the office for a couple hours, but not cancelling the whole the day. He tried to get some of the other ODs in town to do the other half, but no one bit the hook.

So guess who got to stay the whole day...me! I taught the same lesson to 6 different classes. How do you stay excited after the 5th class? By the 3rd time, I was asking the students if I talked about things yet. All the classes start to blend together.

I had a 15 minute lecture about ocular anatomy, eye saftey, and what the difference is between optometrist, ophthalmologist, and opticians. But I know they did not really care about that too much, so my dad and I built a huge eye model with both eyes and even the nose. We put laser pointers in the pupils so we could all see where the eyes where looking. Then we attached strings and handles so we could move the eye by pulling on the "muscles." We had 8 students running the eye each one controled one of the rectus muscles and I was the brain. I would tell them to look to the right and up and they would tell me what muscles would have to contract and they they would try to get the lasers to touch. It was neat to show them how complected it was. We didn't have them use the obleques because it was complicted enough for them. The we used a bunch pen lights to have them see the pupilary reflex and then had them look at their own retinas. Finally we showed them the difference between near and far sightedness with a lens, tube, and moveable retina. I think they learned something, but I was really tired!

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[r_salis]

That sounds like a really cool demonstration, rpames! Did you and your dad think of the eye model yourselves? That is such a cool way to get the kids involved and give them hands-on experience with the way eye muscles work. Very cool!

 

[DrMom]

Originally posted by rpames
So guess who got to stay the whole day...me! I taught the same lesson to 6 different classes. How do you stay excited after the 5th class? By the 3rd time, I was asking the students if I talked about things yet. All the classes start to blend together.

I think they learned something, but I was really tired!

As a former school teacher I can tell you that you described a pretty typical day. I also lost track of what I'd actually said by the 3rd time through, but you do get used to it over time.

Sounds like you did a great job! I'm glad you were willing to volunteer your time. And the next time you hear someone say that teachers have an easy job or that they are overpaid, please remember how tired you were!

 

[rpames]

My dad said he had been wanting to build that eye demo for a while, but never had a good reason to. It worked pretty well.

DrMom,

I would never say teachers have an easy job, like my subject says, my mom, sister, and soon to be wife are teachers. I know how hard they work.

Several of my mom's former students were in the classes so that was kind of neat. One student even stoped into my mom's class (which is at a different school) after school today and told her that was going to be a great doctor and that I did a really good job. It makes me feel good that at least one kid enjoyed it.

 

[DrMom]

Originally posted by rpames
I would never say teachers have an easy job, like my subject says, my mom, sister, and soon to be wife are teachers. I know how hard they work.

Understood. Now go and tell the masses!