Semester Two (so far)

James is now safely two tests into his second semester.  He's past that "I wonder if I can even do this" stage and into the "Well, I did it once.  I hope that's true again."

As we've lived here, James's school mascot has really grown on him.

Once James went to a basketball game with a group of med students to provide the fans with free blood pressure screening.  Presumably this cuts down on the number of fans getting too upset.  ("I'm sorry, sir, but if you don't calm down, we're going to have to check your blood pressure.")  At this game, James got his first glimpse of the school's mascot: Abraham Lincoln.  If you've never seen a giant plush Lincoln do the hokey pokey, then you're probably like me.  It's the best part of the game, though, says James.  There appears to be a speaker in the top of the mascot's hat, but James is hoping he can get it fitted for a mini t-shirt cannon so Abe can shoot stuff to his fans.

Abe aside, this semester seems nicer than last semester: James isn't taking anatomy, so he has a lighter load in terms of lab hours.  His other classes are more detailed and require more memorization than before, but now he has a little more time in the afternoons to do studying and keep up with them.  My favorite thing about this semester so far is learning about all the diseases. The best part of my day is asking James what he learned that day, and hearing about what the Plague was/is: why it was and remains so deadly, where it still happens in the US (watch out, Southeasterners who like playing with wild prairie dogs and their fleas!), how you treat it, how you test for it, how it kills you, and how many species of it there are.  The day he learned about leprosy was fascinating.  I've always been interested by this, and it's fun to hear it but not have to recall it.  I'm living in the best of both worlds!  (Also stay away from ticks.  They carry nasty stuff and I can think of no circumstances wherein they would be a positive, life-promoting human lover.)

As for me, my semester teaching has been lovely so far.  I forgot how much I loved it.  I'm teaching Intro to Biology, Human Ecology, and also Anatomy/Physiology 1 with its lab.  Anatomy/Physiology was new; the teacher who was supposed to teach two sections of it got a long-term sickness, so a week into school the administration asked me to teach it.  I was unhappy about this at first, since it almost doubled my work-time and the number of credits I was teaching.  Part of the point of the semester was to have less time on my feet as I got bigger.  It's grown on me, though. Because it's just a community college, the lab does not involve cadavers, but rather has skeletons and plastic models in addition to computer animations.  I wasn't ready to be in charge of a cadaver lab with my super sniffer nose, and boy did I luck out!  Another great thing about the class is the caliber of student.  Many of my other students (but by no means all of them) are there to fulfill a requirement and are pretty half-hearted about life.  Intro to Biology is not an easy course, and when they hit a hard conceptual thing like photosynthesis or meiosis, I can see some of them retreating inside their heads rather than try.  Attendance is so-so.  Basic abilities, like subtracting 2.5 points from a quiz total of 10 (clearly they earned an 8.5, right?  Or maybe a 6.5?) or successfully typing the date on a paper (Feb 1rst? Right?) are a bit tough. We're figuring each other out, though, and I think we're starting to have more fun in those classes.  It helps that we're through the "what is an atom?" (most of them have never taken chemistry in their life; that's why they're enrolled in biology, dang it!) and the photosynthesis lessons and are into something easier to picture.  I still love teaching, and I enjoy the challenge of these courses and classes, and I'm loving it.

But in my anatomy class, almost every student is there because they want to be some sort of medical-professional in the future that will require not only the class but a good grade in the class.  They all show up on time!  They participate!  They color their little hearts out in their anatomy coloring book.  One of them even has a child who made her use sticky notes to censor the male parts of her coloring book.  It's great.

I think this semester holds great promise for the two of us.

Note: I was just informed, while writing this, that Jim Henson (he of the Muppets) died of Toxic Shock Syndrome.  Another fun fact from the James Med School Collection!