Being a teacher is one of the most important jobs there is in society. When you are a resident teacher for a medical school the quality of your teaching has an indirect impact on the lives of thousands. How well you teach medical undergraduates might well determine how good a physician they become in the future, and of course how many lives they can save.

It is not just the ‘body count’ that matters. Being a good doctor involves so much more than simply knowing your facts and applying the best treatment available at the time. Being a good doctor is a test for the psyche in so many ways. Along with technical proficiency and medical knowledge a good doctor needs a whole range of other skills that are difficult both to list and to teach. It is often these skills that I feel obliged to work on. This is because so much of the technical training these days is done in learning labs using computers. In many cases this is better because a computer never forgets a key point, whereas even the best medical teachers sometimes omit a crucial detail.

The most well known skill that I try to teach is good ‘bedside manner’. New doctors can sometimes be brusque, they can sometimes forget that the layman gets confused with medical terms, and they can often forget to reassure a patient. Science is still not able to explain why a positive mental outlook works wonders for people with illnesses. I don’t prescribe to ‘New Age’ theories of chakras, meditation etc. but these alternative approaches are important in that they empower the patient to help themselves. This is no bad thing, and it is something that I think all new doctors should consider carefully.

Secondly, there is mental toughness. At times doctors have to work incredibly long hours. They must maintain concentration and focus. I try to get my students to work out personal systems for dealing with the workload and pressure. We are all different and how we cope with stress also varies from person to person. I encourage my students to find ‘what works for them’.

Then there is triage. This is the notion of prioritizing to do the most good; the idea of finding the best way through a work pile. Triage can be incredibly difficult even with the best medical facilities and resources available. Sometimes it is a matter of instinct. What will have the greatest short term impact? Which patients have the most chance of survival?

Finally, I also counsel students who feel the pressure of failure. It doesn’t help to tell a trainee doctor that they will make fatal mistakes. At the same time they must align their expectations to what is the ‘norm’. All doctors have to know their limits and accept their fallibility. As long as you learn from your mistakes you can usually be forgiven for making them. Dealing with the pressure of life and death is no easy business.

In a way being a resident medical teacher is just the same as being any other type of teacher. There are teaching strategies to master, theory to think about and new advances to keep abreast of. In the end, no two teachers do their job in exactly the same way. Theorists of teaching often forget this. They are so wrapped up in obscure jargonized learning that they fail to see the human element to teaching. Instead they argue among themselves.

This blog is for all teachers, not just medical teachers. Society places its hopes in us for we teach the up-coming generations the skills necessary to maintain society ? how to design bridges, how to do calculus, how to write a sonnet, how to piece together a credible narrative of the past. Even autodidacts use books as their teachers. I believe teachers are the bedrock of civilization. If our teachers fail to do their jobs properly we will slide back into the dark ages.

Considering the importance of the teaching profession, it seems a most worthy endeavor to collect view points about teaching in as many fields as possible. The articles contained herein aim to throw light on the teacher’s task whether it relates to explaining food nutrition, the benefits of travel, methods for stopping smoking. Whatever. Pedagogy relates to all human actions and relations.

Teachers need to Compare Techniques through Shared Experience.

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Teachers have a hard time in many schools throughout the UK.  Chester is regarded as a ‘good’ area with higher than average socio demographics, but even Chester has its share of difficult schools.

Work life is often worse still for student teachers.  A cursory glance around forums such aswww.tes.co.uk highlights the many issues student teachers face.  Violent threats from both pupils and their guardians to sexual advances from over confident teenagers, the list is sadly both lengthy and varied.

Yet with all the responsibility of educating our nation’s youth and the sometimes difficult tasks that involves, the pay is still relatively low in comparison to the time it takes to qualify and become a competent teacher.

Bearing this in mind it probably highlights why there have been a number of newly qualified and student teachers meeting in Chester Coffee Shops comparing notes on their recent experiences.  This time to relax no doubt allows the teachers to let off steam, but also encourages them to share techniques / experiences which have allowed them to deal with specific issues.

These type of meetings should be encouraged throughout the teaching profession in order to educate our young as best we can.

Learning Cruelty

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I’ve been studying the idea that cruelty is a learned behavior. When we are young, do we treat others badly by an innate desire to hurt them or is it something we learn as we grow older? Young children can quite happily play with each other regardless of the color of their skin. So where does racism come from?

How about cruelty to animals? As children we gained happiness and enjoyment just from watching animals. Most of us were also fed animals by our parents. This was the normal way of life for most people living in the U.S. The question I would ask is, does eating animals mean that we are being cruel to them? My suggested answer is that yes, it does.

We have enslaved all kinds of animals such as chickens, pigs, cows through to marine animals that we “grow” as food. The way we treat these animals is that they serve no purpose other than to become food on our table.

Human massacres are condemned, rightly. But where is our compassion when it comes to the massacre of animals? Do they too not have a right to life?

I’ll admit, meat tastes good. In fact, I stopped eating meat, not for ethical reasons but on health grounds. What I then discovered was the massive trail of suffering that we inflict upon the animals we consume. My contention is that it’s wrong. This is something that I believe should be discussed in learning institutions, indeed I now do discuss it with my students. Of course, I have my own opinions. Rather than wanting to make my students think in a certain way, the most important issue is letting them think for themselves about the issues.

It’s easy to enjoy our foods without having to eat animal products. Creating health drinks with the best juicer is just one option. There are all kinds of great tasting vegan/vegetarian dishes that are not only tasty but cheap too.

Preparing Students for Life

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Teaching students about the mortgage industry is often difficult. However, for many college students this is an un-familiar topic. Most importantly the decisions they make right now will ensure whether or not they qualify for a home later. Therefore in this article I will give a few examples and tips on how to teach kids and students about the mortgage industry. Let me first call out that any stats or faqs come from the St George Utah Real Estate area. This is a fantastic red rock haven that provides amazing rental properties.

The first thing a student needs to learn about the mortgage industry is the fact their credit score will determine what they qualify for. Therefore each student needs to understand that when they have a late bill payment it will hurt them in the future. As teachers we need to help each student understand that they need to pay their bills and begin building their credit.

The last topic that should always be taught is the idea of saving money. With the latest mortgage crisis any home buyer will need 20% down payment on their home. That means if you want to get into a house you better start saving now.

In closing we as teachers can help shape the future of our students. It is important we teach them about math, reading, and important life lessons. Therefore get out there and help change a student’s life.

Why Resident Teachers Are a Good Choice For You

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To become a teacher is not an easy job and profession. Many says that a teacher is a very tiring job, which is probably why they got so much vacation. Graduating from the course that we get means we are end up on our daily routine like waking up early in the morning and going to school early. However, if you are a teacher by profession, you don’t have any choice but to wake up early to prepare for your teaching profession. But, not all teachers go to school daily and prepare for the lesson that they are going to teach. There are now resident teachers that use to teach their students or learners without a need to go to school to learn the lessons. More and more of these teachers have started using business intelligence software in their work and have obtained some pretty good results with that. Education can be a privilege that was claimed before and now with business intelligence software such as the BI suite here from Business Intelligence Software, they have become much more effetive. These days, for a kid’s right, instruction is regarded as an indispensable piece which can easily be monitored by the proper business intelligence software. When it comes to education is indeed very helpful and important to a man’s life but it doesn’t mean that we are obliged to go to school as we can also learn even from our home. Education performs any vital position in surrounding the particular everyday living involving someone.

 The most essential aspect associated with main the civil living can be schooling and we can even acquire it with resident teachers. It is really one of the most essential advantage, it is possible to ever have got. It is truly the essential parameter to obtain a new worthy of and also declare within the societal range; this thing which in turn issues by far the most is high quality involving training. Instruction may make you able in addition to capable of compete. Because instruction offers so much to offer, individuals have started to take into account in addition to acknowledge that it is benefits in life. Inside of a place such as United kingdom, instruction possesses generally recently been substantial for the intention. The fact is, inside United kingdom, your idea of Residence Schooling continues to be a necessary part of the modern society.

 There is no difference from learning to school compared to get a resident teacher. Going to school is not the main purpose having an education. School is only a building where students go to interact and learn together with their co-learners.  The essence in there is that they will also their personality when it comes to social interaction. Learning happens everywhere and whatever kind of teaching technique and method as long as it is taught correctly. Teaching can be tiring with many people but it can be very challenging to some people. With that, it is not easy to have that teaching profession and we should never have to underestimate that career. Always bear in mind that you are not in your profession right now and you don’t have that successful life without the teachers.

 Resident teacher is one of the most preferable choice of most individuals these days as they are tired of going to school or they want to learn without a need to leave their home. Whatever kind of learnings you want to get, then you can look for resident teacher that meets your wants and needs. If you want to learn medical knowledge, then you can acquire medical resident teacher. This is the great thing about resident teacher as they are accessible and you don’t have to travel just to arrive in the place where learning in and with the new business intelligence software systems they can do even more for the kids these days.

Lessons On Money Should Be Brought To The High School Curriculum

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We all know how fundamental school is to helping young people learn how to become productive adults in society.  Without really having to say the majority of the credit for quality students comes from quality teachers who pour their heart and soul into ensuring that each generation is improving upon the past.

There are many classes that students must take to ensure they are successful once they are on their own in the world; but in my opinion there is a class that should be mandatory for every high school student to take.  This class would focus on how to handle money and personal finance.  It appears that even some of the most brilliant scholars of this generation are completely irresponsible when it comes to how they handle their money.  We can see point in case with the most recent mortgage meltdown that caused this terrible recession that still persists to this day.

When you see how many young people make stupid moves with their finances it makes you wonder if they were every properly taught how to handle them; one great example is credit card debt, so many people get caught in debt and don’t know how to get out.  The personal finance class I would like to see instilled in classes throughout the country would teach kids the fundamentals such as debt relief, how mortgages and other loans truly work, the magic of compounded interest, and many other topics that must be brought up to young people before they make mistakes in the future.

Teachers Dilemma – Is Censorship OK?

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It’s a difficult problem facing most educational centers who allow access to the internet – how much should be restricted?   In an ideal world of course it would be great to basically allow unfettered access but unfortunately some students (and teachers) would be bound to abuse this situation.  Fortunately most methods now allow a fairly granular set of policies to be applied to a college or school internet connection.

The basis of most filtering technologies are white lists and black lists.  These contain sites which should always be allowed through and those on the black lists which will always be blocked.   Groups of sites can be applied to these filters – for example you can put all pornography sites in the black list so that they can never be accessed.  You should also include the sites which can be used to bypass the filters in the black list – such as ninja proxy and VPN sites.  It is essential you block these sites or installing the filter is pointless.

Alongside the technology should also be a set of procedures and policies.  Arguably the most  important is the ‘Acceptable Use Policy’ which tells all users of the network what they can and can’t do.  There is no need to be too specific in this document otherwise it could get rather large.   The document should however clearly state what is not acceptable when using the educational network.   It is also important to state that all activities are logged by the owners – which in itself should deter inappropriate use.

With these basic restrictions in place, there is no real need to implement any heavy handed censorship policies.  In fact these can sometimes be counter productive with users either not using the network or discovering ways to bypass any filters you implement.  If a network is heavily filtered it will create extra support requests when legitimate sites are blocked by accident.

Personal Connection to Education and Charity

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Education’s importance to me includes many facets and levels that have spanned throughout my life.  I found a wonderful non-profit organization that would accept my car donation so that I can do my part in ensuring that the importance of quality educators relative to good education is advanced politically.  I have several teachers in my family that have made it their lifelong goal to impart wisdom upon their pupils and make a decent living out of it.  It’s important that we compensate our educators in a fair manner to ensure that we can attract the best of the best to our schools and give our youth a world-class education. I owe my personal financial success in life largely to my education and upbringing.  I was lucky in that I had great teachers throughout my life that cared about my schooling and ensured I made the most out of my ability.  Have you done your part for education?  Giving to a relevant charity can be a very rewarding way to do so!

Understanding Self Harm Is Essential For Teaching Psychology & Helping Mentally Unhealthy

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It’s important to understand what you are trying to teach. Psychology tries to analyse, understand the roots & help those suffering from various mental health disorders. Many sufferers from such disorders engage in self harming behavior. Self Harm can take many different forms. The most commonly reported methods include:

  • Cutting of arms or other parts of the body
  • Scratching, picking or scraping at the skin on any part of the body
  • Burning or scalding parts of the body
  • Pulling out your own hair
  • Scouring, scrubbing or bleaching parts of the body
  • Banging or hitting (sometimes with an object eg hammer) parts of the body
  • Inserting things into the body
  • Taking overdoses or swallowing harmful substances
  • Tying something tightly around part of the body to cut off the blood supply

Other things which can be considered as self harm include driving too fast, over- or under-eating and eating disorders, involving yourself in taking illegal drugs, alcohol abuse, risk-taking (including sexual risk-taking) smoking to excess and over working or committing yourself to doing too much for other people.

But Why Do People Self Harm?

Self harm is first and foremost a coping strategy. It helps people cope with overwhelming feelings of pain and anguish which if they did not have their coping mechanism of self harm might force them into even more life threatening activities.

People self harm for all sorts of different reasons and may or may not be fully aware of what they are trying to achieve by doing it. They do however know that at least for awhile it makes them feel better and more able to cope.

How Common is Self Harm?

Self harm is more common in women, although in prisons the number of men self harming is above the general level seen for men. Self harm in all its many forms is probably far more common than most people would estimate. It is a coping strategy used by people at times in their lives when nothing else seems to work. It is impossible to know just how many people are self harmers as many will never require and/or seek help or medical attention for their self harm. It is known that self harm is reported in all age groups and all walks of life. Many self harmers have been dealing with their distress in this way for many years before anyone else finds out about it. It does however appear that self harm is becoming less of a taboo subject – which is a positive move as people have nothing to be ashamed or feel guilty for – it is merely their coping mechanism. Many people will also find that they are able to stop self harming and learn alternative methods for coping with their emotions and problems.

Is Self Harm a Suicide Attempt?

NO – many people who self harm do so in ways that are not severe and do not require medical attention and do not leave permanent scarring.
However sometimes people do hurt themselves quite seriously such as cutting themselves to the extent that stitches are required and the wound will scar. Although there is a desperate need to inflict serious injury the person is not trying to take their own life.
Some people who self harm will at times do things that put their lives seriously at risk such as taking massive overdoses or trying to strangle themselves or cut an artery. Again this does not usually mean that the person wants to kill themselves it may be that their feelings are so out of control that they do not notice how severe their actions are – or indeed they might not care at that moment in time whether they kill themselves or not.
At the heart of self harm is one fact – the person is trying to cope in whatever way they can – not kill themselves.

What Feelings Make Someone Need To Self Harm?

The feelings behind a persons self harm can be as varied as the methods people use to self harm. As stated earlier, the person may not actually be aware of why exactly they are doing this – it can be a collection of feelings together which just overwhelm the person completely and leave them feeling as if they have no other means of coping – they just need to hurt themselves to survive the feelings.

Commonly reported feelings that can make a person self harm are:

  • emotional pain and anguish
  • unresolved anger
  • self-hatred
  • low self-esteem
  • guilt
  • shame
  • fear
  • anxiety
  • chronic emptiness
  • desperation
  • powerlessness
  • depersonalisation and dissociation (feeling that you are disconnected from the world around you)
  • depression
  • stress
  • neglect
  • loss

Such behavior is common for those suffering from various psychological & personality disorders, like narcissistic, borderline, bipolar, depression etc. Such people generally are being diagnosed through narcissistic personality disorder, borderline, depression or bipolar test OR whatever the mental health professional deems appropriate for the specific case.

So How Does Self Harm Help?

Self harm is most often a way of releasing built up emotions that are in some way felt by the person to be bad or wrong. It is a way of letting all the mental pain from inside become a ‘more real’ physical pain on the outside. It’s like ”well now you (and I) can see my pain so it is more real and bearable”.

It can also be a means of punishing yourself for having the feelings (usually seen with feelings of guilt and/or shame). This is common amongst victims of abuse and even though they are in no way responsible for anything they still feel like they need to be punished and the self harm brings them relief because they have gotten what they feel they deserve.

Self harm can act as a distraction from the feelings. By inflicting pain on a site that can be seen the person can refocus all of their attention onto looking after the injury instead of stewing over the feelings.

Self harm can communicate the need for comfort from other people or the desire for someone to take the pain away. Many self harmers feel that they do not deserve caring for their emotional pain, but it is ok to be cared for if it is a physical problem. The act of self harming is therefore a way of displacing the pain from inner emotions to outer physical pain that can receive care without the guilt.

If someone is suffering from depersonalisation – or feelings of being disconnected from oneself then Self harm can literally reground them back into themselves. It’s as if by feeling the blood flow from a cut and watching it at the same time you can start to feel a part of yourself again and pull you back to reality. – In this instance it is not uncommon for the person to report that they felt nothing during the cutting at all.

What Can Help Someone Who Self Harms?

There are a number of key issues that have been proven to help a self harmer recover:

Learning to understand themselves and their reasons for self harming. To do this they must become more aware of their own feelings and thoughts.

Looking at issues from the past which lie behind the self harm. If there are things from the past then appropriate counselling will help lay the ghosts and also help the person understand how these events are related to their self harm now.

Finding new ways to deal with and communicate their feelings. A self harmer needs to develop another set of coping strategies to replace the need for self harm. Some of the time the self harmer already achieves this, but at times of real stress these coping mechanisms breakdown resulting in the person reverting to self harm. What is needed is a new toolbox of coping strategies that can cope with all levels of emotional pain. When it comes to dealing with emotions – this does not always mean exploring and expressing them – in fact for many it means acknowledging that they are there but then containing them and moving on from them.

Increase self esteem – people need to look for and appreciate the good and the strength within themselves. They need to take a look at their potential and realise that their is a lot more to them than they give themselves credit for. It may also be necessary to seek support from outside of themselves to look at the bad things they believe about themselves. Building self confidence and assertiveness help alot with self esteem.

Learn how to communicate with other people more effectively – especially about distressing feelings and events. If the self harmer can learn to talk directly about how s/he is feeling then so long as they are taken seriously by other people this will also increase self esteem and stop the build up of feelings inside.

Where Can A Self Harmer Get Help?

People who feel the desperate need to self harm must also remember that they deserve support from other people. Help and support is available from many different sources:

  • Partners, Family and Friends
  • Counselling Services
  • GP’s
  • Psychiatric Services
  • Help-Lines
  • Support Organisations

A Teaching Moment: Why Merchant Accounts Help Businesses

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I work for a company that enables businesses to accept credit cards. While this may seem like no big deal to some, it is actually quite a complex process from start to finish. In today’s world, people heavily rely on their credit cards and debit cards and don’t carry cash as much as they used to 10 or 20 years ago.

As a business owner, it is important to be prepared to take most forms of payment from your customers. More often than not, if your business doesn’t take plastic you are probably going to end up losing a lot of business.

Case in point: there is a nice little market across the street from my office building. Inside there are vendors selling wine, bread, and flowers as well as a few small restaurants. One restaurant sells bowls of delicious soup for $5 and the restaurant next to it sells burritos for about $7. The owner of the burrito restaurant only accepts cash and when people don’t have cash, he directs them to the ATM in the building. The soup shop takes credit and debit cards as payment. At lunch time, there is a line circling most of the upstairs to get soup. There is hardly anyone at the other restaurant.

I asked the owner of the burrito joint why he didn’t take cards. He said that he is saving money on merchant account fees. I pointed out to him that a meal at the soup establishment is typically less than a burrito yet they still accept cards so the fees are clearly not hurting their business.

I then took the time to briefly explain to him exactly how credit card processing accounts work and what he could expect to pay if he had one for his business; it was much less than he thought. I’m really glad that I took a few moments to teach him how accepting cards would be great for his business and I expect that he will be selling a lot more burritos in the near future.

Teaching and Student Resources Online

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There are of course many thousands of educational resources online however most students find there are plenty of issues with accuracy on many sites.  It would be good to be able to point to a page and be 100% sure that it was definitely correct.  We’ve all probably read something online even on a big site like Wikipedia and thought – ‘hang on that’s just  wrong’.

Young children will look at books and websites in much the same way – if it’s published somewhere it’s certain to be right.  However we in academia have to rid ourselves of this mindset – however it’s often very difficult to do especially when you are not sure of your subject.  There are many dangers connected with researching online however some basic steps will help in most cases.

  1. Separate research from just surfing.  Research online should be a task that should  be completed, set a start point, take notes and then finish your research.
  2. Stay focused, it’s easy to drift off into related areas away from your main research goal.  Efficient internet research is only possible if you focus on these goals.
  3. Develop Your Bullshit detector.  There is so much, misleading, inaccurate information available online.  Learn to look at information critically, are sources cited, what is the reputation of the writer or site?
  4. Know when not to use the internet.  There are some subjects which are simply not suitable for internet research.  In these cases you’re going to have to use those books and libraries!

These are simply common sense steps, the internet is a great resource but it must be used critically.  It takes no time at all to upload information to a web site or blog – there is no quality control, no proof reading in the vast majority of cases.

Of course many web sites have some sort of quality control – even Wikipedia which is self authored is monitored by experts who will correct or remove incorrect information, although there’s no guarantee that will happen.  If you can begin your research with recognized, authorative sources – academic sites from associations, Universities, colleges and professional bodies.  Next there are some reliable online media sites with lots of great information which will have editors who assess content before it’s released.

Many of these big media sites have extensive archives of information online too.  For instance one of my favorite sites is the BBC as they have a huge educational section which is carefully edited.  Sometimes you’ll need to use tools to bypass country restrictions – such as the BBC Iplayer where you’ll need to change to a UK IP address to gain access to some content.

It would be madness to ignore the huge potential for the internet as a research tool, but it’s important to be objective and critical about some of the information that is available.   When you are using the internet take notes as you go along and it help you verify facts from other sources if you need to.

 

I Will Always Remember A Certain Teacher

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The fact is that teachers do change lives. Good ones are able to really make a difference and most kids know which ones are better than others.

In my case I had a teacher in the 6th grade that told me I was good with writing and putting sentences together. She said I had more potential than most and that I should continue to work on my vocabulary and writing skills. Because of her I gained confidence in that area and that confidence has carried through all my life.

I was living with my parents overseas in Japan at the time and there were lots of opportunities for native English speakers to teach English. When I turned 16 I decided I wanted to get a job teaching English rather than one of the the regular types of jobs for 16 year olds. It was because of my interest in English instilled by that teacher several years ago that I had that desire.

As it turns out I never became a teacher or a writer for a living. However, almost 30 years have gone by since my 6th grade and because of that teacher I have always done well in anything relating to the English language. I have continued to hone my writing skills and I have been able to put them to good use in several of the jobs I have had.

Not all teachers are keenly interested in their students but those that are will ultimately be able to make a difference. They don’t have to be life changing differences but are often subtle things like instilling pride and confidence. Kids need to feel good about themselves and be made aware of what skills they possess. That is something that parents can do and teachers can do but sometimes it has more of an impact coming from a teacher who is impartial.

What Can I Expect to Learn from the AACE Guideline?

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What can you expect to learn from the AACE Guideline? Type 1 diabetics can start by jumping to page 16.  There it explains that the best thing a person can do for type 1 diabetes is initiate intensive diabetes therapy.  The guidelines walks readers through options for achieving it using either insulin injections or an insulin pump.  Each suggestion has a grade assigned to it.  Therapies labeled “grade A” are the most tried and true therapies, while a “grade D” therapy only has limited scientific support.  Keep in mind that there are some therapies that may receive a C or D grade that may be outstanding therapies for select diabetics.

People living with type 2 diabetes can jump to page 17 and read the recommendations there.  They can consider their current blood sugar readings and most recent A1cscore.  Patients not able to maintain an A1c score below 6.5 percent, or a fasting plasma glucose reading less than 110 mg/dL, can compare their current strategy with the steps in the guideline.  Keep in mind that your situation may be different from people with diabetes and your physician may be managing your diabetes with the appropriate strategy for your situation.  Regardless of the situation, by using these guidelines to create questions for an upcoming doctor’s visit, a person will likely come away from that visit with new wisdom and a better strategy.

For people new to diabetes, this information may be overwhelming. Those who have lived with it for a while and researched it will still find some new information.  Specifically, there is new information about the latest medication and insulin therapies.   These pages represent the most up-to-date diabetes information available.  In addition to the specific guidelines on managing type 1 and 2 diabetes above, the guidelines also include sections that explain:

  • Diabetes prevention and prediabetes.
  • The many medication options and how they work.
  • How to manage high blood pressure and the related medications.
  • How to lower lipids (LDL, HDL, Triglycerides) or blood fat.
  • The latest wisdom on nutrition.
  • How to best manage diabetes in pregnancy.

There are also sections on complications, patient safety, and diabetes care in the hospital.

If patients are more educated about diabetes, physicians can help them more.  Patients who speak the language of diabetes—which the guidelines can teach—can communicate effectively with doctors.  Patients that increase their diabetes knowledge are likely to improve their health, too.

Teaching About Wine

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We talk a lot on this site about teaching people how to be doctor’s.  As you might expect with such a diverse profession some people come into medical school needing to greatly work on their bedside manner, while others need to simply work on learning medical terminology and procedures. It seems that science has begun to pervade every aspect of the medical field.  We learn to judge people based on facial expressions, instead of simply talking to them like another human being.

The wine industry isn’t much different after seeing my friend try and administer his wine of the month club.  I recently went on a tasting trip with him, which was a lot of fun largely because he has access to parts of wineries and the people behind him that just isn’t afforded to the general public.

The most interesting aspect to me was that in all 4 wineries we visited, they had chemistry sets. Evidently they are constantly testing for sugar levels in grapes and sulfur levels in wine.  I didn’t realize that science had such a broad reach these days.

A Realistic Perspective On The Teaching Career

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Many individuals outside of the teaching world consider the teacher salary, benefits and working conditions to be unfairly high. Office workers, for instance, may wonder at the comparatively large amount of holiday leave teachers are offered. Admittedly, school holidays go far beyond the norm for other occupations, but it is important to note the vital differences in time management between the professional teacher and office worker.

During the school term, the teacher is expected to arrive in the classroom well before any of their students start to arrive- generally at least thirty minutes. They will also be held back after class, sorting work, talking to parents and dealing with any children whose parents are late to collect them from school. This time in itself can stretch the teacher’s day far beyond the hours of a general office worker.

Added to this is the endless stream of lesson preparation, copying and marking that the teacher must get through for each day on the job. Any experienced teacher will tell you that these essential aspects of the job take up a lot of time, if done properly. Teachers are also obligated to spend many of their lunch breaks on duty in the playground, keeping an eye on the kids.

All considered, this is a huge amount of work on top of the basic in-school hours that a teacher must keep on top of. To facilitate this, many weeks worth of holidays, weekends and personal time will be spent getting ahead or catching up on such tasks. In contrast, a similarly paid office worker who may earn $40-$50,000 per annum can leave their work at the office between the hours of 9 to 5.

In summation, it is fully understandable that an outsider may wonder at the teacher’s high salary and holiday time. However, those who are drawn to the teaching field for these reasons would be highly misguided. Teachers may have a lot of leave with good pay, but they typically need to work a large portion of that holiday time, and/or more than make up for it with the long extracurricular hours made necessary by the demands of the school week. Teachers should come into the profession for one reason only: a passion for educating and helping to develop their students.

Teaching the Benefits of a Power of Attorney

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I had a very interesting teacher in the sixth grade who exemplified what I thought a teacher should be. Rather than teaching the standard lessons from the book, she gave us real-world examples that still stick with me to this day. As a teacher now, I look back on what she did with fondness and wish that the current educational system would allow for more teaching like hers in today’s classroom. She served as an inspiration to me and actually was the one who encouraged me to get into the teaching profession.

What did she do that was so fascinating, you may ask? She (an English teacher) dedicated an entire month to learning about the law. Yes, sixth graders learning about how the law worked! We learned about everything from how to read legal documents to power of attorney to procedural law. Some of the parents weren’t happy because they thought their children should be learning the standard classroom work, but I know what she taught stuck with a lot of us into adulthood. It made us more savvy and in tune with the world.

When you are in a classroom next, think about how you can teach your students a little something extra. You never know how it will affect their lives.

Teaching Methods To Stop Smoking

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There are many ways one can teach on the methods to quit smoking but it helps not only the teachers but also the students to be able to focus on just a few key methods at a time. If you go to any ‘stop smoking’ website they will likely have 50 different methods you can easily try, this is great for a general reading audience but for those serious about quitting it can cause real confusion, often leading them back to smoking cigarettes!

The following are just a few methods, some have been around for many years whilst others are newer concepts.

Electronic Cigarettes

This device is made as an alternative to smoking, it is not actually made for the purpose of quitting and is not sold as such. However, many people that tried this as an alternative have found themselves smoking less tobacco cigarettes and in some instances stopping them altogether. The good thing about e-cigarettes that are supplied by brands such as E-Lites is that they also supply 0mg nicotine cartridges so you could gradually work your way out of the nicotine addiction. They are easy to use and there is an E-Lites discount code available for anyone wishing to try this alternative to smoking.

Nicotine Gum and Patches

This kind of nicotine replacement therapy relies on either a patch which is placed directly on the skin or nicotine gum which is obviously chewed. Both release doses of nicotine to help relieve cravings.

Hypnosis

Studies have shown hypnosis to produce positive results in smokers who are looking to quit. This works by placing you into a state of relaxation where you are more open to the powers of suggestion and the idea that you can stop and don’t need cigarettes in your life. Your doctor can recommend a qualified hypnotherapist that specializes in smoking cessation

Self Help Motivational Books

This method again could be tricky as it all depends on the individual and to their strength in mind to help themselves. It has certainly worked for many though with the Alan Carr quit smoking book being successful for many. This is also a very cheap option to try.

These are certainly not the only ways to try and stop smoking but they are a good place to start and to recommend to people searching for more information.