30 Days of Gratitude, days 11-17: Teaching Tools
Tuesday, November 17th, 2015
Wow! Has it really been a week since I posted? Thank you all for your patience. Turns out being off-call doesn’t necessarily make me more efficient at getting blog posts up, does it? Ha! Well, now you all know that I’m a real person, and I make mistakes too, and that can’t be a bad thing to know. So many people look at my life and think that I have it all together, but I very much do not! I am just doing the best I can, with what I have, where I am, and that, by necessity, has to be enough.
That said, I am delighted to share with you some teaching tools that I am so very thankful for in my work. Without good teaching tools, I would just sit in front of a classroom full of people and yap. Not that I couldn’t do that, but how fun would that be? Not much. (I do enough of that anyway…) So, without further ado, my favorite teaching tools:
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- Day 11: A model pelvis, baby, and placenta. Because VISUALS. It’s so much easier to explain things when a student can see and touch it.
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- Day 12: The stages of labor game! We have a great game where participants must match contraction characteristics, emotional signs, and support tips to the various stages of labor. Always a hit!
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- Day 13: A great, portable whiteboard.
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- Day 14: All manner of comfort tools, from massagers to combs to rebozos to hot packs, to tennis balls and more.
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- Day 15: Gold’s Gym stayball, which is fantastic for comfort in class, as well as showing a wide variety of positions.
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- Day 16: An extensive lending library of books and DVD’s. It’s not possible to cover every single bit of information in a class, so it’s wonderful to be able to have these resources to loan out to those who want more information.
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- Day 17: My favorite poster, ever. The most vivid illustration of the effectiveness of squatting, ever. Bring on the vintage orange!
Most of all, I am thankful for a great classroom space, that I can arrange and rearrange how I see fit, every time. It’s so much fun to anticipate class needs, and to enhance the group dynamic by making the space our own while we are there.
What are you thankful for today?
Warmly,
Tiffany Miller
Childbirth Educator & Student Midwife
Image links:
Day 11, Day 12, Day 13, Day 14, Day 15, Day 16, Day 17.
