HOYA 1 Nov/Dec Article
GIVING THANKS, was the highlight of November. Those who live a life with gratitude have a great attitude. Our Thanksgiving feast did not disappoint. The food was plentiful and then the race was on to win the team relay games. Each student was challenged to note something they were thankful for before they could eat and then they were challenged to go home and tell one person something they were thankful for. We in HOYA are beyond thankful this year for our great students!
Students continue to learn what they may or may not want to be when they grow up through our monthly job shadows. We also had a great field trip to Highland Community College. There students learned the many different programs HCC offers in healthcare and many prerequisites a student can take there for things such as veterinarian and doctor degrees. The labs are amazing and of course seeing a real brain and cadaver is always a highlight of our trip. You can learn in a book, but when you get to see the real thing it all makes more sense. We are thankful in healthcare for those who cared enough about science and donate their bodies to science so we can learn.
Coming up in December students will bring Christmas cheer and raise money for the Salvation Army through bell ringing. We also will continue checking off on important skills, because clinicals are coming up fast. We will begin clinicals in February. Skills we will complete this month are teeth brushing, nail care, shaving and checking off on their bed making skills (hope they have been practicing at home :))
At the end of the month we vote for the previous month's student of the month. October’s theme was leadership. Winners for October were Devyn Phillips, Kayleigh Calhoun, Aya Malik, Xzander Bennett, Caitlyn Simpson, and Damien Bell.
Lastly, each month we focus on an essential skill. These are skills that are important in life and to employers. This month our focus was on verbal communication. We discussed ways to communicate, how to assess our audience and how to ask questions to deepen our understanding of a topic. Then each student picks a word in the category of communication that represents them best and adds it to their skill sheet. We will use these later in the year for our job applications.
These last few weeks will fly by. Students must continue to work hard to maintain an 80% or better in this class!