Category Archives: Uncategorized

It seems like it takes forever to finish but all my Biotechnology and Medical Assistant students have completed the Basic Life Support class to include the skills and 25 question written test.

Time to move on and finish the 3rd quarter strong. Up next for MA was phlebotomy. All students got in at least two sticks (on a manikin arm) and a few snuck in more. These activities are the reason students sign up for my classes. They get as many opportunities as I can possibly provide. This week we will revisit blood pressure and focus more on getting an accurate reading.

Next up for Biotech is learning about genetic engineering. I have a big lab we will be doing soon but this week I’ll only see my 3rd period students one day due to the primary election and our school being used as a polling place.

I have no pictures to put up. I’ve been asking students to email me some but they never do. Maybe one will read this and help me out.

My first period Medical Assistant class was rewarded today for 100 percent passing the CPR skills check offs. We had five groups doing skits where they were a machine. They had to act like an assigned machine and the rest of the class had to guess what they were. They had fun and all machines were guessed. The machines were: blender, washing machine, copier, toaster, and lawn mower.

I picked up the manikin to explain how the AED works and the head fell off.

My Biotechnology students cooked and poured agar plates and the next day went around the building swabbing every surface you can imagine and many you don’t want to imagine. This activity is fun and is practice for another lab coming up in a few days. We don’t know for sure what is growing in the plates but they surely grew out bacteria, fungus, and mold. The comparison of the toilet seat and water bottle straw is interesting and gag-worthy, especially to the owner of the water bottle. When I first saw the hand sanitizer bottle growth I said, “Aw, the irony,” but one of my genius students explained the purpose of the sanitizer and the contamination on the bottle and pump handle should be expected. Contaminated dispenser facilitates sanitized hands.

The school year is flying by. I’m working on my grade book to make sure I submit grades on time. This year we have to attach competencies, curriculum items, to assignments and didn’t know about it until a few weeks ago. It’s a challenge as the Medical Assistant course is actually two courses and we do some curriculum items in MA II so we are having to get them done before the end of first semester. No big deal in the big picture. It’ll get done.

My Biotech students ran a perfect DNA Fingerprinting lab on Wednesday. The crime scene and suspect DNA was loaded with skill and after staining overnight, the electrophoreses gel clearly showed the separated DNA fragments. We were able to easily identify the guilty suspect. Or at least send valid and reliable evidence to the police and prosecutor’s office. Bad guys beware: Martin’s Biotech students are on the case.

I’m way behind on blog entries. There’s been lots going on in class and in the different schools where my students are helping with vision and hearing testing. I will catch up with some good content and photos soon.

Medical Sciences classes career and technical service organization is HOSA-Future Health Professionals. Every month has a different disease or condition that is recognized. September was childhood cancers and we wore yellow one day.

MV student and I showing off our Crocs and zibbitz.