I have wanted to be a teacher for as long as I can remember. It is safe to say that this has been my plan for at least 15 years with a single exception. In high school I was given the opportunity to take my First Responder course in order to participate in a program called MERT (Mulgrave Emergency Response Team). In this position I was on a team of students and teachers that responded to medical and trauma emergencies in the school and was able to take on a huge leadership role within my school community. This was an experience that was scary, exhilarating and overwhelmingly rewarding. The First Responder certification stays valid for four years and so after my third year of my undergrad I signed up to re-take the course for my own professional development and interest. Once again I was reminded how much I enjoyed emergency response and just by chance I was able to upgrade my certification to Emergency Medical Responder. It was during the first day of that course as I was able to sit in the front seat of an ambulance watching calls come in, that I was overcome with elation and I seriously wondered if I would ever find this same joy and excitement in another career beyond para-medicine.

Fast forward two years and here I am in the PDPP program, heart set on once again becoming a teacher. I think I knew deep down that this was where I was always meant to be and our observations in Reynolds, as well as other opportunities in the past year, have shown me how much joy and excitement there is in education. The inquiry project is also an opportunity that is allowing us to find what we are passionate and excited about in teaching and although it took me forever to figure out what I would research and present, when I realized what my two big interests were, teaching (in all its capacities) and first aid, it clicked. I sent my proposal for "integrating first aid into schools" on Monday evening of last week and talked extensively with Laurel about my plan Wednesday morning, getting more and more excited with each conversation.

While this journal has had nothing to do with my teaching experience thus far, I think its important to give the context in order to explain the excitement I felt in my first teaching moment. In our after school seminar on Wednesday, we were chatting with students about their experience at Reynolds when Laurel rushed over to me and asked me if I could chat with a student. As I looked over at the girl she was referring to, i noticed her hand covered in blood and an elastic band around her finger. I quickly rushed over and examined her hand and she told me she had cut off the tip of her finger while cooking for a fundraiser. While it is never a good moment when first aid has to be administered, the stars had aligned that I was in the right place at the right time with a teacher having just read about my interest in first aid in schools.

The girl had made herself a tourniquet for her finger using an elastic band and while it was slowing the bleeding it was also cutting off the circulation to her entire finger.  In this moment I felt like a teacher as I had to calmly explain to her what we were going to do to help her stop the bleeding and why her method could potentially cause more harm than good. Being 17 years old this girl was clearly shaken up by this incident but was curious as to why I was doing what I was doing. This is something that I did all the time in MERT but working with this girl who was so curious gave me the opportunity to teach her about the circulation and wound management well beyond the brief explanations I had given young students in the past. As we sat dressing her cut I explained what to do next when she got home and when to seek further medical attention.

Teaching is all about making connections with students and while this teaching moment had little to do with anything that you would find in the curriculum, especially my teachable subject social studies, I was able to make a connection with this girl and practice explaining important concepts in terms that were understandable to her in the moment. I also had an opportunity to follow up with Laurel after and reflect on what I had done to help this student which was really important as it gave me a chance to debrief my teaching experience, as well as learn about the first aid resources available to students and staff at Reynolds.

This teaching moment absolutely made my day and was the highlight of this program thus far. I was able to make a connection with a student, teach her about something that I am passionate about, practice my own communication skills and understand the importance of debriefing and collaborating with other teachers. All these skills will be relevant in my teaching career and I will no doubt continue to practice them as I have more teaching opportunities.