A Bit of Background, Part 2

I essentially stumbled my way into EMS. The winter of my senior year of high school, I was bumbling through a job interview for the summer camp I had worked at the two previous years. I use the term "bumbling" because the camp director is quite possibly one of the most intimidating 6'7" giants I know, and I don't think my answers were ever more eloquent than "yes, sir" or "no, sir". So of course, when he asked me if I would like to take on the additional responsibility of becoming a trip leader for the camp sponsored hiking trips I was left with two options: "yes, sir" or "no, sir". Given that I happen to love hiking and the great outdoors, I went with the former. The director then proceeded to inform me that I was to come up to camp two weeks earlier than the majority of the other counselors and partake in a mandatory training class for this new part of my job; I was to become a Wilderness First Responder.

The reasoning behind this training made perfect sense; given that I would be venturing into a formidable mountain range with eight campers (who were for the most part under age 16), it would make sense for me to have a reasonable knowledge base of emergency medical skills and situations in a wilderness setting on the off chance that something actually went horribly wrong. SOLO Wilderness and Emergency Medicine School was the group that provided our training, and if you are ever looking for an extremely professional, knowledgeable and well run wilderness medical training class, I would highly recommend SOLO above all else (http://www.soloschools.com/). The WFR class is an 80 hour long class and provides an amazing foundational skill set for anybody who is an outdoors enthusiast or interested in pursuing an outdoors-recreational line of work.

Needless to say, I fell in love with my WFR class. I loved the content, I loved the practicals and I loved the sense of knowing that I could be useful in a crisis situation. The class didn't just teach you how to do medical things in the woods. It taught creativity; how to use what resources were available to you; how to manage under stress; how to interface book knowledge with practical application; how to work as a team; and how to be a leader. And luckily for me, all of these lessons came at a incredibly formative moment.

That fall I shipped out to university. University is this amazing opportunity for self-discovery, self-definition and finding direction. In all honesty, those were three areas in which I found myself greatly lacking upon arrival at the school of my choice. Sure, I knew what I kind of wanted to do with my life, but other than that I was S.O.L., to put it quaintly. Cut to gracious stumbling act, part two.

When I arrived at university, I found this amazing wilderness oriented rescue group that was a perfect fit for my interests. My savior complex was satisfied (*grin*), as was my love for the great outdoors, and I finally had a practical application once more for the knowledge I had accumulated during my WFR class. Less than a month into my membership of this group, I was presented with a new option for pursuing what was quickly becoming an evolving passion: EMT class.

Getting my EMT was the best thing that I have ever done. It opened up a whole new world to me that I quickly fell in love with. It was a brand new body of knowledge for me to explore and master, and once again social media played a really big role in my new found passion. In fact, social media only fueled my "sparkie-ness". I was (am?) insatiable, and attempted to get my hands on every POV and piece of information that I could that dealt in some way or another with EMS.

And now we come to today, where I am making my own attempt--minor though it may be--to make a contribution to this world that I have come to love so much, and that has welcomed me with open arms. This blog may be graceless at times, and my ideas or questions might be rough at best, but like the start of my career in EMS, I am not afraid to stumble.

Song of the Summer

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aRh-vBOS-dU

Nothing better than a barefoot and blue jean night.

A Bit of Background, Part 1

When I was little, I never knew how to answer the "CW, when you grow up, what do you want to be?" question. My answer was rarely ever the same, and my dreams were constantly evolving. When I was around the age of five, my answer was "nurse, doctor or teacher". By the age of ten, my answer was "lawyer, fashion designer or teacher". By the time I hit age fifteen,  my answer was "researcher, journalist or teacher....or maybe all three if I can swing it".

But as making a university choice became an ever-present reality, I was forced to narrow down just what I thought I might want to do with my life. The looming decision forced me to turn to introspection. Just what kind of work could I see myself doing and actually enjoying? What kind of degree would allow me to pursue a passion in my life? Heck, what exactly were my passions in life? And so I started thinking about what I had spent almost eighteen years of investing my life in; what came immediately to mind was my love for reading, tutoring, working with kids, and volunteering. How did I incorporate all of this into a potential career?

To me, teaching jumped out as the immediate natural conclusion. Better yet, teaching is an immediate way to affect change. Educators deal with the future of our nation on a daily basis, as the children and young adults that we work with are the citizens and leaders that will be responsible for combating the political, economic and social conditions that recent generations have created. Educators get to foster creativity, passion and the critical thinking skills necessary to analyze and create solutions for the future. Educators also get to witness daily triumphs of their students; these are the tangible moments that make the job worthwhile.

And yet there are many schools in which those daily triumphs are a rare occurrence for students and teachers alike. There are schools where students have been written off, unable to be helped by the system that is considered by many to be the cornerstone upon which our nation is built; and unfortunately, I agree. There are many students who are being failed by the current state of American education. But we're also at a pivotal moment in education; there is enormous potential for change. And it is within this constantly evolving environment that I want to make my career.

Educators, as a profession, are moving towards evidenced based teaching practices. This is a huge step in the right direction, in my opinion, because if you look at other established professional fields they conduct themselves based on practices that they KNOW will work. And as new literature and research becomes available, they modify their practices accordingly. It has taken the educational world a long time to reach this way of thinking, but I believe that it is truly for the better and that makes me excited about one of the life paths I plan on pursuing.

Ultimately, I plan to use this blog to discuss many of these practices and the research and literature behind them. I want to generate discussion because I know that for each study that claims there is positive evidence for employing certain practices, positive evidence of certain correlations etc. there is always a counterpoint. And whether you want to teach or not, these issues are relevant to every individual. One of the greatest things about American education is that it is compulsory and free; however, the system cannot be utilized to its fullest potential unless anyone who has benefited from (or maybe even more importantly, has been done a disservice by American public education) participates in the discourse.

I don't expect you to agree, but I hope that you do have an opinion.

The Life I've Chosen

About two years ago, I had that moment that most people can go a lifetime without feeling. It was that "So this is where my life has been heading all along..." moment--a moment of elated epiphany--that of course was followed by an overwhelming sense of "Oh sh*t. This is where my life is going. Now what am I going to do about it?"

How did I get to that moment, and what exactly was my realization, you ask? Well, let me introduce myself first and then we'll get to that.

My name is CW. I'm country girl at heart (read: reformed Yank), living in the great state of Virginia. I'm a university student working towards a bachelors degree in history and a masters degree in Secondary Education, and with all that oh-so-rare-and-spare free time that I have, I'm a volunteer EMT in a rural community just outside of where I go to school.

From the time I was old enough to have an opinion, I've shared it. From the time I was old enough to know what a goal was, I've had one. While the goal was always changing when I was younger (because god forbid a 7 year old actually have a set opinion on what she wants to do with her life), in recent years I've settled on wanting to shape America's future. I want to help people. I want to change a life.

Now you're probably thinking, "THIS is the goal that she settles on?! How on earth are wanting to save the world, and that pivotal epiphany she talked about one and the same?" Well, truthfully, it kind of just happened. And by kind of just happened, I mean one day I realized that everything I had ever truly been passionate about was related to affecting change and helping people. Go figure, that I found an outlet for that in becoming an educator and an EMS worker.

Education and EMS are a life I have chosen, and that I love. But in choosing two such fields, I have inevitably found myself being plagued with this impending sense of responsibility to humanity (read: this is my "Oh sh*t" moment). How do I ensure that my contribution to education and EMS are not solely for selfish purposes? How do I make what I do matter? How can I channel that enthusiasm that "sparkies" are so fondly known for into something productive and generative? And this blog became part of the answer to those questions.

When something takes over my interest I like to ask questions, I like to share my passion with others and I like to learn as much as possible about a given subject. Luckily for me, social media has taken a strong root in both EMS and education. I have found some great individuals and resources in both fields that have inspired my foray into EMS and education, and I have come to a point where would like to add my own knowledge, experience and questions to what is out there. I claim no expertise, no finality or even a semblance of brilliance in regards to my contributions; however, I hope that someone out there might find a morsel of meandering thought that is of value to them.

This blog is primarily about EMS and American education, but you can expect to learn a bit about me outside of those two realms of my life. As I said, this is the life I've chosen--in more ways than the two fields I see myself dedicating my life to. I've chosen the southern way (but darn if I give up fresh NE seafood and my Boston Red Sox), country livin', and the music to which I geek out. These will be making an appearance among my musings, and I hope you enjoy.