I taught the second class yesterday. 17 participants showed up! I focused on carbohydrates, sweeteners, and interpreting food labels. I brought in 2 boxes of cereal, bowls, food models, and measuring cups. I had 2 participants pour what they thought was 1 cup of cereal into a bowl and then we measured to see how much it really was. Later, when explaining how to use the food label, we figured out how much carbohydrate was in each bowl and they were quite impressed with the difference.
My site supervisor, Jill, came in all the way from State College, she had spent the night locally and was at the center early enough to help Mandel and I set up and complete A1c tests on a few more participants. She observed my presentation, added a comment about xylitol, and participated in the physical activity portion with the group, and helped serve samples of the recipes Mandel demonstrated too.
After the program, Jill and I sat and talked awhile about the program, my practicum goals, and how to attain some of them. I’m interested in how this education program contributes to the principal study by Joslin and the Centers for Medicaid and Medicare Services. I’m excited about how I am offering this education program in the community, apart from an institutional setting which is my usual teaching setting and how the outcomes may differ. I asked about spending time at the office at State College and Jill offered that I could meet with Julie Cooper, the data manager and see how the data base was set up and how the data is compiled and analyzed.
We also discussed offering this program a second time, and in the evening for those who work, which I am on board to do, but had thought it would be in the fall. Upon thinking about logistics since both Mandel and I have school age kids with after-school activities, I’m considering doing an early evening program starting in mid-summer so it will be done except for the follow-up class before the kids’ school year starts again.
Did I mention I’m getting paid for this practicum?? About the same rate as my regular job, certainly helps offset tuition!!
Hi Kim -sounds like you have several good outlets for broadening your learning through this practicum. It will be very interesting to see the data management side of a study and what’s involved. A summer evening may be hard to attend consistently if participants are required to come weekly, as some people take vacations, but you never know!
Dr C