Beating the Boredom by Mechelle Coble MS. RD.LD.CDE.MLDE
I attended this wonderful session to get some new ideas for my group classes at our DSMES Services where I am the RN CDE instructor.
Mechelle had some cute cartoons in her presentation about the differences between men and women and how they shop for a pair of pants, get ready for bed and pack for a trip which I wish I could share here but I think you can imagine what they look like. Men and women also learn differently as we all know and so do different generations. So we need to keep our audiences entertained and engaged. Mechelle had a quote she shared by Ben Franklin who said” Tell me and I forget, teach me and I remember, involve me and I learn.”
One of her techniques to improve learning was to get group participation by having one participant ask another what they had for breakfast. Then when they found out what their neighbor had eaten, they had to guess how many CHOs’ were in that meal. She uses cardboard cut outs of pictures of food which she displays on the side tables which is a great idea for teaching healthy meals and CHO counting.
She suggested using ice breakers including humor to make participants comfortable and suggested telling short stories but leaving the ending till the end of the class to keep them engaged.
I especially liked her suggestion of how to handle the participant who monopolizes the group by asking or answering all the questions during class. Her suggestion: give them a paper and pencil and ask them to write down the questions the group participants asks during the class so they can be discussed at the end.
For support group meetings, try calling them by different names such as “Gathering of Friends” or “Diabetes and You” or “Friendship Fridays” to make it sound more exciting.
Another technique she uses in her stress management class is to play the music from Jaws and then the music by Enya to elicit different emotions to show how we feel when we are stressed, and how to lower our stress levels by listening to relaxing music.
I was so entertained during this session and can’t wait to try some of these great teaching techniques in my next group class.
Thank you Mechelle Coble.