Jessica Atkinson, MEd, BSDH, RDH., Melia Lewis, MEd, BSDH, RDH., and Shelley Brown, MEd, BSDH, RDH., of ‘Hygiene Edge’ take over and host the podcast this week. Together, they discuss how they get ready for summer as dental hygiene educators. Offering valuable experience, insights, and advice along the way.
In this episode, Jessica discusses her summer plans consisting of Continuing Education (CE) courses and the importance of these courses to improve as educators, even during the summer break. The panel explores the power of networking in improving teaching tactics and gaining knowledge in the dental space, and Melia goes on to highlight the world of online teaching. They round off with an admonition to dental students to make good use of their summer to hone their skills and to dental hygiene educators to prep, network, learn and grow, and, of course rest.
EPISODE HIGHLIGHTS:
Interview starts: 2:37
- What dental hygiene educators do to get ready for this summer.
- Jessica talks about how she plans her summer and why she takes on Continuing Education (CE) courses during the summer.
- Why Melia loves attending dental conferences in summer and how it helps her as a hygienist and an educator.
- The need for networking as educators.
- Jessica talks about platforms that offer Continuing Education courses— Vicki Pizani’s Educators Platform and Dr. Joy’s Jell-Ed platform.
- Keeping your skills fresh with CE courses.
- Finding the balance between working and improving your courses during the summer.
- How networking exposes you to new aspects and techniques of teaching.
- Melia discusses the struggles of online teaching.
- Making use of summer to fill your cup with new education, networking, teaching improvements, and knowledge in the dental space.
- Melia speaks about the Facebook page she created for educators to connect and share their knowledge.
- Why dental students should hone their skills in summertime and find patients to alleviate the impending stress of dental hygiene school.
- Recharging in summertime in your personal way to alleviate stress.
QUOTES:
“Continuing Education is a necessary part of not only being an educator but being a professional.”
“It’s really exciting to learn about new products. It’s really exciting to learn the latest and greatest science, about the products that our students and ourselves can be using in practice.”
“The lifeblood of our profession— patient care.”
“This is where you can be more creative.”
“Education’s kind of like laundry or the dishes that are never done, and there’s more you can do.”
“You will always find something more that is very important to add into your course to make it more beneficial towards your students and to make better hygienists.”
“We should be talking as educators and connecting and learning and growing in a different way. Let’s talk and work together and collaborate.”
“If every school gets better, that means we’re going to have better hygienists in the field, patients are going to have better care, our profession is going to be better, respected, more well established.”
LINKS:
A Tale of Two Hygienists Podcast
A Tale of Two Hygienists homepage
