Steven Velásquez - Granting "Sirenity"

by Steven P. Velasquez July 25, 2011 An instructor should maintain control of their class at all times!  Photo by S. Velasquez So read the pages of many instructor's texts.  They offer an instructor ways to identify when a student is being disruptive (jokes, war-stories, generalized digression and argument), when the others are being annoyed/cheated by it, and ways to constructively and politely re-direct a student's focus/attention to the lesson at hand.  The texts even explain the utter importance of classroom control with how it affects time and budget management (i.e.  In a class of 20 students, if 20% of the class is disruptive for only 15 minutes each, you've either tacked an hour onto the tail end of the day or you have to cut valuable information out of the program to stay on time/budget and accommodate the disruption).  The long and short of it being -- an instructor should maintain control of their class at all times! An instruct...

By Steven P. Velasquez July 17 2011 A paramedic unit is dispatched to an address where a volunteer ambulance is on scene with a person who is allegedly showing signs and symptoms of a stroke. On arrival, they approach a dark, remote driveway that has an ambulance and a police car in it. There are dozens of parked cars along the roadway and lots of ambient music and noise indicating there may be a party going on. They're greeted by a woman in civilian clothes who is hastily managing the stretcher. The paramedics gather their equipment and as they head up the driveway ask; "What do you guys have?" Breathlessly, as she wrestles the stretcher out of the ambulance, she replies; "42 year-old male, was doing the chicken dance when he suddenly passed out. Could be a stroke." The medics contained their laughter, stared at the ground and continued in thinking maybe she's just a helpful civilian since she's in what looked like a party outfit. As they approached...