Teaching students is a challenge.
Teaching unengaged students is impossible.
Sharie Cato and Sue Ellen Shealy both know those facts first-hand.
Sharie and Sue Ellen teach at Gilbert High School in Gilbert, South Carolina. Sharie teaches clinical study and medical terminology, and Sue Ellen handles the high school’s health care introductory courses.
Both of them use HealthCenter21, too. In fact, they’ve used HealthCenter21 so long that it’s become an integral part of their curricula.
“We’ve come to depend on HealthCenter21 because it checks students for whether or not they are learning. We’d now struggle without it.”
That dependency is not only a great compliment to the integrity of HealthCenter21 as a product — it’s also a testament to Sharie and Sue Ellen’s priorities as teachers.
They’re not teaching just to stand in front of a room and talk.
They’re teaching their students responsibility.
These are the three ways that Sharie and Sue Ellen both reinforce responsibility in their classrooms with HealthCenter21.
1. Self-Direction
Sharie and Sue Ellen work in a school district that emphasizes individual learning and self-reliance.
That’s a big reason why both educators have embraced HealthCenter21 in their classroom.
In a nutshell, it gives their students the ability to:
- Set their own pace
- Focus on their own work
- Continue their work with substitutes
With the guidance of Sharie and Sue Ellen, their students have achieved more by using a variety of learning resources.
Altogether, these resources engage, educate, and help students become the best they can be.
“The program does such a thorough job of going through stuff, the students use it as a self-directed course.”
This self-direction comes with a major benefit of accommodating individualized education plans. Even when students have specific needs in the classroom, HealthCenter21 lets them advance at a pace that works for them.
The fact that HealthCenter21 comes with text and verbal components is a big help as well.
That way, a student can understand everything that’s presented whether they’re a visual or auditory learner.
As a result, faster and slower learners can absorb the knowledge they need.
“This semester I actually have quite a few students who have IEPs. It allows them to go through things more slowly, to hear it and to read it, and that really helps a lot of them.”
This is a crucial detail since education itself is quickly becoming more personalized, individualized, and specialized.
With HealthCenter21, Sharie and Sue Ellen keep up with those trends and use them to empower their students.
That empowerment matters. It instills a sense of responsibility in students to pursue their own education.
So when they’re interested in the subject, they’ll progress and learn in ways that work best for them.
This is especially true during times Sharie and Sue Ellen can’t be in the classroom.
“It’s really helpful for days where we have to be in meetings or when I have to be out. We don’t get behind with a lot of the instruction because the kids are able to continue with what we’ve been working on in class.”
So while other classes may come to a grinding halt in the presence of a substitute teacher, Sharie and Sue Ellen rest assured that their students are continuing their classwork on their own.
The substitute can then act in a supporting role, allowing them to provide a quality educational experience to students.
This is especially true compared to substitutes who have to take over a classroom and teach traditionally.
With self-directed education, students only miss out on classroom instruction when Sharie or Sue Ellen are out.
Instead, students can go about their business as usual.
But self-directed learning is just the first major benefit that Sharie and Sue Ellen found in HealthCenter21.
2. Self-Review
Sharie and Sue Ellen quickly realized that HealthCenter21 was more than just an instructional resource.
It also worked as a review resource.
Since both teachers use HealthCare21 as a supplement to their teaching styles, the program becomes more of a reference point for students as they progress through the semester.
“I find sometimes I might cover things a little bit too quickly and they need more time to be able to go through it. They like the fact that they can go back through a lesson and go back through things again before a test.”
Just like self-directed learning, this review element is perfect for students who work at different paces from the rest of the class.
Specifically, HealthCenter21 shines brightest when used with individualized education plans.
These students can do the work on their own, learn directly from their teachers, and then go back and review anything that may have misremembered.
This process has become so common that Sharie and Sue Ellen even use it as a built-in part of their classes.
“I use HealthCenter21 as a supplement as a review to make sure students got the information before they take their major assessments.”
So once the classes have covered everything they need in terms of instruction, it’s time to review.
Of course, this review period is important to students ready to take their certification exams.
But it’s also a smart educational tool to use for students in general.
Whether they’re learning the foundations of health science or taking their first CMAA exam, HealthCenter21 helps students review so they can succeed in the long run.
Still, there’s one final benefit that Sharie and Sue Ellen discovered.
From an admin perspective, it’s one of the most important.
3. Standard Correlations
Correlations to state standards are crucial for online education.
In some cases, HealthCenter21 meets all of South Carolina’s standards for early health care education.
In others, HealthCenter21 meets 87% of South Carolina’s standards.
Both of these cases are current, and both of them play big roles in why Sharie and Sue Ellen keep using HealthCenter21.
“For the most part, it follows our standards. And I feel very comfortable with the fact that it’s following our standards that we have here in South Carolina.”
As a result, Sharie and Sue Ellen can rest easy knowing that the information their students learn directly translates to South Carolina’s health care requirements.
Naturally, these standards change from state to state.
But Sharie and Sue Ellen also use HealthCenter21 to prepare their students for major certifications.
Specifically, the CNA exam.
In fact, both teachers are so confident in HealthCenter21 that they use it verbatim when they prepare students.
“For our CNA program, we start off using the curriculum pretty much as it’s written.”
With near-perfect correlations and major exam preparation rolled into one product, Sharie and Sue Ellen use HealthCenter21 in a variety of crucial roles for their students.
Most importantly, it works.
Sharie and Sue Ellen have used HealthCenter21 for years, and they show no signs of stopping.
As a result, their students continue to learn through a combination of their teachers’ experience and self-paced, self-reviewed, and state-sanctioned classwork.
Results of HealthCenter21 and Responsibility
Sharie and Sue Ellen have seen the same results from using HealthCenter21 for such a long time.
Their first observation is that the program is an incredible supplement for their teaching. But it’s not a replacement for their experience.
“That’s the one thing with this program — you can’t use it just the program. You’ll burn the kids out. You have to integrate other activities to go along with it.”
Student burnout is all too common at every level of education. While HealthCenter21 is productive, it’s still a supplement to teacher instruction and other classroom activities.
By mixing it into an established classroom routine, Sharie and Sue Ellen have been able to utilize HealthCenter21 to its maximum potential in terms of student reception.
That reception has been exceptional, too.
HealthCenter21 isn’t just a staple of their classrooms now — it’s a key part of their plans for engagement.
“Just keeping the students engaged. That’s the hard thing in the classroom these days because they are in a totally different world than when we went to school.”
Sharie and Sue Ellen know the classroom of today is infinitely different from the classes of 30, 20, and even 10 years ago.
Namely, it’s full of personal distractions and difficulties, especially with the rise of smartphones and other handheld gadgets.
That’s where HealthCenter21 shines. While lectures, reading, and theory can quickly wear students thin, HealthCenter21 is an engaging activity that completely occupies students’ minds.
Once they get rolling, they may not even remember they have a cell phone in their pocket.
Prepare Your Students for the Real World
Sharie and Sue Ellen are just two teachers who used HealthCenter21 to prepare their students for careers in health care.
Now, you can equip your students for success just like Sharie and Sue Ellen!
Sign up for a free trial today!
