Michele Dominic teaches Health Medical Nurse Assisting to 10th-12th graders at Carbon Career & Technical Institute in Pennsylvania.
As part of her duties, she helps students prepare for the National Occupational Competency Testing Institute (NOCTI) exam for Nursing Assisting.
Like many health science instructors, Michele faced a number of challenges in her classroom. Specifically, she needed a resource to help her:
- Manage her classroom better
- Provide differentiated instruction
- Prepare students for certification
That’s what led her to find HealthCenter21.
Now, Michele has streamlined her classroom, incorporated multiple learning strategies into her lessons, and helped her students excel at the Nursing Assisting certification exam!
Here’s how Michele uses HealthCenter21 to accomplish all of this.
1. No More Classroom Management Problems
Michele teaches high school, which means her students can be absent a lot.
It’s not always illness or extra curriculars that keep them from class either — sometimes it’s schoolwork.
“During Keystone testing students are in and out all day long,” Michele says.
Michele ensures absent students catch up with HealthCenter21. Students can access it and their classwork from any device with an Internet connection.
On the flip side, Michele sometimes can’t be in the classroom either.
Most notably, she’s a HOSA advisor. When there are competitions and conferences, Michele is on the road with her HOSA students.
Rather than having a wasted day of watching a movie while the substitute hands out worksheets, Michele can give students work in HealthCenter21.
“I can assign them HealthCenter21. So when I’m away, I can check in and make sure the students are on task. If they aren’t, I can call in and find out what’s going on.”
The flexibility of HealthCenter21 for student and teacher absences has made classroom management much easier for Michele.
2. Differentiated Instruction Made Easy
Teaching three different grade levels of students comes with a unique challenge — the knowledge and ability of Michele’s students is extraordinarily diverse.
To meet the needs of her diverse learners, Michele differentiates her instruction with HealthCenter21, among other classroom resources.
Assessments are the biggest area where Michele uses HealthCenter21 to add differentiation.
“For some kids, it takes a little longer to learn things,” Michele says. “I use this a modification for those that struggle with testing.”
Michele uses the customizable settings in HealthCenter21 to allow students to take quizzes multiple times.
This encourages students to review difficult material, increasing their understanding and ultimately helping them in class.
“It really improves their grades,” Michele says. “It also helps prepare them for standardized testing.”
Michele incorporates blended learning in her classroom as a way to meet the different learning styles of her students as well.
HealthCenter21 is a perfect resource for a blended learning classroom, which Michele quickly realized.
In her classes, students read a textbook, follow her lecture, and then do work within HealthCenter21.
This means students see the information three times in different ways -- a perfect blended scenario!
3. NOCTI Certification Success
While it may seem unrelated, effectively managing her classroom and differentiating her teaching strategies has helped Michele’s students prepare for the NOCTI Nursing Assisting exam.
Now that she doesn’t have to worry about those challenges, Michele can focus on ensuring her students are ready for the NOCTI certification.
She uses HealthCenter21 to create pre-tests as practice for her students before they take the exam. That lets her students identify where they had low scores and then review the specific material necessary.
Since introducing HealthCenter21 to her classroom, the results have been clear when it comes to the Nursing Assisting certification.
“Since I’ve been using HealthCenter21, I have 100% advanced scores on the NOCTI exam,” Michele says. “All students were advanced this year, and all have passed the Nurse Aide competency exam.”
Help Your Health Science Students Succeed Today
Do you struggle with classroom management or differentiation?
Are you looking for resources to help prepare your students for NOCTI health science certifications?
Sign up for a trial of HealthCenter21 to help your students succeed today!
