School Days

This is my last semester of dental hygiene school, I know, I know I've said it before, and believe me I will say it again! What can I say? This is a very important milestone in my life and I am enjoying every minute of it. Now, that being said...this isn't the easiest of semesters by any stretch of the imagination. All of our course work is going to be done by mid-March. This is done so that when we send in our application to take the State Board exam they know that we will be passing all our courses. There aren't many reading assignments this semester, our main focus is projects!
Projects to be done:
1. A report of the fluoride content in the city of Anaheim
2. A table clinic--this is a group presentation showing either clinical studies or research on a certain subject. It involves presenting the information formally with a speech. My group is doing a research project on diabetes in the dental office and the proper protocol for treating such a patient.
3. A group project focusing on a target group of the community. A group of us students are to survey a group in need (we are doing the school's disability center) and prepare a lesson plan, then implement some kind of orally beneficial plan in this group.
4. We have to write a report on a patient that we saw in the clinic this last semester which includes photographs, nutritional counseling, and an oral presentation with slides.
5. A report on a specialty in the dental field. Mine is in oral and maxillofacial surgery. I will be observing an office and also writing a very detailed report based on a topic observed in the oral surgery office that is related to my job in hygiene.
6. Another observation of a dental hygienist. This is so we can see how offices work, and it gives us a chance to scope out potential employers.
7. We have to write a series of National Board type questions based on California Law for dental hygiene to help us study for the National Boards
And last, (for now)
8. We have to go out to an elementary school and present a lesson plan that we created for a specific age group. The grade that I will be "teaching" is 4th grade. My plan is to teach the children about eating healthy foods and flossing their teeth as two important ways to keep their teeth healthy. This has actually been a very fun project to work on because I got to make visual aids! I will put a few pictures of what I came up with.

The first one is a picture of a large model of teeth that I made out of styrofoam. I will be using this large model to show the children how to floss correctly. The next picture is a game board I made. When the children first see it the mouth will be missing it's teeth. I will have a volunteer come up and read a question on the back of the tooth. Once they answer the question correctly they can put the tooth in the mouth. The idea is that in order to keep our teeth healthy we need to do certain things, and I will be quizzing them on the information I give in my presentation. I am pretty proud of my game board. I made the whole thing and it took me two days to makes, which is why I feel obligated to put pictures of it on my blog.

So now that I have completely bored you all (and probably scared you away), I will just show you the pictures and end this endless rant.