Four week progress

We have been in PVT for about four weeks now. I think that I am doing rather well. I have done pretty good on the two medical terminology tests and listen to what the class talks about to take in as much information as I can. I wear the required uniform, and I love it. I even like to wear the scrub tops outside of class, because they are so comfortable. I get along with all of my classmates. They are all so fun and make the class enjoyable.

To excel in this class I am taking notes, listening intently, and studying when I need to. The movies we watch also help, because they give us visual information on what we will be learning, and what we will need to know. When we have medical terms to know I always create flash cards to help me prepare.I enjoy learning "a new language", and flash cards help me a lot. I even go home and ask my family if they know what some of the terms mean.

There are a couple of things that I am struggling at. I have never had birds, rats, or guinea pigs before. I had two hamsters once, but I was really little. I have always been around large animals, and working with smaller ones is different for me. I do love cats though, and I am very familiar with them. I don't know what to do with the rodents and birds. Birds and rodents scare me sometimes and I would like to overcome those fears. Being in this class will hopefully help me with that. I would like to, and need to work on handling birds and rodents, cleaning their cages, and learning their habits on how they live their lives. I figure that the more I work with them, the less I will be afraid.

I have not had the chance to help others on succeeding yet. I don't think that I really thought about it honestly, until today. I am more of a large animal type of person. I have worked with dogs, horses, pigs, cows, and all the other farms animals. I am very comfortable with them, and when we start to work more with the dogs and larger animals I can help, like someone hopefully will help me with the small animals. Someone has helped me to succeed though. I was gone for two days and when I got back I was a little lost on what we were doing. I was told that we had received new medical terms. I was sitting next to Irene at the time and she showed me her list of medical terms and let me copy them down and said that we needed to make flash cards. I was so glad that she let me see her words, because we were supposed to have a test on them within the next couple days. It turned out to be on Monday.

Kitten Observation

Having kittens in class was pretty fun. We got to watch them grow and develop different personalities. There were three kittens in class. Sissy, Sparky and Leo. They were all very different from each other. Sissy is a gray and white female, almost Siamese looking. Sparky is almost all white, except for his little ringed tale. It looked like a lemurs tale with the orange rings on it. The last kitten was Leo who was an orange tabby. The first week or so the kittens mostly were in the students arms. When you went to pick one up they would almost scream at you. When they were on the ground they mainly stayed by their cage and in the front of the room for about the first week. They would wander from time to time back around the computers and under the front rows of the tables. As the weeks went by they became way more adventurous, and you could really tell how their personalities were different from each other.

Sissy made it obvious that she was the dominant one. She would run and pounce on Sparky and Leo. She was always growling and her tale was straight up with her back arched. It was really cute. Along with being feisty, Sissy was also very loving. She would be in your lap just purring away and rubbing up against your face. The last couple days, she was climbing to the top of the cage to sleep on the Kleenex boxes.

Sparky was a little bit more laid back than Sissy. He was the one who would go exploring around the room and find a comfortable spot to sleep. Then he would just stay there. There was one time at the end of class when we were looking for him and we could not find him anywhere. Well, someone had finally looked behind the shredded paper and sure enough, he was there asleep. He also liked to climb things. He would climb up your leg and then just lay in your lap and fall asleep. He climbed the cage as well, but Sissy seemed to outsmart them when Sparky and Leo were in the cage and Sissy was on top.

Now Leo was definitely the fattest of the three. He had a big bulging belly. He was not as loving as Sissy and Sparky though. He was more of the "just let me explore" type of kitten. He didn't mind being held, but I think he preferred to be on the ground. He seemed to always be on the bottom when it came to wrestling. He hardly ever slept. The other two would be in the cage sleeping, but not Leo. He was always out walking around.

All of the kittens liked to be in around every ones' feet. You would move your feet and by accident, kick a kitten. They also liked to climb, and chew. Towards the end of their stay, they figured out that climbing their cage gave them a totally different view. They also managed to chew on the Smart Board plug ins, so we didn't have sound for a little while. The things that didn't change with the kittens was their little spurts of energy. They would run around and play hard and then all of a sudden be in the cage asleep. I loved to watch them start to run, but not have the traction. Another thing that didn't change was that they loved to be in the front of the room by the computer. That was just their main spot for playing. Watching the kittens grow was a fun experience and I hope we get to do it again.