Dancing with the Divine John Friend Kick Off Workshop

Anusara, in Sanskrit, means “flowing with Grace.” This is the name given to master teacher, John Friend’s, style of yoga. I had the great opportunity of recently studying with John at his kick off workshop in San Francisco. It was the start of his 2011 global tour called Dancing with the Divine. Several hundred people congregated at the beautiful Jewish Community Center and delved into the practice and philosophy of Anusara Yoga.

John has an amazing gift for teaching. He has a way of offering deep philosophical ideas and distinct alignment principles in a way that is accessible to a wide variety of people and is very fun, playful, and humorous.

The main theme of the conference was that the practice of yoga is one of relationship. There are various relationships explored in yoga; the relationship one has with the physical body, the relationship one has with the people around them, such as family and friends, and the relationship ultimately with Divine spirit or Nature, depending on ones belief system. These relationships are a dance, a play within life and like dancing, can be fun and full of joy.

The overriding intention of the yoga practice as John teaches it, is to flow in a positive way with Nature. We choose to act in a way in the physical yoga practice and in the practice of life, in a way that is life affirming and looks for the good in all of what life has to offer. We commit to look for the divine beauty in all things, all situations, and all people and commit to totally serve that good.

During this workshop Johns spoke extensively on letting go of past grievances, not in a way that causes you to forget, but not letting that negative energy accumulate inside your body. Ultimately, it is you that is hurt by carrying those negative tensions. He reminded us that many people live their whole lives in this debilitating state of unforgiveness which often manifests into physical illness.

The highest intention of the practice is to align with the Divine. Each pose is both an offering of that divine energy and a celebration of it. In this connection, we as individuals can more fully radiate our light and love into the world to add more beauty and goodness to it. That is the ultimate purpose of the yoga practice.

EMS Symposium & Trade Show Lives up to Its Mission

Liz Owen, top row, 2nd from left, hangs out with Easterners at the EMS Symposium

EMS Director Mike Trujillo, Clinical Coordinator Ken Rogers and Paramedic Professor Liz owen attended the 16th Annual Educational Symposium and Trade Show Sept. 13-18 in Reno, Nevada. The National Association of EMS Educators (www.naemse.org) puts on the event. Their mission is to "Inspire Excellence in EMS Education and Lifelong Learning" and they did just that with this national conference.
Randy Mantooth was the keynote speaker. He portrayed Firefigher/Paramedic Johnny Gage from 1972-1979 on the popular "EMERGENCY" television series. The series helped advance the fire-based paramedic career field across the nation.
With so many sessions to choose from, it is no wonder the CMC team came back with great ideas to implement. Here are just af ew of the best practices learned at the Symposium.

Simulated Scenarios in the Lab--A How to Session with Dennis Edgerly:

• Do not give students more than 4 choices for different diagnosis.


• Use a pocket recorder for patient assessments.


• Re-run: Run call, critique call then re-run the same call. Gives students a chance to re-do. It can make them feel better and improve the grade.


• Completely write/script simulation scenarios with no wiggle room for instructor creativity.


• Do not include skill sstudents do not have.


• No "pretend" procedures or equipment.


• Make jump kit organization part of the grade.


• Add siren noises when going emergent.


• Shop moulage supplies after Halloween.

Continuing Education: The Biggest Challenge to Teaching with Twink Dalton:
"Twink Dalton's lecture was important because I realized that I've gotten too weighted down with the minutia of Paramedic. There are a lot of things that I did 20 years ago that still apply and actually help those students learn. She went back to some great teaching techniques that don't go out of fashion. It was a good class on how to make your students remember some very complicated information. I'm going to use the stories to explain Pathophysiology."--Liz Owen
Trading Post: "I think this is one of the most valuable sessions. I gathered a great deal of new material that I can put into the program. This material can be inserted into Powerpoints or uploaded as video for learning."
Made contact with Laerdal and their new rep will be coming for a visit.
Made contact with reps from publisher Jones and Bartlett and learned about the new textbook and its Learning Management System, Navigate. Thanks to this contact, Liz and Ken will be attending a webinar detailing the setup of the LMS.
Hybrid EMS Education: One Programs Journey to Success (Matthew Scott and Chris Corson from Virtua School of Paramedic Science, Camden County College, Blackwood, NJ): Colorado Mountain College's paramedic program is converting to hybrid format in January and this session underscored the importance of planning! Several other conference sessions contributed to Liz's journey to success.
Next year's event will take place Aug 6-11 in Orlando, Florida. Perhaps one or more of our faculty will give a session to benefit the many attendees hungry for new or better ideas!

-Peggy Curry, 9/30/11