Teaching Experience
In recent years, exposure to lead has become a critical health issue. The lead was used for buildings in New York City. The exposure to lead has become a significant threat due to several reasons such as; growth retardation and poisoning, which leads to the damage of the nervous system. These conditions have become common in recent days. The population affected with the condition has immensely increased. In some instances, if people get excess exposure, they end up succumbing to the disclosure. Lead exposure is mostly a threat to children, especially those below the age of 10 (Committee on Environmental Health, 2005). It affects their health in several manners such as; brain damage, slowed development, hearing and speech problems, learning and behaviour problems, and so forth. If the situation is not prevented or cured, it may affect the child’s future. For instance, it will affect their school performance, affect their interaction with others and might eventually lead to depression. Due to this, there is a need to sensitize the community on the harmful effects of exposure to lead. Sensitization can be achieved by organizing teaching programs for the community. This paper is provides teaching experience to the community about lead exposure to health. The piece, therefore, unveils the teaching plan on the topic, evaluation of the teaching experience, responses from the city, personal teaching strengths and areas of improvement.
To start, the avenues for exposure are broadly categorized into two. The two are; occupational and environmental exposure. Environmental exposure is the one in which people get into contact with the lead that is present in the atmosphere or through the connection with objects or dust embedded with lead particles. On the other hand, occupational exposure is the one that affects people at the workplace, the community as well as children who get contact into building or paints. Children can be exposed to lead in several ways. First of all, children often put fingers, toys and other objects into their mouths as part of their normal development. As a result, the objects put them into contact with lead in the dust or paints. Besides, at homes, children get into contact with walls or other chips with lead paint. After touching the walls, they put their fingers in their mouth or directly swallow the chipped leaded paints. This phenomenon is typical for old building or those that were painted long ago. This is because old paints usually peel off and crack to form tiny particles of lead embedded into the soil. Other conventional means in which kids get exposed to lead include; drinking water contaminated with lead in the lead pipes, through imported cosmetics, imported toys, and so forth.
Conversely, the adults get exposed through; making home repairs, making pottery, remodelling a home, indoor firing range, and so on. On the other hand, lead affects our health because it produces metal toxicity. As individuals get exposed to lead, metal toxicity is created, which initiates harmful reactions with the body.
Moreover, individuals who have been affected by lead exposure portray several signs and symptoms. The symptoms include; intellectual disability, headache, infertility, constipation, abdominal pains, tingling of extremities, and headaches. Some effects of lead are permanent, while others are temporary. For instance, in extreme cases of exposure, anaemia, seizures, coma and death are likely to occur. Temporal effects include headaches, nervous system problems, and so forth.
Lead exposure is an issue that is not yet out of our hands. There are various ways in which the problem can be controlled and managed. To begin, if one lives in a house constructed before 1978, he or she should have the house inspected by a certified lead inspector (Salkever, 1995). The inspector will be able to check for the presence of lead around the home. Apart from the lead inspector, the homeowner can also call contact the local health department to provide guidelines on lead identification in a home. Secondly, parents and guardians ought to keep their children away from places that can increase their chances of exposure to lead. For instance, they should keep their children off from painted building which in which the paints have peeled.
Moreover, people need to use wet paper towels to wipe lead dust. An individual should, in this case, mop floors, windows or the play areas for children. Likewise, parents should help the children to clean their hands, and toys, especially before sleeping and eating. Any kind of cleaning should be done using clean water and soap. Similarly, one should use duct tape or contact paper to cover peeling or chipping paints (American Academy of Pediatrics Committee on Environmental Health. 2005). Lastly, workers should be conscientious when working on jobs that can expose them to lead. For instance, when renovating houses through painting, workers need to use protective gears while scrapping the paints. More importantly, pregnant mothers should always keep off from all works involving art, and so on.
After sensitizing the community on the harmful effects of lead through teaching, an evaluation of the teaching experience is vital. The assessment will help to identify any gaps that were evident during the presentation, then come up with the plan to improve. The performance on the above topic was my first attempt to teach the public on a societal problem. I assumed it would be a bad experience for me to deliver the long researched content. Accomplishing a two hours presentation was never a joke for the first time public speaker. However, my preparations were sufficient to enable me to deliver what I had prepared. I had done preparations with my colleagues before. As a result, I accumulated a lot of confidence and exhaustively expressed myself. Besides, my communication skills during the presentation were at the peak than ever before. I actively engaged the audience during the talk.
Moreover, my first rhetorical questions acted as a hook that attracted the attention of every audience. The question made everyone to become eager about what I was going to teach and how I will respond to the questions. Likewise, my ability to fix humour in my presentation made the audience stay very active. Most importantly, I made the audience to become part of the process by asking the questions.
The community had various reactions to my presentation. In the first place, most members of the community appraised the lessons and confessed that most of the knowledge was new to them. They had little experience of lead. They pointed out various areas that they had never heard before. They further showed their gratitude and requested for more programs in the future.
Moreover, other community members responded to the nature of the lesson and the speaker. Most of them appreciated me for my eloquence and stage management. Also, some enjoyed my illustration skills. They acknowledged that the examples I used to illustrate were on point. However, some people pointed out my areas of weakness and advised on what to do. For instance, a group of the audience approached and claimed that I consumed much time creating humour during the presentation. Others proposed new topics that I should research and teach them at the later dates. For that reason, I noted everything that they asked to prepare a report that I will present to my supervisor.
Besides, it is my goal to become an active speaker. As a result, I usually evaluate my past presentation and identify the gaps. Sometimes, I rely on the response from my peers or my audience. Based on the current teaching, I had several strengths and few weaknesses to work on. First, my strengths included; proper stage management, high communication skills, good use of questions, use of examples, use of charts, and so on. On the other hand, the weaknesses include; consuming much time to create humour, wasting much time to transition from one topic to the other, poor control of the audience, and so on.
In conclusion, there are various common problems affecting communities. However, most cities are less informed about the issues. As a result, there is a need to teach the villages on the common issues affecting them. In this context, lead exposure is one of the common health issues in the recent past. It has had various implications for people, especially children. Therefore, it is necessary to sensitize the community on numerous aspects of lead exposure to prevent its risks.
References
American Academy of Pediatrics Committee on Environmental Health. (2005). Lead exposure in children: prevention, detection, and management. Pediatrics, 116(4), 1036.
Committee on Environmental Health. (2005). Lead exposure in children: prevention, detection, and management. Pediatrics, 116(4), 1036-1046.
Salkever, D. S. (1995). Updated estimates of earnings benefits from reduced exposure of children to environmental lead. Environmental Research, 70(1), 1-6.