Image of the Day, January 20: Q&A

We have an amazing culture of teaching at Emory. The best part, though, is that not only do the faculty get really into it, we also pour an incredible amount of time and energy into building the most junior of our learners into teachers, too.

This photo was snapped during our resident conference yesterday. This particular session is a unique monthly lecture series where resident physicians are coached by faculty members to deliver  high level, evidence-based lectures--but here's the kicker: They can only be 8 minutes long. We started doing this last year and it was an immediate hit. I think part of it has to do with young people just enjoying the inspiration of being taught by their peers. But also there's something to be said about somebody only talking for 8 minutes and that's it.

Of course, I had to come up with a witty title for the conference. We call it "BST Mode" (pronounced BEAST MODE)--short for "Bite-sized Teaching." My diabolical plot--of which BST Mode is a part--is to get us to a point where nobody ever lectures to anyone for more than 20 minutes. Okay, thirty minutes tops.

*insert wicked laughter*

The four residents were answering questions from the audience when I took this snap. It got me thinking about how critical of a skill the question and answer period is after a lecture. I've found that it can really make or break someone's merit at the end of a great talk. This fab four did great with theirs. That said, the nerdy teacher in me sees this as a great opportunity for some future focused teaching-learning-growing exercises. I like to think of it as "The Art of I Don't Know--But Here's What I Do Know."

Ha.

I love my job. And this is one of the main reasons that, even if I had won the Powerball, I'd be right here at Grady. (That is, after being dropped off by my personal Uber driver.)

Yeah.

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Happy Humpday.