Seeing Students Grow

I took my CERT Basic training 15 years ago. A lot has changed in the Program since then. So, I took one of the recent Cadre Training classes. This provided a lot of information on how the CERT Basic class is done today. However, the best part was helping with Class 199 at the Sully Community Center.

I learned how much work goes into preparing, planning, and presenting the class. Being there for each of the classes through the final helped to put the pieces together so far as what is being taught and how to teach it. Sometimes, what you think you are communicating isn’t what is being heard. This taught me to look, and listen, for feedback from the students. If one person doesn’t understand, then maybe I need to try something different.

Helping with the class trained, or retrained, me on my CERT skills. If you don’t practice the skills they will be forgotten. I learned from both the trainers and the students.

Maybe the most satisfying part of helping with the class was seeing the students grow and bond with each other. We all learned that working together we can all grow in our skills and support each other and the mission.