In slate.com's podcast on working, David Plotz interviews flight paramedic Jeff Ennis. Jeff is part of a three member team also including a pilot and a nurse. He works interesting shifts, 24 hours on then 24 off, then 24 on again followed by 5 days off. He says a lot of prep work goes into all of his shifts, both personally and professionally. Personally he prepares meals and gets a lot of sleep so he will be able to function fully during his time on the job, Professionally the crew checks everything about the aircraft before each shift. It is a very high stress job, but he seems to perform it well. He said that after receiving a call it takes the crew about eight minutes to get in the air. He mostly deals with very sick and very injured people. One patient he told about was suffering from cardiac arrest and would continually lose his pulse randomly throughout his trip to the cardiac specialists. Regardless of this, the crew was still able to get the patient stable and in the air in only 18 minutes.
This definitely seems like a job that someone would have to love in order to do it. The shifts are long and very high stress. I don't believe that I could do this job mostly because I couldn't be on call for 24 hours. Also it would be tough work to deal with only the most seriously injured and ill patients.
Questions:
Are there any limits on what he can do during his time off?
Can he sleep at all during his shifts?
How does he feel about the patients he can't save?
Friday, January 30, 2015
Thursday, January 22, 2015
Work as an Educator
This is a reaction to the podcast "How Does a Principal Work?" as well as the readings "Rose Hoffman, Public School Teacher" and "Pat Zimmerman, Alternative School Teacher" from the book "Working" by Studs Terkel. These three passages all describe the jobs of different people working as educators at different levels.
In the podcast on slate.com "How Does a Principal Work" David Plotz interviews middle school principal Andrew Rubin, who runs a charter school for low income students in Texas. He takes a lot of pride in his job and identifies himself as an educator completely. He said that even when the day is over, he works from 7am-6:30pm, he goes home and returns parents phone calls and grades papers. It is evident that his life revolves around his job but he does not seem to mind that.
In the chapter "Rose Hoffman, Public School Teacher", Terkel writes from the perspective of a fourth grade teacher named Rose. Rose has been teaching for 33 years and has been in her current school for 20. She complains of how the neighborhood has changed since she started working there. Originally most of the students were Polish and she thought they were polite and good students. Now the school is mostly Puerto Rican and she believes them to be lazy and rude. She says about the parents: "They watch their kids eat free breakfasts and lunches. There isn't any shame, there isn't any pride." (p.485). She also dislikes how the Spanish speaking students speak Spanish in school. "As long as they're in this country, English should be the first language" (p.484) Throughout the passage it is clear that she favors the white, English speaking students. This seems unfair and could be a big problem if it effects how she educates them.
"Pat Zimmerman, Alternative School Teacher" is about how Pat runs an alternative school for troubled children outside of Chicago. He also dedicates a huge amount of time to work even working weekends. He says "The people we work for- The National Institute for Mental Health- once wanted us to do an honest time sheet. After they saw our honest time sheet they said 'Just please put eight hours a day on the time sheet'" (p.491) However, he seems to enjoy working these long hours. "I'd rather die for my work life than for my personal life" he writes (p.491). Pat's dedication to teaching is amazing, Considering he has almost no connection to the kids outside of teaching.
Questions:
Why do all of these teachers give their free time to help kids they really don't know?
What is with Ruth's hostility towards immigrants?
In the podcast on slate.com "How Does a Principal Work" David Plotz interviews middle school principal Andrew Rubin, who runs a charter school for low income students in Texas. He takes a lot of pride in his job and identifies himself as an educator completely. He said that even when the day is over, he works from 7am-6:30pm, he goes home and returns parents phone calls and grades papers. It is evident that his life revolves around his job but he does not seem to mind that.
In the chapter "Rose Hoffman, Public School Teacher", Terkel writes from the perspective of a fourth grade teacher named Rose. Rose has been teaching for 33 years and has been in her current school for 20. She complains of how the neighborhood has changed since she started working there. Originally most of the students were Polish and she thought they were polite and good students. Now the school is mostly Puerto Rican and she believes them to be lazy and rude. She says about the parents: "They watch their kids eat free breakfasts and lunches. There isn't any shame, there isn't any pride." (p.485). She also dislikes how the Spanish speaking students speak Spanish in school. "As long as they're in this country, English should be the first language" (p.484) Throughout the passage it is clear that she favors the white, English speaking students. This seems unfair and could be a big problem if it effects how she educates them.
"Pat Zimmerman, Alternative School Teacher" is about how Pat runs an alternative school for troubled children outside of Chicago. He also dedicates a huge amount of time to work even working weekends. He says "The people we work for- The National Institute for Mental Health- once wanted us to do an honest time sheet. After they saw our honest time sheet they said 'Just please put eight hours a day on the time sheet'" (p.491) However, he seems to enjoy working these long hours. "I'd rather die for my work life than for my personal life" he writes (p.491). Pat's dedication to teaching is amazing, Considering he has almost no connection to the kids outside of teaching.
Questions:
Why do all of these teachers give their free time to help kids they really don't know?
What is with Ruth's hostility towards immigrants?
Thursday, January 15, 2015
This is a reaction to the podcast "Working" by David Plotz, the episode "How does a farmer work?" with guest fruit grower Eddie Rankin. He is a fruit grower in Pennsylvania who sells his fruit at farmers markets. His primary fruit for growing is apples. He really enjoys growing fruit and began his career because of his fascination with apple growing. He is extremely fascinated with different types of plants and really has a passion for fruit growing which makes his job fun.
The average day for Eddie starts with checking his email, figuring out the weather forecasts and which pests he will need to deal with. He then makes his commute to work, about 10 miles from his home. Insects are a big problem for Eddie, as if he doesn't deal with them correctly then he can lose his harvest. He also keeps traps in the trees to additionally take care of insects. Depending on the day he might also pick fruit. Despite being 65 years old he still does a lot of physical work on the farm.
The unpredictability of work on the farm makes it difficult. Depending on the weather plants might not grow right or might not grow at all which can cost tons of money. Despite some large successes that make farming worthwhile, he still sometimes struggles to get by.
The average day for Eddie starts with checking his email, figuring out the weather forecasts and which pests he will need to deal with. He then makes his commute to work, about 10 miles from his home. Insects are a big problem for Eddie, as if he doesn't deal with them correctly then he can lose his harvest. He also keeps traps in the trees to additionally take care of insects. Depending on the day he might also pick fruit. Despite being 65 years old he still does a lot of physical work on the farm.
The unpredictability of work on the farm makes it difficult. Depending on the weather plants might not grow right or might not grow at all which can cost tons of money. Despite some large successes that make farming worthwhile, he still sometimes struggles to get by.
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