Menu Close

2nd Year of PT School: Teaching Assistant Duties, Graduation, and Interesting Classes

It feels like just yesterday I was meeting all my classmates for the first time. Our first year flew by so quickly, and I can’t believe that I’m a 2nd year already.


My Duties as a Teaching Assistant

I was chosen to be a Teaching Assistant for the new first year students! There are 4 TA’s total, and we’re all 2nd year students. I feel so proud to be able to chosen, and I’m excited to help out the new students.

All the TA’s were able to go kayaking again! Kayaking was part of our orientation last year, and it was such a fun bonding experience, so I was thrilled to do it again.

The Class of 2019 has 34 students, 24 ladies and 10 men. They weren’t nearly as competitive as my class when we played games on our kayaks.

We’ve been in class for 3 weeks now, and dissections finally began this week. It was such a different experience to be in lab and not having to actually dissect. I was able to walk around the room to all the different tables, and gave tips and advice the entire time.

We also started our weekly review sessions, where we put together a Powerpoint to test the 1st years on some more challenging Anatomy topics. I had to miss most of the review session, but I heard that it went pretty well!


PT School Interviews

The PT department also started conducting interviews this Thursday and Friday, so we were able to give tours of the classrooms to those who were interviewing. I had given a couple tours during Winter of 1st year when the 2nd and 3rd years were unable to give tours. It was much easier to give tours now that we’ve used more classrooms, and I had a better idea of what the 2nd and 3rd years are like.

I gave one tour to 6 people who interviewed, and it was challenging to keep the tour under 30 minutes because I had so many questions to answer. Two of them also recognized me from my blog, so that was really cool too!


PT School Graduation

Every PT student attended graduation for the Class of 2016. It was so weird to actually recognize some names that were called, and I definitely had to hold back some tears. It’s so exciting to think that we’ll be graduating before we know it, but it also made me sad to think that I won’t be seeing my classmates every day once graduation happens.


My 2nd Year Classes

As for my classes, they’re going really well! Our Fall semester of 2nd year is supposed to be the easiest semester. However, I don’t have as much free time as my classmates because I have extra TA duties.

Our exams don’t start until October, so I have a few weeks until the studying really begins. We have a lot of hands on classes, so a lot of our studying so far has just been practicing our hands-on skills. Soft Tissue Techniques is already everybody’s favorite class because you get a long massage while your partner practices on you. It’s hard to not fall asleep during that class, just because massages are so relaxing.

We had a shoulder competency this Friday, so we were tested on our shoulder special tests and mobilizations of the sternoclavicular, acromioclavicular, and glenohumeral joints. We practiced using Maitland and Kaltenborn. I always learn so much during skill checks, and I was much less nervous about this competency after our first practical exams this summer.

Second year is off to a great start so far!


Did your PT school do anything fun during orientation? Share your experience below!

Thanks for leaving a comment!

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *