Knowledge of general anatomy will help a dental assistant excel in their job in many ways. Among other things, it will support dental assistants in educating their clients about oral health as well as give them confidence when working chair side with dentists and hygienists.

Anatomy is the study of body structures and how they connect. For some it might be one of the more difficult subjects to learn as a dental assistant. It requires memorization and might feel like learning another language because of all the Greek and Latin terminology. While learning general anatomy can feel like a daunting task, there are a few tips to make studying for your anatomy classes easier, and maybe even fun.

1. Write Things in Your Own Words

Are you having trouble remembering that ‘incisal’ refers to the cutting edge of the anterior teeth? Try rephrasing the information in your own words. It’s still important to highlight and underline definitions from textbooks and class materials. However, when you express something in your own words it provides a new way to access the knowledge. This strategy is based on the idea that your ability to explain something in your own words demonstrates understanding, which will serve you well on exams and in the long run.

2. Know Your Learning Style

When you do the dental assistant diploma program, you should pay attention to the learning stimuli that work best for you. For example, if you are a visual learner, focus on diagrams or look for videos that show images of the anatomy. If your style is kinetic, it will be important to draw diagrams and write out information yourself. For those who respond to kinaesthetic modes of learning, physical models or even toys you can hold and examine will help move knowledge into place. Finally, if you are an aural learner, saying the information aloud and making a recording to listen to later may be the most effective. It is likely that a combination of styles will work for you.

3. Review Your Mistakes

With all of these study tips, the hope is that you won’t make mistakes on your exams, but nobody is perfect. When you get your tests or assignments back, take a look at where you missed things and remember that mistakes are an opportunity to improve.

4. Make a Study Schedule

An important part of learning anatomy is to do it in a way that makes sure you retain the information. It’s true that you might be able to memorize a lot at once under pressure, but that kind of memorization is different from learning. In order to maintain your anatomy knowledge, you must schedule practice time to repeat and reinforce anatomy lessons. Each time you study, review what you did previously and things will move from your short term memory to your long term memory.

5. Form a Study Group with Your Career College Peers

One of the best things about going to a career college is learning alongside a group of people with similar goals. A study group will allow you to combine resources and will likely increase your confidence for tests. As is the case with other strategies, this may not work for everyone. However, there is an opportunity to share study tricks and tips, flashcards, and moral support. This kind of social learning may help keep you motivated for your own study time because you see others going through the same process.

Ready to begin dental assistant training?

Find out more from KLC today!

As a personal support worker (PSW), you may have to provide supportive care to senior clients. Your responsibilities towards them might include ensuring their safety, monitoring their health, assisting with personal hygiene, or helping them with their medication.

One challenge you may encounter when working with older clients is coming up with different ways to keep them moving. You will have to find strategies that engage and stimulate them since movement and exercise have many proven benefits for seniors. They can help reduce the risk of stroke and heart attack and decrease the probability of falls by improving bone density and strengthening muscles.

Here are some ways you can encourage senior clients to move during your career as a PSW!

Talk to Your Clients to Understand What Activities They May Enjoy

Learning more about who your clients are after your PSW training program can help you discover creative ways to keep them active. One important thing that you can do to encourage your clients to move is simply to talk to them. Discovering different things about a client’s past can allow you to develop activities that might be of interest to them instead of just repeating the same generic activities every day. For example, if a client has a special spot that they used to run to when they were younger, you can offer to walk with them to that spot.

Some of your clients might be former athletes, maybe some like to dance, and maybe some like to play croquet. What your clients used to do is very important in determining what they will want to do now in order to stay active.

After Completing Your PSW Training Program, Help Clients Get Outdoors

Going outside can work wonders for physical fitness and well-being. Taking a short walk helps your more sedentary clients, who may spend a fair amount of time indoors, get some much-needed fresh air. For people who have reduced mobility, assistance getting outdoors holds a great deal of value. With your help, clients can experience the benefits of sunshine, movement and friendly conversation.

Being outside is also mentally stimulating. There’s plenty to see and hear. For clients who find they have quite a predictable daily routine, the presence of plants and other people can be refreshing and energizing.

Using nature to lift a client’s mood and energy levels can also have an effect on how motivated they are to be active in the rest of their life. If you cheer a client up with a bit of sun, they are more likely to remain active in general. If your clients get into the habit of moving regularly, their circulation and stress levels will improve, further promoting health and wellness.

Link Mobility to Activities of Daily Living for Clients

A difficult reality for some clients is that their autonomy might be declining. By helping them understand the relationship between movement and independence, you can encourage them to move.

Independence can be fostered through strengthening a client’s ability to perform Activities of Daily Living (ADLs) within their abilities, which you’ll learn about in career college. For instance, if a client enjoys picking out their outfits and dressing themselves, you can link this ability to overall mobility and fitness. Encourage them to preserve the coordination, range of motion and strength required to perform tasks like pulling clothes out of a closet or buttoning up a shirt. When you remind clients of the practical application of fitness, exercise makes more sense to them as something they should prioritize.

Are you looking for a personal support worker college program?

Contact KLC College to learn more!

Accounting might be a field based around numbers and dollar signs, but people skills are just as important. Why? Because beyond simply crunching numbers, entering data, bookkeeping, and performing other basic clerical tasks, you’ll need to know how best to deal with the people you communicate with daily, both inside your office and out.

Not only will you need good oral communication skills as an accounting clerk, but you’ll need to know how best to harness them. In fact, good accounting clerk courses include human relations as part of the coursework. Here are some reasons why human relations skills are so important to have while you’re studying to become an accounting clerk.

You’ll Communicate Effectively with Consumers After Accounting Clerk Training

Aside from calculating and processing invoices, budgets, and other such financial documents, you may also be expected to communicate with consumers. More specifically, this could mean answering calls and responding to consumer inquiries, dealing with any issues that may require sending them refunds (and issuing those refunds as quickly as possible), or notifying them of unmade payments and delinquent bank accounts. For example, if you were to work as an accounting clerk at an educational institution, you may be responsible for refunding tuition fees, as well as reviewing student accounts to keep track of other fees and necessary payments. Your job may involve a lot of solitary bookkeeping, but you’ll be dealing with the public more often than some might think, and it’s important to maintain a solid relationship with consumers, vendors, and suppliers.

You Will Master Your Multitasking Skills in an Accounting Clerk Career

Not only will you communicate with consumers, but you’ll have several other tasks on your hands, involving correspondence with others from within the company. Your job might involve responding to inquiries specific to accounting, helping senior employees with certain tasks, communicating with the reconciliation department, and discussing invoices and expenses with employees in various areas of the company. Furthermore, you’ll be expected to interact with upper management, including direct communication with them to resolve any issues, scheduling conference calls, and getting approval from management on cheque and invoice requests. Since you’ll likely be working in an environment with tight and urgent deadlines, it’s important to choose an accounting clerk training program that will help you learn to manage both the tasks you do on your own as well as the ones where communication across the company is needed.

You’ll Be Able to Network More Efficiently

In many industries, the name of the game often isn’t what you know, but who you know. If you find yourself at a corporate event or in the presence of industry experts who may be able to help you get where you want to be professionally, the importance of a good first impression cannot be stressed enough. Strong communication skills are important in the accounting world, but even more so when you happen to meet people associated with companies who are searching for candidates in the industry. Furthermore, you’ll be able to exchange knowledge and stories with people who have more industry experience than you, which can prove to be invaluable. Studying accounting and bookkeeping at a career college can give you technical knowledge, and who you meet after that can put you over the top.

Are you interested in taking an accounting clerk course?

Contact KLC College to find out more!

Internships are often referred to as long interviews since they can sometimes lead to actual job offers. Even those that don’t turn into permanent jobs, however, still provide interns an excellent opportunity to gain on-the-job experience, which employers highly value.

Students of KLC College who successfully complete their accounting clerk and bookkeeping courses complete a 100-hour internship. Here’s how to stand out during your internship so that you can give your career a head start.

Do Your Research and Treat Your Internship Like a Real Job from Day One

While your internship may be unpaid, you should still be treating it like a real job. After all, your performance is likely being evaluated and it could have a real impact on your future career prospects. You can show your supervisors you’re serious about the role by researching the company beforehand, including how large it is, how long it has been around for, and what it does. With this research, you’ll come across as better prepared for the position and you’ll feel more comfortable in your new surroundings.

Another great way to show that you are taking your internship seriously is by dressing professionally. Even if the dress code says that jeans and a T-shirt are acceptable for interns, it rarely hurts to choose a more professional look. Dressing the part of a professional will help you feel more confident while also helping you stand out as somebody who could potentially be considered for a future hire.

Volunteer for Projects That Put Your Accounting Clerk Training to Use

Your internship is your chance to apply what you learned during your accounting clerk training to the real world. To get the most out of your internship, you should volunteer for opportunities that align with your training. For example, during your training you’ll learn how to use a number of software programs, like Simply Accounting and QuickBooks Pro. If you see a chance to put these skills to use in the office, then volunteer to do so. You’ll gain valuable experience and you’ll be showing your supervisors that you have job-ready skills.

However, when volunteering for new tasks, it’s important to only take on what you can handle. Showing your supervisors that you can follow guidelines and do a job well is better than trying to finish as many tasks as possible without regard to quality.

Build Up Your Network by Introducing Yourself to Everyone in the Office

When it comes to career advancement, who you know is often just as important as what you know. In fact, one LinkedIn survey found that 80 per cent of professionals consider networking to be important for success in their careers. Your internship following career college is a great opportunity to build a professional network.

Start by introducing yourself to everyone in the office. Getting to know your coworkers helps you establish connections that could potentially lead to opportunities. Many of your coworkers may go onto careers at other companies. If you make a memorable impression today, they could keep you in mind for openings at those companies in the future. Furthermore, by taking an interest in your coworkers, you’re proving that you’re part of a team.

Are you ready for a new career?

Contact KLC College today to learn more about our accounting clerk course.

Are you considering a career as an educational assistant? One important subject you’ll encounter during your training is learning theories. Simply put, a learning theory is a way of understanding how knowledge is acquired and retained, which makes it an extremely useful concept for educational assistants when helping students better comprehend new material.

If you pursue training to be an educational assistant, you will work under the supervision of the teacher to help students with their lessons. Since lessons are often built on the principles of at least one main learning theory, understanding the main tenets of a few important learning theories will be an asset in the classroom.

Read on for a look at the three main learning theories and how they can be utilized by educational assistants.

Educational Assistants Can Use Behaviourism to Help Students Learn Factual Material

Behaviourism focuses on knowledge and learning that is quantifiable and observable, such as facts and dates. Behaviourists favour a model of learning that focuses heavily on positive and negative reinforcement. For example, as an educational assistant, your responsibilities may include assisting with grading tests, which showcases behaviourism in action. A good grade on a test is a case of positive reinforcement as it encourages the student to remember the correct answers that led to that grade. A bad grade, on the other hand, is a type of negative reinforcement, which discourages a student from repeating an incorrect answer.

Behaviourism is a useful tool if you are helping students learn something for which there is always a correct answer, such as scientific facts, foreign language vocabulary and historic dates. However, it is less useful with teaching more abstract concepts, like comprehension and critical thinking.

Cognitive Constructivism is an Important Tool for Students in Educational Assistant Training

Cognitive constructivism (also called cognitivism) is a learning theory which argues that people construct knowledge based on what they already know, such as their previous learning, cultural background and their life experiences. Instead of viewing students as passive learners motivated only by positive or negative reinforcement, a cognitivist sees learning as a process of active discovery.

After educational assistant training, you can use cognitivism in a number of ways, including by helping students with learning difficulties. In such a case, a teacher, with your assistance as an educational assistant, may develop an individual program tailored to the abilities and knowledge of these students. You will then help put this program into action. For example, as an educational assistant, you may ask a student to repeat new material in his or her own words. Having a student put material into their own words is more effective than simply having them repeat material verbatim, since the latter doesn’t necessarily indicate that he or she has understood the lesson.
A lesson built on cognitivist principles is less concerned with drilling students with right answers and focuses more on creating an environment that allows them to discover new knowledge for themselves.

Social Constructivism Focuses on the Collaborative Nature of Education

Social constructivism shares the cognitivist belief that learners construct knowledge based on what they already know. However, this theory emphasizes that the way new knowledge is constructed is a collaborative process involving the community, society and fellow students.

Once you’ve completed your educational assistant classes, you may find social constructivism put into practical use in the classroom through group exercises. For example, the teacher may divide the class into groups and give each group an assignment, like a mathematical problem, to solve together. Your job as an educational assistant may be to help each group by observing the behaviour of students and ensuring they stay focused on the task at hand.

While an educational assistant ensures the groups stay on track, students ultimately work on the assignment with their peers. This sort of social constructivist teaching strategy combines elements of both behaviourism and cognitivism, since students are constructing new knowledge based on what they already know, and they are also being motivated through positive reinforcement from other group members.

Are you interested in pursuing a career as an educational assistant?

Contact KLC College to learn more about our career college.

Anyone looking forward to a career as a dental assistant can expect to spend a fair amount of time retrieving, updating and reviewing dental records. These are the records of a patient’s past appointments and procedures, any recorded issues and any other information relevant to their dental care, and taken together, they form a clear picture of that patient’s dental health and history.

If you’re just beginning dental assistant training or considering enrolling, and are curious to know more about these records, here’s a quick guide that will help you understand why they’re so important.

What’s Included in a Dental Record?

The contents of a dental record will vary between patients, who each have their own unique histories of treatment, but some information like age, date of birth, place of employment and contact information will always be included.
Other documents or information that can be found in a dental record include a complete record of appointments, past treatments and complaints, allergies and medications, clinical and radiographic findings, copies of test results, consent forms for invasive procedures and anaesthetizing, and any other information pertinent to a patient’s dental health, including relevant comments from dental assistants such as follow-up instructions given after a procedure.

Students in Dental Assistant Training Know the Importance of Continuity of Care

One of the most important functions of a dental record is to ensure continuity of care for patients. This means that when a patient moves or decides to change their dental care provider, their new dentist can rely on an accurate and up-to-date summary of their dental history and any ongoing issues when making their diagnoses.

This can be particularly important for issues like periodontal bone loss, which progress over time. A dentist examining a new patient with periodontal bone loss needs to know how quickly or gradually it’s progressing, whether it’s still progressing and how long it’s been happening, for example. These are all questions that can be answered by a complete and accurate dental record.

Even if a patient isn’t changing dental care providers, professionals who have completed their dental assistant training know that this record-keeping can be incredibly important in identifying, tracking and accurately diagnosing these types of long-term or progressive dental issues.

Dental Records Can Be Important for Protecting Dental Professionals as Well

Not only do dental records ensure that patients receive the best possible care, but by keeping a clear record of treatment, dental practices can also protect themselves against complaints from patients and possible malpractice litigation. Documentation of a patient’s missed appointments or failure to follow instructions for further care, for example, can be important in accurately tracing blame for a subsequent issue, and protecting a dentist from liability for an issue which was not actually a result of any treatment they provided.

Dental Practices Have Clear Responsibilities Regarding Dental Records

Dental practices are responsible for keeping their patients’ dental records accurate and up-to-date. Patients actually own the information contained in their own records, and dentists are obligated by law to provide these records to other dental practices, or to the patients themselves if they request it. This is true even if a patient owes outstanding fees.

What this means for students in a dental assistant diploma program is that these records represent a very important element of a dentist’s legal obligations to their patients, as well an essential tool in providing them the best possible care, and so their proper maintenance, updating and storage is essential to the functioning of any well-run dental practice.

Are you interested in going to career college to become a dental assistant?

Contact KLC College today for more information about our program.

Our personal and professional lives are all driven by communication. It is an important skill that we rely on to express ourselves, establish expectations, state problems and find solutions. Communication is one of the core activities involved in the accounting profession because it is the main way to share information clearly and concisely.

There is, however, more to communication than you may think. From verbal to written communication, and active listening to objectivity, communicating effectively involves many different components. If you are a good communicator with an interest in accounting, read on to find out why your skills make you a perfect fit for accounting courses.

1. Accounting Professionals Engage with Active Listening

Accounting clerks must use their active listening skills to make sure they fully understand whomever they are communicating with, whether it is their boss, another colleague or a client.

Active listening involves grounding yourself in the present moment and hearing what the other person is saying in a meaningful, attentive manner. Professionals with accounting clerk training understand that there will be times when they need to go over information with co-workers or managers to ensure that operations are running smoothly. In order to do that, they must use active listening to respond with appropriate questions, rephrasing to make sure they’ve heard something correctly, and keep everyone on the same page.

2. Verbal Communication Can Enrich Your Accounting Clerk Training

One of the most common barriers to communication is often, simple misunderstanding. Verbal communication skills make your points or concerns clear to all parties involved.

Whether you’re explaining a policy to a client or updating a colleague on a situation at the office, verbal communication skills are a primary means of keeping yourself and others informed, and decrease the chances of a misunderstanding. Accounting clerks may often have to simplify complicated accounting terms to someone who may be less familiar with the topic, and know to keep their explanations brief, concise and polite.

3. Writing Communication is a Key Part of Success after Career College

Communicating in writing is sometimes overlooked, however, written communication is still a necessary skill during career college and beyond.

Written documents such statements or inventory reports must be prepared in a specific way in order to properly pass on the information they contain. Accounting clerks may find themselves having to answer clients’ emails or provide a brief synopsis of a document, and in these areas your ability to communicate through your writing is crucial because a misunderstanding can easily come up if you don’t pay attention to the tone and content of your writing.

4. Accounting Clerk Professionals Know to Keep Perspective

Perspective can be a subtler aspect of communication because it doesn’t necessarily share your thoughts, but instead influences the way you receive information and input from others.

Communication is more than expressing yourself, however. It also involves being able to appropriately give and receive feedback, which allows you to focus on skills you need to grow as a professional. If someone has a different perception than you of a problem or concept, you can use your perspective skills to better understand their position and work together to find a solution.

Are you ready to put your communication skills to good use?

Contact KLC College for more information about beginning an accounting clerk course.

It’s not unusual for children to occasionally engage in aggressive behaviour. As they go through different stages of development and face new and unfamiliar challenges, they sometimes lack the skills to articulate their feelings to others, and so they resort to lashing out physically. Taken alone, this isn’t necessarily a source for concern. It’s often just part of growing up, as children learn how to control their impulses and regulate their emotions in a healthy way.

In some children, however, the problem may not be one or two isolated incidents of aggression, but a continuing pattern of behaviour. In these cases, more sustained attention and care will be required. Aggression in children is usually a sign of underlying issues which need to be addressed, so it’s not enough to focus on the external behaviour. The cause of the aggression needs to be addressed as well.

For child and youth workers, it may not always be easy to figure out the underlying causes of aggression. Children often lack the vocabulary or the means of expressing themselves clearly enough to give a strong indication of any one cause. Their outbursts are often as mysterious to themselves as they are to those around them.

The first step for anyone planning to become a child and youth worker is to be familiar with the possible causes. Here are three common ones that you should know.

1. Mood Disorders in Children Can Potentially Lead to Aggression

One potential cause of aggression to consider is the presence of a mood disorder. Children who suffer from bipolar disorder, for example, can experience dramatic shifts in their mood, and unlike bipolar adults who may experience the manic stages of the disorder as elation or euphoria, bipolar children are much more likely to have manic episodes marked by anger and rage. If it’s suspected that a child suffers from bipolar disorder, they should immediately be referred to a child psychiatrist or a childrens mental health expert.

2. Frustration or Impulsivity Can Sometimes Be Mistaken for Aggression

In other cases, children might be suffering from conditions which cause them frustration, provoking aggressive outbursts as they struggle to verbalize or work through the difficulties they’re experiencing. This can sometimes happen with children with learning disabilities, who struggle with their schoolwork and other tasks. It can also happen with children affected by autism, who struggle to communicate. Students in child and youth care worker training at KLC College will learn more about this subject in the autism spectrum disorder workshop.

Impulsivity in children can also sometimes be misinterpreted as aggression. Children may not be intentionally inflicting harm, but simply acting without considering the consequences, as might be the case when a child suffers from attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD).

 

 

3. Be Mindful of Children’s Home Situations When You Become a Child and Youth Worker

Underlying mental or psychological conditions aren’t the only potential causes of aggression in children, though. It can also sometimes be a result of stress, which can come from any number of external factors, including parental unemployment or health issues, the breakup of a marriage, poverty and deprivation, or fractured and combative home situations. In these cases, it’s essential for families and the people who support them to manage these external stressors in order to stem the root cause of a child’s aggression, and give them the support and safety they need to develop healthy coping mechanisms.

 

Are you interested in attending a career college to become a child and youth worker?

Contact KLC College today for more information about our programs.