Never certain

After falling asleep during a wonderful tropical thunderstorm that finally broke the sweltering heat, I awoke this morning to start the first round of teaching for the Rehab Technicians at Hospital Albert Schweitzer. Our planned 8:00 AM start was delayed by the understandable tendency to move a little more slowly to get to work on a Saturday, and then computer set up problems which resolved just at the moment I was ready to go ahead without the projector. Shortly before 9:00 AM we were finally off and running. I presented a unit on stroke and much of the material was not new to the audience. They were engaged and listening, but asking many questions that slowed the pace. I think they are in a middle stage of learning. They clearly have knowledge that they have gained from a variety of sources. They are struggling, though, to fit all the pieces together; to make sense of all of it in a useful way. They have not quite reached the stage of integration of knowledge into practice. They will be tested on the material for a national Rehab Technician certification process. Never once, though, did they ask the age old dreaded question: Will we have to know this on the test??? So we worked together and finally called it a day at 1:00 PM as everyone's ability to absorb more information began to wane. As usual, I am never certain. Did I teach anyone anything of value that can be used in their work? I hope and pray that I did.