Adventures in Steno: Week Three

Now that I’m three weeks into the NCRA course, I can say I’m 100% hooked. I’m sure this is a career path that I want to take and am incredibly excited about all the possibilities. This week in class, we had another guest speaker, a long-time court official in the Twin Cities. It was enjoyable to listen to her perspective and get some encouragement as well. There’s another “mature” student in my class who asked if it’s too late to get started. The other student is also in her early 50s. Our guest was extremely encouraging because she mentioned how important life experience can be in this line of work. I certainly have seen this in my scoping work, so I know it will be valid for stenography as well.
 
I realized that I haven’t really explained everything that’s been happening in the A to Z class, so on this blog, I will try to do that a bit. Here’s how our class is structured:

• All our classes are online through Zoom. I believe the class has been offered in person in the past, but like so many other things right now, COVID-19 has affected in-person meetings and training. I think we have about a dozen students in this class.
• We each have a steno machine to write on or are using an iPad app.
• The class has handouts that we receive online before class. Our instructor emails them to us and includes part of the next week’s lesson as well.
• Each lesson goes through some of the alphabet (in order, hence the A to Z). At the beginning, we learn some individual letters and practice placing our hands on the home position, just as you would in a typing class. We are learning some numbers as well, which are written using the number bar, which is at the top of the row of regular keys.
• During class, our instructor dictates or calls out keystrokes while we follow along on our machines. For example, she might say this:  Short A, short A, short A, home position | Long A, long A, long A, home position
• After a couple of lessons, we started writing words that can be formed with the letters. During class, our instructor calls out these words like she did with the individual letters. Again, we write them on our machines to practice. The point is to build muscle memory, and it does work.
• In between classes, we are to practice all the lessons we’ve covered so far so that we continue to build that muscle memory and reinforce what we’ve learned. I noticed that I might struggle with a new letter combination when we first have it in class but will magically know how to write it after practicing it over the next couple of days. These early small successes let me know that I will be able to do this if I will focus on two things:
• Consistent, effective practice
• Not quitting!

 
That’s it for this week! I will leave you with a couple of quick Amazon recommendations today. These are affiliate links, so thanks for checking them out!

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Fingerless gloves: because cold hands do NOT write well!

Therapy putty for building hand strength!