So you're in the door and want to go places one day in the ATO. I would strongly recommend you visit the FAA's online learning portal, ELMS. This interactive learning community is ideal for managers and employees to organize their learning activities, document your learning history, and strategically map an individual development plan.

Manager's can track the learning history of their employees, assign required training, and help improve employee development through various career oriented templates such as the IDP. Employee's can explore a wide variety of instructional materials designed to reinforce previous training or access management and leadership modules for future aspirations.

I encourage you to jump-start your career with a visit to the Electronic Learning Management System.

Tapping Native Learning Opportunities

Our future as an organization could rest on how frequently we tap the educational well of knowledge throughout our careers. Our jobs require proficiency to quickly analyze situations and information, understand content, and apply instructions with expert precision. At an age in which we execute technological upgrades at a dizzying pace, it only makes sense to make the educational platform easier to access. For example, the ATO employee can capitalize on opportunities to learn from internal platforms such as the ELMS system, Leading Edge Forum, ATOExperience, and a wealth of collaborative material found at employees.faa.gov and faa.gov. But should it end there…

This is a term with which all shift workers should be familiar. It is from the Latin Circa-meaning about and Dies-meaning day. Circadian Rhythm is a fancy word for the medically proven fact that our bodies want to wake up and go to sleep around the same time every day. It also explains why shift workers have such a high incidence of sleep disorders. The good news is that with awareness comes an ability to influence your Circadian Rhythms and enhance your ability to obtain restful sleep.

Many of the steps you can take actually occur before you even attempt to sleep. You should avoid exercise within 4 hours of trying to sleep. You should avoid large meals and excessive fluids within 2 hours of trying to sleep which will also reduce your opportunities for reflux. A lot of people don’t realize that caffeine (while legal, is still a drug) can stay in your system for 8 hours after consumption. It is recommended that you cut out caffeine 6 hours before bedtime to improve sleep quality. Most people immediately identify coffee and energy drinks as sources of caffeine but they forget about tea, sodas, and chocolate. For a list of how much caffeine is in products you can go to www.energyfiend.com/the-caffeine-database. Coffee is also a diuretic which can lead to dehydration which can lead to fatigue. Alcohol may help you get to sleep initially but will also increase the likelihood your sleep is less restful besides you have to have 8 hours alcohol-free before working a shift.

Since we know that light and food help set our internal clock, we can use this information to improve our quality of sleep. Having a pre-sleep ritual can help prepare your mind to making a break with the stress of the day and get ready to sleep. It can be as simple as always brushing your teeth, washing your face and wearing pajamas when going to bed. Don’t read books or watch TV in bed to help your brain realize going to bed means going to sleep. Sleep in a dark, quiet room. I use blackout curtains to help achieve this. I also like a stand alone fan to provide white noise to help mask any noises emanating from the rest of the house.

Some people have found occasional use of melatonin is helpful. It must be stressed that since your body naturally produces melatonin, regular ingestion could create long term sleep issues by interfering with your body’s production. That being said, in a study of shift working nurses (Journal of Circadian Rhythms) melatonin was found to reduce the amount of time needed to fall asleep and for many improves the quality of sleep. It also must be stated that the aeromedical.org site mentions that some individuals do suffer from side effects from the “natural” supplement. Some doctors now recommend Benadryl as a long-term sleep aid (check the labels of poplar over the counter sleep aids and you will often find the generic name for Benadryl). Unfortunately this is not an option for air traffic controllers as the flight surgeon has said we need 24 hours after our last Benadryl dose and the start of our next shift.

Hopefully this will help you get a better night’s sleep.(WebMD)

Coming into the job you probably understood your strengths and weaknesses in the classroom. But how prepared are you for On-the-Job training and the related stress of an air traffic control career? How do you communicate your most productive learning style to your new training team?

Take a look at this online questionnaire from some highly respected adult educators that I researched during graduate school. This simple instrument should give you an inexpensive self-analysis of your preferred learning styles so you may in turn provide your instructors valuable insight into you. The knowledge that you glean from this questionnaire could help reduce training time and improve the learning environment for all concerned.

Managers and instructors might find the quiz beneficial as you prepare individualized training plans. Additional information to analyze the results can be found here.

A learning culture that embraces new technological challenges with a can-do attitude is at the heart of NextGen and we are all tasked to find ways we can improve the way we do business. If you have suggestions that could streamline training or improve the experience for future employees please leave your comments below.

Hello Everyone…News from the Café

From Acting FAA Administrator, Lynne Osmus (March 27, 2009)

This evening, President Obama announced his intent to nominate Randy Babbitt to be the next FAA Administrator. While it will likely still be several weeks before Randy completes the Senate confirmation process, it is great news that the new Administration has reached this point so quickly.

More here from FAA Focus concerning the announcement in this Audio Cast (March 27, 2009)

FAA Focus Gerald E. Lavey reports on the popularity of Facebook:

“As we explore the use of social media in FAA communications, it might be worth having a webcast roundtable discussion on this topic with representatives of all the generational groups (millennials, X, Y, boomers, etc.) to help spur a broader discussion.”

Is it time we divulge our secret? Any takers on the invitation?

Summer weather is upon us already. Thunderstorms, Tornadoes, and Traffic Management, read how the men and women of the ATO meet the daily challenge with the help of the ATCSCC.