Histology, aside from the endocrine system, was one of the most interesting sections to me.  It's amazing that the entire human body, those billions of cells, are comprised of a mere 220 different types.  These 220 different types of specialized cells fall into most of the general types you'll be learning in your histology lab.

I bet you thought this was going to be some long, drawn out section from a long winded person that has too much love for a subject that no one should care much about.  Sorry.  Learning the histology you need to know for lab is not all that difficult.  It is time consuming, but not hard at all.  There are really 3 simple tricks to get it down, well, 4 actually.  This is what got me through it.
 

1. Get the initial introduction - Take your time in lab to look at the tissues on the slides and the ones in your books and see what they have in common.  At first you're probably going to think, "They're all different shades of pink."  That's true, they are and that can help you when it comes to recognizing the layers of tissue, but don't let this mislead you. Look at the pattern in the cells, not the color of the stain.

2. It's about pattern recognition - For me, it's a matter of pattern recognition.  You need to be able to train yourself to see the cells and recognize the pattern called "simple cubiodal epithelium" and "pseudo-stratified columnar epithelium" and "adipose."

• What do I look for in simple columnar epithelium?  The pattern of cylindrical cells with the nuclei all in a general line.
• What about pseudo-stratified columnar epithelium?  I look for basically the same thing, only the nuclei are all blotched up.  It's pseudo-stratified so the nucleus of one cell is not going to be on the same line as the one next to it.  It looks jumbled up, like some one just shook up the water and the nuclei for the cells have not settled back into place on the bottom.
• Adipose?  Well.. that one is easy..  CHICKEN WIRE!
• But you say that these are all "relative" terms?  Sure they are, that leads me to the next trick.

3. Google is your friend - Not only your friend, but Mr. Google will get you through histology.

• Google (www.google.com) is one of the greater search engines out there.  Yahoo will do as well, so will most any search engine that has an option to search specifically for images.  But since Goggle seems to be the last, although fading, bastion for "geekdom", I use it.
• Go to www.google.com.  Above the text box that you enter your search string, select the Images option.  Then enter what you are searching for; like, ummm, cardiac muscle perhaps.  Almost in an instant, depending on your connection speed, you have hundreds, if not thousands, of images of cardiac muscle tissue to study.
• Browse the images, browse, browse, browse... and then browse some more.  You begin to see that you recognize a familiar "cardiac muscle" pattern in all the slides, not colors of the stain.  Eureka, you've got it!

4. Define your patterns - Don't just think you recognize a pattern and leave it at that.  Write it down, describe the pattern that you should look for.  Describe the pattern in a general way that you can recognize it with and write it down.  Did I repeat myself there?  Good

5. The last trick - Not really a trick, none of this is really a trick, but hey, I'm a boring person.  Anyway.. the last trick is to go back to lab or even in the study room and take a look at the slides you have there.  Find the cardiac muscle pattern.

I've included a few links that were, and still are, very helpful with histology.  Some are simply practical, others are down right groovy.  I hope you find them helpful in your studies as I did.

They are ordered in a usefullness fashion.  The top two being Google, and your very own Dr. Bell's Histology Tutorials.  This plug doesn't get me brownie points either, I would have left it off if it wasn't useful to me; it is extremely useful.

The University of Minnesota WebAnatomy site is probably the best site out there for testing you knowledge; in ANYTHING in this course; I will refer to it often.

Google                                  Dr. Bell's Histology Tutorials              University of Minnesota - WebAnatomy (Histology Section)

Virtual Slidebox                   Atlas of Histology : Slides
 
 

These links are ordered by thier usefulness to me. The top two being Google, and your very own Dr. Bell's Histology Tutorials. This is not some brownie point plug either, I would have left it off if it wasn't useful to me; it is extremely useful.

The University of Minnesota WebAnatomy site is probably the most overall useful site I've found site out there for testing your knowledge; in ANYTHING in this course; I will refer to it often.