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Kait's Gateway Practicum Continuation

KaitlynStarowitz — Wed, 14 Apr 2010 17:51:06 -0600

1.5.10-1.7.10

For
three days I attended the Gateway-Longview orientation. During those three days
we were trained in Therapeutic Crisis Intervention (TCI) training. This
included learning how to talk to kids in crisis, how to prevent kids from going
into a full crisis, and how to deal with kids in crisis. Throughout the
training we did role-plays to practice different techniques. Many of the
role-plays required the “children” to throw a crisis and others to use
techniques that we had been talking about. This was difficult because it is
easier to talk about how you would handle a situation than actually being in
it. Along with role-plays we practiced restraints. We practiced the single
person basket hold, the standing hold and practicing walking, and the
two-person restraint. The single person hold is generally not allowed in NY but
Gateway has an exemption because of the type of facility it is.

1.20.10

As
a new employee of Gateway-Longview, I was required to do an observation of the
different schools, except the Residential, which I had already experienced. I
started in the 6^th grade, and that age group is difficult in general
because of how different developmentally they can be. Boys can be matured to
look older, and others still may lag behind and look like kids in elementary
school. This age is also prone to attitude and behavioral problems, and at
Gateway it seems to add a more explosive quality to kids.

The
second part of my day was spent in a first grade classroom. These kids are intimidating
to me as I am used to dealing with older youths, and with them it is easier to
sense when a crisis is about to happen. The young kids, age 6 or 7, are on a
hair-trigger. One boy was working really well on a worksheet, and suddenly on
the last problem, he began screaming, crying, throwing papers, and finally
barricaded himself under a desk while kicking and screaming. Another
six-year-old when told what he was supposed to do, bolted for the hallway,
after being brought back in, the teachers used a distraction technique by
counting with him to 100, by 35 he was distracted and calm.

The
end of my day was spent with the Changing Attitudes and Behaviors (CAB). These
kids are the more violent and sexual offenders.

1.22.10

Today
I was subbing in a first/second grade classroom as a teacher aide. The
classroom had two kids that were on one-to-one aides, one for learning reasons,
and the other for behavioral reasons. One boy had speech difficulties and
severe problems with self-regulation. At home this boy is spoiled, and is
allowed to have his way. At school he has to follow other’s rules and he has
difficulty with that. In many situations throughout the day he became visibly
frustrated, and was unable to express his frustration with words. At the end of
the day he became violent towards one teacher and was throwing items around the
room, and could not express why he was mad. In one act of fury he threw a
pencil at an aide and it almost hit her eye, had she not been wearing glasses.
The Aide wished to pursue and In-School-Suspension for this boy. Because there
is no procedure for In School Suspension for the elementary kids we had to
decide if this action was above and beyond his baseline. We decided that it
was, with the help of his counselor and the principal.

1.25.10

Today
I was in the fourth grade. This class was five boys and one girl. The classroom
chemistry wasn’t very good. There seemed to be problems whenever a particular
boy was in the classroom. He was hyper and disrupted and just added to the
general disturbance of the other students, most of whom had a hard time
ignoring him.

Many
of the problems that arose in this class were due to the kid’s inabilities to
ignore other kid’s behaviors. The boys seemed to have a particularly hard time
with this. They act and talk tough, which I believe is modeling of behaviors
that they learn at home. They know that they should ignore other kids but are
incapable because that hadn’t been what they’ve learned all their lives.

Today
was also my first experience with diffusing a situation. I used my TCI training
to separate and help calm down one boy who attacked another boy.

Later
in the day the kids attended group. Group at this age level is teaching the
kids social skills like teamwork. Only three of our kids were able to attend
this group, the others were still out of program. In groups like this the kids
are able to talk about skills but they have a hard time actually using these
skills.

1.27.10

Today
was spent in the 8^th grade. 8^th grade has never been an
age group that I enjoy. Especially girls at this age, they are either nice or
have attitude. Due to the weather many of the kids were absent, so the day was
rather subdued. The homeroom class that I was with had some difficult issues.
None of them really seemed to have hyperactivity problems, like some of the
younger classes I’ve been in. They seem to have defiance issues, but whether
that is a regular behavior because they are at the onset of the teen years or
because of an oppositional disorder, I am unsure.

In
the afternoon after the day-school kids had been dismissed I went down to the
Residential Education wing and sat in on a Buzz meeting. These are meetings for
updates on behaviors that the kids may be having due to court dates or home
visits coming up, relationships that have developed, relationships that may
have ended, and kids that have problems with each other. We also were updated
on kids that were going to be discharged soon. I had never attended one of
these meetings but they were very helpful for identifying possible problems
before they start, like what kids to keep away from each other, or knowing why
a kid may be having a bad day.

Gateway
Feb. 1
Today I was with the Changing Attitudes and Behaviors program (CAB). This
program is for youths who are at a higher risk of AWOL, or have committed more
serious offenses and are placed at Gateway. The program is run very similarly
to the residential program although behaviors in the school can result in lack
of privileges in the cottages easier than in the residential program.

Classroom composition constantly has to be monitored in CAB
because these kida are much more volatile than the other classrooms. They are
constantly joking and making fun of each other, many of them can only take it
for so long, or there is one comment that just sets them off. In the CAB
classrooms the desks are spaced out so that the students aren’t too near each
other as that is another issue that can escalate tempers.

Feb 8
Today I was in PE. All of the Residential classes were on self-containment. The
teachers and teacher’s aides can decide if the students are having trouble
keeping under control or aren’t getting along with other classes. Many of the
students had been in and out of time out, which was an additional factor to
putting them in self-containment.

Relationships between the students have too be monitored
carefully, whether a new couple has formed or they have just broke up. As I’ve
gotten to know the students more, I see the relationships more clearly. Break-ups
are considerably more difficult because many of the kids already have emotional
disturbances.

I had the class of CAB girls today. They were very
interesting because they seemed to get along better than the normal classrooms.
I had been with them previously in a classroom setting, and they were very
helpful to each other. They worked well in a group and didn’t seem to have any
significant problems with each other.

Feb 10
Today I was in the kindergarten classroom. ADHD is a huge problem, and if the
kids don't take their meds it is very noticeable. Most of the day is spent with
these kids in a hold trying to calm them down. There was one child in
particular that has trouble keeping calm, he has a one to one aide.

Some kids are easily distracted and other can stay on track
and use ignoring skills. But, that only lasts for so long. There was one child
who was the leader of most of the distractions and all the kids like to follow
him, because he is the “cool” kid. This same kid is also very proficient in
math and that is the only time in the day when he is well behaved.

The language is absolutely shocking. At 5 they are familiar
with different drugs curse words and talking about sex and rape. The two aides
warned me that the language is shocking, and that they are still shocked on a
daily basis of some of the things that these kids say. There is no sense of
quiet in this classroom and the kids can only come together and work for a few
minutes at a time.

Feb 12
Today I was in 8th grade science, and I have been in this class before. The
circumstances that we started the day were much better than last time. Although
one of the girls was very upset when she found out that her schedule was
different than what she thought it was going to be. These kids are very easily
irritated with a change in a usual schedule. They depend on that schedule and
variances are not accepted lightly. Valentines day kept everyone in a good
mood. Only one kids was frozen because he had not completed work.

I have started to notice more and more that these kids are
noticeably tolerant with diversity. It is very interesting to see the level of
tolerance and acceptance that these kids have. In Residential there was a boy
who identified with the female gender, but he still had to live in the male
cottages. The boys that he lived with seemed ok with it. In this 8^th
grade classroom there is a boy who had a stroke and he has some physical
differences and the students don’t treat him any differently.

Feb.24

Today I was in residential, and it is the first day that
I’ve been there since my internship last semester. Last week the kids had
mid-winter break. For some of the students that is a great opportunity to go
home see friends and family, for others it is only more frustrating because
they aren’t allowed to go home. One student in particular is almost at his one
year mark and has been home once for a day-visit. As of late this student in
particular has been deteriorating. He is increasingly depressed and he is
easily distracted and very lethargic. He also had another episode of self-harm,
which hasn’t happened in a while.

Today I also participated in the weekly BUZZ meetings. These
meetings are for the residential staff to get together and discuss the
different things going on with the students. These meetings are especially
helpful when there are new kids coming in. They also talk about relationships
that have developed or finished, as these can be problem points when changing
classes or students that are in the same classes as each other. One topic was
about two students who were dating but the male of the pair was cheating on the
female. She was not taking it well and was acting out in school because of it.
Other behaviors that have to be monitored are the new students. There is one student
in particular who has gang ties and has to be monitored closely. There is
another new student in a different class, and one student in that class, who
has a past of molestation and is a closeted gay has been acting differently
toward and may have a crush on. This sounds harmless but interactions have to
be monitored between students, especially with the kids who have sexual abuse
in their backgrounds.

Feb. 26

Today I was in the same classroom as Wednesday, in
residential. Today was one of my favorite student’s discharge day. He was in
the class that I was originally with during my first internship and I have seen
a lot of progress with him. He is the first student that I’ve seen be
discharged that I have faith that he’ll do ok. Many of the students that get
discharged don’t have a very good situation to go home to. This student is
fortunate to have a really great foster family and has a lot of positive things
that will help him transition back.

Today there was a Black History month activity that took up
much of the afternoon. The kids enjoyed this but keeping all the kids together
just results in a lot of noise and negative behaviors seem to escalate.

Mar. 3

Today I was in CAB. I have been with class a few times
before, and I’m getting consistently more familiar with them. I find that it is
easier to control the classroom and relate to the students the more that you
interact with them. I have come to understand how to deal with these students,
and I find it a lot different than some of the other classrooms. A majority of
them are just attention seekers and if you’re willing to just talk with them
they respond well to you later. My students were rather absorbed in reading
because Gateway is doing a reading program for the month of March in conjunction
with March Madness. Basketball is a passion for many of the youths and they
enjoy earning the prizes and being in the competition for their own March
madness tourney at the end of the month.

Mar. 10

Today I was in for the teacher I interned with last semester.
All the students that I started with are no longer in that class but the
students that are now in there I get have a good relationship with. One student
has been consistently going deteriorating behaviorally and emotionally. He
found out last semester that his mother was filing for termination of her
parental rights, and he has no other foster or home visit situation. He has
been significantly more depressed and has continued self-harming behaviors. He
has to be carefully monitored at school.

Another student, not in my classroom, found out this week
that the foster family that was interested in him, is no longer interested.
Surprisingly he has been dealing with it rather well. I have seen a lot of
progress from this particular student in the program and hope that a better
foster situation is figured out for him.

Mar. 12

I was in the same classroom today and as I discovered in the
CAB classroom it is significantly easier to manage a classroom when you
understand and get to know the students. There are two students that I have had
problems with, one is severely ADHD, and the other I believe has a problem with
women in authority. The student with ADHD I have come to discover becomes
disruptive when he is bored. When I kept him busy he seemed to be better. I
also have established that I’m fair and he respects that now. On Wednesday I
had to send him to timeout and we had a talk and came to an understanding with
each other.

The other student was in timeout all day and
I believe he and I will probably not come to any understanding. He is the only
student at Gateway that I make sure to stay at least and arms length away.

Minstry Part II

wachowil — Thu, 10 Dec 2009 11:14:53 -0700

October 5- October 19

On Monday the 5^th, I met with S again. We sat at Tim Horton’s and talked for about an hour. We quickly went over the reading that I assigned her by going over one thing that really stuck out to her and related to her life. We then went over goals and aspirations. I had her write down characteristics or qualities that other people would describe her as, or how other people see her. Then, she wrote who she thinks she is and both her positive and negative qualities. Then she circled the things she wanted to change. Lastly, she wrote down three goals that she has or three main things she wants to work on in the future that would make her more like the person she wants to be. On October 12 I wasn’t able to meet with S due to scheduling conflicts.

On Tuesday October 6^th, myself and two of the leaders that do the competition met to discuss the games and crowdbreakers for the rest of the year. It took about 2 hours to do this, but by the end we were bursting with excitement for the months to come!

On October 7, we had our “Glow in the Dark Games”. We gave all the kids glow necklaces and turned off all of the lights in the gym, and then played various games such as capture the flag, ameba tag and a clothespin relay. That night our crowdbreaker was “Follow the Flashlight”. A sheet was put up in the middle of the stage, with a leader behind it who was flashing a light all around the sheet. The student had to follow the light with their noses, not knowing that any moment the leaders would drop the sheet and the flashlight leader had a pie in their hands ready to hit the student in the face with the pie. Tonight was also the kickoff to “The Network” series. My main point was that “You’re only as good as your network”.

On October 14 the crowdbreaker was “Cowboy, Ninja, Bear”, which is a goofier version of rock, paper, scissors. Everyone was involved in this game, students got into pairs and challenged each other. We continued to narrow it down by winners of each round and the last person left won. The game for the night was Tube Mound Madness, an old favorite that students love! (Follows the same format as Steal the Bacon earlier mentioned except instead of giant earth balls we use innertubes.) Tonight the message was about picking the right kind of friends and knowing the difference between a counterfeit friend and a real friend. We also started our new “choices” system, where after the message at the beginning of the night, students would go to small group time, and then they would have the option of what to do next. They could continue small group discussion, play board games in the small group rooms or go to large group competition in the gym. It seemed as though students really enjoyed having the choice of where to go, especially the girls who don’t always like going to play in the gym.

October 17 was another Saturday Nite for Middle Schoolers; we had a great turnout of almost 300 students. Overall it was a great night of hangout and it looked as though the students really enjoyed the night, especially the dodgeball tournament!

October 19- November 2

On Monday the 19^th S and I met at her school and we went for a long walk around the Village of Hamburg. We talked about her life, what she is going through; the important issues in her life. We also went into more depth about her relationship with her parents. Because her parents have an issue with trusting her, I assigned her “homework” to earn their trust by being where she says she is going to be when she says she will be there and not provoking fights with them. The next week, October26, we met and took another walk to discuss her progress that she had made from the week before. We quickly went over her reading and what she got out of it, what she didn’t agree with from the book and one point that related to her life. She also reported back that she and her parents were getting along so much better than they had before because she was actually at the places she said she was going to be at, when she said she would be there. At the end of the meeting, we went to her house and did a mirror activity. I had her write down all of the positive qualities that she has on her mirror with a dry erase marker. We did this so that she would wake up each morning and the first thing that she sees are the positive aspects of who she is. Although this was a challenge for her to do, in the end she saw the greater purpose and was pleased with the final outcome.

A lot of the time during these 2 weeks was focused on the event “Fall Fest” that I was planning for the Middle Schoolers on October 24^th. To prepare for this I had to make contact with the Corn Maze Farm, send out permission slips, collect money, make contact with leaders who were coming and make sure that everyone was on the same page. We had about 65 people attend this event, including 10 leaders and 55 students. The day before, I finalized the arrangements with the corn maze farm, made sure we had a sufficient way to pay when we got there, made sure we had collected all of the payments and permission slips, finalized the leader list, called Fisher Bus to give them a final count of people and received our apple cider that was graciously given to us. The day of I made the last minute trip to get timbits from Tim Hortons, printed out directions to and from the corn maze for leaders who were driving and gathered permission slips and money. Students started arriving at the Hub at 4:00 and by 4:45 everyone was there. We quickly got everyone into groups, informed everyone of what the evening was going to look like and then loaded everyone into the buses and into the cars. Overall, the evening went extremely well, students had a blast in the corn mazes, and it was a great time of bonding for leaders and students. We got back to the Hub at 9:00, a little earlier than planned, simply because it was cold, rainy and dark.

The week of October 21^st, I had to prepare for the next series of messages. I had the topic of wise decisions, but now I needed to research the topic and how it applies to students in Middle School. I took many notes on a book called “The On October 21, our crowdbreaker was Candy Apple Munch and our game was Scoot-a-Rama. We ended “The Network” series with a message called “Choose to Choose”. On Wednesday I had to go to the store and pick up items for the Candy Apple Munch game and prepare the caramel covered onions.

October 28^th was our first “Dress 4 the Mess” (D4TM) for the year, called the Spooktacular. To prepare for this I had to go to the store and collect all the materials for the games and get prizes for the crowdbreaker. This week the crowdbreaker was the “Blender of Death” which required us to get cider and donuts to mix together in a blender for kids to drink. For D4TM we did mystery buckets and games called trick or treat, pumpkin gut relay and pumpkin pie surprise. This week we also kicked off another new series called “Caution”. This series is all about making wise choices and how we can make the wise choices in our lives. This week I made the point that “We live in extreme environments that require extreme preparation, that lead to extreme action.” We need to plan ahead and know our answers to certain issues before we are in those circumstances.

After Overdrive on the 28^th, all of the adult and college leaders met to discuss the potential success or failure of the choices system. We discussed different issues that were occurring in the program, such as the loudness of the boys’ small group in the front room, and then moved on to discuss the format of the evening. Everyone agreed that the choices system was working out really well, and that we should make it the final structure that we have for the evening.

November 2- November 16

On November 4^th, our crowdbreaker was a game called Clothespin Beard. In order to do this I had to run to the store to get clothespins and prizes for the game. This week we did a crowd favorite game, Australian Pillow Boxing. We continued the series “Caution”, and I encouraged students to not ask themselves the question “… is this the right thing to do?” but “…is this the wise thing to do?” At the end of the night, I met with the game guys to plan out the games for the rest of November and December. We discussed crowdbreakers, games and possibilities for January games and events.

November 7 was another Saturday Nite at the Hub. We had another large turnout, with chaos all around. It was a crazy night with a few problems here and there, but overall was a good time for the students.

On November 11^th our crowdbreaker was “Get to Know You BINGO”, therefore on Monday I put together the game board. On Monday I also met with S again. I picked her up from school and we went to Tim Hortons to talk. We talked about the book that we are reading together, friends at school and how she is handling those relationships and her sister’s wedding. Overall, it was a great meeting and we really bonded. The game for the week was Garbage Can Gauntlet. We ended the series “Caution” by talking about how “Your Consequences Go High and Wide”, meaning that our choices affect our relationship with God and our friends and family.

November 16-November 30

On November 25, we had our “Ultimate FL!P” Night. Basically, we were giving students the opportunity to accept Christ as their Lord and Savior. The night went a little differently structurally because we were also trying to fit in our “Dress 4 The Mess: Thanksgiving Celebration”. We started with our crowdbreaker, Turkey Day Leftovers (basically pairs of students feeding each other baby food) and then went to the gym for a toned down version of Dress 4 the Mess. At the end of the night I gave the message, which was a spinoff of the earlier series FL!P. In the series in September we focused more on what you have to change in your life to be like Christ, but this time we talked about how God can do the most ultimate flip in us. I also spoke with our youth worship director to have him play during the time that the students were praying. We chose a song and worked on the times of when he would come on stage to play and what the evening would look like.

November 25 we didn’t have Overdrive due to the Thanksgiving Holiday. So I took the week to get ready for the new Christmas Series and prepare the messages for the rest of the year. I broke the year up into weeks of three and then assigned topics to each week. (Including February=Dating and Love Month and April=Jesus’s death and resurrection) For the Christmas series I did a lot of research trying to see what sort of series ideas were out there, and finally I decided on “Regifted”.

I took the extra time to put together a letter for students who made a commitment to Christ the week before. It was a congratulatory letter as well as instructions for what to do next as Christians. I think the letter will really help those students to figure out what to do next after they made the first initial step in their faith. I then filled them out for each individual student and personalized them with a hand written message at the bottom.

December 1-December 7

This week I took a lot of time to get ready for the Christmas series, “Regifted”. I laid out the three weeks that we had and tried to put one idea with each week. This week I chose to do an overview of the idea behind “regifting Jesus”. I simplified it to two main points of how we can regift Jesus, Sharing His Truth and Serving His Children.

I also worked with our media guy to prepare the video introduction for the series, which had to be made from scratch. I discussed with him my plans for future series ideas and the work that I would need him to do. I planned out the series titles and ideas for January and February, choosing “MADE” for January and “I heart…” for February. “MADE” is all about finding our purpose and doing the things that we dream of. “I heart” is part of our “love, sex and dating” theme that goes hand in hand with Valentine’s Day. “MADE” also requires video footage of students who will say “I wanna be MADE” (Like in the MTV show’s introduction) therefore we had to coordinate times to record the students.

Finally, I also continued to work on the commitment letters to the students and figured out Christmas cards for leaders and students. I put together a card for leaders to fill out to go to their students and brainstormed for Christmas cards for the leaders.

Compass House Practicum Weeks 1-14

Laura Weber — Mon, 14 Sep 2009 22:36:25 -0600

Week 1:

My practicum site for the fall semester is at the Compass House Youth Shelter. The first day that I technically started was on September 1, 2009; my orientation day. Orientation was an essential part of the program because it gave me a firsthand look at the location in which I would be working in for the next couple months to come. In addition, it provided some vital information and statistics regarding Compass House and the services it provides. Essentially, Compass House provides safe shelter and services for runaway and homeless youth, in an atmosphere supporting dignity, respect, and self-sufficiency of each youth. Some of the specific services that these youths receive include: safe shelter, food, clothing, immediate intake and assessment services, crisis counseling, referrals, advocacy and after care, needed emergency services, and individual, family, and group counseling. All of these services are provided at the shelter twenty-four hours a day, however, there is a limit of thirteen kids that are allowed to stay overnight. This is because the shelter only has thirteen beds, therefore, the rest of the kids can get services from Compass House, but sleeping arrangements will be provided for them at other shelters. It should be noted that these youths that are allowed to receive services must be between the ages of twelve to seventeen. This information was necessary to learn because it gained us insight into the shelter lifestyle before we started.

Week 2:

On Wednesday September 9, 2009, I went to Compass House for my first day of my internship. On this day, once again, I was given a tour of the house and a brief introduction to each youth client. After that, I was sent into the house on my own to mingle and be a mini-supervisor for the clients. One of the activities that I participated in with the kids was a game of monopoly. The game lasted a good two hours and it was a nice transition into getting to know and talk casually with some of the youths at the shelter. It was interesting to note the different personalities that were presented by just playing a simple board game. For example, Client A had a tendency to be shy and hesitant when reaching for his game pieces or chance cards. In fact, sometimes he would reach all the way across the board to move his piece instead of asking for someone closer to do it. Whereas in contrast Client B was more bold and competitively tried to hoard all his property pieces together. Another more informative thing that I got to do was read some of the case files of the youths. It was intriguing to read the files and learn that Compass House attracts youths for all sorts of reasons. For instance, we had a client that was court ordered to be at the shelter because she was in the middle of a custody battle and then we also had one who had been kicked out of his house because his mom didn’t want him anymore. From these files I learned that although some kids are court ordered to come to the shelter, approximately two-thirds are runaways and homeless youths whom have left their homes many times before.

Week 3:

Today, September 14, 2009, I worked the hours of 7-11pm and it is the start of my third week. These hours are very different from the day shift (i.e. 3-7pm) that I work on Wednesdays and Saturdays because it deals with different duties. For example, when I arrived I was right in time for a group lecture and dinner. The lecture was about HIV and the youths were encouraged to ask questions about its diagnosis, course, and consequences. It was interesting to note that the kids were not shy about asking anything that pertained to the disease. In fact, they pretty much asked a good half hour worth of questions. After the lecture, dinner was scheduled. Consequently, I monitored the kids while another supervisor made dinner. The lot of us, eight youths and one other intern, went into the living room and watched the beginning of the football game between the Buffalo Bills and the Patriots. During the game, I tried to talk to a client whom only spoke Spanish. From this, I learned that I should probably brush up on my Spanish skills because Compass House does not, unfortunately, have any translators on staff that can easily communicate with the client. When this does occur, usually they try to use hand gestures. Luckily, I knew a few essential words like comida, me nombre es, and baño. Following dinner came chores and then bed.
I worked on Wednesday September 16, 2009, and Saturday September 19,2009, to complete week 3. The highlights of these two work days involved various activities. Probably the most interesting one was that I was allowed the opportunity to sit in on an intake process. An intake process involves all the information gathered from a potential intake client. Compass House gathers interviews from whomever brings the kid, the kid themselves, and the parents/guardians of the kid. Usually, the parents or guardians are essential sources of information that give background details that the kid neglects to mention. Furthermore, the person who brings in the kid is sometimes the police whom are more then willing to digress on information pertaining to the immediate situation that the kid was picked up in. The most intriguing aspect of this process, however, is the client themselves. The emotional range that is reflected in their attitude, verbal responses, and behavioral nuances is incredible. Many defense mechanisms are invoked in the sessions by the client like denial, regression, projection, sublimation, etc. For example, one client in particular was dropped off by the police for some truant behavior and when questioned by Compass House supervisors he denied the entire thing.

Week 4:

This week has, so far, been more relaxed then previous weeks mostly because the shelter has had some of same clients as previous weeks. Although it is hoped that the clients' situations are improved, sometimes the same clients come back repeatedly. Therefore, I knew a lot of the clients when I worked. This actually was a different experience because instead of having to reintroduce and get to know the clients, we already had a tenuous bond. This aided in our interactions because they were more open and trusting. Some of the highlights of this week included a humongous rummy tournament. This card game involved myself and a bunch of clients all interacting and competing for the elusive title of "Rummy Card Champ." Needless to say, I ended up losing miserably; however, it was so much fun watching the kids strive to win while still maintaining casual respect and appreciation for all card players.
In addition, this week has also allowed me the opportunity to get to know some of the other interns that work at Compass House. It was interesting to learn that most of the interns come from UB and Canisius rather than Buff State. Furthermore, some of the interns had varying approaches for mingling and interacting with the kids. For example, some interns just sort of plopped themselves down and started randomly talking, whereas, others were more inclined to wait until a kid spoke to them. I, myself, had more the type to plunk myself down and either talk, suggest a game, listen to them, etc.

Week 5:

This week included September 26-28 only. It will not include this upcoming Saturday like normal because I am not able to work that day. During this week, Compass House had a higher rate of males to females. Therefore, the activities that I participated in mostly revolved around football. For instance, we either played it outside or watched it on television. When we were watching it on television, many of the boys were teaching me the fundamentals of football...or rather trying too. Mostly we had heated discussions and debates revolving around the players, specific plays, and whether or not we should reenact some of the plays outside. At this point we usually are already outside with the football.
Another activity that I also thoroughly enjoyed was playing pool with some of the residents. I must admit my pool skills are a bit shaky; consequently, there was a lot of laughing and joking that went on. It was a blast.

Week 6:

This week introduced a more in depth look at the type of paperwork that the Supervisors at Compass House Youth Shelter have to fill out. This opportunity presented itself to me on October 5, 3009, probably because this was my Monday late shift. Therefore, most of the kids had homework and the like, which allowed me to sit in on log-in sheets, invoices, etc.

In my other two shifts this week, my activities mostly revolved around conversing with kids and participating in activities with them. For example, we had a huge monopoly tournament that involved eight of us all crowed around this little board in the kitchen. It was hilarious crowding around the board bartering for same-colored property and trading for railroads. Other times we played videogames, watched movie marathons, and talked with each other. One client in particular helped me improve upon my dismal pool skills. This was one of the highlights of my week because during this discussion he vented about some of the conflicts that he was having in his life and his anxiety about where he wanted to go. From there, I was able to subtly inform the Supervisors so that they were aware of the topics to talk about with this client in particular.

Week 7:

This week involved card tournaments, dinner, chores, and college applications. Client A had some college applications that she was filling out by herself in the lounge when I arrived at the shelter. When I asked what she was doing, she immediately started pelting me with various questions concerning the different essay questions. Together we worked on brainstorming ideas, creating an outline, and formulating an essay. I had a lot of fun working with her and listening to her future goals and aspirations.

In addition, during this week I was in charge of answering the phones and making calls for residents.

Week 8:

During this week, we had a couple of kids whom had originated from Mexico at our shelter. Thus, we had to work with a couple of translators and were focused primarily on finding other locations to which they could go to. Finding other locations was necessary because we did not have anyone working at our shelter that spoke fluent Spanish. While the kids were there, however, I was trying to find activities that would keep them occupied that did not necessarily require a lot of communication. Furthermore, while the other supervisors were on the phones with the various agencies involved in these specific cases, I was also fielding calls from other parents and relative calling in to check on the other various kids at the shelter.
An even that I organized this week was a videogame tournament. I decided to go with videogames because on Wednesday, October 21, there were mostly boys whom needed our services. Therefore, they were more inclined to like this game then, for example, Monopoly or Jenga. The boys had a lot of fun playing this basketball videogame, and were merciless in pointing out how terrible I was at this particular game. Needless to say, it was a lot of fun.

Week 9:

· This week consisted mostly of answering incoming calls and learning new paperwork. The paperwork that the Compass House supervisors have to fill out actually consists of a variety of documents. The paperwork that I learned how to do was the daily log. The information that is input into this consists of any direct information referring to the kids. This could be anything from physical complaints or illness to problems with the family. The problem that I was learning to input regarded one client having an attitude problem with another supervisor. While entering this information into the log, I mentioned who was involved in the incident, the actual words being spoken, and any other miscellaneous details that I felt were imperative to the case.

· Other activities during the week spanned from playing pool in the basement to watching Batman movie marathons on television. The Batman movie marathon was actually on ABC family on October 31. It was almost a mini party for the kids because there was a lot of candies and treats donated to the shelter that day as well. Therefore, the lot of us were nibbling on fudge while entering into heated debates about which version of Batman was superior.

Week 10:

· This week, November 2-7, was an interesting week because I was able to partake in a couple of intake processes. These processes are interesting because, as mentioned in previous entries, it gathers a lot of background information pertaining to the client. For example, the intake paperwork asks about their previous homes, family members, and physical disabilities. Of course, there is a lot of other information gathered too because, in general, this information is six pages long. It also takes approximately forty-five minuets to complete because sometimes the supervisor needs to ask questions of different counselors, agencies, and relatives that are involved in the minor’s life. In particular, this client talked the multitudes of houses that the client had lived at previously. She also mentioned that she moved around to so many different locations because she was living with various relatives who were willing to take her in when her mom refused to help her. This gives the supervisor a hint of the life that the client had led and may give some indication of the strenuous relationships between the client and family members.

· Another activity that I did this week was give tours to new incoming residents at the shelter. For example, any new clients that came in were directed to me so that I could show them the interior of the house, more specifically the rooms they were allowed into and the areas they were to avoid. It was a good way of being able to communicate with the clients and earn their confidence.

Week 11:

· November 9-14 was a week for adventures. I went on many walks this week with my clients because the weather was a lot nicer. For example, three clients and I went to Burger King and got food for lunch. We took the food back to the shelter together and ate it, while continuing talking about the randomness of life. It was nice to walk with the clients and interact with them in a different setting, even if it was just walking to and from Burger King.

· This week I also had the pleasure of organizing the best kickball tournament ever. It was a lot of fun because we had a lot of kids at the shelter this week; eleven in total when I was there. Approximately ten of us went outside and set of our field together and played a game. We had fun dividing up the players and competitively keeping score of runs. It was fun playing the game with everyone and a lot of kids were really disappointed when the game ended.

Week 12:

This week I planned a pool tournament for all of the kids. There were approximately seven kids who participated in this activity. I, myself, am absolutely terrible at this game; however, many of the other kids are amazing at it. Naturally I was out in the first round, but I stayed and cheered on other people and was a mini referee for the following games.
Another activity that I participated in was a volleyball game with three clients and another intern. Both of us, as interns, decided that the kids needed some fresh air. Therefore, we pumped up a ball and divided up the players and created some semblance of a volleyball court. We ended up playing a couple of games before dinner. The dinner that was this week, after the volleyball game, was pizza. The excitement after the volleyball game was only enhanced with the pleasure of eating pizza.
Of course, I also helped with paperwork and phone calls during this week as well.

Week 13-14:

I combined these two weeks because I took off time for the Thanksgiving holiday. Thus, I was only at work on Monday during the week of Thanksgiving. That day was fun though, because I had another client intake that I did by myself and I was able to supervise another walk to Burger King.
The week of the fourteenth is actually this week. This past Monday I helped with dinner and supervised the chores that the clients are required to do. It was actually really slow on Monday, surprisingly. In fact, there were only two clients there that day.

Final Entery

meganmaricle — Wed, 09 Dec 2009 16:48:16 -0700

It's unfortunate that just now I'm beginning some of the most interesting aspects of my internship with ECMC. Since May I've been doing a great deal of the same work (data entry/analysis) which has allowed me a gain a greater respect for the research process, but left me with little to write about. However, with the termination of the semester and openings available I'm going to be trained to help with inpatient proceedings on the drug and substance abuse floor, which would have been a lot more interesting to read about. I'm looking forward to this opportunity and plan to continue my involvement with the hospital until I'm not longer able to (most likely next June when move in accordance to graduate school).Working with Dr. Leonard has been a great experience. Though he is brilliant, he is very humanistic in the extent that I was able to talk at length with him on the subject of grad school, finding work, and what it's really like working in the mental health industry. Honestly, this is the most important feature I believe has been gained. The work I have been doing, though interesting and enjoyable (ie: reading patient files/seeing how certain characteristics correlate) it was rather simple and repetitive, which is partially why I am glad to be gaining more responsibility as a member of a mental health team on the substance abuse floor. This is not to say however that I'm downing on my months of participation. I understand that data crunching is a crucial aspect of the research process and that "everyone has to start somewhere" so to speak, and further, I look forward to my continual involvement with the RPPC study. The individuals I've been working with are all incredibly dedicated and have at some level inspired me by showing that psychology isn't something that merely exists in the classroom and textbooks, but is a real and applicable realm of science requiring a great amount of patients and consideration. Seeing the "real" side of how class topics are actually implicated in the diagnosis process has highlighted the need to really pay attention to course material and learning it to the extent that it becomes almost second nature. I was greatly impressed at the ability of these individuals to recall small details about a disorder quickly and continue to expand on the possible links of causality (ie: aspects of past history, current relationships, home/social life...). Over the winter break (after my drug/background checks have been completed) Dr. Leonard is going to mentor me in ways to work with patients who suffer self inflicted injuries and additions in the course of several weeks of meeting (twice a week). Additionally, I will become prepared to administer questionnaires to patients and more affluent in dissecting meanings and correlations presented by such. This is without question, very exciting.

Hillside Internship

Kevin Murphy — Thu, 03 Dec 2009 23:05:39 -0700

Hillside Family of Agencies is actually a combination of different types of services for families and children. Hillside operates in over 30 different counties in central and western New York with over 40 different sites. Unfortunately there are no Hillside locations in the Buffalo area. Some of the different services that Hillside offers are developmental disabilities services for youth, home and community based services, outpatient treatment services, non-secure detention services, therapeutic foster families, and residential services. My internship was in the residential services area which requires a 24-hours-a-day, 7-days-a-week care and treatment due to the severity of the children’s emotional disturbances. They live in one of the many cottages on hillsides 30-acre campus while receiving individual and group therapy. The cottage that I interned at had children between the ages of 12 and 18 with severe behavioral problems, due to their severe emotional disturbances, that could not function properly in a normal school environment or at home. The campus also contains a school that any resident child must attend, a gym, indoor swimming pool, and outdoor recreational field are all located on the campus as well. The cottages themselves feature single and double rooms, much like in a college dorm, with a large living room area and kitchen and dining room where meals are prepared by staff every day.

Training 7/20/09 – 7/24/09

Training week consisted of 2 days of Therapeutic Crisis Intervention (TCI), 1 day of different types of documentation, food safety, sanitation, and blood and poison control training, and 2 days of restraint training. TCI, which was developed at Cornell University, is what Hillside staff is trained with in order to correctly handle situations with clients at the cottages and in the school. The program teaches staff how the clients feel during a crisis and how they respond to a stressful or triggering event. The program also teaches staff how to best communicate and interact with a client before, during, and after a crisis. During the training we had to split up into groups of 2 with other new hillside staff several times in order to role-play different situations from the client and counselor point of view. This helped us tremendously when applying the techniques in the real life situations while working at Hillside. It is a very good program in my opinion and while I was at hillside I definitely noticed myself using the different techniques that I learned during the training with great success. Documentation, etc. training was rather boring, but very important obviously. Everything that happens in a cottage at Hillside is properly documented and filed for later use, so knowing how to document an incident report or a progress note is extremely important. Restraint training was completely different than anything else we did that week. We spend 2 whole days learning and practicing different techniques of avoiding being injured by a client and taking down and restraining the client. The training was rather fun but when you think about it, it is rather a sad thing that we have to apply such techniques regularly while working at Hillside. We learned 3 different restraints. 2 two-person restraints where one counselor is holding the arms in different ways depending on the situation and the other person holds the legs together. We also learned 1 three-person restraint where 2 staff members are holding the clients are arms above his head while pushing down on their shoulders and the third staff member holds the legs. All of the restraints take place on the ground after the client has been taking down in the least painful way possible. They tried to teach us to pull the client down with you rather then to throw them to the ground and to do it on a softer surface rather than concrete or hard floors. Obviously, depending on the situation, that isn’t always possible and clients do sometimes get injured during a restraint.

7/28/09

Today was a pretty rough day at the cottage. Only 3 kids were on green group and 2 were on yellow. The rest were on red and therefore had all of their privileges removed. This is never a good thing because having everyone cooped up inside without anything to do is just asking for a crisis to occur. When I first got there I just went around like I usually do and said hello to everyone and then proceeded to sit in the living room area. One of the boys was trying to make a phone call and repeatedly asked one of the female staff members if he could use the phone to call his parents. She told him that he was not allowed to do so at that moment because since they had just gotten back from school he was supposed to be in his room for a half hour of quiet time. Then he wanted to know if he could go outside on a stress walk but again she told him no because he was on RFP (Removed From Privileges) status which means that he had had a crisis at some point in the last 2 days and would automatically be on red group for 48 hours. She told him that he would be off RFP by tomorrow morning but he was under the impression that he should have been off RFP today. She checked his file and told him again that he would be off RFP tomorrow and he was not happy about it. Even though she wasn’t the one who had originally put him on RFP status he was targeting her with insults and started throwing things at her like a nearby newspaper and calling her a bitch and all kinds of other insults. She kept trying to calm him down by saying that it wasn’t her fault that he had been put on RFP because she hadn’t been here in like 3 days or so but he just kept on escalating further. The other staff had to remove him from the living room into his room where he proceeded to go into a crisis and started throwing around everything in his room and hitting and kicking the door as hard as he could. This particular client is known to be destructive to the environment when he goes into crisis. The supervisor had to remove herself from the situation completely since she was the target of his anger at the moment. After about 5 minutes of him destroying his room and kicking the door over and over again he tried to run out of his room and chase after the supervisor so 2 other staff members that had been standing outside his door immediately grabbed him and had to drag him into the time away room where they performed a restraint on him.

8/2/09

As soon as I arrived today I was sent outside with the green group for their recreational activities time. We walked up to the rec. field and I played a little bit of soccer with the kids and a little bit of basketball after that. It was really hot outside so after about 30 minutes everyone wanted to go back inside. Once we came back in I sat down and helped one of the other kids who was on AFP make invitations for his birthday party which is tomorrow. He got some colored paper and some markers and told me what to write and to whom and I made a few invitations for him. I also helped him make some decorative posters for the party. After lunch time they had to do quiet time which went pretty smoothly since not a lot of people were there because a lot of the kids go on home visits on the weekends. After quiet time I played some UNO and Apples to Apples with some of the kids. Right before I had to leave there was some conflict once again between 2 of the clients, one of them was the boy who I helped make birthday invitations. The other one was the girl that is in the room next to his who’s birthday happened to be today. they don’t really ever get along and were saying mean things to each other which resulted in the boy escalating and having to go on a stress walk over to special services before he could have a full blown crisis. Other than that everything went pretty smoothly.

8/4/09

Pretty quiet day today. Most of the kids did really well in school and were therefore on green group and got to go on trip day. We only had about 5 kids stay behind so it ended up being an easy day. I played some scrabble with the kids and won even though I was trying my hardest not to use any difficult words. An odd thing happened at the end of the night though. I was sitting in the far hallway making sure all of the red groupers were getting ready for bed and getting them to stay in their rooms when one of the kids called me over to his room. He told me that he was feeling sort of weird and I asked if he was feeling sick or something. He said that he wasn’t feeling sick, but instead he was feeling “sexual.” I was not expecting him to say that and it caught me completely off guard. I didn’t really know what to do, but he seemed really concerned so I talked to him about it and told him that it was normal for his age to sometimes feel that way. He was still worried and wanted me to call the nurse so she could talk to him. After I got the nurse he asked me at what age feeling like this is allowed and I couldn’t help but laugh and told him that there really is no age limit and that it just happens when you get older. Some of the staff told me to tell him that he could just close his door and “handle his business” if he wanted to after I told them what had happened. They were also really surprised by this and even those who have worked there for years now said that not once has one of the clients told them something like this. I think that some of the kids like me a lot and can trust me more because I’m closer to their age than most of the other staff, also since I’m just interning with them I cannot do any of the restraints so they don’t really see me as a threat. It was kind of an awkward moment, but I think I handled it pretty well even though there was nothing that could have really prepared me for it. I finished off the night by reading a book to one of the other kids so they could fall asleep better.

8/6/09

When I got there today I was surprised to see that most of the kids were on green group and were already out on their trip to play golf at the Genesee Valley golf course. I spent some time with the red group kids after they got out of quiet time. We played some scrabble which turned out to be a pretty difficult task because some of the younger kids are not capable of making up their own words or can only come up with really simple words. I had to help them make up higher scoring words while trying to come up with words myself, so in the end I was playing scrabble with myself. Once green group returned from their golfing trip and everybody had dinner they did their usual goals routine. After that I got to go with the green group to the pool. They got to swim for an hour while I sat with the counselors and observed them, making sure they weren’t fighting or trying to drown each other and also making sure they stayed in the pool. In order to swim in the deep end they have to take a test each time they come to the pool. It requires them to swim 1 lap around the pool, going to all 4 corners, without touching their feet to the bottom of the pool. The rest of the night went pretty smoothly. They finally got a new TV in the cottage (one of the kids destroyed the old one during a tantrum), so green group got to watch an hour of TV before it was time for bed.

8/11/09-8/13/09

My last 3 days at hillside were rather fun and uneventful. I was there from 3PM to 9PM every day and apparently all of the crises happened when I was not around. Naturally we had a few clients on red group each day based on how they behaved during their morning routine and during school. These last 3 days it was extremely nice outside so I spent a lot of time with green groupers outside playing various games like kickball, soccer, basketball, and football. Also one night I went to the pool with green group but there was another cottage using the pool so we waited for them to finish and played basketball in the gym. The rest of the time was spent inside watching movies or playing games as usual. On my last day the supervisor, Mr. Sufra, had me talk one on one with one of the kids before I left. He had been in his room playing videogames during snack time and even though one of the counselors came around to let everybody know that they could come out of their rooms for snack, he claimed that nobody came to tell him to come out. About half an hour after snack time was over he came out and wanted snack and when one of the counselors told him that snack time ended already and that he had to wait until dinner he got an attitude with the counselor and demanded a snack. He was sent to his room after a long argument and was told that he would be able to eat snack if he approached the situation in a different way. I sat down with him to talk about what happened and he explained the situation to me from his perspective. Then I asked him how he could have approached the situation differently and we practiced explaining to a counselor that he did not hear anyone say that it was snack time and to ask politely if he could have snack. He then proceeded to apologize to the counselor that he got into an argument with earlier and asked politely for his snack. This process is an important part of working at hillside. The counselors are trained to talk everything through with the students and to try and find alternative ways of doing things instead of getting angry and rude. Simple things like being polite to someone can be a huge accomplishment for some of these kids and is a part of their treatment program.

Middle School Ministry

wachowil — Wed, 25 Nov 2009 10:55:34 -0700

August 24- September 7

The internship this semester is a continuation of my internship from the Spring Semester of ’09. While in the spring I was an assistant to the head Youth Pastor of my church, but focusing my energy on the Middle School programming, which includes a Wednesday night program that runs from 6:30-8:00 and then a Saturday Nite program that runs every first and third Saturday from 7:00-10:00. This year, however, I have been put in the position to be the Middle School Director, completely taking over all the duties for running the programs.

I took these weeks to prepare for the year ahead, to get a vision for what the first few weeks were going to look like. I spend many hours brainstorming new leaders and then making phone calls recruiting new people and making sure that leaders from the previous year were still on board for another year. I also spent a good amount of time getting together a good security team for Saturday Nites and appointing a security team leader to keep a solid team on throughout the year.

During this time, I met with many leaders to discuss the direction of the program, about its strengths and weaknesses and what needed to be changed in the upcoming year to make it overall more successful. We held a team leader meeting that would discuss issues such as small group time, message topics and training programs and how it could be implemented throughout the year. It was a great time of leader development and brainstorming for the direction of the program.

On Monday August 24, from 8:30am to 4:00, we had our annual “6^th Grade Day Away” at the Jetboats in Niagara Falls. This is a wonderful time for 6^th graders to get to know the leaders and a great welcome to the youth program of our church. I got to know many students and bond with them in a setting outside of our normal church area. Then at 3:00, myself and my supervisors met with the parents of the students to explain how our program works, what our vision is and answer any questions/ concerns that they had. This went extremely well and it paved the way for solid parent/youth leader relations in the future.

The week before September 6 I had to prepare to give a message at Fuel, or our high school/middle school worship service on Sunday. This week we were continuing a series called “The Battle Within”. To prepare I had to read through the curriculum presented to me and then pick out what I felt was most important to speak about and then type up my own message. When I write my messages (and for further clarification for my job later on in my internship) I follow a format of “ME, WE, GOD, YOU, WE”. Meaning, Me-I connect to the students and provide a story, movie clip, song, something to allow students to warm up and connect to me and what I am about to speak about. WE- reach out to the students, create tension and present an issue that they may be dealing with, this is the time to draw them in. God-present scripture that backs up what you are saying and then apply it to God and the audience. You-this is the time to challenge the students, to make what the scripture is talking about applicable to the students’ lives. We-present a “community challenge”, like what would happen if we all applied this concept/idea to our lives. Use inspiration to motivate them to use these principles in their lives.

September 7- September 21

From September 11-13 we had our annual Fall Retreat for our entire youth program. This is our kickoff event for the year where we take over 200 students and leaders to a place called Letourneau Christian Conference Center in Canandagua for the entire weekend. This weekend has been in the planning process for months and requires much preparation. In this time period we had various meetings about our theme for the year and what the weekend would look like. The theme for this year is FL!P, meaning that we need to flip our worlds around for Jesus. (in order to be first we must be last…) Personally, my job was to prepare the message for our Saturday morning rally. (a rally is just another word for a service, it has a crowdbreaker, worship and message) This took a lot of time and research to put together. The message focused on the idea that Jesus is the way, the truth and the life, and then how we can apply that to our lives in a practical sense. Overall, the weekend went extremely well, and we had over 250 students attend.

On the 9^th our church had our Ministry Orientation in the evening. We started in the main church building discussing the main idea and purpose of ministry, giving us inspiration and encouragement for the upcoming year of ministry. After about an hour at church, we split off into our different ministry areas. The youth volunteers headed over to the Hub, where we had a large group meeting and introduction, and then broke off into High School, Middle School and College. In the time that I had with my volunteers for Middle School, we talked about the overall purpose of the program and a little about myself considering the fact that I am the new director.

This year we wanted to try a little different of a program format. We wanted to give students the option of playing the large group game or being able to have discussion groups or play board games. We only wanted to use this structure if students were interested in the discussion groups or playing board games, therefore, we put together a survey to see what kids really wanted to do during this time at Overdrive. I took one afternoon to create this survey and also sheets for students to request people in their small group. We then handed out both of these sheets for the first month of Overdrive and collected as much information as we possibly could before we made any final plans for the format for the year.

This week I also met with my supervisor, Paul Gartley (our Youth Ministry Pastor) to plan out the message series up to Christmas. We decided to base a lot of our series on a book called “The Seven Checkpoints” by Andy Stanley. This book lays out seven basic principles that every teen should have. These include making wise choices, choosing the right friends, having moral boundaries, having an authentic faith and putting others first. Usually a series is three weeks long, and so with the time that we had before Christmas Break, we would be able to have four series and then one commitment night. The first series was simply called FL!P, which would give students an idea of what our theme is all about. Our second series was called “The Network”. It was based on the Verizon wireless commercial and the idea that “your phone is only as good as your network”, but using that toward students friendships, therefore saying “you’re only as good as your network”. The third series is called “Caution” and deals with the issue of making wise choices, how to make the wise choice and then what the consequences are of our actions. November 18 is going to be the “Ultimate FL!P”, where we would revisit the theme for the year, and then give students an opportunity to give their lives to Christ.

Every Monday I send out an email for the leaders for that upcoming Wednesday. It includes the memory verse for the week, any announcements that we have, the schedule of the night, the game and crowdbreaker and the message for that week with discussion questions.

The 16^th was our kickoff night for Overdrive, the Middle School program at the Hub. It runs from 6:30-8:00. This night was extremely difficult to plan, we had made many plans to have a skate park ministry to come and do a demo for us, but after a sudden cancelation we had to make alternative plans. When it came to it, we had a huge cookout with tons of food, crazy games in the gym and outdoor games on the patio. Each night we also have a message for the kids (a sermon). This night started a three week series based on our theme, FL!P. FL!P is based on the Scripture verse Titus 2:12, “It teaches us to say "No" to ungodliness and worldly passions, and to live self-controlled, upright and godly lives in this present age, ¹³while we wait for the blessed hope—the glorious appearing of our great God and Savior, Jesus Christ.” On this night I introduced the theme to the rest of the students who didn’t go to Fall Retreat and I spoke about what excuses people use to not FL!P their lives for Christ. Overall, this was a great night and we had a great time getting to know kids and kicking off a great new year!

September 21- October 5

Starting on October 3^rd we have our Saturday Nites at the Hub for Middle Schoolers. It runs from 7:00-10:00 and is an open hang out night for students to come and be in a safe environment on a Saturday night. We hold this evening every first and third Saturday of the month. We also offer a huge dodge ball tournament that students absolutely love to be involved with. Overall, we have about 250-300 students show up on these nights.

This week I also put together Small Group Leader Binders. These make the leaders’ jobs so much easier because they have all the information that they need right at their fingertips. In the binders are the Hub rules/guidelines, the list of students in the small group, get to know you sheets for the students, contact cards, the memory verse for the week to hand out to students with raffle tickets for memorizing the verse or bringing friends, the discussion questions/notes for that week’s message, the schedule and game guide for the week and leader contact information. Each week these binders are updated with the information for the following week.

Each week I have to prepare for Overdrive on Wednesday. To do this I have to come up with a crowdbreaker, competition (games), a message and small group discussion questions and message notes. For the first month of programming, the format of the evening was a little looser than it normally would be. We try to figure out what students are coming on a regular basis in order to arrange small groups accordingly. On September 23^rd, our crowdbreaker was “Sunny Side Up!” In this game, students climbed up a ladder and cracked an egg to try to drop it in a cup that was on their friend’s head who was lying underneath the ladder. The main competition was a game called “Steal the Bacon”, where students are split up into two teams. There are tons of huge balls in the center of the gym and the leader calls out a category, such as “students who go to Hamburg Middle School.” Those students who fit into that category would run to the center of the gym, trying to bring as many balls as possible back to their team. For the message, we talked about the question “Who/ what is first in your life?” I played a video clip called “I am second” based on various celebrity interviews of them giving their testimonies of how they came to Christ.

On Monday, September 21, I started to meet with a young girl (we will call her S) who is in seventh grade. She has been getting into a lot of trouble with her parents, school and her friends. She has been doing inappropriate things online, and has made a habit of stealing and lying to those around her. Her parents met with me and asked me to start mentoring her. We decided to meet every Monday for an hour to discuss her week, her life, friends, and relationships with her family. We also discuss a book that I had given her to read, called “Lies Young Women Believe” that is based on the lies that Satan feeds young women and how it affects their lives. This week, we went for a walk and took the time to get to know one another. We talked about her hobbies, likes and dislikes, what she likes about herself and what she doesn’t like about herself and various other topics. Overall, it was a good week and we both enjoyed the time we had together.

On the last week of September, I gathered all of the surveys that we had collected and figured out what the majority of students preferred to do while they were at Overdrive. Fortunately, students all fit into the categories that we had previously decided on, either wanting to play games in the gym, play board games or have discussion groups.

On September 30^th, our crowdbreaker was called “Sheet 2 Shower.” We had three students go in the backroom to wait. We would bring out one student at a time and tell them to get under a sheet. We would tell them, “you want to get in the shower, so what’s the first thing you are going to take off?” Now, the students should get that they need to take off the sheet first, but the trick is that students don’t think of the sheet and start to undress themselves. We do that one item of clothing at a time and try to give them hints that they need to take off the sheet first. The first two students who did this caught on and took off the sheet first. However, the last one was going to fool everyone. We told him to put on an extra pair of shorts underneath his pants, and then he was to play along and pretend like he didn’t know he was supposed to take off the sheet first. He took off all of his clothes, including his boxers (keeping in mind he still had the gym shorts on) and everyone in the crowd was laughing hysterically. He then left the room in the sheet, keeping everyone in suspense, thinking that he was completely naked under the sheet. For the game, we played “Prisoner Dodgeball”, which is just a combined version of dodgeball and capture the flag. The message for the week focused on the idea that a person can’t do a half of a FL!P. Physically if they try to only do half a flip, they will get hurt, it just isn’t possible. I compared this to the FL!P we do for God, that we can’t do it halfheartedly, we are all in or not in at all.

The week before October 5 we also had to prepare for “Glow in the Dark Nite” that would be held on October 7^th. We had to order all of the glow in the dark sticks and plan all of the games, as well as put together advertisements for the night, including sending out post cards to each student.

Sarah Dzioba: Crisis Services Practicum

Sarah Dzioba — Sun, 11 Oct 2009 23:20:56 -0600

Hello all! My name is Sarah Dzioba and I am a Senior this year, scary enough as that is. For my practicum experience I am interning at Crisis Services, which is conveniently located right down Main Street. (Not so convenient, however, is all the construction that is surrounding it!) I am currently being trained as a CCP (Crisis Counseling Program) intern, where I am learning to become a more effective counselor in the main phone room. We are slowly but surely learning how to take phone calls appropriately, which includes understanding how to talk (and more importantly, listen) to the individual on the other line, obtain important background information on him or her, assess whether it would be more appropriate to transfer the call to a program such as Outreach or another coworker in the vicinity, and so on.

For more information, here's the Crisis Services website. I find that the information is pretty valuable. : )

http://www.crisisservices.org/index.asp

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10/03/09
Hours: 10:00 a.m.-5:00 p.m.
(7 hours)

Today was my first day training at Crisis Services. Admittedly, I was pretty nervous when I first walked in the door: I had no idea what to expect! I am training with 7 other volunteers, and am the only intern in our group. Arthur, the man that interviewed me a week or so prior, has become our supervisor and the one in charge of training us. Our training extends throughout the month of October, on every weekend, and after that we will begin our first training shifts. We get 4 shifts that will be supervised before we are on our own. For now, I don't really want to think about that, so I'll just focus on my training! It's kind of scary to think that we will be answering our own calls soon enough.

The day began with Arthur handing us these pretty awesome binders full of Crisis Services information, separated by colorful tabs with numbers on them. These will be our "Bibles" throughout our training, and will surely help us later on when we are answering calls as well. The information is very detailed and extremely helpful, in my opinion. In order to begin to get to know each other, we were "forced" to play the name game at 10:00 in the morning. (where everyone has to say their name and something about themselves; the person after them has to then remember and repeat all the names and character traits of everyone else before them.) Unfortunately, I was the second to last in the circle. It was a pretty fun experience, though. Our group began to laugh and get less nervous around each other.

The day mainly consisted of Arthur reading information from the binder to us, and answering any questions we had. Many of us were getting tired throughout the course of the day, so we took a few breaks and got to know each other a little better. We also had an hour lunch break, where I went to grab some delicious lunch at Streetside cafe and visit my former coworker/friend. Overall, it was a good first day. I learned a lot of new stuff, and boy is there a lot more for me to learn!

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10/04/09
Hours: 10:00 a.m.-5:00 p.m.
(14 hours)

Today was my second day of Crisis Services, and it was a lot less awkward than the first. We started the morning off with another fun "get to know each other" exercise. We were handed a piece of paper with a bunch of questions on it, and were to answer 5 that stood out to us. These questions asked us certain things about ourselves, like "What is your favorite sandwhich?" and "How often do you vacuum?" Everyone then told everyone else their answers to their questions, and we all had a good laugh about them. We then took our pictures for our Crisis Services IDs.

There was a lot more information to be read today as well, but I feel that it will be very valuable to me in the future. Today we also got to listen to some actual live phone calls, which were primarily about homeless issues. We also listened to a recording of a repeat caller, Irene. She seems like a very interesting lady indeed.

For my hour lunch break I headed back to my apartment, and came to the conclusion that I'm definitely staying at Crisis Services for all my lunch breaks thereafter. Driving through a million construction cones does not put one's mind at ease during a lunch hour. I'd much rather relax with a good PB&J sandwich in the break room, chatting with my fellow volunteers.

We ended training with a role-play exercise, where each group of 2 people made up their own scenerio and acted them out. One person would be the caller, and one would be the counselor. My partner and I made up an interesting one where I was a 15-year old pregnant girl (father unknown) with very conservative parents that had no idea what to do. It was undoubtedly more detailed than that, but the end result was that it was suggested I either talk to my parents or call 1-800-abortions 'r us. Needless to say, the role-playing exercise was pretty awkward for all of us, but we did make a good time out of it.

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10/11/09
Hours: 10:00 a.m.-4:00 p.m.
(20 hours)

Third day of training going strong! This weekend I had Saturday off for reasons unknown to myself. We started the day with some "brain teasers", where we had to figure out certain scenarios. One involved how a scuber diver had died in the middle of a forest, and another involved a husband killing his wife and getting off free or something like that. The guy sitting next to me figured the first one out right away, but it took us a good 20 minutes at least to understand how this fictional character could get off free...

Today we met two very nice ladies from the Outreach program. Unfortunately I forgot their names, but I'm sure I'll get to know them better as my time at Crisis Services goes on. We went through a Powerpoint slideshow explaining a lot about what Outreach does and does not do, and so on. It also included examples, where we had to think of whether this individual case would be appropriate for Outreach to handle or not. It was pretty informative.

Took my lunch at the break room today, which was a great idea. I talked to my fellow volunteers and learned more about a few of them, which I really enjoyed. We have a great bunch, always with interesting stories to share.

After lunch we looked at a bit more information from the binder and shared our "observation homework assignment" experiences, which were pretty hilarious. We finished up the day with listening to a few recorded calls and doing some more role-playing exercises. I simply got to observe this time, but they were really good. Though we are all nervous about this, I feel like we're learning a lot. We'll be more than prepared to handle calls when the time comes. : )

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10/17/09
Hours: 10:00 a.m.-3:00 p.m.
(25 hours)

We started off today's training by doing yet another "wake everyone up" exercise. Arthur handed out blank sheets of paper and told us to write down two truths and one lie. We then would all try to guess which one of the three was the lie. Unfortunately, I am a horrible liar. My lie was "I keep finding my clothes in my brother's hamper every time I come home." I am an only child. I found it funny that when it got to my turn, everyone thought one of my truths was a lie except for the guy that sits next to me. (Apparently "I just started a club and our first meeting was yesterday" was too normal to be a truth!) I laughed when he said, "I bet you don't even have a brother!" Low and behold, he was correct. It was a fun way to start off the day, though we did get rather sleepy later on. All the information we learn in training can take a lot out of you.

Today we discussed Child Protective Services, (CPS) child abuse, pedophillia, and the Kids Helpline. We found out that we are indeed mandated reporters while working the CCP room. This means we must report when we suspect a child is being abused, maltreated, or neglected. We do not have to have specific proof, but if we have any indication of this being a possible truth, (a "reasonable cause") we must do something about it. We learned the details of what to include when filing a report, who to send the report to, etc. We went over different types of child abuse and neglect, as well as possible indicators.

We also went over the Kids Helpline at Crisis Services, which I am quite interested in. As someone who is planning on going to graduate school for school counseling, I really enjoy the idea of working with kids and teenagers. I was sadly disappointed to find out that the chatrooms they once had set up as an addition to the helpline were no longer available. Regardless, we did get a lot of useful information about the phone service and what to expect from callers on that specific line.

The rest of the day was spent listening to another woman discussing homeless issues. We went over procedures for taking these types of calls, and where to direct those who need assistance in this area. It was a lot of information to take in, especially learning about all the homeless shelters and places to refer individuals to. I am pretty nervous about transfering calls in general, but I feel as though I will gain more confidence once I actually get used to going through the motions.

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10/18/09
Hours: 10:00 a.m.-3:00 p.m.
(30 hours)

Today began with a "resource assignment", where we took a short trip to the CCP room. Each of us got on a computer, (I doubled up with one of my peers) and we were then told to look up two agencies that would be an appropriate resource for each example. It took me and my partner a while to find two agencies for each of the 14 examples: many of the agencies were very specific in what they offered, when they offered them, and where they were located. This made it difficult to find good resources for the people listed within the examples, but we did our best to make do. We had originally started off typing keywords into the database, (for example: "pregnancy" and "alcoholism") but found out that it was much easier to look through the cateogories that were already listed. After we finished, we headed back to the conference room and we all went over what we had put down for reach question. I took a lot of notes: I feel like this will be really useful in the future.

After this assignment, we took a 15 minute break where I had some lunch while talking with everyone else. We had fun talking about the October Storm that had happened a while back, and swapped stories.

Around 1:00 p.m., a woman from outreach came in and talked to us about suicide and lethality assessments. Though I had been previously very worried about dealing with suicidal callers, this discussion calmed me down quite a bit. I now have a lot more information on the matter (and many dog-eared pages in my binder) and feel more confident with how to deal with these types of situations. For the last 15 minutes or so of training, Arthur returned and we discussed guidelines on how to deal with "difficult" or "problematic" callers. Today was very informative, and I am beginning to really enjoy being at Crisis Services. As I left the building, I saw that it was sunny out: today is a good day!

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10/24/09 & 10/25/09

Hours: 10:00 a.m.-3:00 p.m. (both days)

(40 hours)

These were my last two days of training! Off to do the real stuff.

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11/12/09

Hours: 4:00 p.m.-8:00 p.m.

(44 hours)

Today was my first training shift. I was extremely nervous about going, but once I arrived at Crisis Services I felt myself at ease. I was supervized by a very nice man named Bill, who taught me much more about Homeless issues. I listened in on a lot of calls, and got to know some of the other CCP members a little better. This definitely helped me feel more prepared to take my first call.

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11/16/09

Hours: 4:00 p.m.-8:00 p.m.

(48 hours)

Today I took my first call! I was nervous, but I did it. Ironically enough, my first call was a hang up. Success! I took a total of around 5 calls today. My first real call consisted of a lady asking for counseling services for her daughter, and even though I wasn't entirely sure what I was doing she was very kind about it and understood. She told me that I had helped out a lot, which made me feel better about the whole thing. I took another hang up, and another call was a simple referral. My last call of the night, my personal favorite, was 18 minutes long and with a repeat caller. I enjoyed this very much, since I simply listened to her, gave her some options, and told her to keep optimistic. She thanked me for all of our support, thusly ending my shift with an uplifting note. I still have a lot to learn, but I'll gain more experience along the way. You just have to "dive" into the calls, I've learned: training and information will only get you so far. Regardless, today was a great experience.

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11/18/09

Hours: 4:00 p.m.-8:00 p.m.

(52 hours)

I had a lot of fun today. I got to work with my coworker and supervisor for the day, Andrea, and one of my training buddies, Tania. I took a few calls, including two repeat callers and a referral. I tried to pick up more calls today, but a lot of them ended up being hangups! I listened in on some calls as well and got to know people better. I found out where the Outreach room was, right across the hall ironically enough, and got a lot more useful information from Andrea. I'm feeling less nervous about the whole thing, which is great. I am really enjoying my 4-8 shift, and plan on continuing to plan my shifts at this time. Tomorrow is my last shift for this month, and then I will have 3 more shifts in December before Winter Break. I also have a reconvening with Arthur and the other people I trained with the night before Thanksgiving break, where I will pick 2 calls to discuss. Hopefully I'll have some more calls by then!

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11/19/09

Hours: 4:00 p.m.-8:00 p.m.

(56 hours)

Today was a great day for me at Crisis Services. I took 5 or 6 calls that were not hangups and not repeat callers! A good majority of them were referrals, since we did not provide the services the callers were requesting, but I tried to be as supportive as possible. I apparently got very positive feedback from one of the callers as well, who said I was very helpful in getting her over to the correct department. I am still new at getting to know all the information so this made me feel very good about everything. I'm starting to get better aquainted with the system now, and I really love my coworkers. It's a really great place to be. I always know I have support there; you are never alone in taking calls. Today was my last shift for this month and I now have a few calls that I actually feel slightly confident with. I will choose 2 of these to listen to at our reconvening next week.

Kait's Gateway Longview Practicum

KaitlynStarowitz — Mon, 21 Sep 2009 11:24:56 -0600

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9.16.09

Today was the first day at Gateway Longview. My placement is
with the residential treatment program’s school, which includes classrooms that
are 6:1:1 (6 students, to 1 teacher, to 1 aide). These kids have been referred
to this school by the courts. Many of them are PINS, or Persons In Need of
Supervision. The school is structured differently than any other school I’ve
been in. It took me little while to accept the fact that it is different but
accepting makes the way that they run things not so foreign.

My placement is with Mrs. Colleen Witkowski, she teaches
high school level history and algebra. The first class is homeroom, this, and
much of the rest of the day, consisted of meeting the students, learning some
of the many rules, and observing the different school setting. The school is
strict, and for good reason. These kids need structure and although at times it
seemed chaotic to me, it was under control. During 3^rd period Mrs.
W’s aide, Mrs. Kim (although all the students refer to aides as Miss or Mr. and
there first name) showed me about their recording system for kid’s behavior,
“School Note”. It’s a worksheet that is broken down into 20-minute time slots
where the kids can either earn or lose points. Some of the dockages include
object respect and personal respect. One of the problems with this chart, as
cited by Miss Kim, is that a kid can be good most of the day but have one bad
20-minute slot and ruin their overall score. The points that they accrue, which
has to be 80% everyday, move them up or down in levels. There are four levels
that correspond with certain privileges. Although I’m not sure what all the
privileges include I know that kids can earn traveling in the hallways by
themselves, which is an influential incentive. Level fours have little to no
privileges.

Some of the other foreign policies, no pun intended, are
time outs. The kids in the classes I’m with act out, which is called a crisis
or crisis situation, in somewhat violent ways. Kids who act out are sent to
time out. The time out room has extra aides who are there to monitor outside
the room. The room itself is an empty brick walled room. The purpose of this
room is just to get the kids out of the situation they were in, and away from
the other students.

The way that Mrs. Wit teaches is a more laid back style. She
told me that getting 30 minutes of material in a 40-minute period was her goal.
When the kids come into the classroom it takes a lot of effort to get them
settled. So her approach is to give them a few minutes and then let them
settle, it worked well for these groups.

The kids themselves are a very diverse group. They come from
different places and backgrounds. Many of the kids have ADHD and it was
apparent which ones. There was one boy, T, in the only 8^th grade
class that seemed to almost be in pain because he had to sit in a chair and pay
attention. He would have sudden outbursts and was chatting loudly through most
of the class. But when directly asked a question he would take a minute and
find the answer. Many of the kids, including T, employ attention-seeking
behaviors. Seeing as I was new some of the kids took advantage of that, just to
test my limits.

9.18.09

The kids are starting to open up more to me because I’m not
so new. One girl, C, is still trying to decide if I’m a threat or a friend. I
hear from Mrs. W, that she doesn’t like white women, but she talked a little
bit to me today. Slowly I’m also starting to hear some of the kid’s stories.
The one boy in the 8^th grade class, T, has a serious history of
sexual abuse, to the point of torture. I’m sure that many of these kids have
similar backgrounds.

Because today was Friday many of the kids were excited to go
on home visits this weekend. The kids who are not on AWOL watch, suspended, or
restricted can go on home visits. Fridays also mean that some kids can wear
their own clothes, they don’t have to wear the khaki pants and black polo.

This facility is great for getting kids away from
unfavorable environments. But sometimes coming here makes kids learn negative
behaviors. There is a girl here, D, who came here and didn’t swear, and was
relatively non-violent. She is younger, 7^th or 8^th grade,
and she was staying with older high-school aged girls. After about a week she
was swearing, being violent towards staff, and swearing at staff. This is
similar to the argument that criminals go to prison and learn how to be better
criminals.

9.21.09

Today was my 3^rd day at Gateway and it was
volatile. M, a girl who used to be in the residential program who is now in the
day treatment, was heard screaming and yelling about every little thing. She
was having a crisis in the early part of the day and was riled up for the rest
of the day so that everything set her off.

Lunch was generally quiet but after lunch is the 8^th
grade history class. T was incredibly excited and hyper today. He couldn’t sit
in his chair and he seemed manic. Around 2:30 he had to be chased down the hall
and restrained by 2 aides to go into time out. A girl in my homeroom class was
also having a bad day. C was defiant all day, she was very upset when she got
docked in the morning and continued her attitude through the rest of the day.
During study hall she was defiant at every opportunity that arose. The problem
with many of these kids is that once they get riled up it is hard for them to
deescalate.

Today I realized how important points are to these kids.
They are a bargaining chip to a degree and a lifeline. If the kids don’t make
their points for the month it may mean no home visits or off-campus privileges.
That is why many of them get so upset when they get dockages.

9.23.09

The more time that I’ve been spending with these kids the
more that I get to know them. They are becoming more familiar with me in the
classroom and I can have conversations with them.

There was a fight early in the morning between 2 girls. The
situation was that one girl D was making fun of DN’s family and she got angry.
They grabbed each other’s hair and were cursing and hitting each other, they
had to be pulled apart and put in time-out. These girls are not the first
fights that I’ve witnessed and getting mad and acting out seems to be a daily
occurrence.

I’ve also seen many different styles with the aides. Miss
Kim has an effective method with dealing her students. The kids know that if
she says to do something and they don’t, they will get a dockage. She doesn’t
bargain or issue empty threats. Some of the other aides take the approach of
being a friend; this doesn’t work out well for them. The one aide with this
style is very unsuccessful at getting his kids to cooperate, they are
disrespectful to him and they are reluctant to do anything that he says.

Another unsuccessful approach is inconsistency. Miss Kim is
consistent with discipline, and she doesn’t take points from one kid that she
wouldn’t take from another. The kids know this and usually comply with orders,
or suggestions.

9.25.09

Today Mrs. Wit, the teacher I’m usually with, wasn’t here
and Gateway has a hard time getting substitute teachers. I helped out today
with getting the kids through some material, some of the classes more than
others. One of the global classes was not productive at all because I had no
help from the aide. She should have been running the class, but instead wanted
to play chess with another student not in her class. It must be difficult for
the regular staff teachers when they don’t have support from the aides.

One girl this morning had a crisis because of a dress code
issue. On Fridays there is a dress down day for certain students. The kids are
allowed to wear their own clothes within limits. J was breaking dress code and
was angry when her aide told her to cover up or change. She spent most of the
day in timeout. When she came back to class she was on level 4, which is one of
the most restrictive levels and the kids are not supposed to talk to her. I
believe that is because they don’t want the crisis situation to be brought back
up and possibly upset the person again.

I talked with Miss Kim for some time today about the different
reasons that kids are here. Many of them have drug offenses against them or
assault, but a surprising number have molestation, pedophilia, or other sexual
crimes in the backgrounds. Some were the victims but others were the
perpetrators. An example twin boys J and K and another boy went AWOL and its
thought that they raped another boy. J and K are the victims of sexual
molestation from their older brother, who was also at gateway but graduated,
and they in turn molested others.

Although this information is disturbing, it’s essential to
learning why these kids are here. I’m glad, however, that I made my own
conclusions about them before knowing their pasts. I want to believe that these
kids are inherently good and that the environments turned them for the worse.
Many of these kids don’t have support systems; no parents or parents are drug
addicts, or older siblings that are inappropriate. Another girl SS came here
beaten to a bloody pulp. She had been in the hospital in a coma. Originally her
stay was for her own protection, I don’t know if it’s evolved to something
else.

9.30.09

Today was generally a calm day, which was a change from the
fights, and verbal threats. Some things that I’ve noticed are that some of the
kids have many talents but don’t have many outlets. Many of the kids excel at
poetry. They write song lyrics, much of it riddled with emotion. With the
problem that these kids have with anger, writing could be used as a serious
outlet for emotions that the kids find overwhelming or can’t express in a
healthy way.

I find it unusual that these kids don’t have more therapy
options. Most of them have to take anger management classes, and many of them
also are on medications. The part that is more upsetting is that they only meet
with a psychiatrist once every 3 months or so. The psychiatrist also doesn’t
consult with the people that are with the kids every day, the teachers and
aides, to get a more detailed evaluation of the kid’s behaviors.

10.2.09

Today I helped out subbing for Mrs. Wit while she stepped
out for a few periods. The morning was been pretty subdued. The kids were
really productive during the week so Mrs. Wit usually gives them a free day
when they’ve earned it. We’ve also gotten 3 new students in the last week. It
is interesting to see the new kids come in; it is really like most other
schools when new kids come in. Some are shy and some fit right in. Many of
these kids already know each other from either being in lock-up together, or in
other facilities, many are relatives.

I see that many of the kids have talents, if it were
nurtured, in writing or singing, and even budding actors. Unfortunately most of
them aren’t encouraged to pursue these interests because of the dysfunctional
families that they come from. Ty talks about being a basketball player, and
aspires to play in college. I hope that he makes it there. A minority of the
kid’s talk about going to college, the majority talks about college parties,
and how they want to go.

With so many of these kids in Anger Management classes it
seems that encouraging them to write would be a helpful outlet. DV likes to
write raps, essentially poems, and they are dripping with emotions that they
are unable to express. Writing can be such a helpful outlet and I would like to
hope that they are being taught to use it.

10.5.09

Again today I got to help out running some of the morning
classes, because Mrs. Wit had a family situation to settle. The kids were
generally cooperative and finished the material in the chapter. All the Global
classes are run by reading material out of their book and Mrs. Wit elaborates
on the more important points or people in the chapter. They usually complete
worksheets and vocabulary at the end of each unit as well.

One of the classes was difficult because they had a
substitute aide in. One of the boys in that class, E, is very disrespectful. He
treats women specifically like trash. So far he hasn’t been that difficult with
me but I believe that’s also because he was trying to decide if I could get him
in trouble. I don’t have the immediate power to take away points but if I spoke
to the class aide, points could most likely be docked. But, E was testing the
limits with me, and I had to be frank and tell him I was ignoring him if he
couldn’t be respectful and appropriate. It didn’t help the situation that his
regular aide wasn’t there because she is usually very aware of what her kids
are doing and intervenes when they become inappropriate. Many of the other
teachers think that his disrespectful nature may lead him to be a future
rapist. It is daunting to think that a 15-year-old boy could be capable of such
things by just observing his behavior in the school, but he’s not the first kid
that came through this system, that would come to commit a serious offense and
end up in prison.

10.14.09

Today was interesting because it was J’s last week, and the
first student that was going to be discharged while I was here. She was
generally exited about leaving, but I think she was also scared. I would think
that after being in such a highly structured environment that it would be
intimidating to go back into the real world, especially when a home situation
is not all that stable. I found
out after that on her very last day, she had to be restrained because she was
going into crisis. She admitted that she didn’t want to go home and that she
was afraid.

10.19.09

Today was the first day that I’ve been here that Miss Kim
hasn’t. She was ill and the kids had no one to travel with them from class to
class so I filled in. This was extremely difficult because I’m used to having
kids that know the rules, and strictly follow them. These kids besides a few,
know the rules, but pretend they don’t. I’m also somewhat intimidated by them.
Most of the day was spent chauffeuring C, around and speaking with A., not to
curse. A. and C got -40 in science, C first and A. after class. C found here
dockage to be unfair because A didn’t get docked for swearing. A. then got
docked, and he was upset for the rest of the day. A is being discharged at the
end of the week, and it seems that he is having some of the feelings that J had
last week.

From the viewpoint of an aide I experienced first hand the
inadequacies of the “School Note’s”. I saw inequity in the points that are
taken. There is one student in particular that some of the teachers turn a
blind eye to. He doesn’t get in trouble for swearing, or being in other
teachers classrooms. It is these inequities that promote frustration between
the kids.

At the end of the day I had my first reconciliation with a
student. A. had been angry and upset most of the day and had been more than
disrespectful to me. When a student goes into timeout they have to reconcile
with the teachers whose class they left or any staff they may have
disrespected. This practice is helpful in that the kids have to be confronted
by the people they have been mean to, and accept the consequences.

10.21.09

Today was a rough day. The beginning of the day was filled
with some fun. Mrs. Wit declared herself queen on the classroom and kids
started chanting “Overthrow, Overthrow!” So we staged a coup and Ty. became
teacher for the period. He did a reasonably good job. It was a stress reliever
for the kids, although later in the day five out of the six kids in our class
were in timeout. The kids went to P.E. and there was a restraint, and another
kids walked in on it, thus he was suspended, which means that he can’t go off
campus or go on home visits. Study hall was low key, seeing as there were only
2 kids not in time out, until one of the kids, J., came back from time out that
wasn’t supposed to, and I witnessed my first restraint. It took me by surprise,
I wasn’t ready and it upset me. J., had been mouthy all day, he’s new and he’s
trying to figure out where he belongs. The students here respect Mrs. Wit and
J. was back talking to her, and Ty. told him not to do that. It says something
about a teacher when the students don’t want other students disrespecting her.

10.23.09

A. had his last day today, and we had a free day most of the
day. He had to go on a medical run and didn’t come back until later. One of the
classes, the younger kids, had to do work because they are behind and are
usually unfocused during class.

New boy B. started in one of our classes. He’s transitioning
from CAB because he’s been doing really well in his treatment program. When he
came into our classroom for study hall he was really excited when I told him he
could watch T.V. He hadn’t watched T.V. in around a year, because the CAB
buildings don’t have cable. So for study hall we watched Tom & Jerry.

A boy in one of the other classrooms returned from being
AWOL. JU. went AWOL for 2 days and returned to Gateway. When kids come back
from an AWOL they have to be one-to-one staff until they come off AWOL risk.
Mrs. Wit made him sign a “I promise not to AWOL over the weekend” contract. It
is not binding but the kids know that it matters to her for them not to AWOL.

10.26.09

Today was interesting mostly in the 8^th grade
class. DN was having a “pay attention to me” crisis and became very
disrespectful. She went to TO out and wa told that she needed to come back tot
the classroom to take care of her books and packets and until that time she was
going to lose TC, task completion, and AA, assigned area, every 20 min. She was
not happy about it and attempted to do what she was told but with the attitude
that she didn’t like what she was doing and didn’t care about the consequences.
Thus she continued to lose points for the rest of the day.

Today was also DV’s last day. He was excited about leaving
but also skeptical. He talked as if he knew once he left it was only a matter
of time until he got into trouble. It is sad that the kids have no belief in
themselves to be able to go down the right path. Another teacher and I were
also going through the different expenses that go into a car, because DV wants
to purchase one, but he didn’t think about all the little things, like
insurance, registration, and upkeep, that go into buying a car.

Another thing I found interesting today was when one of the
teachers brought in her baby and the kid’s reaction to the baby. J. held the
baby and was very loving. He was adamant about getting to hold him and when he
did it was like a complete personality shift. Most of the kids are very caring
and careful when they get to hold a baby. It is very interesting to see such an
instant shift.

Starting on Tuesday there was going to be a new boy starting
in our homeroom. C. was upset about this, not because she would still be the
only girl in the our class but because, he two boyfriends were going to be put
into the same classroom. C. is dating ML. and JR. simultaneously. ML. is in CAB
and is transitioning to RES. ED. C. was hoping that one of the two might be
placed in our homeroom, so that they would continue not knowing about the
precarious dating situation.

10.30.09

Today we celebrated Halloween. We did some reviewing in a
couple of the classes but today was mostly a fun day for the kids. DV. didn’t
end up leaving. He thought that it would be a lateral move for him. He was
going to be moving into a facility similar to Gateway, and be more likely to
get into trouble. So ultimately he decided to stay at Gateway but he is going
to have some more freedoms, which will hopefully help him transition better in
the future.

On Wednesday there was an incident that involved some
“horsing around”, and one of the boy’s J. took the other two’s advances as
threatening. Unfortunately for DV. and R. it got them into trouble because J.
is infamous for wanting to get others into trouble. So DV. and R. lost their
levels, and J. is hanging out in the cottage, taking advantage of the
situation, because he says he feels threatened.

Toward the end of the day, the day-school kids were going to
be trick or treating on the residential side. Our kids were really excited
about it were very much in the Halloween spirit.

11.4.09

All the classes today were ending the near of the marking
period so it was time for notebook checks and back work to get done. It is
interesting to see the different work ethics in the kids. Some of them really
care about there grades and even if they passed an assignment they would do
corrections just to get a better grade. But others see the passing grade and
are satisfied.

Cell phones are not allowed in school, just like any other
school and today one of the aids tried to confiscate the cell phone. E. had a
cell phone all day and was not the best at concealing it. His aide and he have
a good relationship and are used to horsing around on occasion. They got into a
small wrestling match for the cell phone, in which E. narrowly won. This
incident in itself was good-natured and I think it speaks for the type of
relationship that these kids are looking for. They need stability and
companionship, but they also need a stable, reliable, and fair person to show
them rights and wrongs.

On a higher note C. in our class was going to her first
interview on Thursday and was practicing. It was very exciting for her.

11.6.09

It is always hard to hear of a child losing a parent. Today
was I.’s first day without a mom. She relinquished her parental right because
she was giving up on I. His mother sent the message along to I.’s social worker
and didn’t inform him herself. This was especially hard to hear, when we see I.
struggling everyday with some behavioral issues and unhealthy coping skills. I.
was handling this well, but I can only hope that he is getting the necessary
support from his social worker.

C. went to her job interview yesterday and got the job. She
is very excited to be starting. Many of the other kids have been filling out
job applications, to earn some money, although for some of them, it will all be
spent on sneakers.

11.9.09

Today was orientation. It was mostly about the policies at
Gateway. We thoroughly went over mandated reporting. Although it was not the
actual certification, we still went over when would be a situation that
reporting suspected abuse would be appropriate. I’ve been through certified
reporter training; so much of it was review.

During breaks I went down to visit with the kids in my
class. They didn’t have too much going on except C. was going to her first day
of work at 4.

11.13.09

DV. was added to our class on Thursday. He was not having a
good day, he was starting out the day in T.O. although I’m not sure why. By 2^nd
period half of our class was in T.O. because in science they were talking and
not doing work so, the teacher gave them each a 40 (verbal dockage) without any
warning. C. and TY. went into crisis because of this, L. didn’t go into crisis
because he was confused on the fact that they didn’t get a warning. As I was
coming back from the office with Ms. Wit we stopped in T.O. to see what was
going on. I ended up staying there for a while and talking with C. about her
new job and how that is going. She handles the pressure well at her job and has
a really good attitude and work ethic. She is nervous about another girl at
Gateway that is going to apply for job where C. works. S.S. doesn’t have a
great work ethic and is easily “disrespected”. C. is afraid that S.S.
reputation might bode ill for C.

In the 8^th grade class they had a test and they
were marginally better behaved today. The math class earned a free day and we
watched “UP”. Friday’s are usually good days because the kids are excited about
going home and this Friday was no exception.

11.16.09

Today I made some observations about the students in the 8^th
grade class. The girls in particular are extremely vicious. DN, D, and DS, are
all very manipulative, they are only nice to people as long as it serves a
purpose. D is particularly mean. J is another girl in the class and she is
white. She doesn’t fair as well as the other white girl at gateway because she
doesn’t assimilate to the girls already there. D was being openly mean to her
and lying to cover up her acts. I saw what happened and spoke to the teacher
after class. It’s interesting to see the dynamics between the kids.
Unfortunately the white girls don’t assimilate as easy as the white boys.
Although there are still differences among the boys they not as ostracized as
the girls.

Connections Practicum

jessica sam — Tue, 10 Nov 2009 14:13:08 -0700

6/26/09

I started my first week of interning at Connections this week. Essentially, it’s a program for children with High Functioning Autism Spectrum Disorders (HFASD’s); but in actuality it is much more. The program differs from other summer camps and therapy given to these kids in that it is a six-week intensive camp that runs every weekday for about seven and half hours. Rather than being filled with “typical” camp activities, the weekdays consist of intensive sessions of behavioral and social training coupled with therapeutic activities for the children throughout the day. What is more, throughout the day these children are graded on an intensive point system which allows them to earn points through using social skills and following rules while Research-Clinicians (the people who lead all of the activities and lessons) and other staff at the camp dock them points for negative behaviors. At the end of the week, if children have met their individual point goals, they are rewarded with a field-trip. Throughout the camp, points and behaviors are also being recorded to provide empirical evidence of the success of the treatment.

Being that the program is such a complicated and intricate endeavor, a full week of training is required to prepare staff to be able to apply it. As a Research-Clinician, I had to have all objective definitions of the behaviors that earned and lost children points memorized. I also had to be able to execute the specific methods of teaching the activities while calling points for children with a high fidelity level in order to be allowed to actually do it during camp. The first days of the week were spent taking tests on the program manual and operational definitions, as well as sitting in on lectures about the nature of the program and the children in it. The rest of them were spent practicing the program methods (the teaching of social skills and calling points on staff pretending to be children) all day long.

I must say, after having completed the week, that it was very challenging. The program is so intricate and fast-paced that it is difficult to master. But I made it through, passing all of my tests and evaluations…and I’m so excited to meet my kids next week! Myself and two other Research-Clinicians have been assigned a group of six 7-9 year olds and have named our group the “Fantastic Fish.” I can’t wait to really start the actual program and apply the skills that I’ve been learning all week to aid in the behavioral improvements of my kids.

7/3/09

My second week of interning was, all in all, amazing…though I can honestly say that this is the most mentally demanding job that I have ever had due to the complicated program coupled with the long hours. Each day, staff members are required to arrive an hour before the kids arrive and stay long enough to finish data entry after the kids leave. That first hour on Monday was filled with so much anticipation for me. My kids are so great. After spending a week practicing execution of the program with adults, it was so refreshing to finally be doing it with real kids. It (obviously) works much better that way. My team is also amazing. We have a great leader (she is a more experienced, returning Research-Clinician), and very hard-working members with high energy. Energy is really key in working with these kids. If you aren’t active, you’ll never get their attention.

It is very interesting to me how one single label (HFASD’s) can encompass children who are so different yet so similar all at once. Each of the Fantastic Fish has his own interests (yes, they are all boys) and his own personal strengths and weaknesses; yet each of his behaviors fall so neatly into the diagnostic criteria. Their interests and obsessions range from things like Transformers and Star Wars to the Titanic, shoes, and even gardens. It’s such an interesting spectrum of disorders.

At the beginning of the week, it was challenging to adjust to the kids, but we were all ready for it because of training. The days started out long, but got shorter as I grew more accustomed to flowing with the program. At about mid-week, educators seeking to learn more about the program and being able to apply it in their own classrooms began to come in and observe our class. From then on, we almost always had someone in our room watching us as we worked.

Thus far, I can say that it is fascinating that the kids are able to pick up on everything given the speed of the program. Thankfully, all of the Fantastic Fish made it to the fieldtrip at the end of the week, and it was very exciting for me personally to be able to see their joy in accomplishing doing that. I can also say that I can already see a change in my kids from just a week of intensive therapy and behavior modification. It’s amazing how with a little structure and the right experimental conditions, kids who many think are impossible can begin to improve in such short a time. I can’t wait to begin the next week of Connections.

7/10/09

The third week of Connections was quite interesting. Though I was already made familiar with the kids in my group all last week, their true personalities are beginning to come out now. As a result, this week was a little tougher than the first. Because my kids are getting so comfortable with me (and the rest of my team) being around, they are beginning to test us and are no longer focused on first impressions (if they ever were). All week it seemed as though each and every one of them pushed the envelope in his own way to measure how much we might bend the rules, or even break under stress. There were times when each and every one of them had a break down in his own way (and consequently was set back many negative points), but by the end of the week it was clear to them that we weren’t budging.

On Friday, we went to the Naval Park for a fieldtrip. All of our kids were very excited, but unfortunately one had to stay back because of bad behavior during the week. Hopefully, it will serve to inspire him and show the rest of the group that there are consequences for their actions and when they adhere to the program they will be rewarded. That being said, I’m already seeing positive results in the kids’ behavior, and it is amazing to me how fast the program is working with them. After a hard week of being pushed by the kids and having to discipline them in the face of struggle, it was really rewarding to finally get out with them to something a bit less demanding.

In the structure of the program, it’s easy to forget that the kids that you’re working with aren’t “normal” kids, per se. But as soon as we took them outside of that context, it was an instant reminder of the fact that they really do need therapy and help. When we were on one of the ships at the park, a tour guide there decided to joke around with our group and say that in order to get to the other boat they had to jump across to it. Any other kids would have thought it was so funny, but our kids were horrified. The man, I’m convinced, was quite confused as I explained to my kids (who were horrified) that he was just joking… but on a small scale it demonstrated how much they really need help, despite the fact that at times it may appear that they don’t need it.

Having said that, I’m grateful to have the opportunity to help these kids, and I can’t wait for the next week of Connections to start so that I can do that.

7/17/09

The fourth week of Connections has ended, and it was a great one. Since one of our kids stayed back from the fieldtrip last week, it ensured that they were on their best behavior on Monday. But that quickly fell apart. Wednesday and Thursday were two of the most trying days that we’ve had yet. Though our kids are learning more social skills and getting a better grip on the program itself and how to earn points, they are also more comfortable than ever with us and as a result have the tendency to act out sometimes.

Two of our kids in particular had especially difficult weeks. One of them has a very bad habit of biting his hand repeatedly when he is nervous, and on account of this has a large scar. One of his individual goals involves not biting his hand, and for whatever reason he was not doing so well with that this week. He ended up failing his Individual Daily Note (a report on his own specific goal behaviors) on account of that one day, and ultimately had to stay back from the field trip. The other kid that had trouble has major issues with eye contact, appropriate voice level, and paying attention. He got so many points off for not paying attention that he didn’t meet his goals for the fieldtrip, stayed back as well.

Despite the hard time that we had with two of the kids, as a group we had some major milestones. On Thursday, for the first time during a therapeutic activity, all of the kids in our group had conversations with each other about appropriate topics without being prompted. This in and of itself was enough of a success for me to overshadow all of the problems for the whole week. Though two of our kids stayed back, they all are developing social skills at an amazing rate and really learning the benefits of communication with others. Having a conversation for a normal child is so run of the mill, but for them it is very challenging. I can’t wait to see what other milestones they are able to reach.

The fieldtrip this week was also great. We went cosmic bowling, and the kids loved it. (Who knew so many kids loved Michael Jackson music.) Now that we’ve been out with them twice, they are beginning to really feel secure with us and are as a result more able to let go and relax. There’s nothing like dancing and bowling with a bunch of HFASD kids. It made my week.

I’m hoping that next week all of our kids make it on the fieldtrip. I can’t wait to take them all out at once, and I have a feeling that the fact that half of them have stayed back from one will prove to be a wake up call that they need to be on their best behavior. In turn, this coming week should be our best so far. (And once again, I can’t wait for it!)

7/24/09

This week was quite a rollercoaster. We significantly changed a few of the kids’ IDNs; and it proved to be an early week mini disaster. Monday and Tuesday, half of our kids failed them. It was a big self-esteem blow for them, and a morale killer for the entire class (not to mention for us). But, thankfully, we turned it all around. We adjusted the majority of the IDNs and implemented a new system in our classroom, and the kids began to do great! At the beginning of the week, they were responding so negatively to losing points that we decided to implement a positive reinforcement protocall for each of them individually.

For the new system, we wrote out reminders for each child that were suited to their own personal main difficulty, and every time they listened to the reminder they were rewarded with points. It worked like a charm. I knew that positive feedback was good, but praise is so powerful. It’s amazing what concentrating on the good to get rid of the bad can do. As a result of a small adjustment of the IDNs coupled with the new strategy, all of our kids were able to go on the fieldtrip for the first time. We all went to the zoo, and it was such a good reward for them to see the fruits of responding positively when being prompted to remember to do something. Hopefully, the behavior will stick for the last week of Connections and prove to become a habit to be used at home and elsewhere.

Though the week started out on a lousy note, we really turned it around. It was a great time for our team to be encouraged with the performance of our kids… and the implementation of a brand new system turned out to be one of the best ideas that we’ve come up with yet. As usual, I’m very interested in seeing the kids’ progress next week; and I cannot wait to see what kind of improvement we can push for during the last few days of it all. By the time it’s done, our kids will be like completely different people with regards to social skills…and I can’t wait to see the final product!

7/31/09

The last week of camp at Connections was everything I could have hoped for. We were worried about having behavioral problems due to separation anxiety because our kids love so much to adhere to routines; but we didn’t have any more problems with that than a normal classroom would have had. There were a few instances of crying, but for the most part the kids focused on getting as many points as they could in order to finish of Connections on a positive note. They all did so well.

The week ran so smoothly and our kids were on schedule with their points almost every day. As a team, we worked really hard to keep up our energy levels and really put in 110% percent to encourage them to do the best that they ever had. One of our boys actually got a perfect score on his IDN, one of the most if not the most difficult one in the class. His family actually cried they were so happy about it. All in all, the last week really proved to solidify all that they had learned.

On the last day, we went to Fantasy Island to celebrate together for our filed trip. The day was without issues until one of the kids threw up on the last ride of the day, but we surmounted the problem by giving him some of our clothing. After the field trip we had an award ceremony for the boys with their families, followed by a reception with them to say goodbye. Our kids all changed SO MUCH, and it was so rewarding to see that their families could see that and were thankful for it. Even though it was sad to see them go (and I did shed a few tears), I have every faith that they will go on to use the skills that they learned together at camp, and that even though the program was short it was well worth while for them all.

All that remains now of my summer internship is two days of data entry and test calculations until it is finished.

8/4/09

Our two days of work with the research team were very rewarding. We added results from tests like the BASC and ABC, and did data entry for a few of the stress measurement and happiness scales that the kids rated during the program. Though I wouldn’t want to do it as a full-time job, it was really refreshing to see the other side of the work that was going on throughout the program behind the scenes. After working with the team, I feel that I have a better understanding of Connections as a whole.

In closing this journal, I would like to reflect that my experience with Connections was amazing. Not only was I able to work first-hand helping people, but I was able to work as a Clinician doing behavior modification and therapy and get hands-on experience applying some of the things that it seems like I have been studying for so long in class. Working with Connections was by far one of the most rewarding things that I have ever done; and it was a welcoming reassurance that I am in a field of study that I would enjoy being in for the rest of my life.

week 3 at the YWCA

Minjae An — Mon, 07 Sep 2009 14:25:48 -0600

Monday 5/18. Today a lesson plan was created for the next 4 weeks at the YWCA. The classroom discussion was about what the students wanted to learn in the future classes. Topics such as drugs, sex, behavior problems, why people have certain disorders were the most popular ones. After the discussion, the students went on computers and chatted with their peers for the remainder of the time.

Tuesday 5/19. Today, I observed the student’s discussion on whether gay marriage rights resemble the civil rights comparison. Those who agreed with the similarity argued that all individuals in general were stripped of their rights. For example, blacks were segregated and gays are not allowed to get married. Both are abused by individuals who strongly oppose African Americans or gay individuals, mentally or physically. Those who disagreed with the resemblance of gay rights and civil rights argued that African Americans had it much worst because they were legally abused by white owners. In addition, they were segregated. On the other hand, gays were not legally abused. However, they were stripped away of their marriage rights. Such a topic led to a heated debate between the students which led to great interaction with one another. Wednesday 5/20. Today was open mic day! The students and I enjoyed other individuals in the city of Buffalo perform their talents and show their attributes on stage. Some sang, danced, read poetry, discussed certain topics such as the negativity in the world today, and various other things. Today was pretty much a day for the students where they got to enjoy lively performances and simply just relax! Thursday 5/21. Today an extremely interesting discussion was illustrated. An article was given to each student fully describing a transgender individual. A young boy growing up wanted to become a girl. In the article, Ben was born a male yet had a female perspective in life and changed his persona to Katie. As young as age 2, Ben would use anything he could fin to create long hair. At age 3, Ben was a princess for Halloween, wearing a tiara. At age 5, Ben was taking girl toys to show and tell in Kindergarten. The key term transgender was the main topic in today’s discussion.

Friday 5/22. Today the class discussed different techniques of learning. There were three groups set up and each group had a different method of learning. For example, the first table wrote down a phrase 15 times for memorization. The second table repeated the phrase over and over to memorize it. The last table had a spokesperson to repeat the phrase to them repetitively. Each group rotated until every student experienced each learning method. This evidently allowed the students to see whether they learned more efficiently by writing, listening, or by repeating on their own.

Total hours: 20

Week 2 at the YWCA

Minjae An — Mon, 07 Sep 2009 13:54:22 -0600

On Monday 5/13, the director had brought all the students in the classroom to learn about crimes occurring in the city of buffalo. In addition, the ways to prevent such devastating effects. Each student was asked to write down why such crimes occur and most of them would say because of jealousy, anger, revenge or fun. A large discussion was initiated where each student expressed their point of view towards the topic. After a long discussion, an article was given to each student describing an African American UB engineering graduate student who was shot to death near UB south campus. It was noted that the student was shot two days after graduation because of an argument over a female, indicating the extreme dangers of jealousy. Wednesday 5/15. The students at the YWCA discussed what attributes about a male or female attracts the opposite sex. For example, each male student would write down four things they like in female and female students would write down four things they like in males. Many wrote down physical characteristics such as their eyes, face, or body. Others wrote that they like people who are confident, smart, or funny. This discussion led to the topic of violence and stalkers. Alex Wright, the director of the YWCA strongly emphasized the dangers that arise from sexual attractions of the opposite sex. Stalking was the primary discussion which he warned the students to be cautious which can lead to sexual abuse and violent relationships.

Thursday 5/16. Why do people join gangs? This was the question asked to each student at the YWCA. Most of them would say for protection and the feeling of reassurance. Such a topic led to a discussion of gangs such as the “crips” and the “bloods” which are common gangs throughout the U.S. Unfortunately, some students found gangs to be a good thing to be a part of which in a sense had worried the director and I. Most of the students at the YWCA come from low socioeconomic families which play a major factor into crime. Our job is to eliminate the negativity from the students and point them toward success.

6 hours

total hours: 10

Wednesday 4/29/09 4-6

Minjae An — Mon, 07 Sep 2009 13:22:10 -0600

Today was performance day for the students where each student expressed their strengths in front of an audience. We had set up a stage and chairs for the friends and family members to watch comfortably. After each student sang, danced, read their poems, or showed their artistic abilities, we got to socialize with the students, directors, friends and family members about the good this organization is bringing to the students. On top of that, tasty treats and pizza was served which we all enjoyed greatly.

Practicum at the YWCA (Young Women's Christian Association)

Minjae An — Mon, 07 Sep 2009 12:58:56 -0600

My name is Minjae An and I am a senior at Canisius College. I am a psychology major and an adult,child clinical minor. My email address is anm@canisius.edu and I have chosen to do my practicum at the YWCA (Young Women's Christian Association). Empowering women and eliminating racism! Such a bold mission statement is pursued by the Young Women Christian Association (YWCA). This organization is a program intended to help young women, however it now advocates male youths to participate in the program as well, challenging the process of their mission statement which is limited to women by being all inclusive. By permitting all individuals of different sexes and races to come together and work for a common good can be extremely beneficial to the organization and the individuals. The area I helped out at the YWCA was the after school youth leadership program which consists of all African American high-school students living in the inner city of buffalo. This program gave individuals who had trouble in schools the label “at risk youth”, an equal opportunity to excel in all areas of life such as careers, health, relationships, education, global issues and various others. Students applicable for the YWCA are those who are being tracked at city public and private high schools by principals or counselors who feel these students are at risk of failing due to academic problems or being expelled due to behavioral problems. This program is designed to aid educational problems the students may pertain and teach them positive thinking. However, by labeling the children “at risk” stigmatizes their image negatively. Therefore, the goal I helped fulfill by volunteering at the YWCA was educating them in areas where they lacked greatly.

The director of the YWCA is Alex Wright and he has asked me to assist and aid the students in this program. His email address is awright@ywca-wny.org.

Buffalo Public Schools Practicum

David Lindberg — Tue, 11 Nov 2008 12:29:31 -0700

My practicum is taking place at Martin Luther King School (School 36). Martin Luther King School is an inner city grade school and junior high. My advisor is Amy Jo Crans-Stafford, and she is part of a team that works at a couple of schools.

10/21 9am-12pm

My first day was an interesting experience. After I was introduced to everyone, I got to shadow Amy and watch her assess one child who is about 8. This child is suspected to be in the mildly mentally retarded range, and he lacks many basic skills, such as the ability to remember his phone number.

This child is in a special education class, which is designated as a 15:1 class. This means the ratio of students to teachers is fifteen students to one teacher. We observed the boy inhis classroom setting, and we talked to his teacher. They discussed what he can and can not do and eventually he was given part of the WISC IV where he had to choose the picture that best fit the situation.

10/28 9am-12pm

When I arrived I found out that a brawl had occurred after I left on 10/21. Another negative note is that one ofthe middle school kids is suspected of selling and doing drugs. This is the older brother of the child who does not know his phone number. While I have not met the mother of the two boys, it is suspected that she is also mentally retarded.

I got to observe the WISC-IV being administered to one boy who Amy suspects is autistic. The thing that sets this boy apart is he says things that are irrelevant to the topic at hand. An example of this occurred while we were administering the WISC. After being asked to answer a question he said something along the lines of “Chucky is coming.”

10/30 9am-12pm

I started off the day by reviewing the test results of a girl who has high levels of anxiety and depression. Amy suspects that this is partly due to her having difficulties in her school. Amy wanted to put her in a 15:1 special education class, but she adamantly refused because of the label that being in such a class carries.

I also got to observe a CSE meeting, and it became clear that very little was accomplished in the 2 hour meeting. Basically the meeting consisted of Amy asking for a change, and the district representatives saying they can’t do it or they’ll look into it. I’m not sure I should go into much more detail than that, but the meeting was pretty much a stalemate.

11/13 9am-12pm

Today was an uneventful day, and the one thing of note occurred when I reviewed the Behavioral Assessment Scale for Children (BASC) II. The test consists of a number of different questions in the Likert format (Ex: Strongly agree, agree, neutral, disagree, strongly disagree.

I have noticed that most of the kids we see do not have a stable set of parents. In many cases the parents of these kids are around my age. One such parent came into a classroom and threatened the entire class. I believe she said something along the lines of "Your just jealous...you wish you were me and my daughter." Other parents don't have all the lights on upstairs. Amy has mentioned parents who are probably on crack, and she has also mentioned that a couple parents are not as smart as their kids...who are in need of special education classes. Another common trend in parenting that I have seen is that the parents do not have enough time to help their kids. Many such parents are working long hours and just don't have the time to help their kids academically.

11/18 9-12

Today I met a boy who apparently has behavioral issues which are affecting his classroom performance. An example of one of these issues occurred when he left his classroom unannounced. He had already been given the Woodcock-Johnson test, which is an achievement (measures what you have learned) test. His results were average-above average in the language related sections, but below average in the sections relating to math. Amy hypothesized that he may have performed worse on the math sections because she saved them for last, so she decided to give him the The Test of Early Mathematic Ability(TEMA).

His results for the TEMA were below average, and he has a lot of trouble doing basic subtraction problems. After the test Amy told me that he had a rough experience in his first grade math class, and he did not get along well with the teacher. She also said that he was having behavioral issues with his current math teacher.

When we finished administering the test I got to grade his TEMA. I did this by first adding up the questions he got correct. As soon as the test taker gets 5 consecutive incorrect answers, you stop administering that section. Once you get a raw score (number of questions answered correctly), you convert it to an ability score. The ability score is listed in the test booklet next to the corresponding raw score. After you get an ability score you convert that to a t-score, which is listed in a separate grading booklet. There is a verbal, non-verbal, and a spatial section in the TEMA. Each section consists of two parts. Therefore, you have 6 t-scores to calculate (2 for each section). Once all this is done you add up the two t-scores to get a score for the section. You can also determine a final score by adding up all three sections and looking up the equivalent score (which is given in the grading booklet).

11/20 9-12

Today I got to administer part of the Woodcock Johnson to an8^th grade boy. I gavethe Calculation, Math Fluency, and Spelling section to him. The calculation section consists of anumber of math problems ranging from addition and subtraction problems toproblems in which fractions are multiplied and divided.

The math fluency section is a timed section (3 minutes), inwhich the test taker is asked to do as many basic math problems as possible withinthe time limit. The spellingsection started with me asking the boy basic words such as hat, yet, andthe. Eventually the problemsbecame more difficult with the most difficult words being camaraderie, andbouillon.

As with most psychological tests, there is a set script ofinstructions and responses you can give (as the test administrator). The one criticism I got from Amy wasthat I did not follow this script well enough. I gave some judgmental statements such as “good,’ and “welldone” when a correct response was given. These judgmental responses can affect the outcome of a test and shouldbe avoided. One piece of advice Iwould give is to review the instruction manual for whatever test you might begiving as thoroughly as possible.

11/25 9-12

I finished administering the Woodcock Johnson today byadministering the applied problems section. This is another math section, and it consisted mainly ofword problems, but there were also some pictures. These problems ranged in difficulty and the hardest problemsgiving me trouble. One suchproblem was worded along the lines of “You have $10,000 into your account with2% annual interest. You deposit $1,000each year for 10 years. What willbe your final total after the ten years is up?”

When administering the test, I had to read the problems tothe student. The problem was alsoavailable for him to read, but he preferred to have me read him the problem,for a reason I will get to later in this post. When I finished giving him the Woodcock Johnson, Amy had meadminister an unrelated Sentence Completion Test. This test gave a uncompleted sentence such as “I liketo_________.” The goal of thistest was to have the student fill in the blank with a subjectivestatement. After he finishedcompleting the sentences (all of which were answered in a normal way), Amy hadme ask him additional questions such as “If you had 3 wishes what would theybe?” I also asked him questions about his family life.

After this was over I graded the Woodcock Johnson with Amy. We used an online program to grade the test, and the results were printed out. The results had his raw score, a grade equivalent, and anage equivalent listed. We determined that this 8^th grader performed at his grade equivalent for the mathrelated sections, but he performed at about a 4^th grade equivalent for the reading, spelling and writing sections. His spelling was particularly of concern because he spelled at about a second grade level. This explained why he needed me to read most of the applied problems tohim.

12/17

Today was relatively uneventful, and I spent the day reviewing a few kids files. Two of the kids had hearing disabilities, and one had a learning disability. Amy had me write out the disabilities for each kid, the treatment each was receiving, and the test scores that each had.

1/28

For the 28th I spent the entire day in CSE meetings. For these meetings the parent, a GE teacher, SE teacher, Amy (school psychologist), and the school counselor met to discuss a plan for the child in question. During the meeting we discussed what difficulties the child was having, and what should be done to correct these difficulties. We also went over the past plans to see if any progress had been made. If progress was made, we continued to use the same plan.

I also learned that there had been several brawls since I had last been at the school. This is a constant concern for inner city schools like 36. Inappropriate sexual contact is also a huge concern for Amy. In one of the CSE meetings we discussed one boy who was touching a girl inappropriately. The solution we came to was to discipline the boy in several ways. The first way was to call the boy's father, because the father was the only one who seemed to put any fear in the kid. The second was to discipline the boy immediately after an infraction occurred by sending him to the principal's office. The last solution was to seperate him from girls whenever possible.

2/18 8-12:00

Today was relatively uneventful, and I helped Amy fill outprior written notices. Priorwritten notices are needed if any change to a child’s special education isneeded. My job for the day was tofind out what each child’s disability was, what kind of treatment they werereceiving, and what type of tests each had received

2/20 8-12:30

I spent pretty much all of my time working with akindergarten girl. This girl has anumber of behavioral problems along with adhd. Amy and I observed the girl as she was in a classroomsetting, and we noticed that whenever the girl was reprimanded, she appeared tobecome angry. When we had a talkwith her teacher, she said that the girl had difficulty taking orders. The teacher also stated that the studenthad her good days, and her bad days.

Amy decided to test the girl, and we gave her a test to seehow well she knew her alphabet. Ishowed her the letters of the alphabet, and she did a good job of recognizingeach of them. She then went on toform words with the letters, some of which were real and others weremade-up. One puzzling thing thatthe girl did was she talked to her stomach. While Amy and I were in the room she decided to have aconversation with her stomach.

3/4 8:30-12:00

I shadowed Amy as she went through her routine, and we endedup talking to a number of people. These people included students and teachers. When talking with the students the conversation usuallyrelated to improving in a behavior related area. Most of the students we talked to are kids that Amy hasalready dealt with before. Onething I have noticed is that much of Amy’s time is dedicated to “repeatoffenders.”

When we talked to the teachers the discussion usually leadto how the kids were behaving, and how they were performing in school. The last thing we did was we gave asentence completion test to a 6^th grade girl with a learningdisability and some serious family issues. This girl was not able to answer any questions that requireda subjective answer, but she was able to answer questions that were notinfluenced by her opinion.

3/6 8:30-2:30

For most of the morning I sat in on a couple of CSEmeetings. For one of the meetingswe discussed how to improve the behavior of one boy who acts up a lot in class. A couple of the ideas (forimproving the child’s behavior) were to give him food treats and to call hisparents. Food serves as a powerfulinfluence in this boy’s life because it was not always available to him.

The other meeting I witnessed was for a boy with mild MR.This boy has been struggling in school, and everyone agreed that he was bestsuited by being placed into a 6:1:1 setting.

After the CSE meetings were finished, I observed an 8^thgrade classroom. This class wasout of control, and the kids were throwing stuff, talking, being defianttowards the teacher, and they were not paying attention. The boy I was observing was actuallyone of the better-behaved kids, and I filled out a “classroom observationrecord” on him.

3/11 8:30-12:30

The first thing that Amy and I did was we tested a fourthgrade boy who has behavioral issues in the classroom. We gave him the second half of the Woodcock Johnson. Amy had given him the first half theprevious day, but due to the fact that the child has ADHD, she decided that itwould be better to give the test in halves. Despite the fact that the test was given over two sessions,this boy still had difficulty staying on task. He would play with his pencil, and he would get fidgetyoften.

When talking with the child it was clear that he hadproblems forming friendships. Heeven described Amy as being his best friend. Another thing that struck me about this kid was that he waseasily agitated when things did not go his way. An example of this occurs in the classroom when he actsout. Both the teacher and Amyagree that the boy acts out when he feels like he is not getting enoughattention

3/13 8-2:30

Today I sat in on a classroom for a fourth grade girl. This girl is speech impaired, and sheis very low functioning as well. She still does not have all her abc’s down, and she has trouble withbasic math skills. When weobserved her in the classroom she needed numerous prompts to do something asbasic as pulling out a notebook. She was also unable to count by three’s, and she needed instruction tocomplete the math assignment.

The next thing I did was I graded the Woodcock Johnson ofthe boy that I mentioned in my last entry. He performed in the average range, which means he scored atabout the 50^th percentile on this achievement test.

The last thing I did was I copied the cumulative records andthe standardized test results for a number of kids. This helped the psychology team at school #39 prepare forkids who were up for (re)evaluation.

3/16 9:00-3

I spent most of the morning shadowing Amy through herroutine. She spent a lot of timetalking to teachers about their kids, and the concerns they had. One problem that Amy has with theschool is that they are “old school.” By this I mean that they do not promote positive behavior enough, andthe large number of out of school suspensions illustrates this.

The next thing I did was I observed the lunchroom, and oneboy in particular whose teacher said he clowned around a lot. This proved to be very true and Iobserved the boy throwing food whenever the lunch monitors were notlooking. He would also hide behindthe chairs as he moved himself into better position to launch his next attack. For the last portion of the day Icopied the last of the cumulative records and standardized test results forkids who were coming up for their reevaluations.

3/25 8-12:30

Today I helped Amy do research on a number of articlesrelated to school psychology. These topics included anxiety, depression, and OCD. School psychologists will often look athow other psychologists in the field have successfully handled a problembehavior. Amy made sure that Imainly looked at journal articles that had an outcome.

I also looked through several case files to view the psychologicalevaluations, and the IEPs for kids with different deficits (ranging fromhearing and speech to behavioral and cognitive). It was a quiet day overall though.

3/27/09 8:30-1:30

On Friday I gave a Sentence Completion Test to a 3^rdgrade boy. This boy is low functioning, and he had a lot of trouble reading thesentences, and he needed help with almost every sentence. His spelling was also very poor and Iended up reading the statements, and writing in his response to facilitate theprocess.

After I had completed the test, I watched Amy give the WISChim. He did not do well, and heappeared to become more and more frustrated throughout the testingsession. As his frustrationmounted (over incorrectly answering test questions) so did his indifferencetowards the test. We stoppedhalfway through the administration when it was clear that no effort was beingput in on his part.

I then sat in on a CSE meeting. This meeting was for a child who had behavioral, speech, andADHD problems. It was determinedthat the child was a great kid, but he just could not control some of hishyperactive impulses. This wasillustrated when he frequently left his seat during class. He also was very fidgety when he didmanage to sit in his seat. Boththe mother, and the child’s teachers noticed that his behavior worsened as theday went along. This is importantbecause the child is on a medication for ADHD and he takes it very early in themorning (6ish). It was determinedthat the medication was probably wearing off after noon, and that the child’sprescription should be increased. No one really wanted this increase to happen, but everyone agreed thatit was the best option (based on the child’s inability to control himself attimes).

I don’t know if this is a trend for other schools, but I amnoticing a lot of the kids we see have a speech problem or are OHI (otherhealth impaired). Kids who areclassified as OHI usually have ADHD.

3/30 9-2

On Monday I helped Amy administer the last half of the WISCIV(for the boy from my last entry). Once again, the boy became restless as the testing session progressed,but we did manage to finish it. After the test was completed Amy had me grade it on my own to see how Icould do. I graded everythingcorrectly except for one comprehension question where I incorrectly marked offa point in the similarities section. In this section you can get a total of two points for a correct answer,and 1 point for a partially correct answer. The results were troubling seeing that he scored higher onan IQ test when he was in kindergarten. His test results actually put him in the mild MR range, and he scored inthe bottom 10^th percentile for all the sections.

After I finished grading his WISC, Amy had me write up amock report on how the boy acted during the testing. After I was finished Amy gave me some constructive criticismon my report. One thing I left outof my report was whether or not I establish rapport with the child beforetesting.

The final task of the day was sitting in on the classroom toobserve the boy I had just tested. He behaved well overall, but occasionally he would talk with aclassmate, and he left his seat twice. He also needed a lot of assistance from the teacher and his classmatesin order to finish the class assignment.

4/3 9-2

Today I watched Amy administer the Dolche list to a 2^ndgrade boy. The Dolche listconsists of basic words such as “the,” “I,” and “a.” Amy then tried to administer the WISC IV to a 1^stgrade boy, but she was unable to gain correct answers for anything (includingthe sample) questions. Shesuspected that this could have occurred due to her inability to gain rapportwith the child. Due to thisfailure to gain rapport, the test results were thrown out.

My last task of the day was to grade the Vineland II. The Vineland rates a number ofbehaviors, and it’s 4 main sections are communication, daily living scales,socialization, and motor skills. The Vineland is relatively easy to grade, and it gives straight-forwardinstructions on how to score it. The problem we had with it was that the person who administered itfailed to gain a basal of 4 correct answers. Luckily, the Vineland is administered to an adult familiarwith the child, and Amy was familiar enough with the kid to complete the basal.

5/11 8:30-2:30

My first task of the day was to observe a classroom of a 3^rdgrade boy. This boy is a very slowlearner, and much of this is due to his missing a lot of classes due to aseizure disorder. In the classroomhe was very well behaved, but he failed to remain focused. When the teacher called on him toanswer a question that the majority of the other kids answered correctly, hewas unable to come close.

My second task of the day was to interview a 2^ndgrade girl. This girl will bementioned frequently in future logs, so I will call her Amy II. Amy likes to ask the kids questionsabout themselves. Some of thesequestions are “What is your phone number?” “Where do you live?” “If you could change anything about your mom/dad, what would youchange?” While there were nonoteworthy responses during my administration, often times there is a positivecorrelation between the responses and a problem. For example, one child said that if he could change onething about his dad, he would make him stop hitting him. Also, if a child is unable to say wherehe/she lives, he/she has an increased likelihood of having a learning problem.

After the interview, the rest of the day was uneventful, andI ended up helping some of the staff with grunt work.

5/12 8:30-2:30

The day started with Amy administering the RobertsApperception Test (RAT) to Amy II. The RAT consists of pictures, that are to be described by thechild. It was sad to hear thegirl’s responses, since virtually all of her responses consisted of the person(in the picture) missing their mom. This was due to the fact that she was recently put into foster care dueto her mother being a crack addict.

The aforementioned girl was brought to our attention becauseshe had behavioral problems in the classroom. Another problem that Amy II had was that she was unable toarticulate her words well, which made it difficult to understand her at times. One thing that Amy does, is she allowsthe kids she sees to have lunch with her on Tuesdays. She also sees one girl more frequently, and they talkprivately about who knows what.

By the time lunch was over Amy had completed her dailyworkload, and once again I helped everyone out with busy work. At about 1 a fight broke out and theschool was put in lockdown.

5/14 9-2

Amy was at school #69 today, so she left a task list forme. The first task I had was toobserve Amy II in her classroom. During this observation, Amy II was completely noncompliant with all ofher teacher’s requests. She didnot complete any school work during the observation, and she just sat at herdesk with an angry look on her face. The teacher did not really push her though, and I learned later it wasbecause Amy II would become even more hostile when confronted. I also learned later that Amy II wasactually more compliant than usual because she was being observed.

My next task was to call parents to gain consent fortesting. In order to test a childyou must gain consent from a parent first. The exception to this is that if the parent ignores yourrequest 3 times, you are allowed to test their child. The consent form is mailed to the home, or it is given tothe parent through the child. Myjob was to try and reach the parents via a phone call to see if they got theconsent form. It is important tonote that a parent can decline testing for their child.

While I was trying to get into contact with some parents,the principal brought in a 1^st grade boy who was caught wanderingthe hallways. Usually Amy wouldtalk to the child, but since she was at another school, I had a little chatwith the kid. Basically I told himto stay in his seat, listen to his teacher, and to ignore kids who tried tostart a fight with him. It wasobvious that the boy had ADHD seeing that he could not stay focused, and hecould not sit still for more than a second.

5/18 8:45-2:45

I arrived just in time to watch Amy give Amy II part of theWoodcock Johnson. The sectionbeing given consisted of Amy asking Amy II questions such as “What does a______ do?” Amy II easily becomesfrustrated when she is unable to figure out an answer, and this was the casetoday. After giving several wronganswers Amy II just shut down, and we were unable to test her further. Due to this short tolerance level fortesting, Amy is forced to test her frequently for short periods of time toinsure the greatest accuracy of the tests.

After we had finished testing her, I graded anotherVineland. I previously mentioned that the Vineland consists of 4 mainsections. The four main sectionsare further separated into subcategories. The communication section is made up of receptive, expressive, andwritten subgroups. The dailyliving skills section is split into personal, domestic, and communitysubsections. The socializationcategory is separated into 3 parts. These 3 parts are interpersonal relationships, play and leisure time,and coping skills. Finally, themotor skills section consists of gross and fine sections.

5/19 8:30-2:30

Once again, I observed Amy giving Amy II a test. This time it was the Dolche list. Amy II’s articulation problems wereclear during this administration, and she over-articulated every singleletter. She would also confuseshort and long o’s, and a’s. Afterwe were done with this, Amy II was given part of the Differential AbilitySkills test. The sections thatwere given consisted of word definitions and pattern recognition.

After this was completed, Amy had me observe a 5^thgrade boy. This boy is a slowlearner, and he had already been held back at least one grade. You could tell he was older than hisclassmates because he was a foot taller than the next tallest class member, andhe was more physically mature than most of the girls (girls hit puberty fasterthan boys). Unfortunately, thisboy was unable to stay focused, and he was observed circling part of thequestion in a multiple choice assignment (This is disturbing because he couldnot tell the difference between the question and the answer).

One observation I have made is that there are behavioralproblems are far more prevalent in the older kids. This was illustrated in the fifth grade classroom where manyof the children were acting up and not listening to their teacher. When I observed the younger kids (K-3^rdgrade), the vast majority of the kids were not behavioral issues.

Once I had finished my observation, Amy had me bring thefifth grader to her for testing. She gave him two sections (pattern recognition and route finding) of theWoodcock Johnson, and he was unable to answer more than one or two questionscorrectly for each. Unfortunately,this was consistent with his class work, and he has already been categorized asMR.

5/20 8:30-2:30

Today was a CSE meeting day and I observed meetings for AmyII, and the 3^rd grade boy with the seizure disorder. The first meeting was for the boy, andhe was classified as Other Health Impaired (OHI). This classification was reached because his seizures clearlyinterfered with his learning. Itwas determined that he needed 45 minutes of tutoring per day for social studiesand science. When he was out ofschool, home instruction was deemed necessary.

For Amy II, an agreement was reached that she had speech,learning, and behavioral issues. Anumber of issues were brought up including her family issues, and how she justhad a tough life in general. Themain issue for Amy II, was the inability to confront her due to her hostilenature. It was decided that thebest way to deal with her behavior was through positive reinforcement ofpositive behaviors such as being compliant and paying attention. She was also given preferentialseating. For her articulationproblem, 30 minutes per day of speech therapy was deemed necessary.

5/22 9-2

For my last day I spent most of the time reading psychologyarticles. Many of these focused onspecific disabilities such as depression, OCD, etc. I also looked through an autism test. For the rest of the time I did busywork such as copying.

Practicum

School Psychology Practicum at Future's Academy - Buffalo Public School #37

Amy Heiser — Thu, 07 May 2009 18:31:24 -0600

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I am an intern at Buffalo Public School
Number 37: Future’s Academy under the guidance of Amy Van Buren, the School
Psychologist. Future’s Academy is a
pre-kindergarten through eighth grade school.
I will be going to the school twice a week from 8am - 11am; totaling 3
hours a day.

The
tasks that I will be responsible for will include reviewing student records,
synthesizing information into reports, assessing/observing students, observing
counseling sessions and attending CSE meetings.

September 30, 2008 Total
hours to Date: 3

Today was
my first day at Future’s Academy. Amy
Van Buren is the School Psychologist and is a part of the Student Support Team
(SST) which consists of a Coordinator, Social Worker, Educational Specialist,
and School Psychologist. They all work
in the same office and collaborate with one another for the benefit of the
student. After I became acquainted with
the school, Amy put me to work by reading through files of students she will be
evaluating soon.

October 3, 2008 Total
hours to Date: 6

Amy had to
attend a district wide meeting at Emerson
High School today which
she invited me to observe. The meeting
covered new procedures for reevaluation of students as well as clarified any
grey areas that the Student Support Teams had concerns with. There was a lot of paperwork that they
reviewed and it seemed to be repetitive and confusing. The District was challenging the Student
Support Teams to look at problems the students are having at school and see how
interventions could be implemented so that are effective and beneficial to the
child. From the PowerPoint that was
shown, it stated “Response to Intervention (RTI) can be defined as the change
in a student’s behavior or performance as a function of intervention”. It continued on to state “RTI…is absolutely
the future of education- not the future of special education, but of
education.”

While I was
at this meeting, I often felt quite overwhelmed by what the presenters were
talking about because I am unfamiliar with the complete duties of the School
Psychologist and the paperwork that they have to complete. I had an idea before going into this meeting
that some of the things were going to be over my head, but I was able to catch
on to what they were discussing. A lot
of the people present had a lot of questions regarding the material as they
found some areas to be confusing -- some of it contradicted itself while a
majority of it was being newly implemented.

October 7, 2008 Total
hours to Date: 9

For my
tasks today, I went with Amy to observe a few children in the classroom. She also gave me some files to read
through. I really liked reading the
files as it allows me to see the background information of the child as well as
to see the progress or lack of progress that the child has had over the years.

October 10, 2008 Total
hours to date: 12

Today, Amy
and I observed a child in the classroom.
Amy also administered parts of an Intelligence Test to two
children. I found Amy to be very skilled
at establishing rapport with students.
She carries on a friendly conversation with a student as they travel
through the halls on the way to her office and then will ask the student
questions about him or herself for a period of time before and after the
test. She will ask questions regarding
their family background, birth date, where they live, if they know their
address/ phone number. It is quite
simple to see that the way in which she interacts with the student that he or
she becomes more at ease within a matter of minutes.

October 14, 2008 Total
hours to date: 16

On certain
days during the week, there are team meetings where the principle and teachers
from a certain grade level get together to talk about issues that are of
importance and are or will be affecting that grade level soon. Amy and I attended two of these team meetings
today. We sat in on the meetings with
the 3rd grade team as well as the 5th grade team. Afterward, Amy gave me a file for me to read
and take notes on. However, the office
called Amy down to talk with a student named Paige, a 7th grader, who was being
disruptive in the classroom. Paige
transferred to Future’s this year.
Coincidentally, Amy was acquainted with Paige as Amy had worked with the
school Paige had been at before.

When Amy and I arrived, the vice principal was talking with
Paige. Apparently, Paige had told the
vice-principal that she has been taking drugs lately as well as other stories
about wandering away from home and being out late. Paige seemed to be taking this situation
lightly and started fooling around in the office. She threatened that she was going to walk out
of the school. After a period of time,
the vice-principal decided to call Paige’s mom and Paige hung up the phone, and
when the principal dialed again, Paige pulled the phone cord out of the phone
jack. The vice-principal left and Amy
then started to talk to Paige to see what was driving her to behave in this
manner.

Eventually,
Paige’s mom showed up and the principal came in to talk with her, Paige, Amy
and I. Paige’s mom voiced her concern
about Paige and how she has been hanging out with friends whom she believes are
influencing Paige’s behavior. She has a
lot of love for her daughter, but admits that she is lacking in the direction
needed to ‘tame’ steer her daughter in a better direction. Because of her recent behavior, Paige’s mom
had warned her before that if she had gotten into some more trouble then she
was going to go to the court and request that Paige be placed on PINS (Persons
in Need of Supervision).

October 17, 2008 Total
hours to date: 19

Today, Amy
administered the Wechsler Intelligence Scale for Children to a boy who is 10
years old. He lives with his mom and 7
year old sister. He has a little brother
who lives with his dad, but he hasn’t seen his brother in a while. He talks to his dad on the phone
occasionally. He really likes playing
football and is on a team. Currently, he
receives speech services and will continue to do so. Besides observing his testing, I read
through files.

October 20, 2008 Total
hours to date: 21

Today, Amy
and the Student Support Team had a CSE Meetings planned for the morning. Two students were up for reevaluation. The people who are present for the CSE
meetings besides the Student Support Team are the parents, teacher, and speech
therapist and/or reading teacher who might be assisting the student as
well. The structure of the CSE meeting
is as follows: the SST will each take
turns describing what they have observed when working with the individual, and
remark on test scores, and then later on in the meeting they will voice their
recommendations for the student. The
parent, if he or she is present, will voice his or her concerns and then the
teacher/therapist will become involved in the conversation to voice their
concerns and observations. The meeting
is a collaboration of each person so that the best decision can be made as to
what services should be provided or discontinued.

The first
student, Rodney, has low reading skills.
He has been diagnosed will ODD, OCD, and PDD. It was decided that he will receive resource
every day: 3 times a week for Reading
and 3 times a week for Math for 42 minutes.
His speech is also impaired so he will be receiving speech therapy as
well.

The second
student, Jasmine, is in the 6th grade.
They are concerned with her behavior.
She has a hearing disability and they were trying to make accommodations
for a setting that would benefit her in the long run. She causes a lot of disruptions in the
classroom, but when she is focused she is able to do really well. She is easily aggravated and agitated by her
peers or if she cannot get her way. One
thing that was discussed was her involvement in activities outside of
school. Her mother says that she isn’t
involved in any activities but does like to dance. In an effort to get her to behave better in
school, they are going to try to find a place for her to dance after school so
that she has something to look forward to as a reward for her good
behavior. The parent will also be in
constant communication with the teachers.

October 24, 2008 Total
hours to date: 24 total

I was
introduced to a file of a student who is receiving services because he was
learning disabled. He is currently in
the third grade and his learning disability as a result of lead poisoning. This boy comes from a two parent home. His mother is very supportive; however, his
father is not. His mother plays a very
active role by being involved with the school to make sure that her son
receives all the services that he can get so that he can lead a fairly normal
life even though he encounters many set backs.

The boy’s
mother reports that her husband does not pay much attention to their son. When he does interact with his son, it is in
a negative way. He continuously tells his
son that he is stupid and that he will never be successful as a result of his
learning disability.

On one
occasional when the social worker was meeting with this boy, she asked him if
he could draw a picture of his family for her.
He complied and drew his house with him and his mom standing in front of
it. In the picture, he was offering a
bunch of flowers to his mother and labeled the picture my mom and me. He did not include his father in this
picture, but to me this means that he does not find him to be an important person
in his life. His father’s behavior has
definitely taken a toll on his self-esteem.
He often tells his mother that he hates his father and finds that he is
really mean. Even though his mother is
trying her best to be a supportive figure in her child’s life, This boy’s
father’s actions are making a lasting impression.

Personally,
I found this to be quite sad because even though the boy is receiving a lot of
support from his mother, his father is damaging the child’s self-esteem and
self-concept. It is my hope for this boy
that he is able to grow up and become an individual whom is successful despite
the lack of involvement on his father’s part

October 28, 2008 Total
hours to date: 27

Today, Amy
and I observed a third grade student named Xaivia. We observed her in the classroom setting
where the class was reading passages from an overhead, learning new vocabulary
and reciting each word. Xaivia was
sitting at her desk that was off to the side and was not participating. The teacher said that Xaivia had been a model
student up until the last school year where she started having behavior issues
in May. Since then, Xaivia has good days
and bad days, but overall causes a commotion in the classroom because she is
argumentative with her peers.

While Amy
and I were in the classroom, the teacher tried to get Xaivia to put her pencil
box away and to participate in the lesson.
Xaivia ignored these requests.
There was a student sitting next to Xaivia who glanced over at her and
Xaivia glared at her and said “Stop looking at me.” Another incident happened in the classroom
with Xaivia thinking that a boy from across the room was looking at her
too. She made a comment to him too which
turned into an argument between them. It
was at this time that Amy took Xaivia out of the classroom so that the
situation would not continue to escalate.

Amy took
Xaivia to her office and engaged her in conversation regarding a variety of
topics. Xaivia is a very pleasant girl
who seems to be very intelligent. Amy
had brought the workbook the class was reading from so that Xaivia could read
from it. Xaivia read out loud to us and
she read in a very smooth manner.

October 31, 2008 Total
hours to date: 30

Xaivia’s
teacher met with Amy this morning and discussed Xaivia and voiced her
observations/concerns. She commented
that Xaivia is a very bright girl but is easily agitated at the smallest
comment made to her by the other students in the classroom. Xaivia does not have any friends in the class
and dislikes all of the boys. One thing
that Amy would like to start with Xaivia is a Behavior chart and her prize
after so many good days would be to come to Amy’s office with another student
to play a board game. The teacher
mentioned that she does have a behavior chart already implemented but it seemed
to be very inconsistent and the reward was not immediate.

November 7, 2008 Total
hours to date: 33

Today, I
worked on a computer, synthesized information from three most recent IEP’s and
placed it into an Ed Benefit form. This
is helpful for Amy to see if progress has been made and is a useful document at
meetings like the CSE.

November 14, 2008 Total
hours to date: 36

Amy and I
went to Team meetings this morning in the office. Afterwards, Amy allowed me to administer
parts of the Woodcock Johnson test to a 4th grade student.

November 18, 2008 Total
hours to date: 39

Amy is in
charge of making pencil bunches of 5 and 10 as a prize for students who make
the honor roll. Today, I assisted her
with making bunches and making ribbon bows for them.

November 21, 2008 Total
hours to date: 42

I made
pencil bunches again today and listened to Amy and her coworkers discuss plans
for various students.

November 25, 2008 Total
hours to date: 45

Today, I
worked on Ed Benefit forms as well as wrapped pencils.

December 15, 2008 Total
hours to date: 49

Today, there were a few CSE meetings in the morning and I
sat in on them and observed.

December 16, 2008 Total
hours to date: 53

Amy and I started working on a Behavior Intervention Plan
for Xavia.

December 17, 2008 Total
hours to date: 57

Amy and I assisted a 5th grade teacher as she requested
help. The students were doing ELA work. At first they were taking turn reading
passages from their books, but then they started to write a short story based
on the passage they just completed. Amy
and I sat with students who needed assistance with the task.

January 21, 2009 Total
hours to date: 60

Today when
I arrived, a teacher had approached Amy and requested that she come and speak
with a student named Angelica because the teacher felt that she was in need of
counseling because she had told her mother that the teacher had hit her. As Amy spoke to Angelica, the student said
that the teacher had been giving her a hard time and that there had been some
conflict between them a few times before.
On this occasion, the teacher had been poking Angelica. After speaking with the student, Amy
concluded that there was a personality conflict going on between the student
and the teacher. Amy advised the student
to continue doing her class work and to try hard to not talk during the class
period to other students. Additionally,
Amy offered to take the student out of this particular class once a week so
that they can discuss any problems she may be having with the teacher as well
as to provide her with a break from the teacher.

Amy also
tested two students today. The first
student, L. Green, who is a kindergartener.
Amy was testing her because her teacher said that she seems to be in her
own world and is not very attentive in class.
The second student, Devon, is a 4th
grader. He was being tested to see if he
qualified for services or not.

Jan. 23, 2009 Total
hours to date: 63

Amy and the
School Counselor, Ms. Larkin, are going to be working together to form a Social
Skills workshop for 7th and 8th graders who they have labeled as needing
assistance. Amy and Ms. Larkin met today
to go over the logistics of their workshop.
They discussed the students whom they were targeting and split those
students up into groups. Ms. Larkin said
that one of her goals is to help these students fill out working papers because
a majority of them are eligible to work through the mayor’s youth program. Amy is excited about this new program as it is
going to get her more involved with the students.

Jan. 28, 2009 Total
hours to date: 66

Amy asked
me to go through a social skills book and find topics that I believe would be
worthwhile to focus on for the social skills workshop. I found the topics: Preventing conflicts and
violence, Conflict resolution, handling emotions, Setting and Achieving goals,
respecting others, time management, and to focus on the do’s and don’ts in the
workplace. We discussed these topics and
met with the School counselor again

Jan. 30, 2009 Total
hours to date: 69

Today, I
observed in a 5th grade classroom.
During this time, the students were working on English Language Arts by taking
turns reading from their books. After
their lesson was done, they spilt up into centers. Three girls asked if they could read to
me. Each girl was at a different reading
level. One girl read smoothly, another
read in a bit more choppy manner, while another was really timid and read
quietly. I feel that the third girl was
not very confident in her reading skills as she seemed to read at a slower pace
and it seemed to be a bit more difficult for her when compared to the other
two. After the girls were finished, Amy
and I took a boy from the classroom. Amy
administered the K-Bit Kaufman Intelligent Test. He scored high on the nonverbal portion but
low on the verbal. He was very quiet and
did not respond at all to praise.

February 4, 2009 Total
hours to date: 72

Today, I worked
on a computer, synthesized information from three most recent IEP’s and placed
it into an Ed Benefit form.

February 6, 2009 Total
hours to date: 75

Today, I
was working on additional Ed Benefit forms again.

February 11, 2009 Total
hours to date: 78

Today, I
observed a 7th grade student named Will in his English Language Arts
class. Will is diagnosed as being
ADHD. He does not currently take
medication. He had been prescribed
medication at one time but had gone off of it due to a side effect. Will is currently reading at a 3 grade
reading level. The students in his class
are at approximately the same reading level.
While I was observing, the class was taking turns reading aloud passages
from their books. Will did not participate. He was playing with his pencil, cleaning out
his desk, or had his head down on the desk during this task. Will’s teacher commented that he will not
participate unless he has taken some time to practice a particular
passage. Will does not want his peers to
know that he is struggling with reading so he tries to act “cool” and pretend
it’s no big deal when he is clearly failing at the subject. Will’s teacher said that his skills are so
basic and that he cannot even rhyme words.

February 13, 2009 Total
hours to date: 81

Amy asked
me to observe a boy in kindergarten because it was brought to her attention
that he was not audible when spoken to and is not sociable when engaged in
activity with his peers. London is presently a
five year old boy who entered kindergarten in the September and had no prior
schooling experience. When compared to
his peers, London is reserved, quiet, observes what his peers are doing, and is
not up to par in regards to academic work.

When I went
to observe London,
there were 11 children in the classroom.
The students were sitting on a rug with small dry erase marker boards
and were copying words the teacher had written on the chalkboard onto theirs. They were working on sounds and would spell a
word like “match”. The next task was to
respond by saying what each letter sounded like and then recited the entire
word. The other students seemed to
understand the directions and were excited about this activity. London
was sitting behind the other students with his mother. She was helping him write the letters on his
board by using the hand-over-hand technique.
He was well mannered, but did not participate in saying the word aloud.

Journal
writing was the next activity that I observed London taking part in. The lesson the teacher had been teaching for
the last week was regarding bugs. She
wrote in each child’s journal the sentence “Do you like bugs?” She gave the direction to trace the sentence
she had written and then rewrite it two more times. London
looked to his mother for guidance for this activity as well but did not use
words to communicate his need for help.
She repeated the directions the teacher had given but then also helped
him with writing using the hand-over-hand technique again. London’s
mom also offered her son encouragement by saying “You can do this!” which was
said in a nice tone. She would even
demonstrate how to form the letter and would ask him to try and copy what she
just did. London would attempt to write a letter, but
would constantly look at his mother’s face for reinforcement.

The final
activity London
participated in was working on word sounds with his teacher and another
student. They were working with magnet
wands and had to swipe the wand over the letter and were to make its
sound. Simple words were given like
“Pig”, “Cat”, and “Tan”. London’s mother sat next
to him as the teacher worked with him and the other student. To begin, the teacher simply asked “What
color wand do you want?” The other
student was quick to choose the one that he wanted, but London did not say what color he wanted. He just pointed to the color he wanted but
did not say its name. The teacher then
explained the directions and gave him the word “Pig”. The other student went first and was able to
complete this task with ease. When it
was London’s
turn he formed the word and his lips would move but no sound was made. The teacher encouraged him to say it a little
bit louder but it was still not audible and was lower than a whisper. The teacher moved onto the word “Cat” and London’s mom commented to
him that he knows this word and says it at home. Yet, when asked he responded in the same
extremely low tone and observed the reactions of his teacher and mother.

**Amy and I
discussed what I observed. She observed
him at a later date and she gave me a bit more background information about
him. Amy talked with London’s mom and she indicated that he talks
all the time when he is at home and in an audible tone. However, his mother said that London had not been
exposed to many social situations with other kids before entering school this
year. He lives alone with his mother and
she says that they hardly leave the home.

Upon
reviewing the information Amy has given me and what I observed in the classroom,
it causes me to think that he could potentially be selectively mute since it
has caused an interference with his educational achievement and has caused a
disturbance for well over a month. It
seems to me that London
maybe overwhelmed by the classroom setting and is always looking for
reinforcement from his mom or teachers to indicate that he is performing a task
correctly.

Amy
indicated that London
will be repeating kindergarten next year.
In the mean time, he will be receiving speech therapy. As he progresses, a student from his class
will attend speech with him in an attempt to help him gain confidence as well
as interact with his peers. This will
also allow his classmates to see that London
does have the skills to communicate and hopefully will engage in a conversation
with him and include him in play when back in the classroom.

February 20, 2009 Total
hours to date: 84

Today, Amy
tested Will, the 7th grader, by administering the K-Bit Intelligence test. Will does not like to admit that he is
struggling in academic areas such as math and English. While in the classroom, Will will work on his
assignments occasionally, but will not volunteer to answer questions unless he
has practiced and knows the correct answer.
He does not want to express his weakness to his classmates and will only
ask for help if he sees that others are struggling with the same thing.

February 24, 2009 Total
hours to date: 87

Today, Amy had a list of kids to meet with and test, but as
she tried to track them down, they were either taking a test, were absent or
were suspended. I ended up doing a
miscellaneous task for her which involved rubber banding pencils together in
sets of 5 and 10. These pencils are to
be given to students as a prize for whoever makes honor roll.

March 3, 2009 Total
hours to date: 90

I observed
a kindergarten student named Will today.
He is 6 years old. He has been
acting out in the classroom. When upset,
he will go around and completely destroy the class by overturning tables,
throwing books, and tearing this off the wall.
Whatever seems to be in his path is what gets destroyed.

Will is a
large student for his age but emotionally he is well below. He knows that he needs to be good while in
school and is able to follow the rules, but there are times that something will
randomly tick him off and he become upset, cry, and then he might go on to
destroy something. When I first walked
into the classroom, the teacher was correcting Will for something that he did
while he was sitting on the rug with the other children. He seemed to be distressed over it. The teacher continued reading and he seemed
to then pay attention. Then Will’s
father called on the phone and the teacher spoke with him and updated him on
Will’s behavior. The phone was handed
over to Will. When Will got off the
phone, he said that he wanted to keep his color on green. The teacher said that he needs to behave
better and follow the rules. When the
class lined up to go to lunch, Will was in the back of the line and tried to
squeeze his way forward, but was told that he couldn’t do that. He began to cry a little but stayed in the
back of the line.

March 10, 2009 Total
hours to date: 93

I observed
Micah today. He is in kindergarten with
approximately 20 other students. The
students sit at tables with 4 children to each.
Micah sits at a table that is directly in front of the board and in line
with where the teacher will typically stand.
Micah is thought to have ADHD tendencies. My task today was to observe him. While I was in the classroom, the teacher had
the students completing a writing and picture assignment. Their task surrounded a book that they had
just finished reading. Micah was on task
and raised his hand to answer a question the teacher had asked. He was also providing help to a student at
his table who was having trouble drawing a picture. He possesses a great imagination.

Next, I was
able to administer a few sections of the Standford Binet Intelligence Test to a
3 grade girl named Bria. The sections
that I administered were: Calculation, Spelling, and Reading sentences. She did really well and appeared to be very
bright.

March 11, 2009 Total
hours to date: 96

Amy and I
observed a 5th grade student named Cordell today. Amy is responsible for
developing a BIP for him because he is said to be a very disruptive student,
argues with teachers he dislikes, and is also confrontational with other
students. He is in a 12-1-1 classroom
due to behavioral problems.

While Amy
and I observed him, he appeared to be quite pleasant and extremely
helpful. The students were taking turns
reading passages from their textbook.
Cordell readily volunteered to read and would also correct his peers if
a word was mispronounced. The next
activity was to split up into partners and time one another as each person
read. He got along with his partner and
they were working productively together.
Next, they reviewed with their partner for a spelling test. Cordell was able to spell all 20 words
correctly. His partner, however, had
some errors so Cordell took it upon himself to write the words down that his
partner had gotten wrong so that he could study them since they were to take
the test next. Cordell was really proud
that he was able to spell all the words correctly and made a comment to his
teacher that he wants a different set of words that are more challenging. The teacher said that she would do that for
him the following week because she felt that he would be able to handle a
tougher test. He seemed really eager to
learn more spelling words and I was really happy that the teacher responded
positively.

Amy was
surprised by Cordell’s behavior but felt that he was behaving well due to the
fact that he likes this teacher. The
teacher commented that he typically will have outbursts in the morning. Amy noted that he was familiar with her and
may have known that she was coming to observe him.

March 16 – 20, 2009

Canisius College Spring Break

March 31, 2009 Total
hours to date: 96

Amy and I
observed a 5th grade student named Legend today. I don’t have any notes about this day and I
cannot recall what happened.

April 1, 2009 Total
hours to date: 99

I went to
Public School Number 39 today as Amy had a CSE meeting for a few of the
students she has been assigned for their annual review. I was present for 2 meetings. At both of the meetings, the teacher and
speech therapist were present for the meeting.
No parents of either child showed up.
They basically stated that services needed to continue for each child
and listed the reasons why.

I also went
to a classroom to observe a student whom was to have his review later that
afternoon. His name was “Bobby”. Bobby is a 4th grade student. Amy has observed him before. He has some emotional issues in addition to
being learning disabled. When I entered
the classroom, the teacher was preparing the students with work that was to be
done in silence as she was going to be taking a break. Another teacher was taking her place. The teacher instructed all of the students to
take out their crayon boxes as they were going to be drawing and coloring a
picture that was to go along with a book report that they had written. Bobby appeared to be confused by the
teacher’s instructions and was given instructions over again and then
reminded. Once she left, he was able to
organize himself and get busy.

April 6 -17, 2009

Future’s Academy Spring Break

April 20 -24, 2009

Amy was sick.

April 28, 2009 Total
hours to date: 102

            Today, I
observed two- second grade students.
Both students are to be reevaluated.
Amy and I observed these students during their English Language Arts
class. One student, named Imani, was sleeping
at her desk when we walked into the classroom.
According to her teacher, she recently began taking medication for a
condition called Neuromitosis. The medication induces sleep and the teacher was
instructed to allow her to take a nap due to its side effects. The other child was a boy who is repeating
the 2nd grade. Last year, he slept
during the majority of his classes and therefore was retained. He appeared to be studious and was able to
complete the assigned work when instructed to finish a worksheet. The teacher
made a comment that he has really improved this year. The improvement may be do to the change in
his primary caregiver. He now lives with
his grandmother, whereas, he was living with his mother in the year prior.
            Amy was going to administer
the WISC test to Imani after our observation; however, since she was sleeping
and seemed groggy she decided that it would be better to meet with her another
day. Amy has a list of kids that she
still has to test, but the others were either suspended or absent today. For the duration of my time at Future’s
today, I made pencil bundles and listened to Amy’s teammates discuss various
kids in the office. Amy and I had a discussion
regarding Parent Child Interactive Therapy (PCIT) due to the recent lecture
that was had at Canisius. I was
explaining to her what I had learned and how I was really impressed with the
program. I feel strongly on educating
teachers on how to respond to children with ADHD in this way as I feel it could
be effectively used in the classroom.

April 29, 2009 Total
hours to date: 105

Amy
administered the WISC test to Imani today.
Imani was sleeping when Amy arrived to bring her back to her
office. Before she started the test, Amy
established a relationship with Imani by asking her questions such as when her
birthday was, how many brothers and sisters she has, if she enjoys school,
ect. Imani is 8 years old, lives with
her grandmother and brother. Her mother
and father visit her, but they do not live with her. She has a younger brother who attends
Future’s and is in kindergarten. Her
sister attends a different school. As Amy
administered the test, it was quite obvious that Imani was not doing well on it
based on her answers. Imani looked
tired and held her head up with her hand for fifty percent of the test. She was not very animated in the beginning,
but seemed to “wake up” as the test moved along. If she did not know an answer to a question
she would simply sit there. Even though,
Imani seemed more alert at the end of the test, she still supplied incorrect
answers. Amy stated that she has to
research Imani’s medical condition to see what kind of effects it might have on
the brain. I walked Imani back to her
classroom. She mentioned that she had a
lot of fun in Amy’s office and would like to return again soon.

The office called up Amy and requested that
she come and sit in on a meeting as
Child Protective Services came to the school to meet with a few children from a
family that they were investigating. CPS
does not require a school official to be present, but the school requested that
Amy be there. The CPS worker’s name was
Melody and she was investigating a case were a few days prior a 15-year old
male named Angelo was watching his siblings, Antonio age 12, Kayla, age 8, his
younger brother age 5, and two twin one year old boys. Apparently at 9 pm, police were called to
their upper apartment because a neighbor had witnessed that one of the 1 yr old
had walked out onto the porch and was on the playing on the railing. The mother was at work at the time this
occurred but came home once notified of what was going on. The CPS worker had already visited the home
two days prior and found that there was not a lot of food present and the toilet
was inoperable. When Melody arrived at
the school, she asked for the children’s attendance record. She found that the kids had each missed
numerous days of school. The oldest,
Angelo had missed 34 days of school.
Antonio had missed 45 days of school.
The 5 year old had missed 50 days and Kayla had missed 54 days. If anything, CPS can bring the mother to
court for educational neglect.

Melody
interviewed each child separately to see if there were any other problems
occurring in the family or concerns that the children had. Melody first met with Kayla. Kayla is in the first grade and has been
retained twice - once in kindergarten and then again in first grade. Melody asked Kayla basic questions relating
to what occurred the other night with the police being called to their
house. Kayla answered the questions
quite energetically. It was noticeable
that Kayla had been told that CPS would possibly be coming to speak with her
because she responded cautiously as well.
Melody had to dig to get Kayla to answer some of the questions and even
then she gave sugar coated answers.
Melody had asked Kayla about her two older sisters. One sister is 21 and the other is 19 and has
a baby. The 19 year old does not live at
the house but will watch the children occasionally. She was not present on the night of the
incident. When asked where the 21 year
old was, Kayla mentioned that she was on vacation. However, Melody knew that the 21 year old is
currently in jail. The 5 year old
answered in the same manner as well. To
my surprise, the two older boys were very honest with Melody. They did not have any concerns; however,
Antonio was concerned that CPS was going to take them away from their
mother. Melody told him that that could
be a possibility but that was not going to happen as of right now. Melody did voice her concern to Angelo and
Antonio about their school attendance and stressed that they needed to get up
in the morning and make it to school.
Angelo has a better attendance record because he is able to walk to
school if he misses the bus.

It was
interesting to be able to observe the CPS worker while she interviewed the
children. While we waited for each child
to come down to the office, Melody made comments regarding the case. It would not have been a problem for Antonio
to watch his younger siblings, but having to take care of the two twin 1 year
old boys was a bit too much to handle.

May 4, 2009 Total
hours to date: 120

I read Faking
It: A look into the Mind of a Creative Learner to finish my hours. Christopher Lee wrote this book during his
senior year in college in 1991 with the help of his mentor Rosemary
Jackson. Lee had been diagnosed as
learning disabled while in grammar school, but the area of learning
disabilities was just beginning to be understood by teachers during the
1970s. Throughout the book, Lee
discusses his battle with his unspecified learning disability, how he “faked”
his way though school, and the difficulties he encountered as a result of not
comprehending the written and spoken English language. Lee’s disability was finally addressed when
he reached college. He was tested and
then identified as having a Cognitive Processing Deficit.

The book
opens up with Lee providing the definition of a disability which means
“condition of lacking a physical or mental condition”. Lee feels that the word ‘disability’ is a
negative label and prefers to think of himself as a ‘creative learner’. He uses
the term “creative learner” because of the alternative routes he and countless
others have to take in order to gain knowledge and transmit ideas.

In summary,
Christopher Lee’s problems were apparent early in childhood. At the age of 3, he was just beginning to
speak. Still to this day, he has
problems distinguishing certain sounds.
When he was in second grade, he had to go to “special classes” to work
on his language skills. He states that
speech therapy never worked for him because his “speech problems were related
to his learning problems”. He could not
identify differences in letter sounds which were similar in nature. Because he could not “hear” the differences,
his teachers thought that he had auditory problems. This was not the case. He simply had a learning disability which
affects the way his brain processes what he hears. By the fourth grade, he still could not read,
found it difficult to write, and had problems comprehending what people said to
him. He tried to hide his problems by
creating lies – for instance, he said that he was from Boston to make up for the fact that he spoke
in a different fashion. He would avoid
participating in class so as to steer clear of embarrassment. When called upon, teachers would become upset
with him if he provided an incorrect answer.
He made it all the way through high school by just coasting. Fortunately, Lee was a competitive swimmer
and, as a result of a college scholarship, he was able to continue his
education. Lee found it very
frustrating that his learning disability was not completely understood by his
teachers through the course of his education, but was relieved that there were
support services at his college which allowed for his needs to finally be
addressed.

Christopher
Lee discovered for himself how to learn and get by in life. Challenges will always be a part of his life,
but he has developed his own way of functioning so that he can communicate and thrive. Lee has problems with semantics and
expressive language. He describes his
brain as being “a disorganized filing cabinet which causes him to lose thoughts
and subjects” when he searching for the right word to fill in a sentence. While engaging in a conversation, he catches
60-70% of what people say to him because he dissects the sentences and picks
out key words. For the 80% of the time,
he relies on the body language of others to see if he can understand what they
are trying to convey in their conversation.
He is also a visual learner and heavily relies on pictures, graphs and
diagrams.

As a result
of reading this book, I was able to gain insight on one’s struggle with a
learning disability and the frustrations that have come with it. Christopher Lee’s book is a unique story as
he is writing this book during his senior year in college. He reflects on the 5 years of his college education
where he truly began to have educational support which aimed at aiding him in a
way that recognized his Cognitive Processing Deficit and gave him the services
he needed as a result. As the reader,
one begins to feel a sense of frustration because no child should feel like
they are not a part of the education system which is forcing him or her to
conform to the typical ways of learning when it is simply not his or her way of
learning. The author grew up in a time
when knowledge of learning disabilities was just starting to be acknowledged
and programs to help these children were being piloted. Thankfully, the educational system has made
great strides and there is a wealth of knowledge regarding these students and
how to provide help. This book stresses
the notion that learning disabled children are required to function at 100% to
retain material every single day, for every single hour while in the
classroom. The child may be feeling
stressed, anxious, or confused at some points during the day and it is then
that learning becomes even harder. It is
the responsibility of the parent, teacher, and/or school psychologist to
recognize the warning signs of when a child is struggling so that he or she can
develop their own system of learning so that he or she can thrive and not be
left behind. Providing appropriate
support for these children is clearly essential.

Practicum

Buffalo Psychiatric Center

Sunly Vong — Wed, 18 Feb 2009 10:56:18 -0700

Week of 2/3 – 2/6

My first week of my practicum was held at two different locations. At the first session, I spent 3 and a half hours at 1547 Hertel Avenue, which is a local community center that is part of the Buffalo Psychiatric Center. The center was a place for outpatient individuals to gather and utilize as a recreational service or as a vocational training service. While on the site, I helped individuals participate in tasks that they wish to participate in. On Tuesday, I met some of the individuals there and participated in an arts and crafts session where we made some jewelry. Then, I participated in a yoga session with some of the individuals as well. On Thursdays and Fridays, I spent my time at the psych center at two hour intervals each day. During the times that I am there, the patients attend various programs in which they participate in which to help themselves in daily activities. On Thursday, I met my director and she gave me a tour of the psych center and all the different units on each floor. Then for the second half, I sat in on a motivational thinking program. During the program, the patients read an article about an individual who had a mental illness and overcame it to motivate the patients as well. On Friday, I spent my time in the educational program, in which I help a patient who was going toward his GED with math problems.

Week of 2/10 - 2/13

This week at 1547 Hertel Ave., I played the bowling on the Wii with some of the individuals. Then, I helped the staff and some of the individuals cook in the kitchen to prepare for the Chili Cook-off they were hosting the next day. We made a regular pot of chili and another pot of chili with just vegetables. We also made several trays of cornbread to go along with the chili.

This week at the Buffalo Psychiatric Center, I helped a patient in the educational program. He was working on some English worksheets that dealt with nouns and proper nouns. Then, I sat in a "Positive Thinking" program in which patients learned about the positive and negative sides of trying to think positively. Another program I sat in on was a "Dealing with Relationships" program. In this program, patients had to recall a significant relationship they had with someone that affected them somehow. Then they learned about differences between being in a healthy and unhealthy relationship. The final program was an "Art Therapy" program in which the patients were able to create drawings or artworks that dealt with "love" to prepare for Valentine's Day.

Week of 2/17 – 2/20

This week at 1547 Hertel Ave., I played bowling on the Wii with some of the individuals. Then, I sat and watched the individuals play in a golf tournament on the Wii. One individual participated in the yoga session that is held there weekly, another lady sat around and knitted because it was a hobby of hers, and others sat around in the kitchen reading the paper and having coffee.

This week at the Buffalo Psychiatric Center, I spent the first hour in the educational program tutoring a patient one-on-one with English worksheets. We worked together to complete worksheets that he wanted to work on and he was very cooperative and enthusiastic in completing the worksheets. Then, I sat in on a vocational exploration program, in which patients talked about their future goals of hopefully getting back into the community and work force again someday. They also talked about past careers that they once held and enjoyed doing and what caused them to not be able to work any longer. The second day at the BPC, there were suppose to be two guest speakers that were suppose to speak about housing options for when the patients were discharged, but they never showed due to some confusion about the date. So instead, one of the counselors informed the patients about some possible housing options that they could look into and then they had a juice break. The second hour, my staff supervisor was trying to come up with a quick plan of what to do for her next program because she expected the guest speakers to take up the whole two hours. She came up with an idea of having the patients in her group play a game that involved random questions that they would try to answer. She let me conduct the game with the patients while she passed out snacks and beverages to them. Week of 2/24 - 2/27 This week at 1547 Hertel Ave., I sat in the kitchen and had coffee with some of the individuals and talked about our weekends. Then I played bowling on the Wii with three different people and had a bowling tournament. One of the individuals wanted to bake cookies because she stated that it was a hobby of hers but had lost the ability to or thought that she didn't know how to bake anymore. So, the staff helped her find a chocolate chip cookie recipe and she helped in making the cookie dough from scratch and placed them onto the trays and baked them. The cookies turned out great and very delicious. This week at the Buffalo Psychiatric Center, I sat in on a “re-tooling” conference the staff held on Thursday. During the conference, the staff of the Treatment Mall all got together to discuss how the current programs were going for the patients. They also discussed how things were going on each ward and what needed improvement or what was already working well. They also brainstormed on new ideas of different programs that they could create so the patients would have a variety of choices to choose from and benefit from. While observing the meeting, it didn’t seem as effective because many people had different opinions on what should change and how things were going in certain programs. Then, they reviewed a tentative schedule of the upcoming weekly schedule to see if the program time would fit with the specified instructor. On Friday, two guest speakers came to talk to the patients of the Treatment Mall about housing options. One of the guest speaker use to be a patient of the BPC and she retold her experience of when she got discharged and the help she received in finding an apartment to reside in. She said that the process wasn’t hard and she had a lot of help in finding an apartment that was affordable, safe, and she had really liked. By sharing her experience of different options after being discharged, it gave some of the patients some encouragement to stay positive and realize that they have various options as well and hope for discharge out of the center soon. Week of 3/3 – 3/6 This week at 1547 Hertel Ave., I sat around in the kitchen and had coffee with some of the individuals and chatted. Then, one of the gentlemen asked to play golf on the Wii with a staff member and I watched as they played. After they were done with their game of golf, we tried to gather some more people to play bowling on the Wii. After a few games of bowling, some of the individuals got tired and decided to sit in the kitchen and relax until their ride came to pick them up. This week at the Buffalo Psychiatric Center, I spent the first hour working one-on-one with an individual in the Education program. We worked on different English worksheets together and then reviewed the information we had learned from the worksheets. Then I sat in on a Vocational Exploration program. There were only three people in the program that day so the counselor decided to integrate her class with another class and everyone played a vocational exploration game. It was a board game that everyone got to participate in and they just had to answer questions about different jobs to move forward. The next day at the BPC, I sat in on a Relationships program. During this program, they discussed relationship issues that arise such as abuse and the signs of an abusive relationship. The next program was a Cultural Awareness in Films program, where the patients watched the movie, “My Big Fat Greek Wedding,” and enjoyed snacks. Week of 3/10 – 3/13 This week at 1547 Hertel Ave., we started the morning by having coffee and chatting in the kitchen about our weekends and plans for St. Patrick’s Day. The community center was going to host a St. Patrick’s Day party the next week that included food and games for $1 and we were trying to get people to sign up for the event and answer any questions they had about it. After we were done with coffee, I asked the ladies what they wanted to do for the day and no one came up with and ideas. So I suggested playing cards and was able to have a small crowd join us. We played Rummy and Uno and it was fun to have many people interact with each other. This week at the Buffalo Psychiatric Center, I spent the first hour in the Education program working one-on-one with an individual who was working towards getting his GED. He wanted to work from his History workbook so we started on a chapter and he began reading the article to me in order to answer the questions that followed. The article was pretty long so he wasn’t able to finish it all within the hour time slot. After every paragraph in the article, he would stop and we would discuss what we just learned from reading the article. Then, I sat in a Vocational Exploration program in which we discussed possible job options for the patients once they were discharged. The next day at the BPC, I sat in a Relationships program where they discussed positive relationships they had in the past and how the relationship has affected them. Week of 3/24 - 3/27 This week at 1547 Hertel Ave., I met some new people that decided to join us at the community center and we sat around in the kitchen having coffee and chatted. The community center held a St. Patrick’s Day event the week before, which included food and games that the participants who attended were raving about. Everyone commented on how much they enjoyed the event and how delicious the food was. Then, we gathered a group of people to play a friendly, yet competitive, game of bowling on the Wii. Afterwards, everyone gathered back into the kitchen and we decided to play a game of cards.

This week at the Buffalo Psychiatric Center, I worked In the Education Program helping two patients with different subjects. The one gentleman wanted to work on his multiplication worksheets and he completed them with little assistance. The other gentleman wanted to work out of his history workbook, in which he had to read an article and answer questions based on it. Then, I spent the next hour in the Vocational Exploration Program. We were given a sheet of paper with a list of characteristics that we had to choose from in order to describe ourselves. Then we discussed how the characteristics we chose would help in applying for jobs and which jobs would best suit us. The next day at BPC, I sat in on a Relationships Program where they imagined traveling to somewhere that was a “happy” place. Then, they discussed who they would take with them on their trip to this “happy” place and what kind of relationship they had with this certain person. Next, I sat in on a Cultural Awareness through Film Program where we watched a video called “Tough Guise.” The video was about tough guys and how they are influenced by society and the media. It was a pretty informative video.

Week of 3/31 - 4/3

This week at 1547 Hertel Ave., I watched a gentlemen and a staff member play golf on the Wii and then we gathered a group of people to play bowling. After we were done bowling, some of the ladies were interested in making arts and crafts. Two of the ladies decided to make Easter cards for their friends and families. Another woman worked on her hobby of drawing cartoons. Other people decided to join the weekly yoga class offered at the center.

This week at the Buffalo Psychiatric Center was the beginning of a new “re-scheduling” semester. The patients were given a list of programs they could choose from and began sitting in their new programs of choice this week. I spent the first hour in the Education Program working one-on-one with a patient on English worksheets. He completed five grammar worksheets and I checked over them and reviewed what we learned. Then, I sat in a “Relationships” program. During this program, the counselor talked about different relationships that can form and how they should be valued. The next day at BPC, I sat in a “Peers Relations” program. The counselor discussed how staying positive can improve relationships with others and encouraged the patients to not give up on their dreams and goals. The next program I sat in on was a “Cultural Exploration” program. During this program, the patients answered a true/false questionnaire on different questions pertaining to different cultures and customs. Then, they compared and contrasted different traditions and customs of other countries to those of American traditions and customs.

Week of 4/7 - 4/9

This week at 1547 Hertel Ave., many of the usual staff members were absent due to training programs and illness. I spent the morning playing golf and bowling on the Wii with a gentleman who enjoyed playing on the Wii. Then, we gathered other people to play bowling and I tried to teach a woman how to play on the Wii. She had a difficult time getting use to working the remote for the game but she later got the hang of the game and enjoyed it. Then, I sat around in the dining area with some of the ladies while they were having lunch to discuss the recent events in the newspaper.

This week at the Buffalo Psychiatric Center, I spent the first hour in the Education Program assisting a gentleman with math problems. He was working towards his GED and was reviewing some math concepts. Then, I sat in a “Living with Respect” program which my supervisor was running. Before she started, she had to do rounds on two floors to make sure everyone was right where they belonged and I shadowed her while she did it. Once that was completed, we went back to the room and she began her program talking about respect and having people voice their opinion of what respect meant to them.

Week of 4/16 - 4/17

This week at the Buffalo Psychiatric Center, I worked in the Education Program. The first hour was spent working with a gentleman on math problems from a GED workbook. We worked on percentages and fractions. Then I spent the second hour looking through an optical illusion book with another patient. The next day, I sat in a “Coping Skills” program, in which they talked about how to deal with circumstances that occur in life. The counselor talked about positive things to do in life that can change it. Next, a different counselor and I took five of the patients outside to the courtyard so they could get some fresh air. Some of them walked around the track and some played catch with a ball.

Week of 4/21 - 4/24

This week at 1546 Hertel Ave., I spent the majority of the time playing the Wii with different people. First, we played golf and then bowling. Many people participated and took turns with the sport activities. After we finished playing sports, the Wii Fit was connected and everyone tried out different fitness activities.

This week at the Buffalo Psychiatric Center, I spent the first hour in the Educations Program assisting an individual with decimals and percentages. Then I helped another gentleman with simple multiplication and division. During the next hour, I sat in a “Living with Respect” program in which everyone talked about different ways to respect someone or something. Many people discussed their own experiences with respect and how it benefits people to be respectful. The next day, I sat in the “Cultural Awareness” program in which they discussed about different traditions and rituals of differing cultures. Then, the counselor asked cultural history questions to the patients.

Practicum

Buffalo Hearing and Speech Center

don goetze — Wed, 29 Apr 2009 17:20:28 -0600

The Fast ForWord program at Buffalo Hearing and Speech Center, is designed to encourage reading comprehend in learning delayed students. The program consists of two sections of eight students each, with each session lasting about one hour, and the total program lasts about fifty four days, when a new group of students begins the program. They age range of students varies from kindergarten to high school, with the majority of students being of middle school age.

The program utilizes, the Fast ForWord reading comprehension program, in conjunction with interventions by Speech Language Pathologists. Each student has an individualized program which is coordinated with their level of ability. As each individual student’s ability change during program, the program changes with them requiring more demanding tasks to be completed before progressing to the next level.

In addition to maintain appropriate behavior within the classroom a reward system is utilized in which a student upon earning a weeks, worth of “green faces”, a marker indicating good behavior, that student is then allowed to pick a prize from a bin that is in the classroom.

Week 1 January 12-16

This week the fall session returned from winter break. This group of students is continuing their work from when they began the program in mid November. The students are split into two sections the Early Group running from 3:00 to 4:00 and the Late Group running from 4:00 to 5:00.

With in the Early Group several of the students present with behavioral problems that require intervention. However, the majority of the students only require mild redirection to maintain them on task.

One student arrives significantly early to class everyday, arriving at 2:00 instead of 3:00. This was not planned, as the program these sessions are an after school program and this student’s session does not begin until 3:00. Several inquires have been made to parent to try to rectify the situation however, a solution was not possible and discussions are currently ongoing as to the solution of what will be done during the students extra hour of attendance.

Week 2 January 19-23

This week a decision was made to make the early arriving student into a “classroom helper”, it was hope that this would motivate him to become involved in the program as he dislikes participating. His tasks were discussed with him and he will now be responsible for three major tasks when he arrives at the center. It is also hoped that these tasks will encourage cooperation with the other in the classroom, most significantly the authority figures with the room. This students presents with symptoms ODD in addition to learning delays, which require one on one attention during the program.

Further more several of the students reached new levels within the Fast ForWord program. This means that each student that has reached a new level receives a marker on the Wall of Fame. Additionally it required the creation of a new Daily Log sheets and Weekly Score sheets for the students to keep track of their new games.

Week 3 January 26-30

Modifications to the early arriving student’s tasks have been made in reaction to several behavioral outbursts. The motivation of being a classroom help did not create a significant enough stimulus to encourage him to complete his tasks with age appropriate behavior. In addition these behavioral outbursts resulted in his inability to receive a prize as he did not earn the required “green faces”. This resulted in destructive behavior on his part in which he destroyed several worksheet packets that he had been working on and then retreated to a corner in the room in an attempt to avoid further Fast ForWord activities.

During the student’s outburst, he attempted to gain the attention of the others in the room by shouting loudly and rudely from the corner of the room. After several fail attempts to receive attention for his misbehavior, the student was encouraged to return to his computer, after the student not been “out bursting” for a two minutes. The student returned to his computer and was praised for returning to the task at hand.

Week 4 February 2-6

The modifications to the early arriving student’s tasks have be revised for a second time. He is now assigned thee task to complete each day. He must turn on the computers and log into the Fast ForWord program for each student. He must assist in placing snack. To reinforce learning listening skills and direction following ability I have him first retrieve the required number of juice boxes, after I have him the ability to choose either apple or orange juice. After which I describe the location at which he is to place the juice box. This same process is repeated for whatever the snack that day is as well. His third task is to complete correctly 2 questions on his worksheet packet for that day. He is allowed to complete the tasks in any order and when he completes the tasks without any behavioral outburst he is then allowed to use the remaining time, until the rest of the students arrive, to play games.

Week 5 February 9-13

There were no significant problems this week. Several of the students again moved up levels in there respective activities, including the student who was presenting with behavioral problems, that had been discussed previously. This required the creation of new Daily logs and Weekly Log sheets. In addition the classroom and classroom activities were given a Valentines Day twist. The new look excited the students which demonstrated itself with significantly higher achievement ratings then the students usually accomplished.

Week 6 February 16-20

The sessions for Fast ForWord began to wind down this week as the end of the program is nearing. Two of the students have reached the highest levels of the Fast ForWord program and are not likely to return for next fall session. Participation in the up coming spring session, which will begin March 2^nd, is not possible as the opening slots within the group are already being filled up and the parents are encouraged to enroll their child into another program, such as Language to Literacy, to allow the student a break and change in routine, and then if the desire start again in the fall.

Week 7 February 23-27

This week involved post-testing for all students. Each student received the PAT and students that excided that operational ranges for the PAT received the CELF or SDRT. The PAT is the standard and preferred test for the Fast ForWord program. However, due to its norming at age 11, the age at which all skills that it tests for are meant to be acquired, other tests are sometimes required.

These tests measure changes in phonological awareness and required the whole week to complete for all the students. In addition to testing this week was also used to prepare for the next group of students and to set up final reports so that once testing was completed the data could be easily entered into the template reports and then sent out. A copy of the reports is kept on file as well as being sent to the teachers and parents of the students who took part in the program.

At the end of this week the room was broken down all charts and information on the fall group have been removed and replaced with new information on the in coming students that will be in the spring session. All the slots for the spring session were not filled as of this date leading to a small class size at the beginning of the program.

Week 8 March 2-6

The new spring sessions began this week with the same time sections at the fall session. The students are split into two sections the Early Group running from 3:00 to 4:00 and the Late Group running from 4:00 to 5:00.

There are several empty slots in both sessions one in the early group and three in the late group. In the late group two of the students present with symptoms with the autism spectrum, one of those presenting with additional behavioral problems. Both required strong redirection to maintain on task during the course of Fast ForWord activities. In addition both of these students despite being in the Late Group, arrive at 3:15. This interruption creates a significant distraction to the other students, as well as their activity during the forty-five minute wait until their session begins. Since there are not two free computers the two students that arrive early are unable to begin the program when they arrive, though the parents have been contacted about the early arrival of both students it seems to be unlikely that a change will occur.

Week 9 March 9-13

One of the students in the Early Group left the program; this allowed the two students who were in the Late Group to move into the Early Group. They now arrive at 3:00 and participate in Fast ForWord activities with the Early Group. The parents of the student who left the program gave no indication as to why they desired to stop attending the program, and expressed no interest in begin the program again in the fall.

In addition the three previously open spots in the Late group have been filled, but the two slots left by the two students that transferred from the Late Group to the Early Group have not been filled.

Week 10 March 23-24

The method of prize reward for earned “green faces” has proven ineffective for the student with symptoms of both autism and behavioral difficulties. A decision has been reached to create a unique system for her, in order to maintain her on task and to minimize outburst of aggressive behavior. At her computer station a Velcro chart has been created. She begins each day with three yellow stars, each time that she breaks a classroom rule she has to remove one of the yellow stars and replace it with a red “X”. If she losses all thee yellow stars she is unable to earn a green face for that day. This system creates a more rapid feed back on her behavior which she requires. In addition it allows her to see what the direct consequences of her actions are rather then waiting until the end of class to determine whether or not she has earned a green face. In addition to chart at her station used to remind her of her actions during class she is also given a color in sheet at the end of class. This sheet has to faces, one happy and one sad, at the end of class she is allowed to color in the happy face if has a star left or a sad face if she does not. This sheet she is able to take home to show her parents, which in addition to providing a tactile reward for good behavior, also functions as a method of keeping her parents informed of her general day to day behavior, when they are not available for discussions.

This is the last week to complete my practicum hours, however I will be continuing at Buffalo Hearing and Speech Center through the rest of the spring and summer program.

Practicum

Ministry Internship V

wachowil — Mon, 20 Apr 2009 13:37:59 -0600

March 23 and 25

This week I did my usual preparations for the program, picking a crowdbreaker and making sure that the message was taken care of. We started a new series this week called CSI:Skull Hill. We were going behind the scenes of Jesus' death and resurrection to look at it from a CSI perspective. Since this was the first week and sort of an introductory week we thought that we would play a condensed version of the "Passion of the Christ". I had to run over to Blockbuster to get the video to be edited. I also had to make arrangements with the food provider to make sure that we had the stuff for the "team of the month" party. Lastly, I wanted to find a quick crowdbreaker that also had to do with March Madness. On Wednesday we made final preparations for the evening, and I set up for the crowdbreaker. The program started at 6:00 and then ended promptly at 8:00.

March 30 and April 1

This week we continued the series of CSI:Skull Hill. On Monday, I was asked for the information on how to perform the "Everything" skit that we had done in previous weeks for an upcoming missions trip to Africa. I had to spend a lot of time recreating the time line for the song and performance and then write out supply lists and character lists. I also had to tailor the skit a bit to make it more relatable to African teenagers. After this, I took time preparing for Wednesday, picking a crowdbreaker and getting things set for the team meeting that was going to take place after the program that Wednesday. On Wednesday, I had to run to the store to pick up some snacks for the team meeting and also get some supplies for the crowdbreaker. I also had a meeting with my supervisor to finalize what we would be talking about in the team meeting and how it was going to play out. The program started at 6:00 with the team meeting following until 9:00. In the meeting, we split up the leaders into adults and high schoolers. I spoke to the high schoolers about image and being a role model. I reminded them of how important it is to be aware of your actions and what you say because the Middle Schoolers are always watching and listening.

April 6 and 8

This week was the last week of our series for CSI:Skull Hill, and I was giving the message. On Monday I worked from home, spending hours upon hours putting together the message. This message was much more difficult than any other message because it dealt with more concrete facts. I was trying to prove Jesus' resurrection and then talk about what that means to us as Christians. I had to sort through the research that I had done to focus in on a few ideas that Middle Schoolers could wrap their minds around. This took a lot of time, patience and prayer. This was also a big week because we were doing our big event, "Deal or No Deal". This took a lot of preparation, and a final meeting with my supervisor to finalize the details for the evening. I also had to spend a lot of time practicing for the message. Because of the detail involved and the complicated ideas that I was trying to convey, it was crucial for me to practice how I could get across the ideas in the most clear and understandable way. Lastly, I had to come up with "mini crowdbreakers" to be played in between contestants. I found a few trivia games in storage and used those questions for our games. The program started at 6:00, I gave the message and we started with "Deal or No Deal". It was a great night overall and we all enjoyed the event!

April 13 and 15

This week was really slow. Since the students had their spring break, we didn't have our weekly programming going on. I didn't have my internship on Monday, and then I only went in for a few hours on Wednesday. On Wednesday, I prepared for the next week's programming. Since we weren't going to have a message for the evening, we wanted to have some sort of organized competition that would promote relationships between leaders and students. I decided to do a Photo Scavenger Hunt. With the time that I had, I looked up ideas for the scavenger hunt, prepared a checklist for the teams and printed out the rules for the competition.

Practicum

Brylin Hospital Practicum

Shannon K. Ring — Tue, 03 Mar 2009 16:03:41 -0700

3/3/09

I am completing my Practicum hours on the Children and Adolescent Unit at Brylin Hospital under the supervision of the director of programming for the unit. After months of playing phone tag, filling out paper work, and having drug testing and background checks done, I started working on the unit today!

My supervisor suggested that I follow a Mental Health Technician around so that I may become gently acclimated to the environment and the routine on the unit. I arrived at 9:30am. The children range in age from 6-17 and are separated into two groups. Group one 6-12 and group 2 over 12. Group one was in the middle of TA or therapeutic activity time which consisted of playing ping pong, beach volleyball, and card games. Group 2 was "in school" Everyday time is set aside for the children to complete schoolwork and there is a teacher on hand to assist with any problems. For group two, two hours is alloted, for group one only one hour. Schools are expected to send work for each child. Monday-Friday involves a regular schedule involving meal times, hygiene times, group activity, down time, meeting with case managers and doctors and visitation.

Through out the day, I followed the techs around and observed the children's behaviors and interaction. Today there were two patients in need of 1:1, which means they are assigned a staff member who must be within an arms length of the child at all times. This occurs when the child is an immediate threat to himself or others. One of the children who was on 1:1 today was given a PO before I arrived which is an oral sedative, in this case Thorazine. While I was there I witnessed a nurse administering an IM or Intravenous Medication to the same patient. Before the injection the patient was out of control, running through the hallways, assaulting staff. Afterwards his affect became flat and he was very lethargic. He ended up leaving group activity to take a nap.

Many of the patients on the unit at this time have had previous hospitalizations at Brylin. Some seem to genuinely enjoy their time spent in the hospital. One wing on the unit is called SOAP. I forget the exact meaning of the acronym but it is specifically for children who have been sexually abused or have themselves been perpatrators. I was well warned about one girl from this wing who was admitted in August, however her behavior today was not at all indicative of previous difficulty. She was very sweet and docile. Overall, all of the children on the unit were relatively well-behaved today.

I had the opportunity to review some of the charts containg patients' histories. I also sat in on the nurses' meeting when they were changing shifts, which was interesting. My supervisor took me to admissions to review the file of a potential patient.

I was given my name badge and universal key. I am excited for my next experience on the unit.

3/5/09

My second day at Brylin started at 9 am. I was surprised how many patients had been added or discharged in the course of two days. I met the little boy who's file I reviewed in admissions. I was taken back by how sweet and polite he appeared to be. One of the staff assured me that he was in his "honey moon phase" that almost all patients experience. I again sat in on the TA groups. Group one was particularly active. Group two was working on friendship bracelets, a skill that they can use as a relaxation technique after leaving the hospital. I also sat in on a social work group with Group 1. The social worker tried to engage all of the children in a board game that addressed appropriate responses to different situations and encouraged the children to talk about emotions. I spent a good portion of the day shadowing and talking to one of the mental health technicians. I was curious about the types of treatment available. I specifically asked whether or not Group two was involved with any Cognitive Behavioral or Talk therapy. She said not really. There were two patients discharged while I was there, so I saw a little of that process. Also one of the patients had a visit from her mother and mother's fiancé. Schedules vary from day to day so I met a few staff members that I had not met on Tuesday. I had the opportunity to interact with a couple of patients in Group two after lunch during a second session of TA. The most common diagnosis in this group is depression. Due to the structured nature of the daytime hours, the patients are generally better behaved. I may set up a few hours in the evening so that I may observe more severe behaviors.

3/10/2009

I arrived at the hospital at 9 am and stayed until 4 pm. I spent most of the day observing group one. Again I was very inquisitive and interested in the backgrounds and intentions of the staff members. I discovered very quickly that one of the Mental Health Technicians had never worked on the children's unit. It's amazing how quickly the children can single out new staff. One patient in particular was pushing limits. I witnessed some of his inappropriate behaviors last week, but nothing like today. He was throwing chairs, insulting staff with vulgar language, refusing to leave the group, clinging on to table legs. There really is no system of reinforcement or punishment in place.

One of the therapeutic activities today was a form of music therapy. The recreational therapist played songs and provided the children with paper and oil pastels. They were instructed to use the material however they liked. Drawing pictures or writing words. I noticed that there is a lot of modeling of behavior that takes place. One patient observed the pattern that another was drawing and began to copy it in another color on her own paper. Also one of the staff calmly informed one of the patients that his behavior was inappropriate and that he was being rude. Later on, while playing a board game, the same patient told his opponent that he was being rude.

A patient tried to steal my master key, I firmly told him to never touch my key. He then sweetly gazed into my eyes and told me, "You're too dumb to really work here."

3/16/2009

Today was a difficult day. I arrived at 11 am and stayed until 515 pm .There were multiple outbursts of aggression among the patients. One of the patients who has a history of OCD was playing Monopoly with two other patients and myself. The player before him rolled double sixes and mistakenly moved his piece 13 places. This was a surprisingly strong trigger for the patient with OCD. Accusations of "cheater!" rang through the air, and before I could de-escalate the situation the little boy was throwing himself at the other player and punching with all his might. Astonishingly, the other patient (who has frequent aggressive outbursts) did not retaliate. Staff quickly intervened and separated the boys. Perhaps ten minutes later one of the staff members decided to hold a group session with group one to discuss conflict resolution, using this incidence as an example of how the situation may have been handled more appropriately. I did not think that this was such a good idea seeing as the two patients who were involved were still angry and asked to participate. During the group session another conflict arose with two different patients over a stuffed animal. The language that flew out of this small child's mouth made my ears bleed. Thankfully there was no real physical confrontation despite the multiple threats made against one another.

Two of the boys from group two who are roommates in the SAAOP ( this is the actual acronym tho I still do not know exactly what it stands for) hall had multiple conflicts today. One of them is well known for his perpetual instigating. The other became fed up with being made fun of and refused to allow his roommate to enter their room during "down time" ( down time is the hour after lunch where the patients are to find a quiet activity to do in their rooms, they can nap, read, write letters, do puzzles etc...) The two were separated, the instigator was sent to the seclusion room, but allowed to keep the door open. I am unsure how the situation escalated because I was reading through files at the nurses station, but the child who was being picked on repeatedly started acting out, screaming and throwing his furniture. From what I gathered, his anger was justified. His actions were not. The staff called for a nurse to administer either a PO or IM. A social worker intervened and talked the patient down. He verbally expressed how frustrated he was with the constant insults from the other patient and the situation. He agreed to take a PO ( medication administered orally). In my opinion he was rational and cooperative and therefore did not need the medication. He was not a danger to himself or others at the time the medication was given. I have never studied pharmacology and I am not aware of all of the uses and misuses/ effects and side effects of the drugs that are prescribed. I wonder how many of the nurses and staff members are educated in this area.

Right before I left there were more aggressive outbursts surrounding dinner time and who would be allowed to go down to the Bistro and who would be forced to eat in the lounge or their room.

Everyday that I have been at Brylin I have met new staff members. Some of them seem to genuinely care about their jobs and the patients. Some of them don't.

3/18/2009

I was at the hospital from 11 am until almost 7 pm today. They day started off relatively mellow. The children were well-behaved. After lunch I discovered a patient jumping up and down flipping his light switch on and off. When I asked him what he was doing, he told me he was trying to wake up his roommate. The little boy had been given an IM the night before and refused to wake up this morning. When he finally was awoken by a nurse, he was angry, defiant, and uncooperative. He dumped his medication and the glass of water that she handed him on the floor. He was reluctant to communicate and shouted profanities at the staff. Upon returning to his room, he found his roommates copy of Robinson Crusoe and ripped all 200 pages out, one by one. My supervisor intervened and locked up the rest his books in the closet. She spoke calmly to the boy having the tantrum and asked him if he was making a safe choice in behaving this way. She also asked him why he chose not to use his words to express his anger. A little while later the same child was laying on a beanbag chair in the door way of the calming room. I spent a little time talking to him and trying to get him to move himself and the bean bag out of the hallway and into the calming room. Later on he approached me and asked if I would play Sequence with him. I didn't know how to play, so he taught me. It is incredible that such a young person can have so much anger.

It is a lot to take in. Observing the interactions not only between patients and staff members, but also among the two groups. Today was a big day on the unit because we were having company. A couple new doctors and some board members were coming to tour the unit. Instead of downtime after dinner, the children were allowed to go to the lounge and play board and video games. All children fight over video games. However there was very limited conflict among the gamers today. The visitors came and left.

The little girl with Aspergers who has been on the unit since August had a violent episode and had to be restrained. During her episode (which required the attention of three or four staff members) one of the Group One boys threw himself on the ground and demanded that I bring him a knife. Also during the episode, a girl from Group Two was sitting alone on the stairs, I asked her if she was ok, she told me she just wanted the voices to stop.

I am only given a glimpse into what some of these children are dealing with.

3/19/2009

I was at Brylin from 10 am to 2 pm today. When I arrived group one was working on completing a caring frame with one of the social workers. The caring frame is a worksheet designed to help the children think about ways that people can show that they care for one another. They were encouraged to come up with a list of people that care about them. During TA I played ping pong with a few patients. I also went with them to lunch. A number of patients are being discharged today. I think that it is difficult to not become emotionally attached to the children who stay here. Tuesday will be a whole new ball game.

3/24/2009

The dynamics on the unit have changed. There are far fewer patients in group one. I sat in on a SW group that focused on self-esteem. The worksheet was entitled. "I like myself from A-Z" and the patients had to come up with positive adjectives describing themselves for each letter of the alphabet. I also sat in on an MHT group. The topic was "Changes" the patients were encouraged to think about and discuss one thing that they would like to change about themselves. I felt that the leaders of the group were under-prepared for dealing with some of the issues that this topic brought to surface. I spoke with my supervisor about this and she explained to me how challenging doing group activities in an in-patient setting is and reasons for this. On thursday morning I will be sitting in on a meeting for the unit that I am excited about.

3/26/2009

So the multi meeting that I sat in on was really interesting. Mainly the discussion was between the social workers and the doctors. I learned some terms used in social work and found it interesting that people can speak different languages when discussing the same topic in the same room. I stayed for a full day and we had a birthday party for one of the patients.

4/2/09

Having not been to the hospital in exactly one week, it was strange to not recognize many of the patients. One patient that was there the first week has returned. This seems to be a common practice, children having multiple stays at the hospital. The patients that I find the most interesting are the ones that do not have immediately apparent difficulties or disorders.

4/7/09

I started the day at the multidisciplinary meeting again. I think that it is important that the doctors ask for in put from all of the people who interact with the children. The nurses, TA, SWs. It was interesting to hear background on some of the patients before having met them. One of the doctors described to me a patient with severe anxiety problems and told me that she is highly intelligent and very interesting to talk to. He told me that I should seek her out. Unfortunately I had only limited contact with the patient he described throughout the day. I like to stay and watch the chaos that sometimes insues during a shift change. Today was particularly chaotic. There is lots of huss and fuss among the staff regarding lay-offs in the company. This is strange to me seeing as I feel the unit could use more qualified staff. The director gave tours to representatives for Parent Advocates and representatives from the Children's Psychiatric Center.

I have been observing the progression of a patient that has been described as "toxic" and a "budding borderline" She slept the majority of the day and while awake exhibited extremely bizarre behaviors that I had never seen from her before. Such as zoning out and attempting to bite staff members. I was told that she has become increasingly aggressive and tried to attack other patients. Another patient that was discharged in a previous week has returned. I am unaware of the details of the grounds for her hospitilization, but she is struggling with the beginning of an eating disorder, which many of the staff feel should be the primary concern for treatment, however this facility is not equipped for handling such a problem.

I sat in on a social worker group that was intended to address appropriate ways of handling anger. The worksheet first discussed not so appropriate ways that many of us deal with anger. One of which was throwing things. The social worker asked how many of the patients throw things when they get angry. One eight year old patient contributed, "I throw things! You can throw grandmas! You just kill them and then you throw them!" During the multi meeting it was discussed that this particular patient has repeated thoughts of harming others. The doctor explained to me that many people are tormented by intrusive negative thoughts. Through treatment and therapy they can lead "normal" lives, but they must deal with the torment. He shared a story about a patient of his that had obsessive thoughts of harming others. The patient worked as a saftey inspector for a major airline. When questionned whether or not he had thought about purposefully damaging a plane, he responded "Oh no, I could never do that!" yet he suffered from recurrent thoughts of wanting to harm others.

I spent some time trying to coax a patient off of the floor in front of the nurse's station and back into group. His complaint was that he was soooo tired and only wanted to go to his room and sleep. After a while, my supervisor told me that if he wanted to be uncooperative, we would just have to leave him on the floor and step over him. It's obvious that this patient thrives off of individual attention, so it makes sense to leave him if he is not at risk of harming himself or others, earlier in the day he had stolen a pen and gauged both of his forearms with it before a staff could retrieve it from him.

It is exhausting just being on the unit.

4/14/09

The multi meetings generally last for an hour, today it lasted two hours. There were a lot of patients discharged today. There is such a bizarre mix of emotions surrounding discharging patients on this unit, especially for those who have been on the unit for a while or are destined to return.

It was also one of the days where staff take patients off the unit to the YMCA. This happens almost every Tuesday and Thursday. There is no defined system of choosing who gets to go, and it is almost always an issue for at least one patient who doesn't understand why their name was crossed off the list. If you are on 1:1 or do not have appropriate foot wear, or if you misbehave you cannot go. The main restriction however is that the van can only transport six patients.

The director has attempted to implement a reward system for one of the patients who has been on the unit far longer than the average stay, with little promise for discharge or being moved to a long term care facility at the moment. The challenge is finding age and developmentally appropriate rewards for the patient. She will have three goals per day, achieving these goals will result in a reward. She will carry her b-mod plan with her on an index card so as to avoid confusion with the changing of shifts.

It's spring break, so instead of going to "school" the children were allowed to watch a recently released movie, Bolt. I played a board game with a couple of the patients, unfortunately one became frustrated easily and refused to finish the game.

Practicum

Math Science Technology Prepatory School at Seneca

Katie Walters — Thu, 26 Mar 2009 10:44:00 -0600

1/14/09 (5 hours) 5

Today was my first real day at MST working with Mark Mecca, the school
psychologist. On Monday I went to see the school and make sure that it
was what I wanted to do and the program sounded great. I will be
working with Mark on most aspects of what he does, from filing papers
to testing to evaluating to writing up reports.

We started off the morning with finishing up an IQ test on one of the
students. Most of the tests had already been done, so Mark went through
the block design, math problems, and a few other tests. I was excited
that I knew what most of the tests were and how they were done, but I
found it hard to sit there and listen and watch Mark not be able to
give any feedback to the student. I think that would be the hardest
part of giving the test. After finishing up administering the test and
taking the student back to class, Mark, another intern, and I worked on
giving the student an IQ score. The other intern and I were able to go
through the books and find the different sections and different score
for the sections to come up with a full scale, verbal and performance
scales. This was a great start to my first day.

With the scores the way they were, Mark said the student should be
able to be classified with a learning disability, but we had to finish
scoring the achievement test that the student had taken. I was given
his test and the scoring guides and put them into the computer and
worked on scoring the last part of the test. Then, we had all the
information we needed and I called another lady from the team to tell
her that the student could be classified.

After that we went back to the offices with the rest of the "team" as
Mark calls them to work on a few other things. I was given the
opportunity to go interview the teacher of the student who had the IQ
test done and ask her a few questions about his performance and what
she thinks is going on. After interviewing the teacher, I came back
down to the office to write up the interview report, so with my notes
that I took from the interview of the one teacher and Mark's notes from
interviews with three other teachers, I wrote up the "teacher
interviews" section of the students report.

From there, Mark and I went to call the student's mother to try and
set up an interview. The social worker at the school said that the
mother was not all for having her child identified so Mark decided to
handle the phone call himself, which I was glad about because at my
first day I did not want to have to have a mother yell at me! I
observed the phone call and listen to what was going on.

Hopefully I will be able to observe the student next time, but we ran out of time today.

1/21/2009 (5 hours) 10

Today at my internship I got to sit in on an achievement test that was
given to a girl with a behavioral problem. We wanted to see if she was
doing poorly and misbehaving in school because she was unable to well
or if she was just not trying. It was really neat to understand what
was going on and see how standardized these tests are as well. I spent
most of my time with the achievement testing and most of my day with
this girl.

She has many problems in school and at home and is in foster care
now. I got to speak with her and she does not like school at all and
does not feel the need to listen to adults or any authority figures. I
am unsure what will be determined about her, but I do know that she has
problems dealing with authority. Her one teacher will not even let her
back into class at all, even after all the testing is done and after
she is given a behavior plan.

After the achievement test is done I got to plug all the grades into
the computer and figure out what the results are. Next time we are
going to analyze the results since it was time for a CSE meeting that I
got to sit in on. The boy who the meeting was for is in 11th grade and
is being evaluated for the first time and was determined to have a
learning disability. He and his mother are trying to figure out if they
want to place him in special education or not, but they are not sure
what do to. At the end of the meeting, they decided to place him in
special education, at least so that he can get help for the regents
exams that are coming up.

1/23/09 (5 hours) 15

Today started out with a classroom observation. I went to the classroom
and observed one of the students who would be tested later in the week.
I had to enter the classroom and discretely ask the teacher if I was
able to observe the child. I sat near the student, but not close enough
for it to be obvious. My goal during the observation was to figure out
the student's time on task, how he acted towards the teacher, how he
interacted with peers, and any other observations that may be
important. In order to figure out the student's time on task, I was to
look at the student 20 times in 10 second increments and look at
another student right after. I made a tally every time the student I
was observing was on task and every time the other student was on task.
Then I figured out the percentage that each of the two students were on
task and compared the two to figure out how the student's attention
span was. I also took notes on the interraction with the teacher and
peers. I was interested to see that although I was only observing one
student, there were so many students who were lacking attention, not
only this one.

For the rest of my time at MST I spent drafting up a behavioral
contract for the girl who I worked with the other day. I was given an
outline and given some direction on how to write up goals for her. From
there I was told to write up goals for her and figure out what could be
done to implement those goals. I spent a while trying to figure out
what her goals should be, but I finally figured it out and took up the
rest of my time writing up the goals and plans of how to implement
them. We decided that the best bet would be to give her a daily report
card. This daily report card, with a section for each of her goals, is
given to each of her teachers every day and they give her a score of
"satisfactory" or "unsatisfactory" in each of her goal sections. I
finished up the draft, but I will have to write the final report next
time.

1/25/09 (6 hours) 21

I began my day today by writing up the behavioral report that I was
working on last time. I had to write up a list of goals, the
consequences of what will happen if she follows the plan and if she
does not follow the plan, strategies for keeping up with the behavior
plan, and the daily report card. This took a lot of time to get
together, but I think it was a great experience. Mark looked it over
and made whatever changes needed to be changed.

Once the report was made and I went to find the student who I wrote up
the report with. She was hard to track down because she was in In
School Suspension for the day, but we didn't know that. Once we found
her, we sat down and talked about the plan that was made up. She said
she would try to follow it, but could not guarantee that she would
follow this plan. After great discussion, she decided to sign the the
contract, agreeing to it, but only after she realized that she would be
suspended if she did not.

After that discussion, I wrote up the results of the achievement tests
that was done earlier in the week. I plugged the results into the
computer and worked with Mark to analyze the data. After that, I wrote
up the part of the evaluation that involved the results of the
assessment. Not only did I write up the part that summarized the
scores, but also wrote up the part that explained what each section of
the achievement test involved and what the student's strengths and
weekenesses were in each section. This took a while because I had to go
though the whole test and see what problems were right and which ones
were wrong. I have to say, writing this was actually fun! I got to
analyze test results and write things that were from my own head
instead of just copying what other people wrote.

1/28/09 (5 hours) 26

First thing this morning I was given a form to fill out called the
"Documentation of Determination of Eligibility" for students who are
being referred to special education. The form wants to know all the
steps that were taken, like the parental contacts made and when, what
tests the student has been given, previous tests (like the Terra-Novas
and SATs), and reasons for the student to be in special education. It
would seem like the document would be easy to figure out, right? Not at
all. I had no idea what to look for at first, no idea where to look,
and it was all so overwhelming. I had to ask the office for all the
test results from the students previous years (he's in 11th grade so
there were a lot!) and go through his records to find any information
that may be able to fit on the paper. This task, although only four
pages long, took my almost an hour and a half to complete. It was a lot
of work!

After that, the school counselor came down to the office to ask
about some of the special education students. She was working on
filling out their paper work to get test accomodations for the SAT, but
didn't have much of their records. the college board, who is in charge
of the SAT wanted to know all the latest achievement test results,
cognitive test results, their special education classification, when
the student was first classified, and other questions dealing with the
same types of things. This too involved us (myself and the other
intern) going through records. For my last two hours there I went
through files for the studentsand in most cases found out that the
students would need to be retested in order to have the most accurate
data. All the tests had to have been done within two years and they had
to be certain tests (the most up to date of course). Most of the
students were tested using the SB IV, but these forms called for the
SB V if using the SB tests. Today was a short day since the weather was
bad and I didn't want to get stuck there.

2/2/09 (6 hours) 32

There was no CSE work to get done today, so we got to spend the day
talking to the students. I met with a few students about their grades.
All the students I met with are failing at least three classes. When I
spoke to them I was to ask why they are failing, how they feel about
failing, and what they want to do to do better. I was to ask them if
there was anything I could do to help them and if they even wanted the
help. Two of the students said yes, they wanted help and they didn't
like that their grades were failing, but they were not willing to stay
after school for extra help or even take time out of their day to do
their homework. They claimed they wanted help, but they didn't show
that they were willing to take it. The one student I met with has
actually already started turning her grades around.Tihs was very
impressive, I hope it works and she stays with it. We will have to meet
with them again in a few weeks to see how they're doing.

After that I met with a girl who is in love with her female teacher.
This teacher was very nervous for a while about the situation, since
the infatuation was too high to just be something to ignore. The girl I
met with is very intelligent, she is just attention seeking. Her
teacher gave her attention and she took it the wrong way. The student
now says that she doesn't really spend much time with the teacher
because she know the teacher was a little weirded out by the fact that
she would write her love letters and all that. The teacher also said
that it is not as big a problem anymore, but it seems to come in stages
so we will need to meet up with her again too.

After that I was going to meet with another girl who had written a
suicide note that a teacher had found. From what I gathered from Mark
the girl seems depressed, but at the same time has her happy moments.
When I went to get her from class, she looked very happy so I did not
get her. Mark said not to disturb her if she looks like she has a
purpose in the class and I thought that playing the piano was a big
enough purpose in the class.

We looked for othe students to speak to, but none of them were there today, so we put that aside and called it a day.

2/9/09 (6 hours) 38

I spent my whole day today on one student. I started off the morning
by writing up a review of recods for her. A review of records is when
you go t hrough a students file and write down any important
information that people will need to know when reading her report. I
wrote down test results from previous tests and their dates, her
grades, her medical conditions, past classifications and past IEP
modifications. Anything that seemed important I wrote down, seeing as I
can edit anything out later that doesn't seem that important.

Next, I met with the student whose records I went through. I had to
ask her questions about what she wants to do after high school, what
she likes and dislikes about school, if she is still recieving the
services she is supposed to, and if she felt she still needed them.
Also, anything she felt she should tell me she was given the option to.
She didn't really seem that thrilled to talk to me, she said she'd
rather be in class, but this is something that needed to get done.
After that, we started an achievement test with her and got about half
way through, to the math fluency part, and we had take her back to
class so she didn't miss her test.

We'll have to finish up the test next time.

2/11/09 (5 hours) 43

Today we finished up the achievement test we were working on the
last time I was there. We continued with the test and eventually
finished it. Towards the end I do not think she was giving her best
because she was unable to concentrate and scored less highly than she
did at the beginning. We gave her a little break and plugged the scores
into the computer. As predicted, she scored less on the end few tests
than she did at the beginning.

After a little break, she was ready to take the IQ test. Everytime
it's done I still love it. It's amazing to me that these little tests
and questions can predict how well a person can learn. I love looking
at the answers that are expected, because some of them I would never
think of saying myself. I would love to take an IQ test and see where
my score ranges.

After that I had to analyze the test results so that next time I can
write up the report on it. It's getting easier and easier to figure out
where the scores fall.I've finally memorized that normal curve to
determine where on the range the students fall: 80-120 is average with
80-89 low average, 90-110 solid average, 111-120 high average and
anything below 80 is below average and anything above 120 is high
average. I guess after going through test results so many times it gets
easier to remember it.

2/13/09 (6 hours) 49

Today involved going through the files of many kids. We had to prepare
for the upcoming CSE meetings.We reviewed the records of all the
students who would be reevaluated this month. We also tried to meet
with a few of the kids to interview them and do classroom observations.
Turns out that today was not a popular day to come to school. We only
had the chance to talk to one of the student, and it was just briefly.

We only could talk to the student briefly because another student
had gone missing.We had to look for her all over the school. I had to
look in the bathroom for her, we had to look in different classrooms
and outside different doors. We finally found her and took her to the
office where she would have to spend the rest of the day.

Since it's the day before Valentine's Day, there was a dance from 12-3
in the gym. Only children who paid two dollars were able to attend the
dance, and even then, if they had poor behavior before or during the
dance. We went to the dance to see what was going on. I was shocked
that there were no students actually dancing. All the kids were either
sitting on the bleachers or standing along the wall. They looked like
they were having no fun. But, I guess that's just how dances are in
middle and high school.

2/23/09 (5 hours) 54

Today was such a busy day. Wednesday is a day full of CSE meetings,
which means everything needs to be done before then. We started off the
morning doing achievement tests on two students. They were more than
half way done so we only needed to finish up the writing section on one
and the applied problems and writing section on another. Once that was
done, it was time to write up reports for those students.

At least three reports needed to be written today, because there
were six meetings on Wednesday and none of the reports were written up
yet. Using Mark's template again, I was asked to write a whole report
on my own to see how I did. I had done this once before, but this time
it was without any guidance besides the template. I gathered three
other examples of reports, including the one I previously wrote up,
just to make sure that I could find the answers to my questions if I
needed to. Mark and the other intern at MST were each working on other
reports as well, so I would have to answer any questions on my own.

It took a while to write up the report, since I had to go through the
review of records, all the previous tests that were done, his academic
history, his interview, his teacher's interview, his parent's
interview, and the recent tests that were done. My report ended up
being almost 12 pages long! It was really exciting to write up a whole
report on my own. Mark checked it over when I was finished. I only had
a few changes to make, so that was reassuring. By the time the report
was edited and ready to sign, it was time for me to leave.

2/25/09 (6 hours) 60

Today is a day full of CSE meetings. There are four that I will be
able to sit through when I an there, but there are six throughout the
day. When I first got there this morning though, I had to finish
writing up a report that was not finished the day before. Mark had to
make sure he was fully involved in the meeting, so I and the other
intern worked on the last couple details that needed to be in the
report. While working on that, I was listening to the meeting since I
was in the same room.

Luckily, all the parents agreed to let me and the other intern sit
in on their meetings, so I got a full day's worth, and saw many
different groups of people. The first however, was the most
interesting. The parents of this student are divorced and the mother
has custody. The father does not agree with special education and the
mother just wants her son to succeed in school, no matter what it
takes. During the meeting, the father was full of complaints about the
special education system and how it was "dumbing down" his son rather
than helping him learn to do things on his own. Luckily the mother has
custody because she agreed to keep him in his program because he needs
more help that a regular setting would give him. The father pulled the
child out of the room and started yelling at him because he "wasn't
sticking up for himself" and the father thought he should. A meeting
that should only have taken about 45 minutes took almost 2 hours, which
left the other families waiting for their time for meetings.

The next three meetings went fairly well. One mother has no idea
what to do with her son because he seems to have given up at school due
to his failure throughout his academic career. He enjoys getting in
trouble because he gets attention from his peers and just cannot seem
to bring his grades up. They decided to give him an ultimatum in which
if he doesn't bring his grades up by the end of the quarter, he will be
placed in a more restrictive setting next year. The next meeting, the
mother was very concerned about her daughter who is in 11th grade and
cannot mulitiply or divide simple numbers. Therefore, she is failing
her 11th grade algebra class. Who wouldn't?! It seems awful that an
11th grader cannot do simple math, but it turns out that more and more
kids are just unable to because they rely too much on calculators and
not on learning the basics. The last meeting was the most pleasant. The
son and his mother are so much alike. He is the most respectful student
I have met since I've been there. He is polite and friendly and seems
to respect all authority. His mother seems to be the same way. It is
obvious that she loves him and wants the best for him and encourages
what he does well. His behavior reflects her care for him.

Overall, the meetings went really well, but the day was long. I can't imagine having six meetings in one day. I would go crazy!

2/27/09 (6 hours) 66

Today was a day of nothingness. The day started off with a team meeting
with all the school psychologists from five different schools, the
social worker, and the coordinator. They spent about two hours
dicussing problems they had and solutions to fix those problems. They
went over plans for the next bunch of CSE meetings and dicusses what
the dates are. It was neat to see them brainstorming, but I felt a
little out of place since I had nothing to contribute to their
discussion.

After the meeting was over, most of the kids were in lunch so we
couldn't get anything done on the list of things to do. Those who
weren't in lunch were either not at school or taking a test. With that,
Mark asked me to call one of the student's mothers to ask her to come
in to sign the permission to test forms to test her daughter for
special education. The mother was confused and doesn't want her
daughter in special education, but does want her to be tested. I tried
to explain that to her, but she didn't seem to grasp the concept. I
must not have been clear enough. She said she would call her daughter's
therapist and then call me back.

After calling the mother, we went out to lunch with the other school
psychologists and just talked about different things. It's interesting
to see that they all have such different personalities, but all do the
same job. It's nice to see that different personalities can work in the
same environment.

3/2/09 (5 hours) 71

My day started off today with an achievement test for the student
whose mother I spoke to the other day. The mother agreed to having her
daughter tested, but did not want her in special education. This is my
first time meeting the student and it was obvious to me that she too
wanted nothing to do with special education. She just kept saying that
she's not stupid and these tests aren't going to show anything and that
her problems weren't in school so special education would not help. She
has many problems outside of school, including her father being in
prision. Her teachers think she is depressed and want to do something
to help her. As she was doing the achievement test, she was getting
much father on the questions than any of the student I'd seen so far
and she is only in 6th grade. She seems like a very bright girl. She
eventually gave up on the test and said she needed to leave. So, we
took her back to class. Later in the day she caused a scene because she
said she wanted to finish the test, and the security guard had to bring
her to us so she could finish. After she finished I put the data in the
computer and got the results. They showed that she falls into the
average section for everything she was tested on, if not higher than
average, which means something is getting in her way in doing well in
school, which she would remind me that whatever is happening is
happening outside of school.

Also, she filled out a BASC self-report, and her teachers filled out a
BASC report for her as well. We recieved only one of the teacher ones
so far, but I got to enter the data from her's and the data from the
one teacher's and look at the results. It was so interesting that
questions like that can come up with results. I went through and
highlighted ones the were "at risk" and ones that were "clinically
significant" and which topics they were under. Then I went through and
saw which ones the teacher's results said that she might fall into.
ADHD, Autism, Depression, and others were a few of the topics that the
student may fall into. The other intern looked through the results from
her self-report and analyzed those. The results were very different
from the teachers. It was neat to see that.

3/4/09 (6 hours) 77

Today we had to go through files about students past behavior interventions. During the CSE process, those who are requesting the assessment need to fill out paperwork saying that other steps were done before the initial referral. We had to go through two students behavior files and see what kind of behaviors they have had in the past. We listed out all the behaviors and tallied them up. We put the dates next to the tallies so we knew when the behavior occured. We then compared the behaviors to see if any of the interventions were working. The interventions included suspension (both in and outside of school), write up, parent-teacher conferences, student conferences, and a few others. If the interventions didn't seem to be working (if the behaviors were still occuring) then the referal could be made for special education services. This process took all day. The students files were huge and it took forever to go though and the form seemed pretty monotonous. It was interesting to see all the interventions for the students that consistently do not work. It's kind sad that the school goes through the trouble to suspend someone when that doesn't even work for all students. I think that this process, of going through the students' files, is useful although boring because how is is possible to see what works for those students if we don't know what doesn't work.

That project took up almost the whole day. For the last half hour we collected the results from the rest of the BASC reports and started to plug them into the computer. I didn't get to read the results yet since we didn't finish plugging them in the computer.

3/6/09 (6 hours) 83

There is one student at MST, an 11 year old girl (who tells everyone she is 13), who is constantly in and out of Mark's office. She comes in to talk, for water, for pens, and just for some attention. The past few days she has been in more than often, claiming to have a 19 year old boyfriend who she is sexually active with. She also said that this boy is being tested for AIDS and has two children already. Once she told us this, she left and we went to talk to her couselor. We set up a meeting with her parents, just to make them aware because this is endangering her welfare. Her parents weren't able to come in for a meeting today but they said they will be in on Monday to clear things up.

After that, we went to School 84, a school for children with severe disabilities. I loved the school. It was such a great experience.The atmosphere is so different than at MST. The hallways are twice as wide, to accomodate for the wheel chairs and other activities. The teachers and children are all so friendly. We got a tour of the whole school, which is from 5-21 years old. There are regular classrooms and vocational classrooms which allow for the students to learn skills they will be able to use in the real world. There was even an "apartment" in the school that helped the students learn to set a table, vaccuum, get out of a bed into their wheelchair, etc. This helps them be able to function on their own without so much help.

3/9/09 (6 hours) 89

Today we had a meeting with the 11 year olds' parents. They were very supportive and discussed with her the consequences for her actions. She made it known that she was making all this up and that she just wanted attention. Everyone at the meeting discussed their concern about her and tried to figure out what was going on that made her need that kind of attention. She said that she just like the attention. I don't think she realized what she was doing exactly. She stayed in school after the meeting, but was causing problems in her class. She didn't want to go home because she said her dad would beat her, but her parents were going to get her a counselor so she would have someone to talk to. She spent the rest of the day in the principal's office.

We then had to write up a Behavior Intervention Plan for the girl. That took some time because it was hard to write up for her not to share problems that aren' there. We didn't want to make it seem like she couldn't talk about her problems, but she must not share them with everyone, or broadcast it, or tell problems that are not there. Her plan is to go to counseling and talk to an adult if she feels the need. The plan took some time to create, but it was finally done before I had to leave.

3/16.09 (6 hours) 95

Today we finished up testing one of the students. I'm really getting used to the way the tests are set up, both the IQ and the Achievement tests. There are CSE meetings coming up and there are a few kids left to test. We wanted to finish up testing one student today and get the whole report written up. There was a little bit left to do with the achievement test and the whole IQ test needed to be done. We finished up the achievement test and I started scoring it up while Mark administered the IQ test. After observing the IQ test I looked through the book to score that up and find the student's IQ. We shared the information with the student and discussed with him what it means. From there I was to observe the student in the classroom. I did the time on task and wrote about what the class was learning about. About 12 minutes into my observation, the student left to go to the bathroom and didn't return for the rest of the period. I saw the student walking down the hall with a girl as I left.

When I got back, I was to write up the report using the information we had gathered from testing and the interviews and classroom observations. I'm getting the hang of writing reports so they don't seem to take as long. I would have a hard time writing the report without the help of Mark's template, but I am getting used to it.

3/17/09 (4 hours) 99

One of the eighth grade students at MST has put much time and effort into starting a Japanese club at school. She sent out surveys and had meetings with the princpals about permission to start the club. Mark would be the advisor of the club, along with this student, and they have finally been given the permission to start it.

I spent my whole four hours writing and rewriting a permission slip for the students to be able to attend the after school program. It was hard to get the wording right and make the parents understand what the program is going to be about. Finally I finished it. Tomorrow I will give them out to the students.

3/18/09 (6 hours) 105

I started off today by handing out the permission slips to the students who were invited to the Japanese club. That didn't take long, which was good because we had to go to a school psychology meeting at OTC. This meeting had the majority of school psychologists for the Buffalo School district. A lady from the state was there and they had prepared questions to ask her. To me, it seemed just like they all gathered there to complain. I didn't find it enjoyable. It was simply that they were there to say what was wrong and that everyone else has to fix it. Yes, I understand that there are problems and that many of the school psychologists can't do anything to fix it, it seems kind of pointless to me. Why complain about something that hasn't been fixed in years.

After that meeting we had to make it back to MST to meet with another family to declassify a special education student. He didn't feel that he needed the special education and didn't like the title that was put on him. His family wanted to get him out of it as long as he agreed to keep his grades up and partipate. He also needed to agree to see a counselor outside of school because he gets very angry when it comes to his mother. During the meeting I wrote up a behavior contract for him that was signed by him and his family.

3/19/09 (6 hours) 111

Today I finished writing up a report that one of the other interns started the other day. He wasn't going to be there for the rest of the week and it needed to get done. There wasn't much else to get done, so that didn't take long.

After finishing that report we went to visit Emerson, another one of the Buffalo Schools. This one is located on Chippewa and has a restaurant on the bottom floor. The students are given certain periods a day to cook in the kitchen, which is open for breakfast and lunch. (I would strongly suggest going there) The program is great. The students are taking classes and are spending time cooking. Other students go out into the community to work and are given work experience. We stayed there for quite some time observing the school and the atmosphere. It was a great change from MST.

3/20/09 (5 hours) 116

Today was a monotonous day. We spent the whole day finishing up IQ tests with the students. There were a few that were half way done that we needed to finish. Along with that, I filed a lot of the files that we were done with and would not be needing anymore. There were a lot of little ends to tie up. We got all the paper printed for the CSE meetings next week and got rid of all the information that we no longer needed. I shredded some papers while the IQ tests were being done. All the loose ends were coming together for the meetings next week.

3/27/09 (4 hours) 120

Today's my last day. We had a meeting with the other school psychologists from the team. A guest speaker came in. He is a pastor in the community and does an outreach program for inner city students who need some guidance. He talked about how he was in jail and that was not what he wanted. He not helps children who are going down the same path he was going down. He goes into their homes and gives them food and mattresses if they need them. He helps their whole families rather than just them. He also brings in people who are or were in gangs to help the kids realize that they do not want that. He was a great guy who has come a long way from where he was. I was really glad that he came in.

Other than that, I spent most of the day talking to Mark and the social worker, Greg, about any questions I may have had. I think this was a great experience and had opened my eyes to many things that I hadn't realize before.

Practicum

New Beginnings at Buffalo Psychiatric Center

Brittney Heller — Mon, 12 Jan 2009 18:21:55 -0700

Monday 1/12/09 Hours: 5

I started off the day meeting Marcy the secretary in the volunteer office. I had already taken the orientation over the summer when I did volunteer work at the Hertal center through the BPC. I had to fill out more paper work due to there being changes in HIPPA. From there Marcy took me over to the New Beginnings building which is right behind Strozzi. It is for inpatients who are for the most part mentally stable and have certain privledges. I learned when I first got there that the building consisted of class rooms where groups would meet to discuss important matters. The first group session I went to was with Dr. Duke. It was a group session for people who were suffering from more then one disorder. There was only one patient there today because the rest were at a doctors appointment. We discussed alcohol and its negative effects on drugs for mental disorders. The patient shared his story of how he used to be addicted to crack and how he had been clean for 13 years. The patient seemed to know what he had to do to one day get out of the center. Next, a woman named Mary showed me the gym and swimming pool that the people can use throughout the day. I then sat in on Mary's group that discussed getting jobs and being able to take care of oneself independently. I learned that a lot of the patients are able to find jobs at the center. There is a place that serves coffee and food and the people that work there are the inpatients. This way they learn working skills that they can use in society. After lunch, I walked with a man named Bob and some inpatients that so that they could get outdoors and get some exercise. We walked around the buffalo psychiatric center twice. You could tell the patients really enjoyed getting the fresh air. Lastly, I sat in on a group session that was taught by Kathy. It was a group session for just women and we played a game that allowed the patients to tell more about themselves and what makes them happy. Many of the patients I noticed had nervous habits and would sometimes talk or sing when it was inappropriate. Today was fulfilling and I learned a lot. The staff at the center are very helpful and seem to genuinely enjoy helping others.

Wednesday 1/14/09 Hours:5

Today was really fulfilling for me. The first group session I sat in was breaking the circle of stigma which was taught by marie who was a social worker. The group read from a news article that talked about how bad the stigma is that is put on people who are suffering from a mental disorder. Many of the patients agreed with the article. It was pointed out also about how certain mental illness are more accepted then others. For example depression may be more accepted than schizophrenia because a lot of people can identify with depression and are constantly seeing commercials for depression medicine, when there are very little commercials for other medicines. The second group session was called self managing your recovery which was again taught by marie. Marie had a lot of organizing to do so there wasn't a lot of discussion within the group today. She explained to me that the group emphasized people planning how to handle their symptoms when a crisis occurs. After lunch, a worker named Leo and I took some patients over to the social group on Hertal where I did my volunteering over the summer. There was a group that I sat in on that was extremely interesting. It was open discussion and everyone talked about their recovery and the feelings they had. The great thing about the group was that the people who taught it who seemed to be well educated and on the right path had at one time suffered from a mental illness or were still living with it. Becky who ran it talked about her disorder which really hit home for me because I had gone through what she had gone through. I realized at that moment that there shouldn't be an "us" and "them" mentality and that everyone has issues they need to deal with and no one is perfect. I could tell that everyone at the group were benefiting from being able to talk to others that understand where they were coming from. we all returned to the hospital and there was food that was being cooked by the patients.

Monday 1/19/09 Hours: 5.5

Today was much more relaxed. There wasn't many people working or who came over from the ward due to the holiday. There were no groups today so we all played games and did arts and crafts. After lunch I went to the wellness center with another volunteer where some of the patients were doing yoga. It was easy to see that the the yoga was fun for them and allowed them to relax. I was able to relax as well and see how important exercise is to ones mental health. After yoga, I went to bowling with Leo and the patients. They had fun playing bowling and I could see they felt a sense of pride when they would do well. There was a patient who seemed to act like a child when it came to maturity level and he would hit himself occasionally. He was also on a liquid restriction because too much liquid would mess with his medications. After bowling, I played rummy with a patient who was very nice but seemed to be suffering from depression because her movements were slowed. There will probably be more organization on wednesday.

Wednesday 1/21/09 Hours:5

Today started off with two groups with Marie the social worker. The first group dealt with mental illness and stigma. We read from the rest of the article we started last week. We talked about famous people who suffer from disorders and how they coming out with their stories helps the stigma to lessen. I then asked about postpardom depression and how there can be delusions that come along with it sometimes. We talked about the women who drowned her five children because she thought that if she drowned them she would save them from hell. A patient in the group who is a little older then me but seems to lack some maturity voiced that he wouldn't ever kill his own child. The social worker and I had to explain to him that no one knows what they would do if they were ill like that or had those delusions. We had to explain that the women was doing what SHE THOUGHT was right. He still didn't seem to understand. He also went on about how he doesn't need medicine. The social worker and I had to explain that some people do need it and that it isn't a weakness and helps them. We were trying to get him to not pass so much judgement. The second group was about managing their recovery. We all talked about what we do for ourselves to help us to get rid of stress. Everyone got involved even the social worker. After lunch, Leo and I went to 1547 on Hertal and went to the group meeting that is held there every wednesday. This is always my favorite meeting to go to because it allows both inpatients and outpatients to reflect and communicate openly. At the end of the meeting we all had to join hands and say one thing we were happy about that day. I said I was happy to have experienced the meeting.

Monday 1/26/09 Hours:4.5

The first group session was taught by Dr. Duke and we discussed co-occuring disorders. Everyone talked about triggers that make something happen or make one feel a certain way. For example a patient said that when he thought of drinking he thought of his depression that lead to the drinking. In this group session, a man sat next to me who seemed to be very sexually preoccupied. He seemed to stare at all the young women and kept whispering things to me that I was told to ignore. I felt uncomfortable but never in danger. The next work group was run by a woman named Dorris. The group discussed alcohol and drug use and what they will have to do once they are out in society when it comes to their addictions. Everyone had varying degrees of addictions and some had more experience with the recovery process. After lunch, I went with Leo and the patients to the bowling ally where we played games. Leo talked to me about the history behind the center and how many people are staying in the system for shorter periods of time because of better medications. Lastly, I sat in on the women's group where matters were discussed like body image and life lessons. The social worker Amy taught the group. There was a patient who was discussing how she was so close to being discharged but then she cut herself again because she suffers from borderline personality disorder. I believe now she has to wait a month to three months before they think about discharging her. She seems determined not to cut again but it is easily seen that it is something she is used to doing.

Wednesday 1/28/09 Hours: 5.5

Today we started off in the group that discussed stigma. We read a poem that was about an old man who feels like he is ignored or looked down on based on his age. We related this to how people are viewed when they have a mental illness. The second group dealt with recovery and how to continue on that journey. We discussed goals, dreams, and everyday activities that we all wanted to complete. When the patients thought about what they wanted for the future many of them just wanted simple things that a lot of us take for granted. After this I helped Kathy put her papers through the shredders because there was patient information on them and the center is very strict with privacy. Then Kathy sent me to Strozzi to take part in a TEAM meeting. This was very interesting to me. The TEAM meeting consisted of a psychologist, social worker, drug specialist, psychiatrist, and other counselors. We met with four patients and discussed their progress. This really impacted me emotionally and opened me eyes. The patients had dealt with schizophrenia, bipolar disorder, killing people, and paranoid delusions. I am hoping that if I eventually become a psychologist that I can handle the tough situations by being able to separate myself enough without being too distant.

Monday 2/2/09 Hours: 5

The first session was with Dr. Duke and we all talked about triggers once again and what we can do to not engage in bad behaviors. Everyone talked about how hanging out with the bad friends can cause drug use and then drug abuse. Although many of the patients hadn't smoked or drank in up to 20 years, you could tell that they still missed certain feelings they got while using them. This time they know though that the positives don't out weigh the negatives when it comes to drug use. The second session was with Doris and this group was about drug addiction. This group today focused on looking at a higher power for help. The patients seemed to need God in their life to help them through the tough times. Others seemed to abandon God the way they thought God abandoned them. I then shredded papers for about a half an hour for privacy reasons. The next group I sat in had to do with recovery. Carol and I talked about being able to keep busy and social when getting out of the hospital. Keeping busy is important for everyone and to feel part of the society. The last group was the women's group where we talked about health. We talked about breast cancer and heart attacks in women. We also talked about children and being a mother. I was surprised to see that half of the women in the group were mothers. I hoped that the children were involved in these women's life.

Wednesday 2/4/09 Hours:5.5

Today I started off in the stigma group and we talked about how important self esteem is. One doesn't want to be too confident and alienate other people but at the same time people need self esteem to live a healthy life. We talked about how a lot of times people with mental illness find it hard to love or accept themselves at first because they have a mental illness. A lot of the patients seemed to agree with this. The second group was managing your recovery. We talked about a list that everyone should make to remind them of daily things they should be doing when they are released. For example brushing your teeth, cleaning the house, or eating three meals a day. Then I went to 1547 with Leo and went to the self help group. We talked about assertiveness and how it is different from aggression and passiveness. We know it is important to be assertive but not too aggressive or passive especially when dealing with mental illness and knowing your rights. A man talked about applying for a job and how he felt like he was ignored because he answered truthfully on the application when it asked if he had had a mental illness in the past. This was an illegal question and he felt that they didnt hire him or give him an interview because of the question. Next week they are supposed to have a talent show which should be nice for them.

Monday 2/9/09 Hours:5.5

Today I was with Dr. Duke in the co-morbid disorders where we talked about different types of drugs and how they impact the body. He suggested that I lead the group next week which should be a good experience. I'm going to read through the packet and come up with questions to ask everybody. The next group was with Doris where we talked about drug addiction especially alcohol abuse. A man talked about how when he stopped drinking for a while he thought that he would be able to just drink in moderation but after 2 weeks of that he was back to his old ways. It made me wonder if an addict could ever drink or use in moderation. Doris said she never witnessed it being successful. After that I went to bowling with Leo where he talked to me about the different systems that are involved when a murderer comes to the hospital. He told me a story of a man that was in the hospital for 15 years after killing his son and they let him go home after the 15 years just for the weekend and he ended up stabbing his wife to death. We talked about how serious the job is to decide when a man or woman can leave , especially if they have had a violent history. The last group, was the woman's group where we talked about the health benefits of chocolate. We talked about how they are high in antioxidents and how dark chocolate is better then milk chocolate. We got into a discussion about different types of fats and which ones were good and which ones were bad. It seemed educational for the patients.

Wednesday 2/11/09 Hours:6

Today I started off the morning by meeting a man named David who took the patients and I to a place called Delanore. This place was a lot like 1547 but it was a lot more structured and seemed to be for people who were worse off. A lot of the patients I went with seemed to have some form of mental retardation. We started off by exercising to music and it was my job to get the patients up and moving. After this we went for a walk around the building and ended up in a room where we had a group. The group was about being able to have a positive outlook on life. After returning from Delanore , I went with Leo, Kathy, and the patients to 1547 where there was a talent show for the HOMES program. Everyone seemed to have fun and were able to show off their many talents. People sang, told jokes, drew cartoons, and many other things. Kathy, my supervisor played happy birthday on the piano to me and one of the other patients because it was our birthday. I learned a lot today about people and how there is much more to them then you think.

Wednesday 2/18/09 Hours:5

Today we were short staffed so I didn't follow my usual schedule. I started off with Marie the social worker for breaking the circle of stigma where we had a guest speaker from engelwood drop-in. He was the manager of this place and explained it as a place that is peered run and all the rules and activities are made by the peers. It seemed like it gave the patients an opportunity for structure and socialization but they also have the freedom to make choices. After this group, there was the recovery group where Leo and I took them to the gym and we walked around the gym for exercise. After lunch, I was in another group with Leo where we showed them pictures and they had to tell a story about the pictures based on their creativity and what they were thinking about. Some were very creative while others were simple but honest. The last group was music therapy where we listened to records that the patients were able to pick. One of the patients today was hitting on me today and Leo told him it was inappropriate. It made me more comfortable with the thought that I should be able to look patients in the eyes and tell them when they are making me uncomfortable and to stop what they are doing.

Monday 2/23/09 Hours: 5.5

Today I started in the co-occuring disorders group with Dr. Duke where we talked again about drug use. I was supposed to lead the group today but Nicole, another student was told to it because it was her last day. I learned to lead a group you need to ask a lot of questions and get the patients actively engaging in the conversation and readings. After this, all the patients took a survey on the groups and if they liked the New Beginnings program. The results were pretty good except for the people who held hostility for being in the hospital in the first place. I then went around to each classroom and sharpened the pencils so that the patients had useable pencils for the afternoon groups. I went to bowling with Leo where I noticed a woman who seems to be very happy all the time. I don't know if it is due to the medication but there are times where she will laugh out of nowhere, she seems to have a quick sense of happiness. It makes me wonder where it comes from because I have seen another woman do the same thing. In the last group with Carol, we talked about women's issues. One of the women talked about how her whole life she was emotionally abused by her mother and then physically and emotionally abused by her husband. Her husband left her and before he left told her she was going to die alone and ugly. This woman had very low self-esteem and was very worried about how she was going to manage herself financially after she got out of the hospital. Carol explained to her that everyone at the hospital before they leave is made sure they have somewhere to go and live comfortably. I felt really bad for the woman and was happy that the hospital cares about the patients after they are out of the hospital as well.

Wednesday 2/25/09 Hours:7.5

Today we didn't have any groups because there were meetings for all the staff at New Beginnings. We started off the morning with doing team building exercises which challenged our minds and helped us to come together and work as a team. We then went on to talk about respect and how important it is to show the patient respect that you would want in return and the respect they themselves want. After this people who used to be hospitalized came in to talk to us about what the hospital employees were doing that was progressive and what they were doing that may be hindering the healing of the mentally ill. They brought up really good points and I knew that what they said had validity. One man said that when a group is going on, the person who is running it must make sure that not one person is overpowering the others. Everyone in the group should be respectful and let the person who is talking have the floor completely. Another man said that it is important to encourage the patients who don't talk much to participate in the group because most of the time they want to but are too shy. The third man suggested encouragement and getting the patient to do things to take care of themselves like working out or doing yoga. The last man said that it is extremely important for the workers to show their true selves and be a caring individual. It is easier for the patients to relate to people who genuinely care and want to see them get better. I then helped out with the lunch they gave the employees. I went with Dave to 1547 with the BRITE unit. We helped the people to play the Wii and helped them draw pictures. I asked Dave what the BRITE unit was all about and he told me that it is for people who cognitive problems or people who have a hard time putting things together. He didn't say it was the same thing as mental retardation. They use a token system and whenever they receive tokens for good things they have done they can use them for different things like getting a pop or being able to sleep longer in the morning.

Monday 3/2/09 Hours: 5

Today I started off teaching the group with Dr. Duke. We all discussed drug abuse and I asked questions to get the patients to engage in the conversation. All seem to have started drugs because they were curious, lonely, and were doing what their peers were doing. I realized I needed to be more assertive yet let the patients talk about their experiences. The important part I had to remember was to keep them on the topic. Secondly, I was in Doris's group where we read from books that talked about drug addiction. People had been clean for up to 20 years but I could tell that they still missed some of the positive feelings they got when they were on them. I then went to bowling with Leo and I talked to a woman and was trying to encourage her to do some physical activity. Lastly, I was in the woman's group where we discussed more options the women have for living once they get out of the hospital.

Wednesday 3/4/09 Hours: 5.5

Today I was in the stigma group where Leo decided to lead it. Marie the social worker usually leads the group but she was helping a girl with her discharge into the assisted living. In the group a man talked about being made fun of in high school and how it gave him low self-esteem. We explained to him that a lot of people go through that when they are young. He also shared that his mother was an alcoholic and had mental health problems. This instilled in me again that genetics and environment are important. The next group talked about being able to make a list of activities one should do during the day when they are free from the hospital. Then I went to 1547 with Leo and the group discussed boundaries. There are a select few people in the group seem to overpower the group and it seems unfair to those members who are more shy or who are trying to get more benefit from the group. I had to tell one of the women that she needed to be more considerate of someone else and the story they were telling. The group needs to be able to support everyone and not just be about only a couple of people.

Monday 3/9/09 Hours: 5.5

Today I started off in the co-occuring disorders with Dr. Duke. I lead the discussion and was able to get a lot of people engaged in conversation. We discussed the rest of the drug packet and I asked a lot of questions that allowed them to discuss. Dr. Duke asked me to write up a test that the patients could take next week on the information we talked about. The next group with Doris was about drug use and we discussed smoking and how it doesn't seem as bad as other drugs because the effects aren't seen on the outside . After that, I went to bowling with Leo where he talked to me about schizophrenia and the typical and atypical symptoms and the drug and how they work. He knows a lot about the brain and chemistry of the body. Lastly, I went to the woman's group where we discussed foods that are healthy to eat. Also we discussed diabetes and what one can do to fight it or make it less worse.

Wednesday 3/11/09 Hours: 5.75

Today I started with the stigma group that Leo taught because Maria was helping a woman get discharged out of the hospital. We talked about how the media portrays people who suffer from mental illness as all violent when in actuality people who are mentally ill are more likely to be the victims of violence, which is very sad. We discussed how anyone who is different then society's norm is looked at negatively because people don't take the time to understand. After this group, I was with Brenda but a lot of the patients were sick so we all watched t.v. to get the patients caught up with current events and what was going on in the world. After this, I went to Strozzi with Leo and asked nurses to sign forms for some of the patients to go to 1547. When we went to 1547, the HOMES group talked about healthy relationships and what it takes to be healthy. Everyone seemed to participate today and no one was overpowering each other like last week. I think the self help groups work the best for the patients because she are facilatated by people who have at one point in their lives had a mental illness.

Monday 3/16/09 Hours: 5.5

Today I started with the cooccuring disorders with Wanda. I had to bring in a test that I made for the patients discussing drugs. Everyone seemed to do well and we went over each question and discussed them in detail. A lot of the patients helped the other patients understand the questions and helped talk through the questions with them. After this, I was in the the next group with Doris where we read from the A.A. books. There was a particular story that seemed to touch everyone including myself. The man who was writing in the book told a story of being an alcoholic and finding out that a kid that he helped play baseball was hit and killed with a drunk driver. This was a very sad story but opened the eyes of a lot of people and even made me realize what an impact our decisions have on other people. I went for a walk with Bob and his walking group which was really nice for everyone because the weather was beautiful and everyone was getting exercise. I know that the sunlight can partially help their depression if they have it and getting exercise helps as well. Lastly, I was in the woman's group with Carl where we discussed relationships and what women look for in men. We discussed healthy relationships and the women all gave their opinion on what a good relationship was.

Wednesday 3/18/09 Hours: 6

I started off today by going to 1547 with Leo and Kelly, the recreational therapists. During the group everyone discussed positive thinking and how every time we think something is really bad, it could be much worse. A lot of the outpatients were letting the inpatients know that it is possible to move on in life after getting out of the hospital. I think it was encouraging for everyone to see that being hospitalized doesn't have to be forever or doesn't have to ruin their lives. After this, I came back to the Strozzi building where they have recreation in the basement. This was the first time I was down there. About 50 patients were there coloring, playing pool, doing arts and crafts. i was happy to see that this was available for the patients because many of the patients need something else to do other then staying in the hospital and going to groups. I played games with a group of women and did arts and crafts as well. I met a lot of new patients that probably don't have privledges to go to New Beginnings.

Monday 3/23/09 Hours: 4.5

Today, I sat in on Carol's group which was focused on life skills such as cooking, paying bills, and housekeeping. We discussed how it can be difficult to work with money and go grocery shopping when you don't know how much things cost presently. After that, I went to Doris's AA group where we read from several books that focused on drug recovery. Many of the books were highly spiritual and focused on a higher power. Everyone shared their experience with finding God or at least feeling like there was something that was looking out for them. They knew that what happened to them was "God's will". After this, I did some office work for Kathy and did some shredding to help Bob. After this, I went to the boweling group with Leo where we helped the patients play and we discussed the improvements that the Buffalo Psychiatric Center has made since years ago. I had a doctor's appointment so I was unable to attend Carol's group which is women's issues.

Wednesday 3/25/09 Hours: 5.5

Today, I was in the stigma group with Leo where I led the group with an exercise. There were pictures of places and people and we had them write down thing about the picture like who took it, what they think of the place or person, how it made them feel. After the patients shared their creative answers we tied it in with stigma. We said that sometimes things aren't always as they appear and that judgements shouldn't be made purely on how something seems or looks. After this, we had managing your recovery with Brenda and we watched television to get the patients to learn more about our society. One girl was having bad delusions and was telling others she was white and not black, although she was an African American woman. After this, I went to 1547 with Carol and we sat in on the group that discussed letting resentment go and allowing forgiveness to come into our lives. One of the women almost became violent because she was recalling a time when she felt resentment and acted out. These groups really seem to help these individuals, especially because they are all different degrees of illness.

Monday 3/29/08 Hours: 5.5

I started off today in co-occuring disorders where we discussed that one can have a meaningful life without drugs. We then discussed what a meaningful life was and how we could achieve it. All of the answers varied and showed that a meaningful life is different for everyone but that it doesn't have to involve drugs. After, I went to the A.A. group but Doris wasn't there so the people ran it themselves and I just helped out by asking questions and engaging them in conversation. I asked them how long the have been clean and talked about different things that they could do instead of doing drugs. After, I went to the bowling alley with Leo and talked to the different patients about bowling and dingus day coming up. After, I went to the women's group with Kathy where we read from the chicken soup for the woman's soul which was about a woman's mother and how she had to fight diversity. It created conversation on women's rights and how we have come a long way but have a long way to go.

Wednesday 4/1/09 Last Day Hours: 6

Today I started with a breakfast everyone had for me to thank for me being there. After, I was in the group getting your needs met with Kathy. Kathy discussed ways of getting paid and how they have to budget. After this, the group was cognitive skills where the Psychologist discusses Cognitive Behavioral Therapy. The patients talked about their problems and the psychologist was saying how she was going to work through these issues with everyone. One patient felt frustrated by her ward because one day they would tell her she was being discharged in 2 months and the next day they would say they weren't sure. Then I went to 1547 with Leo for the last time. The meeting was about self pity and how we should have positive thoughts. A woman used a racial slur and was taken out because of her lack of respect. I was proud of the person for sticking by the rules of the group because she probably offended many people.

I gained so much at this place that I couldn't have gained through a classroom. I learned I am going for the right career in working with people. A patient todl me today that he loves when students come because they treat the patients kindly and don't talk down to them. I hope I can be that way even when I'm not a student anymore. I hope to get more experience before I go to graduate school. The staff was extremely friendly and accommodating. I feel more sensitive and aware of people's needs. I am grateful for this opportunity I had.

Practicum

Ministry IV

wachowil — Mon, 23 Mar 2009 14:39:22 -0600

March 2 and 5

This week was a little slow at The Hub. Much of the time was spent getting things ready for Wednesday Night, picking the crowdbreaker, setting up the room, and making sure that the message was ready to go. I spent a lot of time reading the selected books that my supervisor had given me to read. On Wednesday I also took a lot of time to prepare for the leaders meeting that night. My supervisor really wanted to motivate and inspire the leaders at this meeting, so I arranged for food to be brought to the meeting and I tried to find something motivational for the evening. I ended up using a youtube video by Lifehouse called Everything. It was a great way to break up the meeting and remind the leaders of why they are there doing ministry. At 6:00 the leaders meeting began, the program started at 6:15 and then our leaders meeting for the month started at 8:15.

March 9 and 12

The main goal this week was to plan, practice and perfect a skit for my supervisor's message on Wednesday night. On Monday, my goal was to prepare the roles and plan out how we were going to perform the skit. (It was a music video that we found on youtube.http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cyheJ480LYA) Since my supervisor was going to be speaking about being wrapped up with things of the world, I thought that this skit would be a perfect depiction of the idea that he was trying to get across. At 3:00 everyone showed up to start practicing. (We practiced until the end of my workday at 5:00.) It took awhile to figure out how to do things, and how we could best perform the skit based on the video that we had watched. On Wednesday, I had to do a lot of work to prepare to perform the skit that night. I had to edit the song to better fit it in the time slot that we had available, find costumes for a few of the parts, and break down the new song into timed intervals based on the lyrics. At 5:00 everyone showed up and we started practicing from where we left off on Monday. At 6:00 the leaders meeting began and then at 6:15 the program started.

March 16 and 19

This week was quite busy with preparations for the weekly program. On Monday, I had to go shopping for materials needed for Dress for the Mess on Wednesday night. This took quite a bit of time. After speaking with my supervisor, we both agreed that we needed to revise "Overdrive" (the weekly program that occurs every Wednesday night for Middle Schoolers.) We had discussed this a little bit last week at the end of the night on Wednesday, but this week I really wanted to put some new things into action. The biggest focus right now is trying to build the relationships between the leaders and the students. To do this, I wanted to give more time for small groups to connect, and also have some of that time be focused on team building games and mixers. With this idea in mind, I created a "Community Builder Book" that would have many games and activities that small groups could do during their team time. Each week they will be given 2 games that they can choose from to play with their students. Monday was also a prep day for the message that I was going to be giving on Wednesday night. I had to narrow down my ideas to one idea that would be conveyed to the students. I also had to find pictures and graphics for the slide show that was accompanying my message. Wednesday was an extremely busy day. I had to finish my shopping for the Dress for the Mess night and get prizes for the crowdbreaker. I then had to make jell-o cups for the crowdbreaker and make sure that the room was all set up for the night. After approving the set up, I had to speak with the Hub secretary to make sure that everything was set with the game guides for small group leaders and also to make sure that she was aware of the revised schedule for the evening. After everything was ready for the evening, I took the time to practice my message on the stage. I rehearsed my stories and really internalized what I was about to present. At 6:00 the leaders meeting started and then at 6:20 the program began. At that point I gave my message and then proceeded to take on a Small Group Leader position.

Practicum

Ministry Internship III

wachowil — Mon, 02 Mar 2009 14:15:27 -0700

February 16 and 18

On Monday, in preparation for the "Record Breaking Night" that was going to occur on Wednesday night's program, I had a lot of shopping to do for the materials needed for the evening. When the shopping was completed, I had to make the final arrangements for the program, including picking a possible crowdbreaker, making sure the everything was in place for the actual record breaking night events and then making sure that the speaker had their plans in place for their message. After that, I spent the rest of the time that I had reading the assigned books for the internship. Wednesday was filled with preparation for the following week, I was going to be giving my first message ever to middle schoolers on the issue of dating. My supervisor really wanted to add a discussion into the evening, so I had to find a way to incorporate a group (guys vs. girls) discussion with a follow up message based on what we had talked about. I came up with a few ideas, and then had to get the materials organized for the events of the evening. By the time I had gotten everything ready, it was time for the team meeting and the program for the night. I worked several different record breaking stations and helped lead a small group in discussion about the message that was given.

February 23 and 25

This week was quite busy. I was giving my first message ever on Wednesday, and so my primary concern on Monday was preparation for Wednesday. I spent much time revising my message layout and making sure that I had everything perfect. Throughout the editing process I focusing on trying to figure out exactly what God wanted me to say and how I was going to say it. Therefore, much of the editing process involved a lot of reflection and prayer. When I was "done" with my message layout, I then got to work on the crowdbreaker and competition for the program. At that time, I had decided to do a game called "Bucket Ball" for the crowdbreaker and I left it up to the competition team leader to pick the main games for the night. Wednesday was extremely busy with preparation for the night. We were switching things up quite a bit, and it took a lot of time trying to get ready for it. We ended up changing the crowdbreaker, so we had to set up the props for that, we had to rearrange all of the chairs for the message, and get the white board set for the discussion that was going to occur before the message. After that was all set, I met with my supervisor to go over my message one final time, and then I spent awhile practicing on the stage what I was going to say. At this point, I had to go to the store to get a couple of things for the new crowdbreaker, and when I got back it was time for the team meeting and then time for the program. In the program I led the discussion and then gave a follow up message on dating.

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Practicum

Ministry Internship II

wachowil — Mon, 16 Feb 2009 12:09:31 -0700

February 2 and 4

Since my supervisor had a board meeting to prepare for on Monday afternoon, I was left to tie up loose ends for our Wednesday night program and finish any work that I hadn't the week before. Since our program was cancelled the previous week, we were just going to do the activities and message that were going to be given that week. One of my required texts for this internship is called "Communicating for a Change" by Andy Stanley and Lane Jones. This book talks about how to give a sermon (message) in the most effective way possible. With lack of other productive things to do, I dove into the book and almost finished it that day. I learned a lot about how to structure my messages and how to pinpoint a certain idea that I want to get across to the audience. Overall, Monday was a very enlightening day. On Wednesday, my supervisor and I met to discuss the message series for the rest of the year (which lasts until May 27th). The plan is as follows, "Lovebug" for the weeks of February 11, 18, and 25, "On Location" for the weeks of March 4, 11 and 18, "CSI Skull Hill" for the weeks of March 25, April 1 and 8 and "iPhoto" for the weeks of April 29, May 6 and 13. "Lovebug" is a series based on "Love, Sex and Dating" for Middle Schoolers. The messages are centered on the idea to "wait to date" until you are older and focus now on just being friends with the opposite sex. I will be giving my first message ever on February 25, where I will be leading a group discussion on the differences on boys and girls (the ideas and questions are still in the process of being formed for my message). "On Location" takes a single monument or place in the world and relates it to a Biblical principle, for example, the Leaning Tower of Piza could relate to having a strong foundation in Christ. "CSI Skull Hill" will explore the many facts about Jesus' death on the cross, how it happened and what really occurred. In the last series, "iPhoto" we will discuss important issue of self-image from a Biblical standpoint. After this meeting, we had our weekly program, which went extremely well, and then we had our monthly leaders meeting. In this meeting, the most important issue to discuss was the size of the teams. During the night, I had noticed that my team, along with one other, had extremely small numbers, maybe hitting 10 or 15 students tops. The other two teams had huge numbers of students. So I proposed to the leaders that we join a small team with a big team to then create two teams. The leaders were excited about this idea and so we decided to put it into effect starting the following week.

February 9 and 11

I was quite busy this week at The Hub. My first task on Monday was to read through many applications for a missions trip to Zambia, Africa. I had to read over the high schoolers' responses to questions such as, "what do you think you would contribute to the team if you were chosen?", and then rate their answers on a scale of 1-10. After finishing these applications, I got to work on researching the message series that will take place throughout the rest of the semester. The one topic I focused on was the "On Location" series, so I researched many of the World Wonders and creatively brainstormed how I could relate them to Biblical principles. I found many ideas and then moved on to the message that I would be giving on the 25th of February. I found a couple of websites from other Youth Programs on how they tackled the differences between boys and girls. With a few examples in hand, I tried to formulate the basis for my discussion and how I would carry it out. I decided that I wanted the girls and boys to be separated and then answer questions such as "what do you think are the five most important things to the opposite sex?" After answering three questions like this, they will be brought back together to exchange ideas. This will hopefully be a fun and enlightening experience for the students. Next, I was given the task to find a video to use for my supervisor's message. He wanted me to find a video clip that would show the idea of waiting to date. This task was much harder than it seemed, and in the end, we were fruitless and so had to scrap the idea of using a video clip. My supervisor and I also discussed how the teams would now be set up. We would join the Red and Yellow team to make the Yellow Team and then the Blue and the Green team to make the Green Team. We would also be instituting a new "rewards system" for students who brought friends. There would be some sort of points prize that would be given for each new student brought. Then at the end of the month, whichever team had the most points would win a team pizza party. My main goal for Wednesday was to prepare for the program for that night and to create the "Valentine's Day themed" crowdbreaker. I finally decided to use a variation of Rock, Paper, Scissors, but instead calling it the "Kiss of Death" using Cupid, Lovebug and Kiss of Death. After coming up with the rules for this, I ran to the store to find an appropriate Valentine's Day prize for the winner. When I returned from the store, I got things ready for the evening, updating the leaders who run the crowdbreaker on what the rules for the game were and then joined the team meeting that occurs every week before the program starts. We informed everyone of the new team formations that were going to occur. Overall, the team change was a great idea and the entire evening ran very smoothly.

Practicum

Ministry Internship

wachowil — Mon, 02 Feb 2009 12:29:10 -0700

January 21, 2009

Today was my first day at my internship at the Wesleyan Church of Hamburg, more specifically, The Hub youth center that is connected to that church. I started the day meeting with my supervisor to discuss goals for the semester and the assignments that I would have during my internship. We discussed my first few assignments, along with a few others that would last the entire semester. The first one was to "manage", for lack of a better word, the team leaders for our Middle School night, also called Overdrive. The was it works is that every Wednesday from 6-8 we have the Middle School Youth group (Overdrive) where students come play games, listen to a message, have small group discussions where they talk about the message or other things that are going on in their lives, and they can hang out and connect with other students. For this program, we have four teams, Red, Blue, Yellow and Green. These teams have two leaders each that keep track of the small group leaders, watch their team's student attendance and organize team parties and get-togethers. My job would be to help these team leaders. I would encourage them when they feel unmotivated, inform them of changes made to the program or other significant events, assist with struggles they have with their small group leaders or the students on their team and to help with anything else that they need. Another ongoing assignment is to read to books by the end of the semester, Communicating for a Change by Andy Stanley and My First Two Years in Ministry by Doug Fields. Both of these books are going to help me to see the inside perspective of youth ministry and teach me about the challenges and rewards of this profession. The assignment that I began immediately was to organize and plan out the rest of the semester's Middle School nights. I created a chart briefly laying out what each day's events were going to be. These events included the crowd breaker (a game at the beginning of the night that gets kids excited to be here), the message, the large group games, small group discussion and then any other major announcements that need to be made that night. To complete this chart I needed to get in contact with many people from the program, so I spent the remainder of the day making phone calls and sending out emails to figure out the schedule. One of the last things that my supervisor and I talked about was the "rewards" system for students who brought other friends with them to the program that night. I briefly did research for this, but mainly worked on organizing the rest of the semester.

January 26 and 28, 2009

This week I spent most of my time doing research for the rewards program. I searched online for ideas on how to best motivate these kids who are coming each week. I played around with the idea of using "Snack Shack Bucks", or coupons for the snack/cafe area that we have in the building. Each time the students brought someone new on Wednesday night, they would receive a "buck" that they could use to buy candy or other things at the Snack Shack. I also thought about doing a raffle. Each week if a student brought someone, they would be able to put their name into raffle. Every single time that the new guest came both them and the student that brought them would get to enter their name again into the raffle. At the end of the month we would raffle off several prizes for those students who brought new guests with them. I have considered other ideas, however I think that these two programs would work out the best for the students. On Monday I also took care of some errands for Wednesday night's games. I had to get many supplies, mostly food, for the "Dress 4 the Mess" night that week. On Wednesday, due to the horrible weather conditions, we were forced to cancel the program for that night. Most of the day however, was spent trying to figure out how to plan that night, if we should change the "Dress 4 the Mess" to the next week or if we should keep it in place. When we finally cancelled the evening, I had to make calls to all of the team leaders to inform them of the cancelation and provide them with phone numbers to their small group leaders so that they could inform them of the news.

February 2 and 4, 2009

Practicum