Eazesdropping

At the Christmas Party last week, I overheard Ms. F, the Special Education Director of our district, talking about how the district is taking back their mild to moderate Sp Ed program from the county. AND in doing so she is asking for more employees: LVN, SLP, and (drum roll please) a school psych! I about fell out of my seat! A possible job opening at Fairfield??? That is so awesome. Both Mr. P and Mr. H brought it to my attention as well (they were the ones actually having the convo with Ms. F, I was just listening in). Mr. P let me know the district always likes to hire those they know and that he would give me his endorsement (and he believed Mr. H would do the same) Mr. H wanted me to know about it, but also told me not to get my hopes up too much at this point as a lot of things can change before next August. Which is true, but I have to say, it is exciting that there is a remote possibility! Mr. H had told me earlier in the year that he anticipated more and more districts will begin taking back their programs from the county and it sounds like he was right as now I have heard that two different districts are considering it.
Guess I need to step up my game from here on out though, there is another intern at Fairfield so I have to make sure I shine. She knows her stuff so she will be pretty fierce competition should there be a position available!

RTI Program Evaluation

I think I've said this before, but one of my favorite parts of the world of school psychology is the diversity of it. You get to play counselor, mediator, assessor, writer, and problem solver. I've got to say, I love all the hats I get to wear in the profession. Your day is never filled with just one thing, well... most of the time that is. Yesterday was a day that lacked diversity. I did program evaluation of 9 students who participated in a Tier 3 reading intervention. You'd think, it's only 9 students, that's not very many so it won't take to long. Man I wish that had been the case. I seriously worked on that stuff for about 6 hours. This was mostly because I was creating the form and then making revision after revision after revision. It was a long day and I came home with some knots in my back from staring at the computer, BUT I think I finally got it. My end product looked nice and I understood all the components of it. Basically, we looked at the students participation using a dual discrepancy mind set. First we compared the students to their peers on grade level fluency passages, and how much their fluency had improved on grade level work. Then we looked at their rate of improvement and how it compared to other students at that instructional level (not grade level). In the end I wrote up a short paragraph that summarized everything and provided our recommendation. 2 of the 9 Kiddos are being referred for special education testing, two are being moved to a Tier 2 intervention, and the other five are staying put in Tier 3 for another round. It was an interesting process, I'm glad I got to see it.

We also went over a new way to do the dual discrepancy model that my supervisor is considering going to when looking at rate of improvement. He is running the stats on the grade level screenings to determine the standard deviation, that way he can show if a child's fluency rate of improvement is at least 1 standard deviation from the mean. I don't think it is a mandatory move or anything, but it does give a concrete guideline, which is nice.

RtI = The Killer

I had been pre-warned that upon entering a school you would be attacked by virus after virus. But I thought to myself, I'm all good. I worked with foster kids for 6 years. Uh no. I have now had 3 horrendous colds. Being the crazy worker bee that I am I have pretty much barreled through all of them and come to internship with a box of kleenex and a bottle of hand sanitizer, but the last one was a doozie and I ended up staying home on a Friday to recuperate! I really hope that was the last of them. It is, right? Pretty please with a cherry on top? I have pretty much been sick on an off for a month now, ick. I guess all those pre-warnings were true. Vitamin C will be my new best friend.

I really feel that RtI is to blame for all of this. I mean, RtI, what did I ever do to you?? All these grade level screenings are going to kill me. In the last two weeks I have probably read with around 200 1st, 2nd and 3rd graders. It's like, how big of a germ pool can I expose myself to? Those kiddos are adorable little germ carriers though. I actually enjoy doing the screenings - I know, I know - I'm weird. Although I must say that I MUCH prefer the 1 reading prompt method over the 3 reading prompts. I know that the 3 gives you more reliable results, but to me it would be much more efficient to do 1 for all grade level and then due 3 for follow up for the bottom 25 percentile to make sure you've identified the kids who need to be identified or if a couple of them just had a bad day/were scared/were asleep the day they were initially screened.

In altogether unrelated news: I think I am changing my thesis to research social skills. I think it would be interesting to do a social skills group and do a pre and post test with the kids as my project. That way I wouldn't have to rely on someone else to do the work (like with my previous thesis idea) and I would also get some group counseling experience. It seems like a good idea to me. Supervisors #2 seemed open to the idea when I emailed him today, so we will see how it goes. I started researching curriculum this morning and I am really intrigued! 

What to do...

Oddly enough, today there was little to do. Yesterday I sent out the consent for assessment forms for the upcoming IEP and inputted my next IEP kid's info into the SELPA database. I was done with all my assessments for the school, caught up on all my emails, and prepared for my counseling sessions. I did have one kid to meet with for a 20-25 minute counseling session and that went smoothy (we talked about what "bugs" us and did and art project while we talked). But beside that there wasn't much to do. So I played with my current psych report, added in some tables to make it look neater, backed up all my files on my flash drive, wrote stupid joking emails back and forth with my other supervisor, and hung out in the special ed room. The day went by at a snails pace due to my lack of anything to do. But then all my behavior mod kids showed up at the same time (not my plan) so I had three kids in an extremely small space all fighting over the video game. Lovely, just lovely. I managed to shoe them all out of the room but one of them still ended up missing her bus so I had to march her up to the office to have her mom called. Bummer. But seriously, besides this maybe HOUR of work, I was pretty much sitting around researchering various topics of interest (my current one is kids who can read fluently but without comprehension - whats that about??) and designing a counseling game for next week (think candyland +problem solving questions). Not that those are not worthwhile ways to spend my time, but still I didn't feel like I met my productivity quota for the day. At around 2:30 I had the special education teacher mention to me that she needed some data regarding the previous intervention groups so I contacted my supervisor and asked if it was something I could do. It was. So I finally found my chore at 2:30. I ended up working until 5pm processing a pile of RtI intervention data. LOL, so at least I left the day feeling like I had accomplished something. Too bad it was only the last couple hours of the day!

Smooth operator

I presented my results at an IEP today and I must say, I felt it went really well! I was crazy nervous and the room was stifling hot (of course I had a sweater on to boot!) so I am sure my face resembled a smiling tomato during the meeting, but I still think it's been my best yet. The kid qualified via the RTI dual discrepancy model (kid was discrepant from peers in his rate of improvement in intervention AND in academics), and I came in with graphs in hand and ready to talk. There was an interpreter since mom only spoke spanish, but I think that help me pace the presentation of information much easier than when I am at an english speaking IEP. My supervisor only chimed in a couple of times and when it was over he told me I did well and he thought he'd only need to be present for a couple more before he could completely turn me loose! Nice! I will have plenty more practice in the next couple of weeks before Christmas Break, I think I have 2-3 more to do. But it was nice to walk away from one feeling like it had gone so well. I'm a happy intern tonight.

End of another Semester

22 classes D-O-N-E! 3 more to go until I am finished with this amazingly long program. Woot! When I enrolled in the program, Dr. B (the head of the program) looked and me and said, "Mrs.Z. these three years will be over before you know it. You will be shocked at how fast it goes." I nodded my head like a good little student and believed him. You know what? He lied. The past 2.5 years have seriously felt like forever. It is hard for me to remember a life without homework. A life prior to graduate school. But, I believe I did have one... I think... This program has been so consuming I have had to repeatedly reorganize my life to accommodate it. BUT only 1 16-week semester to go and then I will get to remember what it is like to have a life. Graduation is in May! Is it bad that I am already considering counting the days? 6 months to go. I've made this far, lets hope I can make it these last couple steps! Next semester doesn't start until the middle of January, so I do get a good size break from classes which will be nice. I am so in the mood for Christmas! I want to get all crafty and my my house extra cozy. Well, I best finish getting ready for internship. Got a couple kids to meet with for counseling today as well as my progress monitoring kids. Should be a rather mellow day, I like those. :)

Half way there!

I hit the 600 hour mark on my internship on Wednesday. Pretty exciting to see that I am half way through with the hours requirement for my degree! And, although I acknowledge that there is still SO much that I do not know, I am in many ways beginning to feel a little more comfortable in my surrounding. My goal had been that by January I would be able to work the week without having my hand held and I think, for the most part that is already happening. I am beginning to feel like I can do it on my own, of course I still have a bazillion questions all the time, but I don't feel the need to stop everything that I am doing and call my supervisor(s). So that is a huge step.
Here is a list of some of what I have got to do so far:

• Assessed 14 kiddos (13 for specific learning disabilities, 1 for autism)
• Progress monitor about 15 kids each week on oral reading fluency
• Pretty much figured out the RTI method for SLD determination
• Done school wide screenings for oral reading fluency at three different schools sites (using 3 different methods)
• Provided individual counseling for 4 students (and did one session with a parent and the student)
• Presented at 2 IEP's
• Worked with about 8 kids for behavior modification
• Assisted in Crisis Intervention counseling

I really like it all. I like how my day can be made up of testing, counseling, meetings, and report writing and that I get to figure out how to make it all happen. Most mornings I spend the first 15-20 minutes just trying to figure out how I am going to get my giant list of things smashed into my schedule. It's a challenge, but I enjoy how every day is a bit different.

Psych Reports - Friend or Foe?

Thursday was spent typing. Out of the 8 hours I was at internship, I believe about 6 of them were spent working on 2 reports. My days have been so short at my Thursday-Friday site because of trainings and holidays that I typically just have time to run in, progress monitor, do part of an assessment/observation, and then head off to training. So because next week I wont be at that site at ALL, Thursday was spent getting caught up on reports since the IEPs will be the week after Thanksgiving. I finished one report completely, signed and copied it. The other report is put together, but it is a very rough draft that is probably filled with typos. I hate having to have my supervisor read over that mess, but sadly that was as good as I could get it by the end of the day. That kid got more tests than we typically do: WNV, PAT2, Conners, BASC, WJIII, and CBMs in math and reading. So needless to say, it was a LONG report. But, for the most part it is done so I guess that is one less thing on my to-do list. 

Crappy Day #1

I knew it would happen, eventually. I am happy with how long it took, I mean, I am into month 4 of 10 of this internship and today is the first truely crappy day? That really isn't too bad, right?

It all started with a planner. I write down everything into my cute polkadotted calendar. And it is always with me. Last night as I was laying in bed, I thought of all the things I needed to accomplish today: Observe a kid in SDC classroom, counsel my little tattletail, compliance training with kindergartner, Progress Monitor Tier 3 kids, meet with behavior kid, and lastly, go over info for IEP on Wednesday. Did I check my planner while I was making this beautiful mental list? Nope.

So then I get to my school site today at 8 AM sharp and am greeted by a giant, highlighted IEP notice hanging on the wall. IEP. Today. 7:45. Different School Site. WHAT?! That's not possible. It's supposed to be on Wednesday. I think to myself. I pull out my polkadotted companion and what do I see marked on today? IEP. 7:45. So at this point I am already 15 minutes late and I have no idea where the school is that I am supposed to be going to. I call my today's supervisor, Mr. H. He doesn't answer. I call my later in the week supervisor, Mr. P and he thankfully picks up and gives me directions. I get to the meeting 25 minutes late and right as my supervisor is finishing going over the results that I was supposed to have done. The mom was sweet, everyone laughed off that I was a dingbat and the meeting ended with no major issues. I however, felt, and continue to feel, like a moron. I apologized repeatedly to Mr. H who didn't really seem to care that I was late. But I continued to beat myself up. I get in my car and discover that I am pretty much out of gas. Super. I managed to make it to the gas station but that causes me to get back to my site even later and since I already feel terrible it just adds to it.

I do a classroom observation, thankfully it goes smoothly. I sit  in the corner of the SDC room and get that done without screwing anything up.

Then, it is off to compliance training with my little Kinder. The problem with little Diablo* is that even after 4 weeks of us being in his classroom, his behavior really isn't changing. At. All. Sure, he will come with us to the room to get a prize at the end of the day, but that is pretty much the greatness of his accomplishments. Little Diablo had a rough day today. Although he did manage to sit on the carpet during carpet time his hands were on everything. I mean, EVERYTHING. Drumming on the wall, pulling things off of the teacher easel, trying to squish up behind the teacher. I honestly wasn't sure what to do. Since he was up at the front of the class, if I tried something it would interrupt the entire class. So I let him be since, for the most part, he was at least sitting where he was supposed to be - which is his goal. Then, an unknown teacher comes in to pull him for bench mark testing. Ummmm bad move. He flat out refuses to go with her and I have to bribe him to get him walking. Then the teacher makes us wait for a while, which is not a good plan with Diablo. We finally get into the library where he is going to test and he refuses to go to his seat. Once I coax him to sit, he begins to pull out all the crayons and throw them as well as his test on the floor. I pick them up and hand them back to him and he gets a crayon and proceeds to color on his table and his seat. I verbally ask him to stop and he actually does, but then goes back to the previous behavior of throwing the crayons. By this time I am completely at a loss for what to do with him. The teacher gives up and tells us we can go since he is just distracting the other children. We start walking to the psych office and he starts running ahead - a major no-no that I thought we had gotten past a couple weeks ago. Once in the office I am conflicted. My supervisor had previously told me that we try and reinforce him if he has done some good. He was pretty good during carpet time and he did go with a stranger to the library - so I provide him with reinforcement, but I am pretty sure that is a stupid thing to do since the last several behaviors he had exhibited were not what we were looking for. But I give him the prize and try to explain that he got it for the smiley face behaviors we saw. When we get back to class - teacher is pissy because he got a prize. But then again - so am I.

I really don't think this strategy is working. I think the kid needs a more frequent reinforcement. He's a low functioning 5 year old. A half hour is an eternity for a 5 year old. Regardless of the strategy that is put into place - he needs a new one, because the current one doesn't work.

I emailed my sup and filled him in on Diablo's behavior today and all the difficulties I had. I asked for tips since, even the teacher pointed out that the kid does not respond to me. Hopefully he can give me some guidance.

Well, it is only lunch time, the morning has definitely sucked and made me feel like I am not cutting it as an intern. Lets hope it gets better this afternoon.

*Not his real name... wouldn't it be sad if it really was though?

Fixin Some Kidlets

Parts of School Psychology remind me of my previous gig as a Social Worker. When I worked at the children's emergency shelter as a Social Worker I was frequently asked by staff members to come in speak to a child because they "wouldn't stop crying" or they "are refusing to get up and go to breakfast," things like that. Basically, the kid being sad was getting in the way of the shelter's schedule. The deal was, these kids had usually been in the emergency shelter for less that 24 hours and, in being at the emergency shelter, that meant they had recently been removed from the care of their parents/guardians and may even have been seperated from siblings. Usually I went and talked with them when asked. I tried to explain what was happening now and what would/could happen in the days to come. If they had questions, which the typically did not, I would try my best to give them answers or put them in touch with someone who could. I would let them cry and tell them that how they were feeling was completely normal. And then, after sitting with the kid for a while, I would let them know where to find me if they needed me in the future and then would walk out and tell the staff member to leave the kid alone for a while and if they chose to not eat breakfast that was fine. So, did I fix them? N-O-P-E. Typically when I left they looked and felt pretty much the same as they did when I got there. Sure, they were probably a little more informed, but they still felt and looked like crap.

These same expectation about "fixing" kids problems seems to have carried over into my current role as a school psych intern. This week, I was asked to talk with a girl. Her mom had contacted the school because her daughter seemed "sad." So basically, I got a directive to go speak with her and figure out what the problem was. *Sigh* When I got the request I had a flashback of my children's shelter experiences. So I went and got the girl, who of course was pretty shy and possibly scared to be pulled out of class by a complete stranger. I gave her an opening spiel explaining my role and telling her that sometimes I talked with kids to make sure everything was going ok and to see if it wasn't if I could help. I told her that her mom had asked me to talk with her because she was worried about her and asked her what was up. The girl told me her cat, Willy*, had been sick and was throwing up and she was afraid it would die - that was why she had been feeling sad. So we talk about the beloved pet for a little bit, she says she feels better, we play a card game a casually chat for a bit and then I let her know if she ever needs to talk how to contact me in the future. I call mom to fill her in with what the kid said and mom says that cannot be the cause of the child's sadness as the pet was only sick one day and the kid has been sad over a week. Well that would have been nice information to know before meeting with the kid! She then goes on to share with me a bunch of familial drama that has been occurring that she has been trying to shield the kid from. Her form of protection? Lying. I offer to meet with kid on a regular basis to check in with her and mom decides that she wants to join in. So now, I think I am doing a family counseling session next week with a kid who is sad and a mom who wont tell her the truth. So I guess this situation is a bit different - now I need to fix the kid and the mom. Next week is going to be fun.

*Name changed to protect the innocent.

Meet my new pal, Self Doubt. Yeah, she hangs out with me all the time!

This has been a challenging week in the life of this school psychologist intern and it's only Thursday morning! I have become very uncertain of my counseling abilities... or lack there of. On Monday I found out in the morning I was going to meet with a new kinder boy for individual counseling. I had actually met him the week before for a bit, but that was more for just a getting-to-know you moment. I had been under the impression that we were going to a direct behavior rating program with him so I was surprised to find out that I would be meeting with him one on one. I had heard that his behavior difficulties were surrounded around his hands - hitting kids, writting all over his desk, that sort of thing. So I got online and found a cute counseling lesson that was about Hurting Hands vs. Helping Hands. It was a group curriculum for and older group who were supposed to come up with a list of helping things and a list of hurting things and write them down. Well... I liked the idea, but my kid is coming to me for individual counseling and he is in kinder so he wasn't going to be able to write down a list of things. Now of course, I could write them for him, but I wanted him to be doing the action not me. So I decided to get online and print out a bunch of images - kids fighting, kids helping with the groceries, kids cleaning, kids sleeping in class that sort of thing. Then I got a piece of construction paper, crayons and a glue stick. I cut out all my little pictures and spread them all over our table. At some point in the  morning my supervisor appeared and saw my little art picture but he didn't ask what I was up to and took off. So I crossed my fingers and said a prayer that my little dude would get the point of what I was trying to do and went and pulled him from class. The activity actually went over pretty well. I traced his hands on to the paper with a crayon and explained to him that there were helping things we could do with our hands or hurting things and that I wanted him to go look at every one of my pictures and decide where the picture would fall - helping or hurting. I drew a line between the traced hands and marked one with a smiley face and the other with a sad face and he set to work examining the pictures and explaining to me why it was a good thing or a bad thing to do. It probably took all of 5-7 minutes, which is probably about the right amount of time for a kinder and he was proud of his work. I felt pretty mixed about the activity. I think it has potential, but I am not sure I am satisfied with it or how I executed it.

Yesterday, I met with another kid that I didn't know I would be meeting with regularly. I felt like the meeting was a complete waste of time. The kid has issues with lying, tattling, being a general busy-body, and she apparently kinda freaks out when she gets angry. I looked online hoping to get inspired by something there, but really couldn't find anything that I could make work quickly, then I looked through the one counseling activity book that I have and tried to pull from it. Again, no luck. So I ended up coloring with her. We colored pictures of our families and talked about them. She mentioned a cousin who sometimes picks on her and so we talked about that and I asked her how she would handle certain conflict situations and she gave me pretty good answers back. I don't think it was a remotely theraputic meeting, but I guess there is always next week.

After my poor week of counseling I came home on a mission and got on-line and went shopping. $80 later I am getting 6 books (good deal huh?) So hopefully once they arrive I can arm myself up with some better counseling strategies and I can get rid of my pal Self Doubt, because she is a complete downer.

Today's Lesson: Cover all bases when counseling

Guess that I forgot something when I was working with super ADHD girlie this past month. It's the simple things you forget to say, like, "Hey ADHD girlie, try not to threaten to shoot people, m'kay?" I didn't know we needed to cover that sort of stuff, but apparently I was wrong. So my girlie threatened someone with death at the end of last week. She went so far as to even lay out when and where it was going to happen. Why yes, she is only in elementary school. So needless to say she was suspended pending an expulsion hearing. Super depressing. I honestly don't think she would actually carry out a threat like that, but she is so impulsive I couldn't say it wouldn't happen with 100% confidence. So I guess my days of working with ADHD girlie are over. It's too bad though, I had really hoped we could make some sort of a difference. Guess this one is a no go.

I wonder what will happen to her. I hate to assume she will end up in juvenile hall, but I can kind of see that possibility for her. She is defiant and lacks self control which is a pretty horrid combo. I had hoped we would teach her to self monitor a bit, but I don't think we succeeded in anyway. I am afraid for her future, mostly because I have seen other kids like her with similar behavior problems and they don't seem to have very positive fates. Once they get into kid corrections they tend to just learn a LOT of terrible  things and then once back out in the real world they try out those new things they have learned. So then it just tends to spiral. I really hope that isn't what happens to this little one.

Blue

I mentioned last week that we are doing "compliance training" with a kinder kid who is having a tough time following directions in class. Well, I can't recall if I mentioned that the kid pretty much refuses to speak - to anyone. Some actually wondered if he was mute or at least a selective mute. Well, last week I met him, and yesterday I attempted to work with him. He pretty much refused to acknowledge me so I kind of just guided him about the room forcing him to do everything he was attempting to escape. He would cover his ears and although he looked in my direction if I was to lock eyes with him he'd quickly look away. Today I seemed to make a lot more progress. I would give directives and then walk away, come back and praise for whatever minute progress he had made or prompt again and then walk away again. He didn't get much of his work done still, and he still ripped apart his workbook, but he stayed in his seat (one of our goals) and did do some of his assignment. The big progress came in working with him one-on-one. He actually came with me today to walk down to our little room to play video games. Sure, he got side tracked a bit, but I didn't have to use any muscle to get him where I needed him to be - so that was a huge improvement. Once we reached out little room I let him pick out a video game and play for 5 minutes. Then I let him know we needed to take a break and do some of the classwork he hadn't got to while we were in class. AND he actually stopped playing the game without tantruming/shutting down on me/acting out agressively and did the work. I, of course, continued to lavish him with praise for every little thing he did. Gotta feed this new it's ok to do my work mentality. My biggest excitment of the day was when I asked him what a color was and he actually replied back,

"Blue"

After that he even said a couple of short phrases to me! I was shocked and completely tickled pink. He was compliant the rest of the time together, even put away the video games without being asked. We made a deal that he would win a toy if he walked (I specified this meant no running, skipping, or hopping) back to the class with me. He shook my hand in agreement and we had a pleasant walk back to the classroom. Who is this kid? I am amazed. Guess that compliance training stuff actually works.
I've got another behavior modification kid that I just started working with yesterday. We have a Direct Behavior Rating (DBR) sheet that is passed back in forth between the teacher who fills it out and my supervisor and I who talk with the kid. Yesterday I met with this little 2nd grade girl for the first time and explained to her the system. She has 2 goals: stay in her seat AND raise her hand and not call out. I made her say them to me at LEAST 10 times until I knew she had the memorized. Then, we practiced them. I said silly questions that I knew she knew the answer for and she practiced raising her hand and waiting for me to call on her. After all that she got to pick out the prize from the prize wall that she wanted to work towards getting: colored pencils. This morning, on a whim, I decided to go sit in her classroom. She got all wiggly and excited to see me so I squatted down next to her and made her tell me, again, what she was going to be working on. She told me and then I stayed in the classroom and watched her for a half hour. That kid cracked me up. She kept checking back to see if I was watching her and occasionally, when she needed to get out of her chair to throw away a paper or something she would bolt out and bolt back, like if she did it quick enough I wouldn't see her. Too funny. Anyway on my way out I stopped by and told her what an awesome job she had done and that she should keep up her great work so she could get those pencils. She told me her goals one more time and I left. When she came and met with me at the end of the day she had done what was asked of her 2/3's of the day. pretty awesome improvement considering she didn't do it at all the day before! So she won her pencils and we played go fish to reward her for her good behavior. She said to me as she was leaving my little room "this was fantastic!"
Don't tell anybody, but some days, this internship thing is pretty fun.

Round One - FIGHT!

I didn't expect to need to be aggressive as a school psychologist. But today, I was taken down, hard, by a teacher. An angry teacher. The lady literally belittled my attempt at helping her. She has been complaining for two weeks about a kid who just moved into the school. So last week I did some academic sceenings with him (he is pretty darn average in math and reading) and then did some behavioral observations in class and out of class. I learned very quickly that the kid doesn't stop talking while in the class. I mean seriously, he was off task 70+ percent of the time I was in his classroom and almost ALL of that was talking. So, since grumpy teacher has been complaining about the kid I approached her at recess and offer my services to help him with his behavior in the classroom which seems like it should help his ability to stay on task and complete classwork. She scoffed at my program with "the stickers and the giftcards" and then walked away from me, continuing to lament about how bad she had it with this kid. I literally just stood there, mouth agape, staring at her. What the heck? Grumpy lady, I just tried to make your life easier! That was not the reaction I had expected. I told my supervisor about it later and he seemed only slightly shocked which made me think that this may be a common problem with this teacher. I feel so terrible for that kid. He is adorable and wants to learn. I am afraid he is going to have a terrible year with that teacher. Heck, I am afraid I am going to have a terrible year with that teacher.

Today's word is brought to you by the letter: B

Behavior Modification!

Isn't is grand? Today was full of it. I hung out in the kindergarten classroom this morning assisting my supervisor in doing "Compliance Training" with a little dude in there. My sup wore a necklace that had a green smiley face on one side and a red frowny face on the other. When the kid was following directions/staying at his center Mr. H would wear it with the green happy face showing, but if the kid wasn't complying with directions, it was switched to the red sad face. I, doing my best Vanna White impression, kept "score" on a white board that was displayed for the kid to see. Every five minutes I would draw either a happy or sad face, depending on  the kids behavior at the moment. The kid really wanted NOTHING to do with us when we came into the classroom. Mr. H attempted to explain to him what we were doing and the kid covered his face to block him out. But we kept at it. And after an hour and a half the kid was actually looking at both of us. He got lots of happy faces and won his cookie for the day, so he was a happy camper.

I really liked the technique as the kid got constant observable feedback on his behavior. And he got a tangible reward. I asked Mr. H if it was a technique that could be used with older kids and he shot that down pretty quick saying it was really just classroom training. I see his point, but I have also seen some older kids who could still use some classroom training. Maybe, someday, when I am a big bad School Psychologist at a school of my own, I will try it with an older kid and see how it works. :)

After hanging with the kindergartner I met with my other behavior mod kid. She is amazingly ADHD and  has three daily behavior goals (stay near work station, get half of work done, no rolling on the floor) and if she gets one goal met for the day she gets to play video games, two or three goals, she wins a prize. It seems like a pretty effective system for her. Token Economy for the win! She is a silly girl though. Today she popped in at her lunch recess and felt the need to sing for me. So I let her do it and she ate up the attention. Maybe she really doesn't even need the prize, she may do well with just an "atta girl!" here and there.

Never works according to plans...

Today's life lesson:

 Always have a Plan B

Lately, I make plans. Beautiful plans. Thoughtfully organized plans that tell me what I need to get done and when it can be accomplished. But I am learning they rarely work out. :)

Take today for example. I got to internship and organized my schedule. I need to write a report, finish testing a kid, meet with a kid on a behavior modification plan, meet with a teacher on a behavioral consultation, AND find a 5th grade teacher who is apparently avoiding me and deliver her a behavior rating scale.

So, after my schedule was all worked out I got started. First things first, score some protocols and start writing a report. I did that. It worked out swell. I even got to meet with my behavior mod kid during her recess and remind her of her goals for the day. But then it all stops going according to plan. I got an email from the teacher I was supposed to be meeting with, canceling for today and asking if I can do it on Friday (which I probably can, but technically, I am under another supervisor that day so it gets a little hairy), and then I attempted to track down my kid to test from RSP and they have changed his time so he isn't available to work with.

I haven't yet tried to track down the avoiding-me teacher, but at the moment I am 2 for 4 items on the list today. So I guess I will work on those other things tomorrow, time to make a new schedule! :)

An almost independent week

Last week I was only under the watchful care of a supervisor for about a day and a half. By far the most independent week I have had yet. And you know what? I survived! Nothing traumatic happened and I didn't screw anything up! SCORE!

I had a boring Monday - but you should know - they are always boring. I have yet to figure out what to work on at my Monday school site. I progress monitor 4 kiddos and occasionally have a student to assess, but that's about it. I tend to just get homework done, so I really can't complain about that!

Tuesday I got to the school site to discover a list of things to do waiting for me. So I jumped on that. Observed in a kindergarten class and got asked by a couple of them if I was one of the students moms. Then I tested a kid, observed another kid, and then interviewed a mom using the Vineland.

Wednesday I tested two kids (one of those testing sessions was half counseling), interviewed a one-on-one aide in a first graders class, progress monitored some intervention kids, and met with a teacher about some students she feels need counseling.

Thursday I did a couple of student observations, did more progress monitoring, tracked down a kid who we'd missed during benchmarks for ORF, and met with one of my supervisors.

Friday, I did lots of progress monitoring, two behavioral observations, tested two kids, interviewed a teacher, finished a report, a did a bit of counseling.

Busy busy week, but I enjoyed it! I can actually say I felt more competent than I have ever felt before. Now, mind you, I still don't feel ready to go it alone by any means, but I actually do feel like I am sort of getting the hang of some of it.

Adventures in Autism

Started working on my first autism assessment. The kid is completely adorable. He is verbal however there is pretty much zero reciprocal communication and lots of echolalia. I've now done about 3 different observations on him, a time on task in the gen ed classroom, and two play ground ones. It is interesting to see that he has no problem hanging out with a ton of other kids, bumping into them or being touched by them, but he never speaks to them. I gave him some select parts of the WISC and that was a big adventure. He was tough to keep on task because one thing you would show him would set him off on a story or tangent of some sort. He kept repeating things that he had done during the testing the previous day which he really seemed to enjoy. There is something amazingly endearing about the kid. Couldn't really tell you what it was. I also got to give a couple of portions of the ADOS. That is a completely rad assessment. I love how it is set up with all toys of different sorts in order to attempt to evoke an interaction with the student. My supervisor obtained consent from the parent to video tape the whole test which was really cool. It made it so you didn't have to scramble around and take notes while trying to pay attention to every minute detail of what the kid is doing. The kiddo definitely has difficulties in speech and reciprocal communication, but we really didn't observe any stereotyped behaviors during the testing. However, according to his aide he does finger flap in front of his eyes. I just haven't seen it yet. Working with this little dude has been really awesome, I am so glad I've had the opportunity so early on in my internship!

1st Conference

Yesterday was a meeting of the minds... well, sort of. My internship advisory-person from the University came to meet my two internship supervisors. I was surprisingly nervous. All three of the guys who overseeing my hours in order to grow me up into a bonafide School Psychologist all sitting around discussing me, in front of me. It was a pretty awkward 30 minutes for me. Every time I did say something, I felt scrutinized. Now, that probably wasn't actually happening, but that's how it felt inside my head. Overall no one said anything too scary about me, nor were there any real complaints. My supervisors really didn't have anything that they felt I needed to work on specifically, simply said  I was catching on quickly and he was pleased with how I was progressing. *phew* Let's hope I can keep it up!

Quarter of the way done and still clueless!

*Downer Moment Alert*
I was tallying up my internship hours today and realized I have already passed the 300 hour mark, so I am a quarter of the way done with the hours requirement. That is so crazy that is is going so quickly. I can't say that I am remotely feeling secure in the position yet though. I honestly still feel like I am clueless. Shouldn't I have got a bit more of a handle on this by now? I thought I was starting to figure out one of my supervisors report writing styles, but then (after emailing it out to everyone and making all the copies) I discovered that I had screwed up and left out an entire test from the report. Ooops. So I asked if I should just re-do it quickly and add in the missing stuff and I wasn't given the opportunity which frustrated me beyond belief! Today I floundered my way through trying to explain to a kid who really liked working with me that we were done testing. He was so sad, which was completely endearing, but just another thing that I need to work on. There are just SO many things to learn and to see! I can't seem to keep track of it. And at times it is really tough to keep up with having two supervisors at 3-4 schools. I can't remember which one wants it which way at which site! Can you tell I'm kinda whiny today? Sorry about that. I will try and chipper back up before next week.

Mellow week

It's odd to really have nothing to report. The week went pretty smoothly with nothing too exciting to touch on. I spent Monday and Tuesday finishing up on some testing and psycho-educational reports and doing homework mostly. Wednesday I went over my research design with the supervisor and got some pointers, then we figured out cut points for the Tier 3 reading intervention that starts next week as well as our schedule for progress monitoring the kids. Thursday I progress monitored the Tier 2 kids at that site, interviewed a teacher, and progress monitored the Tier 2 kids at that site. Friday I went to a new-to-me school and helped benchmark some fourth graders on Reading Fluency. Then I went and took an anxiety provoking "pre-test" to become a Behavior Intervention Case Manager (BICM). I think I did ok on the  test, but you had to get a 90 or higher to get into the class, so hopefully I did it. I am supposed to find out next week. So I'll have to wait and see. That's about it. Guess having a mellow week now and then is probably a good thing!

A day of Chaotic Crisis Intervention

I got called in to assist at one of the middle schools today to deal with the sudden death of a teacher. We were told that today would be focused only on teachers and helping them with the grief and loss they were feeling. The news was not to be released to the students until Monday. The team was two school psychs, myself and the other intern, and three middle school counselors. The day didn't match up with any crisis intervention plans that I had read about. Instead it was kind of a chaotic mess. A teacher spilled the beans about the death to his students, so then they announced the death over the PA system so that everyone would be aware.  I guess this was the easiest way to get the info out to everyone at once, but it seemed like a weird way to do it to me.

The kids lunch period was so sad. So many sobbing children grouped up throughout the yard. I was told to go from room to room to room and no one seemed to have a real plan as to handle it. I did end up talking with a couple of children, but felt rather clueless about what to say. I've read a really good grief book, but it was focused on helping people who were close to you grieve. Since I didn't know these kids, I can't say that it was very helpful in this situation. It was difficult to say, "Hi, I'm Mrs. Z, tell me about all your feelings." Not really an appropriate time to sit down and shoot the breeze to establish a rapport of sorts, so instead I tried my best to give kids their options and thank friends for being together, helping and supporting eachother.

With all the chaos around me, my biggest worries were for the safety of the kids, they were all over the place, and were dealing with the news in totally different ways (as is typical for grief) my worry was that since  the kids were spread all over the place that someone may hurt themselves or someone else in grief and no one would know about it. Thankfully, my worries seemed unfounded and the day went by without any incidents (that I am aware of). Very sad though, it's hard to be surrounded by sobbing people - especially when you never even met the person they are hurting for.

The only thing I can say that I truly brought to the day, was a little bit of the Best Practices that I had read in Psychology Seminar (huh, guess I did learn something in this schooling!). In the pre-talking to people meeting, there was discussion of how much info to share (it is the belief of many that the deceased person committed suicide by OD'ing on prescription meds). I heard all the higher ups (superintendent folk) discussing this as if it was fact and indicating we were going to share this information with the staff today and the kids on Monday. So I spoke up, in my best I'm-just-an-intern-so-I've-got-a-question voice asked, "are we positive that he OD'd? Because I know we just want to share the facts, right?" and my simple question reminded the people around me that perhaps, it wasn't a good idea to spread the news that the guy had killed himself/OD'd before we actually knew it was a fact. So there was my contribution to the day. I was chicken to speak up in front of the other psychs and district big wigs, but I am really glad that I did.

Umm.. excuse me... but your perfectionism is showing.

Today I had to give the WISC4. I've done it before, actually done it 6 or 7 times, but it was over a year ago. So I walked in, trying to remember the nuances of the 10 core subtests to the best of my ability. Then I find out that I will be observed during it by my supervisor. So that didn't bring out a lot of warm fuzzy feelings for me. I consciously told myself to take a deep breath and begin to barrel through it. You should know, my supervisor is a stickler for standardized administration of tests, read everything you are supposed to read, exactly the way it is written. I am kinda terrible at that and because my last supervisor was a gist sorta guy (which is my personal preference as well), so I've gotten out of practice. So, I tried my best to stick to the administration manual's script, it was rather cumbersome and formal feeling, but I did a pretty good job. My supervisor, who has given this test a bazillion times attempted to speed up my snails pace and  kept jumping in to speed up the students responses to get to the next question. A couple of times on the verbal tests I was scribbling as fast as I could. I managed to keep up and didn't seem to make any real boo-boos and I was pretty happy with the overall process. After I was done, my supervisor told me I needed to "relax and have fun with it." LOL for sure. I guess my uptight-need-to-get-everything-perfect attitude was a little obvious. Well, sir, once I get it perfect I will relax a bit! :)

The importance of having keys

Yesterday I spent the morning testing the smallest 3rd grader ever. She was this amazingly tiny person, you know the terms "dainty" or "petite?" Take that and multiply it by 5 and you've got the size of this kid! Also - she had oddly hairy arms... well anyway I spent the morning working on her initial special ed. assessment (Survey Level CBM Oral Reading Fluency, PAT2, TOWRE, RAN, WJIII and a short interview). She was a tough nut to crack, really really shy, hard worker, but she wanted to take an hour answering everything. I hate feeling like I have to rush them though. So we made it through it all and she seemed to not suffer any serious psychological damage as the result of my rushing her answers on the WJII.
Then worked on running all the School Wide CBM data that was collected last week through SPSS. I got done early, and was pretty stuck as to what I should work on. I had already told my supervisor once that I didn't think I'd have enough to do, but he was certain that wouldn't be the case and had left me with my list (guess he doesn't know the awesome efficiency that is Mrs.Z). So I was done at 2:30... that seemed WAY to early to head home, so I checked my personal email and found that I had an email from my university finally providing me with my hours log (only about 5 weeks late!). So I spent the next hour and half attempting to get my form filled out for August and starting on September. I decided to take off at 4pm and walked out of the office to discover that the school had been closed up! Everything was locked! I have a key to my little office in the library, but no where else in the school. So I started to weigh my options: call my supervisor and ask him to drive over and unlock the gate for me (not really liking this option), some how climb the fence while caring 2 bags and 4 test kits (errr... umm... no?),  or find a comfy spot in the library and snuggle in for the night (if there was a bathroom in there I might have gone for this one).  THANKFULLY, I saw a teacher on her way out and was able to yell for her to wait. So today, I think I will politely ask for a gate key. I think it would be for the best.

My own personal, Davie Crocket...

Lately, I just fall in love with every kid I work with! I was asked to pull out a kid and do some survey level assessment using CBM Oral Reading Fluency probes to figure out if this third grader could read. He had just transferred into the district and the teacher was worried by what she was seeing in the classroom. So I pulled this adorable little boy into my room and we tried to read together. I learned, very quickly that this third grader couldn't read a lick, didn't even know letter sounds. Depressing huh? So he is on the list to get into the intervention program that is starting soon. Some of the kids I have asked to read for me who cannot read get a little defiant or seem indifferent to the activity. However, this lil guy gave it his best shot (which you've got to admire). In between reading passages he loved to tell me stories. He told me about his dad who could speak three languages and knew karate. He attempted to show me some of his own karate moves, showed me every scar on his body, and then he told me the best story ever. He went camping once, and a bear came into his camp. The bear knocked over what his mom was cooking and in the process his mom's arm was burned. So what did my cute little boy do in response? Well, he killed the bear of course! Will a rock no less. And then he used its fur to make something that sounded really cool in spanish which is apparently a blanket of some sort. That kid cracked me up. And thankfully, I can get him some help in his reading too, so it was a great day.

Double Supervisors, Double the Fun!

It's beginning  to become amusing. I have two supervisors, and they both have similar philosophizes about school psychology, but there the similarities stop. One supervisor has short-sweet to the point psych reports, the other lengthy and very descriptive. One supervisor has a simple and quick CBM administration procedure, you go in to the class room alone, you pull kids, you give them a 1 minute probe, you send them back and you pull the next. The other supervisor you have a written schedule of what class you are to be CBMing first, what team you are in for CBMs and you have a stack of protocols and give each student 3 CBMs and take the median number, you have to go off of your list of kids, in order because your class list has been split with another person on your team, which then requires you to yell out and interrupt the class so you can get your kids attention. One supervisor is all about pretty formatting, the other doesn't care. LOL. I guess I will be especially well rounded after this experience, that or bi-polar.

First full assessment completed!

Yesterday I started on the assessment of a cute little 4th grade boy who has very limited English acquisition (pretty much a CELDT level 1 across all sections!). He was referred for assessment at the end of the last school year because he failed to respond to the Tier III reading intervention he was in. The kiddo got 30 weeks of intervention (4x per week for 30 minutes) and he actually became a slower reader! Poor kid. So, he was chosen to be my first assessment. Lemme tell ya, it has been a pretty unnerving couple of days for me! Yesterday I complied all his data from last year's interventions, gave him a survey level reading fluency test and administered the PAT2. I didn't have any problems with that, but my supervisor kept quizzing me about different components of reading and my brain would NOT work. (to explain: this is not my typical, but my hubby's grandpa, whom I was very close to, just died suddenly and I can't take time off because of my contract has given me very few days to take off, so I am just gonna try my best to get through) So I just owned up and gave a IDK to his questioning and felt like a big dummy. He was nice about it, but I proceeded to beat myself up over it for the rest of the day and came home an incredibly grumpy girl.

Today I finished up his assessment/observation. Gave him 6 subtests of the Woodcock Johnson III - Achievement test which I have only given once before and that was over a year ago. So needless to say I screwed up. Totally missed that there is a basal on the math calculation subtest and I didn't notice that the kid spelled a word wrong on the spelling test because I was looking upside down so I didn't really get a basal on him either. :( THEN I messed up the TOWRE! When you only have 45 seconds for an assessment it is easy to get off track (especially when you are testing an ELL mumbler!) and I couldn't find my way back. But even in all that, my crazy nice supervisor some how made all of my mistakes go away. After that I did an time-on task observation of the kiddo in the classroom. That, thankfully, I didn't mess that up! I was able to then sit down and put the report together. My supervisor read over it at the end of the day and was surprised to see it finished. He gave me a "I'm very impressed with your work." and I felt like jumping up and down. Finally got something right! I really hope this gets easier!!

CBM Days!

I've spent the last two days of internship CBMing to my hearts delight! :) I did Oral Reading Fluency (ORF) passages in 4 of the 5 second grade classes at the school (my supervisor did the 5th one), we also started getting a Nonsense Word Fluency norm for the first graders and I got baseline data for the Special Day Class kiddos so I can begin progress monitoring them on their ORF as well. Then of course I had to plug all the data in and run the analysis. This district uses Excel and SPSS to store and analyze the data - it seems really efficient. They also keep seperate aggregated norms (grade level norms that they add to each year with the new kids data so it increases the local sample size). I really thin I may end up being a data collecting and analyzing pro at the end of this!

Wowzer!

The last two days of internship have been mind boggling! Yesterday I learned two new assessments - a CBM measure and a Phonological processing test. Then I wrote up reports and graphed the data I had collected. After that I worked on a psycho-educational report with Mr. H. It was an initial eval using RTI to qualify the child under SLD. It was so much information to process. I liked how it was so data driven. The child failed to respond to 30 weeks of a tier II reading intervention, so the Phonological Awareness Test -2 (PAT2) was administered to get a break down as to which areas of reading the child could and could not do, then from there they layered on additional assessment, and WJIII Achievement and even a processing test. All this information was smooshed into a neat and concise report of about 5 pages.

Today was more of the same, although not as overwhelming as yesterday! This morning I learned more of the paperwork side of things, how to get a SELPA number assigned to the kiddo, how many copies of the report are needed and who gets them. Then the afternoon was spent working on another report - this time one that the child was qualified by the traditional discrepancy model. Although I am familiar with this approach, it was still interesting to see how this particular school district does things. Mr. H. really knows his stuff though - sheesh, it is amazing what all that dude has in his noggin. I'm guessing he is only in his early to mid-forties and all I can say is I hope that in 15 or so years I will be so knowledgeable!

2 weeks down!

I finished off my second week of internship. It was still pretty slow, but I know things will change after the kids are back next week. This week we went over some CBM probes. Next week we will be doing a fluency probe on the entire 2nd grade at one of my sites in order to get some grade level norms to determine who the bottom kids are in order to form intervention groups. The following week we will do the 1st graders but do a nonsense word fluency instead. At this school site it appears that CBM will be one of my daily tasks so by the end of the year I am going to be a CBM master!
So although I know what I will be doing at that site for the next two weeks - I have no idea what I am doing at my other sites next week. It sounds like those sites are used to collecting their own data and the psych then compiles it and runs the stats to feel how the kids are ranked. But other than that, I am uncertain what the psychs other roles are at the school besides writing the occasional 3 year review report. I guess I will just have to wait and see.

Data data every where

I told one of my cohort buddy's today that I am certain by the end of this internship I will dream of graphs and pages and pages of numbers! This school district <3's data! I understand that this is a good thing - but it is taking a little while to get used to! I am having flash backs of my horrid under graduate research methods classes. Ick!

First thing I did today was get a lesson in CBM. I was shown the Aimsweb data probes and given the directions and the script. It seems pretty easy and quick. I also got my logistics question answered that I had been wondering about - are we pulling kids out of the classroom for just a 1 minute probe? The answer - no, we just sit in the back of the class and pull kids while the teacher does their thing.  We will be norming all of the second grade next Thursday afternoon. THEN we will get to plug all the beloved data into Excel and SPSS to look at graphs and see how the kids are doing compared to previous year 2nd graders as well as national norms. I am looking forward to the process. I will need to take close notes! Although I have always loved research - I am pretty ignorant when it comes to running data in SPSS.

I also attended a meeting on Professional Learning Communities (PLC's). They are all the rage at the moment. I still am trying to figure out it all, but it sounds like it really strives for collaboration between the teachers of the same grade level/subject. The school administration of the site I was at wants the teachers presenting the data in line with a pacing guide AND a daily schedule so that every class is working on the same thing at the same time. I can understand the pacing guide. I mean, it is much easier to say, you need to get through all these subjects by the date of this bench mark. But to dictate to the teachers how long they can teach each lesson and the order at which they need to present it? I think that is a bit wacky! I'm not a teacher, nor do I have any formalized teaching experience, but I really can't say that I would enjoy being told how and when to teach my kids. So I am not sure how well that portion will go over. But the general idea behind PLC's is rather positive. It is data driven, although not via scientifically valid instruments, and it encourages a team approach. So it could work, if the teachers are receptive to it.

The rest of my day today was studying the local California State Testing (CST) scores. We looked at about 16 different schools within the county (some in the Fairfield SD, but the majority outside of the district). It was pretty interesting stuff. We charted the last five years of API scores and how much the different schools had improved. It gave me a good idea of how are county looks on those tests. It was also very interesting to look at the population data from the different schools. I initially assumed that schools with a high population of English Language Learners would have lower API scores. Although for the most part this is true, it is not definite. A larger district in the county proved my hypothesis dead wrong! They were 50% ELL, and 90 something % eligible for free and reduced lunch and in the past 5 years they had raised their API 110 points! Isn't that outstanding?! I know that this district uses a form of RTI, although not one that matches Fairfield's model. Whatever it is that they are doing must be working! I would love to go an observe and try to find what their secret is!

So many questions!

It seems that as soon I start to understand something, the questions begin to pour into my mind. Today I followed around Mr. H. I went to the school site I will be working at with him, met the staff and saw our tiny office. Although it is a tiny space - it is perfectly placed. It is situated right in between the SDC and RSP rooms. That will make it really easy to get kids in that you need to speak with. We also went over the tests that they have there, and how he qualifies kids for SLD without cognitive testing using RTI. With that he gave me a brief over view of RTI (again) and I looked over some of the data that Fairfield collected last year regarding their reading interventions. The data is so impressive. It appears that most of the children who receive intervention services do make impressive gains and are eventually exit from the intervention.

My new question was, what happens to the kids after they are exited from tier 2 to 1? Do they then progress as well as their peers? Are they able to keep up then? Or do they revert back to what previous levels? If they needed extra help before - I honestly wouldn't be surprised to see them require intervention services again... I think this could be another good possibility for my Thesis project! So many possibilities. Since they have already collected data pre intervention and during the intervention, I could follow up with some of the kids who have been exited and see how they are keeping up this year. An amazingly easy ABA design. I really like this idea, I will have to think about it some more.

Big Brained People

I have always thought that I was a pretty intelligent person. I am typically a quick learner, have an ok memory, and am happy to learn new things. But even with those things I can tell, this internship is going to be challenging! My internship supervisors, Mr. H. and Mr. P are both so knowledgeable! I only got things explained to me for about an hour and a half and I learned SO much.
Today's lessons were focused on RTI as I am pretty much a novice in the area. I had the general idea of the three tiers figured out. But today we talked about how often the data is taken. The school does school wide benchmarks three times a year (tier 1). They use the benchmark data to identify at risk students, who are then placed in an intervention setting (tier 2). We went over lots of the schools data regarding tier 2 students from last year and I was amazed to see how much progress the children were making! They utilize Aimsweb intervention curriculum for reading. With that they complete probes 3 times a week to obtain data and determine how the child is progressing. If the child does not respond to the intervention they can then be referred to traditionally testing or they can simply be qualified for services due to the failure to respond to intervention and their discrepancy in academic ability to normed standards (tier 3) Very interesting stuff. I think I may like to do something for my Masters thesis regarding ELL and RTI reading interventions... could be a good topic, but I will have to figure out more about what the thesis actually entails.
I also learned about the "Matthew Effect" which is basically the concept that the rich get richer and the poor get poorer - but you can also see it in academic settings. Meaning the children with high academics tend to keep going strong and the low academic students fall behind.
I learned a little bit more about the plan for me this year. Mr. P told me that his goal is that at the end of my internship I will be employable. LOL I think that is a great goal! Let's hope I make it!

Internship Day 1: Psychologist Meet & Greet

Today was my first day! I never heard when to do in, so I called in at 8am and asked when I was supposed to be there... I was told 8am. Ooops! Thankfully I live really close by so I was able to get there pretty quickly. I was introduced to everyone, even got a hug from one of the psychs who was on my interview panel (how cute is that?!), and got a quick tour of the office. The day was pretty laid back, we had 1 meeting, a LONG lunch, and simply talked and got to know each other. I was given an idea of what I will be doing. It sounds like my time will be supervised by two school psychs. I will definitely be at 2 schools, but they may throw a 3rd one in as well. Tomorrow I am supposed to go with my two supervisors to see the schools and meet the office people.
Nice first day!

???

So I left a message three days ago for Mrs. F to find out when and where I was supposed to report in on Monday. It is now Saturday at 7:00pm and I still haven't heard from her. So although I pretty positive I need to go to the supportive services building as that is where all the other psychs are located, I don't know what time I should show up :/ Not my idea of a fun first day!
*Sigh* So I guess I will show up around 8:00am and hope for the best! My prayer will be that someone knows what to do with me and I just don't sit for a while and wait for someone to notice me. Ick. So from now on it is a big HELLO to Mrs Anxiety who will be my close companion for the next couple days! I don't do well with a lack of details... I need them... I crave them... and yet, I have none. :(

The contract has been signed!

Yesterday I met with the HR peeps and signed my contract. Thankfully they had fixed the money issue that I had uncomfortably pointed out to them at our last meeting (when you are only planning on making $15,000 for a year and they put $10,000 that is a substantial difference!). I also learned that I get 5 personal days for the entirety of my 11 month contract. So here's hoping none of the kiddos I work with get me sick! I will get all the holiday's off and School Breaks too so I guess it will all work out. I will just have to plan all my sick days around school holidays ;)

So Monday I report in. Still not sure at what time or what the dress code is like before kids get there, so hopefully I will hear from someone soon. But in any case, it is official. I am now an employee of the Fairfield School District and I shall be until June 10, 2011.

Dreams

So although I am attempting to not pay too much attention about my anxiety and apprehension about starting my internship next week, there appears to be spillage into my dreams. For the last week I have had the most bizarre dreams, which is pretty out of the norm for me. Last night I had a dream that I was still at my old work, but that they had locked me out of my computer but still expected me to work. So weird.

This week I hope my inner control freak will be appeased some. I should get a call from the HR lady today or tomorrow to sign the contract. At that time I am hoping they will tell me what my hours will be. That will at least give me a little to go on. I don't like being clueless, but I guess it won't be for long.

A week to go

I have one more week of vacation before my internship starts! I cannot believe how fast this time has flown by. But it has been a wonderful summer! Spent time with family, went to the beach and to Chicago. It has been a fantastic opportunity to relax and not have 10 million details in my head all at once!

My internship credential has been approved and now I am just waiting to sign my contract. The HR lady tells me that she needs to speak with Mrs. F and then she will have me come in at the beginning of next week to sign on the next 192 days of my life away :)

I am excited, but still remain terrified as I really have no clue what my job duties will look like. I left a job that I could do rather confidently, albeit begrudgingly, for this new world that I have only seen glimpses of.  I have enjoyed the majority of those glimpses so I really hope and pray that I continue to enjoy it when I am faced with it every day.

When one door closes

Today was my last day at work. It was surprisingly peaceful for me. Actually, the whole week was. I had originally worried that I would have a major breakdown/freak out on my last day. But instead it was spent cleaning out my desk, laughing, talking with co-workers, getting well wishes from lots of folks, lots of hugs, and food.

I will definitely miss the people I have been working with. They are a wonderful bunch, but I knew this day would come and I would have to walk away. I am so happy that I had the experience. I learned so much about life, granted it was mostly focused on the evil, but it was eye opening and I think has grown me up a lot. I think the experience will help me in the future as I am certain to have to work with similar clients in the school setting.

So now I am unemployed. I have 45 days until my internship starts and I plan to enjoy them.

In other news

Only 4 days left of work! That is so crazy! As one of the attorney's I work with pointed out, I have spent almost a fourth of my life as a social worker. But now I am leaving to face the great unknown that is the world of School Psychology. I have had so many worries these last few weeks. What if Fairfield hates me? What if I discover that I hate the job? What if I can't find work once the internship is over? I have so little faith, but yet I know that God has truly laid out this plan for my life. Although it scares me - I need to trust in Him and follow.

In the interim between jobs (I will have about 5 weeks off!) Mr. Z and I are going on a couple of trips. Going to SLO and to Chicago! Yeah! We haven't been on a real vacation since our honeymoon five years ago so this is much over due. It will be great to spend time together without the stress of work and school swimming in my head.

I used another sick day today (I can't believe how many I have left!) to get some more HR stuff done. I turned in a LARGE packet of forms, plus my TB test and the letter from my school saying I can be an intern. Then HR lady sent me off to get finger printed. She made it sound like they just need to wait a couple days for the results to return and then we can sign the contract. This was a different HR lady than I talk to last time, and she made it sound WAY easier to process than the last. So we will see which one is correct. I'm hoping it is the lady from today.

Paperwork

I had forgotten how much paperwork is required to start a new job. In the case that your new job is to be a School Psychologist Intern it apparently triples the steps necessary to finalize the job. Yesterday I stayed home sick *cough cough* from work and went to the HR department at Fairfield. There I learned that I needed to get a letter from my school saying I can be an intern in order to get a "intent to hire" letter from Fairfield. I have to have the intent to hire letter in order to apply for my internship credential. I have to have applied for my internship credential to fingerprint and I have to fingerprint in order to sign the contract. So many steps. I was also given a ginormous packet of forms to fill out. Funzies. So glad I am getting started on this now and that the HR department is open all summer.

So this week at work I turned in my letter of resignation - it was really early because my plan had been to go on Vacation as of July 6 and then burn off all my vacation making my last day around July 30. Today I was asked if I would be willing to leave earlier in order to save a job for one of the people facing layoffs. It's a tough call. My initial reaction was to agree, but my hubby, Mr. Z, has pointed out some problems with the idea and thinks that my job may have ulterior motives. Not sure what to do. Guess I will have to think/pray about it.

Restraint

Tonight I went to my exit interview to be advanced to candidacy for my school psychologist internship credential. I had expected some sort of pomp and circumstance about the process. In my head this is a BIG DEAL. We are now ready to start taking those first steps as School Psychs! It is something we have been working towards for two years. However, the evening did not meet my expectations. It turned out to be us, sitting in a back room with the program director of the psych program at a big table, sliding our work over, him sort of glancing at it, signing it, and then sliding it back. HA! Oh well, it's over and I made the cut so I guess I should be happy regardless of the lack of ceremony of my evening. So now I have to wait for the school to send stuff to the state so I can apply for my credential through CCTC. Such a complex process, I had no idea.

What a day!

What a fantastical day! My "clean-up day" at practicum was actually an uber relaxation thank you day from Mr. J. He took my classmate and I out to get a 1 hour foot massage (AMAZING) and then out to a delicious Italian lunch. As we were traveling about Mr. J warned me that, based on his experience, I shouldn't expect much to happen as a result of my applying for that internship last night. He said that our University is never given a shot at this particular district and that he himself wasn't even given an interview and he had worked at the school in a different capacity in the past. So I shrugged it off as he pretty much was confirming my own assumptions about this specific school district and figured I wouldn't hear anything back from the SD about my application. Oddly enough though, as we are walking into lunch my cell phone rings and it is the school district I just turned the application into and they want me to come in at 9am on Monday and interview. I kind of think to myself, "did I just enter the twilight zone?" and agree to be there. I shared the news of my phone call with Mr. J who also shared my shock and we sat in silence for a while, wondering what it could possibly mean...
I already feel myself tensing back up after my wonderful massage. I hate interviews, but know it will be good for me to try another one. I start creating complicated and long mental list of things I need to accomplish this weekend: there are 4 chapters to read for class plus post about, need to scan about 60 pages of documentation, need to put together my 16 section exit interview binder, need to finish the 9 page exit interview questionnaire, plus now I need to study up on environmental factors that affect learning and put together a new portfolio for the interview on Monday. The exhaustion returns to me and I just want to crawl under the table. The food, although delicious, looses it's appeal and I end up taking the majority of it home.
After lunch we have a bitter sweet goodbye at Mr. J's office. It has been a great experience and I will miss it as well as Mr. J.
I get home and hang out with my husband, filling him in on my latest internship interview that has been lined up. Then the phone rings. I figure it is just a politician, but it is someone who asks to speak with me. She introduces her self-it is Mrs. F, the special ed director of the SD I interviewed with on Wednesday (which, forever after will be named Fairfield SD). She says she has good news for me. I begin to dance around the livingroom as we speak and she tells me I did a wonderful job at my interview and she would like to offer me the position. I accept quickly and tell her how excited I am to be apart of her great team. We make plans to speak next week to arrange for a day to come out and take care of all the HR stuff.
The dancing continues and the stress diminishes.

Cleaning...

Today I am going in to my last practicum site to help the District Psych do end of the year cleaning. He assures me that this will be a great "learning experience" HA! I bet. Oh well, it was a great practicum location and I learned oodles so the least I can do is help clean up some of the mess I most likely contributed to. Mr. J (the District Psych) is also a super funny dude so I am sure that it will be entertaining. AND my co-practicum student and I got him a thank you cake - so there will also be yummy snacks. Can't go wrong then!

I turned in an application for another paid internship that was posted. This one pays EXTREMELY well, like $24/hour! The odds of me getting it are slim to none as the Special Ed BigWig of the district is the director of the competing university in town. So once he sees what graduate school I attend my application will most likely end up in the trash. But I figure, it wont hurt too much to try. And if I get an interview out of it, I will get another practice at interviewing, which although those are painful, they are good for me to get through.

Haven't heard anything about my interview from Wednesday yet. I sent a thank you note to the special ed director and am still hoping for the best. When I think about the competition out there my optimism does begin to wane a but, but I am still trying to hang on to the positive feelings I felt as I walked out of the interview. So I shall continue to wait until I hear the news. At least I know I will get the news before the end of the day next Friday, but that seems like a long while to wait.

PS - I loath waiting.

The interview

Today was the day. I got up and purdied up, and practiced my "tell us about yourself" speech. I was amazingly nervous but managed to keep it together. The panel was HUGE (4 school psychs and 1 special ed director). They asked a lot of questions, here is what I remember:

• What experience do you have that you think prepares you to be a School Psychologist Intern?
• What sort of help could you give a student coming into the 3rd grade who was new to the country from Mexico and had sporadic academic experience while in Mexico.
• How would you go about working with a teacher who is going to need to have modifications made in her classroom, that may require even more work on the teachers part, knowing that you are not a teacher.
• What would you do if a parent submitted a request in writing for the student to be assessed for learning disabilities. The student has been found to be in the 50th percentile academically via CBM?
• What's the difference between CBM and Standardized Norm based measures?
• What is a Functional Analysis and how do you do one?
• What is your experience in group and individual counseling, how competent do you feel in performing counseling.
  

There were quite a few other questions, but that's all I can recall at the moment. I actually felt like it went pretty well and that I was able to provide competent sounding answers to their questions. I actually even had quite a bit of the experience they were looking for (Functional Analysis stuff and counseling) and it seemed that my current job as a social worker was a definite plus for them. So, my fingers are crossed and now I will wait until I hear the result next week! I heard there were 13 applicants, so even though I feel I did well, it's a tough call on if I will be good enough to beat out that many others!

12 hours until go time!

Today was spent writing three court reports for work (rather productive day if I do say so myself) and interspersing that with studying for THE interview tomorrow. I looked over some math interventions (I think my favorite was cover, copy, compare - the student is given the math work with the answer, they cover up the answer, copy the problem and attempt it, then compare their answer with the correct one. You should throw in some that they have already mastered so it will keep their confidence up) and studied the levels of CELDT. It was a really good thing to review as I bet they will ask me about working with ELL students tomorrow. So in review, there are 5 levels to CELDT, 1 is the lowest level of proficiency, 5 is the highest. I still am not certain at which point you should rely on a nonverbal assessment over a typical comprehensive assessment. I would assume it would be silly to WISC a kid who was at level 1 or 2, but I am not sure about level 3. It doesn't seem like they would have the english vocab for it.I would guess that you would get a better estimate of cognitive ability from a CAS (PS I heart the CAS for working with ELL kids) or a non-verbal assessment. But that's just my assumption. Seems like level 4 and 5 you could do a comprehensive assessment and be safe.

Another thing I have done to prep myself is talking out loud some of the answers I would give to specific questions. It seems to be helping keep my stress down since my answers aren't half bad (of course they are to my own questions so perhaps this isn't the best exercise!)

Lastly, I had a fantabulous workout this evening in an attempt to tire myself out and burn off some anxiety. It was a lot of fun too! Dance Dance Revolution - if you haven't tried it, you should. It makes for an entertaining workout - although it is most fun when you have a buddy to dance with. It doesn't make you feel as silly.

Almost ready...

I am amazed at how much my anxiety regarding this upcoming interview fluctuates. At some moments I am completely calm and cool about it, other times I wish to run and hide under the bed (not that I could fit, but I could try!). But I am trying to do everything I can to prep myself and remain calm. As much as I would LOVE to get this gig, I need to remember that it really isn't the end of the world if I don't.

I found this pdf file: Interview Questions for School Psychologist which I went over with a classmate. It was pretty helpful, although you really have no idea if any of those questions will be even touched on in the interview. Some of the questions really make you think though, and it was great practice in listening to the question and composing a response. I would highly recommend it. I also purchased an e-book, but so far it hasn't arrived in my e-mail. Boo. Hopefully it will before the interview.

I have reviewed some reading (they all sounds so much the same, choral reading, buddy reading, repeatative reading ) and environmental interventions (did you know that if you rearrange your classroom seating from rows to more of a U shape, it is supposed to help ELL and LD students engage more in the classroom and can increase their learning - how freakin' cool is that?). I still plan on during math interventions but haven't got that far yet.

And last, but not least, the interview outfit has been picked out. I had a long discussion with a work-friend of mine regarding appropriate interview attire (she is getting her ph.d in some sorta HR area) she told me I should only wear neutrals with a POP of color. She gave this wonderful lecture to a person who is color blind (yes I am part of the .4% of females - aren't I lucky?)

BTW - did you know doing the UNIT when you are color blind is crazy annoying? Why did they choose THOSE colors of tiles? I mean, there are sooo many other colors available and they pick two that I have a crazy hard time differentiating between. Odd point of interest - I can see the color differentiation fine on the easel, just can pick it up well on the tiles. Oh well, its a rocking test anyway, it just makes me have to be hyper-vigilant in paying attention to which row of tiles the student pulls from.

I am uncertain if I should bring a portfolio or not. I have one that I need to revise a smidgen, but it wouldn't take long... I think I will do it. Can't hurt right?

2 days to go!

And so it begins...

I have nearly completed my School Psychology coursework (still have 1 year to go for my Masters in Ed), have completed over 450 hours of practicum experience in two different school districts, passed my School Psychology Praxis exam with flying colors getting the highest score out of the last two cohorts at my university *takes a bow* and am now seeking out the elusive School Psychologist Internship position. I say elusive, because, as school districts currently have NO money, there is only one paid position posted in my ENTIRE county and weirdly enough, not many districts seem all that interested in free labor either. When I enrolled in my SP program, I was told by my well meaning graduate-school director that finding paid internships were a snap. Well, that didn’t work out. So the search continues. I have a fall-back (non-paid) position lined up if I am unable to snag the one paid gig in town, but I had really imagined having more options at this point.

I have had one interview, about a month back. It was at a local kick-butt school district with a fully functioning RtI program. It was a position I was figuratively drooling over. I hadn’t known they were hiring, but put in a resume/application just in case. I randomly got a call from the Sp.Ed BigWig of the district letting me know they had “found” 30G’s laying around and decided to take on an intern with it. *Fade to a back drop of me doing the happy dance* Mr. BigWig asked if I could come in and interview. Uh, yes please! The interview was a mildly terrifying experience that I felt completely unprepared for. Some of the questions were easy, others seemed more like an oral exam. Here are some of the questions I remembered:

Tell us about yourself

Easy enough…

Has your SP program provided you information about the rights of Foster Parents during the special education eligibility determination process? If so, what is your level of knowledge regarding this area?

I don’t know about you, but MY program never even touched on this area. Thankfully though, I have spent the last 6 years of my life working as a social worker within the foster care system so this question was answerable for me. Foster parents, unless they are the holders of the educational rights (done through a court order) cannot sign off on anything. They can; however, be an awesome source of information about the child. Go Foster Folks!

What would you do if you had a parent call you demanding that their child be evaluated for special education?

I really wasn’t sure what the correct answer was in this situation. I said that I would provide the parent an education on what all the options where and ask to discuss what their concerns were about the child. Go over other typical tactics attempted before the child is referred for an evaluation, the SST process, classroom interventions, maybe even an academic screening or something. If after they received all the info they still wanted the child evaluated, I would go forward with it. What do you think? Am I any where in the ballpark? How would you have answered? Does this even work when you are using an RtI system?

Name three things in the classroom that can affect a student’s ability to learn.

I was easily able to throw out two things on this one: environmental factors (lighting, temperature, noise level, how much stuff is on the walls) and teaching style, but stumbled with the third. My guess now, would be the student learning style would also be a key point. But I am not sure if that is what they were looking for.

Please share with us some of your experiences in collaborating and consulting with teachers and parents.

Another question I pretty poorly stumbled through. Looking at the question now, I can totally see my experience in this area. But at the time, I felt completely inept.

What are some cutting edge research-based reading interventions?

Wasn’t sure how cutting edge my answers were, but at least I had an answer.

What sets you apart from the other candidates?

Blah blah blah blah.

I am sure there were plenty of other questions, but those are the main ones that come to mind. It was an experience that you found yourself reviewing in slow motion and over analyzing all of your mistakes. I waited anxiously for a week for a return call from Mr. BigWig and finally it came. He Let me know that the re-looked at their budget and there wasn’t any money for the position after all and they would not be hiring an intern this year. Boo!

But, I can see the silver lining of the cloud of my last interview experience. It was great exposure for future experiences. So now, I have a interview with the only paying SD in town on Wednesday. This weekend I plan to study up (as well as buy a new interview outfit) and give myself plenty of pep talks in hopes my experience will make me appear more confident and refined in next interview.

Wish me luck!