Weeks 1 & 2 Highlights

Hi, friends! I have officially survived my first two weeks as a school psychologist intern! To remember my first year working full-time in a school, I want to document some highlights from each week, but I am going to start with just a couple struggles, first ;)

1 -- I have to wake up between 4:45 and 5:45 depending on which school I have to go to. SO. EARLY. It's about a 40 min commute, so it makes for long mornings, but at least by the time I get there, I have had coffee, and I am ready to start the day.

2 -- The state requires that I get at least 20 days at each level of school, and since my supervisors are at a grade school and middle school, I have to get 20 days at a high school with another supervisor. Right now, we are trying to get my days done there fairly quickly so that I can focus on my cases that I am required to do for school the reset of the year at "my" schools. That means I have been running between 3 schools for the past two weeks, which isn't bad necessarily. I enjoy each school and all of the staff I have already worked with, but I am ready to get into a "regular" schedule and to feel more comfortable at "my" schools.

3 -- Anxiety. It hasn't been bad, but it's still a little scary feeling like I already have a lot more responsibility than I ever have in a school before. Thankfully, I am in a district with knowledgeable (and nice!) supervisors to help me through it all, but these are still important decisions that I am helping make about students, so I want to make sure I am doing everything right!

Now a couple highlights!

Week 1 - 

1 -- Pre-school screenings! I love itty bitty kids, and the things some of them say at screenings are HILARIOUS. Two kids (3 & 4 years old) were talking about their name tags, and the little girl says "It's my name tag! I gotta wear it so they don't kick me out!" Maybe you had to be there, but we all laughed! I think the same girl told us "I'm a little crab...that's what my parents say." ...apparently someone has been asked about being crabby ;) I wanted to take quite a few of them home with me!

2 -- ALICE training - This was good and bad...it's a training for an active shooter response, so it was hard to watch videos/hear specifics about school shootings that have occurred, but I am grateful that we had a local police officer come and help begin the training process on how we should respond, if we are in the position. In October, I believe we will do more practical training with an officer pretending to be an active shooter. It will likely be overwhelming, but I know it is important training to have.

Week 2 - 

1 -- Giving the KTEA-3 for the first time. Two years ago, when I took our cognitive assessment class, I wondered when I would feel comfortable seeing a new test, learning it on my own, and administering it without any instruction. Well, I did that yesterday, and I am proud of myself!

2 -- Observing a life skills class that had children with autism...a boy (7th grade-ish) told his teacher he got a girlfriend over the summer. She asked if he's in love, and he says "not really...she used me...she made me buy her stuff...I wasted probably like 2 weeks on her" The teacher began to respond, but he kept going on about her using him, and he says "she always wanted snickers...what a waste of $10!" The teacher asked if he was heartbroken and he said "no, not really."  It was so sweet to listen to him, and so funny (I mean, snickers!...haha). Glad he didn't let it get to him too bad ;)

Though I am enjoying "working," I am pretty happy it's a three day weekend!