1/18/2012
This was my first visit to the International Preparatory School at Grover Cleveland. I met Dr. Kevin Duffy and was shown around the school. Unfortunately, he got dragged into a meeting that lasted the majority of the morning, and had prior obligations in the afternoon. Luckily, I was given the opportunity to meet several of the students attending class at this school. There was a previously set up presentation in which students who have immigrated to the United States talked to some teachers about their experiences moving to a new country. There was a lot of one on one conversation that led to a very deep understanding of the hardships and struggles many of these children faced in their journey. This was very eye opening and allowed me to have a better idea of the kind of people I may be working with during the course of my time here. This relates to my Counseling class because I connected with people who I may be working with, and this is essential to a therapeutic relationship.
1/23/2012
Today, I met and worked with two graduate students who were also working with Dr. Kevin Duffy. We worked on gathering information on local support agencies to help set up a resource center at the school. This center would be able to provide information for children and their families in many times of need. A list of agencies was set up last semester, and today we called many of the agencies on the list. We checked to see if the information was still correct, and we gathered more information and asked for pamphlets and fliers for the resource center. Setting up this resource center is showing me how underprivileged many of the kids at this school are. This relates a bit to my School Psychology class because the vast array of different types of help offered to a lot of children. It also showed me how most of the children and their families are unaware of the resources available in their neighborhood, and even when they become aware of these supports, oftentimes they will not go to receive help.
After my time at the school, I spent a good deal of time setting up a Google Document that contained the entire list of agencies. This will allow us to work on the list from home and will allow us to keep in contact with each other regarding the list. We will no longer need to constantly e-mail each other and print out individual lists. This way there is one universal list that will be constantly updated and will have all the right information.
1/25/2012
Today, we met with another of the practicum students. We spent some time informing her of the set up we have going and helped her start up. After this, we called a couple agencies to get more information for the list. We then started trying to set up a session where athletes would come in and talk about making good decisions. These athletes would be local college students who grew up in the Buffalo Public School System. Hopefully, the children at International Prep will be able to relate to these college athletes and see that athletics will not take them through life and that they need to make good academic decisions and focus mainly on furthering their knowledge.
1/30/2012
Today, we had a rather light day. We called a few agencies. One that we called we had hoped to have come to the school and set up several support groups for the children. Unfortunately, they have recently ran out of funding, so it may be a struggle to get anything from them. We also made contact with several local private counseling practices in hopes that, if needed, kids could go to these places.
2/01/2012
As we started the day, we intended to collect a list of names that some teachers thought needed most of the help that our resource center provided. However, this initial plan got scrapped as the day progressed because we were needed to help keep an eye on a problem child. He had skipped school for a week and has had some safety concerns for quite a long time. We were meant to keep an eye on him and help make sure he got work that he missed and keep him from being a danger to his self or others. This was a very eye opening experience for me. It was quite a shock seeing what the classroom is like for the kids in the Buffalo public school system. Many of the kids were completely out of control most of the time, and there was very frequently absolutely no respect given to teachers in the classroom.
2/03/2012
Today, we were instructed to keep an eye on this 7th grader again. Although we have heard stories about how disruptive he can be, he has been on very good behavior for us. Many of the teachers say this is because people are watching him, which makes sense. There were a couple teachers today who actually controlled their classrooms, which was very nice to see after a day like yesterday. In a way, this reminded me of Behavior Modification. Certain teachers were willing to put forth the effort and the time and the consistency to keep the kids in line in their classroom.
2/06/2012
The child we were supposed to be watching missed school today. As a result, we were left with very little to do. We ended up working a bit more on the resource center. We also worked on setting up the event where athletes would come and present to the kids about making good choices. Hopefully soon we can talk to the teachers and line up a good day to set it up.
2/10/2012
The 7th grader came to school today, so we followed him around all day. He behaved very well. It is still very shocking to me how abysmal some of the classrooms are in this school.
2/13/2012
As we followed the 7th grader around today, he got called to the office. As it turns out, there was another child that brought a gun to school. Our child was a witness and was not allowed to go back to class after. We also learned that our student was likely to be switching schools. This transition would likely occur by the end of this week.
2/15/2012
Today, we brought in a lot of clothes for the resource center. After bringing them in and folding them up and sorting them, we were told that the 7th grader we were following around previously was causing trouble. We began following him again to his classes, but he was very distracted today. I believe this stems from the knowledge that he is leaving and the belief that it does not matter anymore what he does in this school. This tied in to something I learned in my school psychology class. We talked about what it takes to keep a child’s attention, and many of the things that would make the child not be concerned about class anymore.
2/17/2012
We followed the 7th grader to his classes today. He stayed out of trouble the entire day. Many classes today were very light because next week is a break. Many of the teachers had a light class that was followed with free time for the kids. Our student tended to stay isolated for many of these free periods, but did not hesitate to talk to other kids a couple of times. We were informed that he may be back for a couple days after the break, but it has not been determined yet. I believe that the 8-1-1 program that he is going to get into will be very helpful for him. He will have much less distraction by his peers and will receive much more positive attention by teachers. Hopefully, this type of situation will be very helpful for helping him dedicate himself to classes and possibly generalize to other parts of life.
2/27/2012
Today, we spent the first half of the day following the 7th grader. Part way through the day, we stopped because he is leaving soon and we needed to see where we were on the resource center to begin working on that again. We spent the rest of the day finding out what else specifically needed more information in the resource center. We made a list of several areas lacking information and split some of it up in order to begin working on it individually.
2/29/2012
We were allowed to work from home again today. I did some research on what local agencies help with gang awareness and prevention and conflict management. I was kind of surprised how few I could actually find, but all the help we can get is useful.
3/02/2012
Today was spent in the resource center the entire time. The boy that we have been watching ended up being suspended for sexual assault on a bus. I made calls to more agencies and called a couple that had been contacted in the past to ensure that the services they had offered still existed. It was unfortunate to see how many agencies had not survived the year because a lot of the support programs would have been nice to offer for the kids at this school.
4/25/2012
We took a long break because we planned on having a presentation to provide for the kids. Athletes from UB were supposed to come eventually and advise the kids to focus on academics and not solely on sports. Unfortunately, this has not been arranged yet because it has been hard to stay in contact with the people running that program. Today, we called more agencies from home. We got more information to add to the resource center when we returned. A child in the school we have been working at was murdered by his father recently. We decided that it would be good to try to get more information about family violence for the resource center. We contacted the Family Justice Center in downtown Buffalo about getting some information and it turned out they were giving a tour to a group of students from ECC. We joined in on the tour today and it was full of information. We got to experience the inner workings of the FJC, which was very interesting. This related to my experiences in my Violence in the Family class that I took last semester. The things we were taught in that class really struck home to me as we went on the tour. We spoke to a survivor of spousal abuse that also made what I learned sink in even further. We picked up some pamphlets and flyers to add to the resource center as we left.
4/30/2012
We came back to the school today and returned with a lot of the information we had collected in the past week. It is unfortunate, but it is unlikely that the assembly with the athletes will actually happen. If we can organize it for later in this school year or next fall, we will try to get it together. We called a few places and said goodbye to the people we have been working with. This experience has been eye opening for me. Working in an inner city school has shown me that not all schools are identical to the one I grew up in.
