Today is my first day at Meadow. There is another intern there who has been there since the beginning of the fall semester. Her name is Jodi, and she goes to Buff State. Kristine has come up with a ‘training program’ for me to follow for the first three weeks. On Tuesdays I will shadow Jodi and on Thursdays I will shadow her. I will reference to Jodi many times throughout these journals because she is a huge part of the practicum.

Today it is just me and Kristine. The morning began with us attending an SST (student success team) meeting. There were many people at this meeting, including the social worker, psychologist, principal, speech pathologist, school nurse, two reading specialists, and the special education teacher. The parents of the child who the meeting was about were also there. This meeting was in regards to Elizabeth. She is in 6th grade, and is going to be entering middle school next year. Currently she is using a multitude of tools to help her read. She uses a board which allows the words to be closer to her when she is reading. She is allotted extra time for reading tests and sees the school reading specialist twice a week. The SST members think that she is receiving too many services that she no longer needs. They think that once she reaches middle school, that she should not be allowed to use the tools because they will give her an uneven advantage over the other students. She has not been formally classified as special education, which is where the dilemma has become. The principal was saying that because she is getting average grades, that they no longer need to be giving her these services. The parent was arguing that she is only receiving average grades due to the services, not due to her own education. After discussing laws and other arrangements which could be made for her, they decided to send her to the psychologist for testing and to arrange a CSE meeting for her.
After the meeting, Kristine had to go to the Board of Education building for the beginning of the day. I was advised to play with all of her board games (which she has over 50) and become acquainted with the rules. This way, when I have my own students I will have more time to work with them, not spent on reading the rules. I did that for a couple of hours. She came back in the afternoon, and had back to back students. I observed what she did, and played the games with her students. The school day ended at 3:00. From 3-330, we discussed what my goals were, my past education, and what she expects from me as her latest intern.

Today started out with a CSE meeting. The same people were at this meeting as there were last time. This meeting was about Jared. He is in third grade, and is having both social and academic problems. His teacher presented her observations of him in the classroom. She has been tracking his reading and math work and graphed his results. She then introduced an intervention, and his grades did not go up. The teachers and support staff discussed ways with her to work with him and engage him more in the classroom. Kristine then talked about how he is in counseling with her, and her observations of his family life and social life. The meeting took about an hour, with the teachers discussing ways to reach him better. It was an interesting meeting to attend. I never realized that teachers argued and cared about each student as much as they do.
After the meeting, I observed Jodi work with Jaxon again. This week we played Trouble. His session went well, and we agreed to let him bring a friend with him next week. After Jaxon, Jodi picked up her next student. Her name is Kaitlyn, and she is in 1st grade. She has difficulties making friends and opening up in the classroom. We played a psychology game called the Feeling Talking and Doing game. This game encourages each of those actions when you draw the correct card. She seemed to open up a little, and was comfortable having me there. Her session went well, and then there was down time. Later in the afternoon, Jodi had a new group. This group is are six 5th grade girls. They all have problems making friends and need a little bit of extra support. It was interesting watching her start from scratch, because I know that in a few weeks I will have to be doing the same thing. She started off the session with an ice breaker game. Everyone opened up and talked about their hobbies. She then had everyone draw a picture of their family. We talked about school and the session ended. As the session ended, I also had to leave.

There was no meeting this morning. Kristine made me a binder with plenty of reading material during my down time. This binder includes information on the school district, their philosophy of counseling, and program details. I am part of the schools district’s Special Friends program. I will be working one of one with students and just helping them work through whatever problems they have. She had a student right as the school day started, which I observed. We played Trouble and talked about how the student was feeling. Her name is Erin and she is in 2nd grade. She has anger management problems, and has difficulty making and keeping friends. If we came close to sending her piece home and she got upset, we took the time to explain to her that that is how the game works. We worked with her to handle her anger and talked about good ways to make friends. I observed her next group, which was a group of 3rd grade boys. These boys all have problems being perfectionists. We played a psychology came, called ThrowitCube. This game involves throwing a cube, and when you catch it, you have to answer the question of the card. These questions include things such as, “What are your top three goals?” “What are three traits of a friend?” and “What could you say if your friend made you upset?” These questions also open up group discussion. I observed a couple of other groups, and continued to read the binder she provided me with.

There was another meeting this morning. This meeting was another SST meeting. It was about Alex, who is in kindergarten. He is from Russia, and is on the spectrum for Autism. It is a very complicated situation, because his mother feels that it is a language barrier, not a behavior problem. The principal has invited her to observe him in the classroom, and the mother has concluded that he is behaving as any other child, although he is not. It is difficult due to cultural barriers between Russia and America. In Russia, if a child is classified in special education, unfortunately that child has no doors left open for any advancement. The special education students there are not treated in the same way as they are here. Her misunderstanding of our culture and special education is not allowing her to grant him the treatment he needs. The school psychologist intern, interestingly enough, is also from Russia. She conducted tests with him in Russian and in English, to make sure he fully understood the instructions. He failed each and every test. When she called the mother and told the mother she conducted the tests in both languages, the mother did not believe her. Right now the teachers feel that they are in a bad situation because they know he needs help that they can not give him.
Jodi and I left the meeting early to go get Jaxon. I have only observed him for a month, and I can already tell that he is becoming a better kid. He is more polite around adults and said that he has not fought with his sister as much. It is pretty inspiring to see him making positive changes so quickly. His session went well. This week I am paying extra attention to Jodi, because next week I will be on my own. Kristine came back from the meeting and assigned us some tasks to do. She wants us to see the entire aspect of the job, including the ‘nitty gritty paperwork.’ On the first day we are there of the new month, we have to record everything she did last month. This includes every counseling session, every crisis, every parent phone, every meeting, etc. It takes about an hour to fully conduct the reports properly. After that, she asked us make two binders for her for next year. One binder is for individual sessions, and the other is for group sessions. She wants 20-25 activities for topics including: friendship, anger management, handling your feelings, stress, cooperation, team work, motivation, confidence, and independence. We have until the end of the semester to work on these binders. I spent the remainder of the day working on the binders, while observing Jodi with her kids.

Today started with Kristine talking to me about my development. She asked if I felt comfortable enough to have a couple of my own kids. I said that I would be, but that I would not be ready for a group yet. I feel that group counseling involves more skills than I have developed at this point. She said that I was doing well opening up to the kids, and need to work on being more stern while correcting them at their mistakes. We then talked about the upcoming week. We decided that I will be Special Friends with Annalaise. Annalaise does not have many problems, but has a very sad home life. The school decided that it would be good for her to have an adult she feels close with, so that if she needs to stay anything, she will have someone she can confide in. I am going to start working with her next Thursday. Kristine then threw me for a curve ball: she was leaving for the rest of the day. I had to take over all of her groups for the day because she had CSE meetings to attend all day. I was scared, but it was good that I did not have much time to fret over it. My first group was two 2nd grade girls. One of the girls was great for me, and participated in group. The other girl decided that since Miss P was not there, that she could do whatever she wanted. For the first time in my life, I truly understood how all my substitute teachers felt. I left a note for Kristine, and she took care of it. My next group was special education kindergarteners. They were very good. They all participated in their feelings, and played Sorry! One of the boys actually felt comfortable opening up, and talked about how he was scared during class. I encouraged the rest of the group to share a time that they were scared and how they dealt with it. I felt that the group was one of my best so far. I had two more groups that day, and they both went great. Elementary students are very conducive to counseling and truly enjoying going to see us. My last student of the day was Lauren. She is in 3rd grade, and is very shy. This session also went well. She was open to talking with me, and laughed a lot during our game. We played a memory game, and she said she wished she had me more often. I thought that the day went well.

Today was uneventful. Kristine called in sick, so it was just me and Jodi. I did not have my own kids until Thursday. I just observed her with her usual kids, and worked on the binder Kristine had assigned to us. There was other little tasks I took care of during the day, such as laminating, copying, and passing out papers to other teachers.

Today was my first day with my own student. I picked up Annalaise at 9:00. I was very nervous, because I had learned of some family problems that she had been through the previous weekend. I was nervous about being the first person she was going to deal with, and thought that I did not have enough skills to counsel her as to her sensitive situation. I knew that it was not going to help her at all if I looked nervous, so I worked to get through it. I thought back to Jodi’s first day with her new group, and imitated her. I started with telling her a little bit about me, and made sure she was comfortable with me before any counseling started. I asked her how she was feeling today, and she said excited because she had a new Special Friend. This made me feel very open to counseling with her. I had her draw a picture of her family, and then we played Connect 4. She was very talkative, and told me the ins and outs of her family life. Kristine observed the session, and she thought it went well. There was a crisis after this session. Apparently a mother tried to run over her son, after she literally threw him out of the car while dropping him off at school that morning. Kristine had to call CPS and they took on the case to their caseload. It was very sad, and I did not truly realize that the job would entail such hard topics. The rest of the day involved working on a Valentine’s Day activity Jodi had planned. Each student was to go through various magazines, and cut out pictures of things that they loved. We then had to talk with them about ways they can show their love throughout their lives. I enjoyed this activity, although many of the boys didn’t. I think that a less female orientated activity would have been more conducive to counseling and opening up about the topic of love. I took a couple of Kristine’s groups in the afternoon because she had parent phone calls to make. I enjoy taking more groups because not only is it a learning experience for me, it makes the day go by faster. I am doing what I love and want to do when I am with the groups. February break is next week, so the kids were rowdier and more excited than they normally are.

Today was the first day back from February break. There was no meeting this morning. Kristine had assigned two more kids to me, one who I will be seeing today and then another one on Thursday. I will be seeing Westley on Tuesdays and Colin on Thursday. Westley has problems with being very competitive. He constantly wants to be the best at everything, which hinders him when it comes to making friends. He has some anger management issues which I also am going to be working on with him. Colin has other kinds of problems. He always needs to be the center of attention. He often does not let other kids get to know him well because he has to always out-do them when it comes to things. He has difficulty making friends, and mainly hangs out with his younger brother’s friends. I am excited about becoming more involved with the students as opposed to just watching.
The day began watching Jodi. I am now not partaking as much in her sessions, more sitting back, listening while working on my other work. I am glad that I have another intern that I can turn to for advice, and it is nice to have someone else who is going through the same things I am. Around 10:00, I was asked to help Alex (kindergartner on spectrum) in his classroom. He was having much difficulty staying on task, and needed someone to work with him. I had to constantly repeat the directions to him, and ensure that he worked hard on staying on track with the rest of the class. This was difficult for me because I do not have any experience working with autistic children. I was with him for two hours, and then went to go pick up Westley.
Working with Westley was much different than working with Annalaise. I feel that due to his sex, he feels less open to talking with me. He seemed very standoffish and did not want to share his feelings. When I asked him to draw a picture of his family, he told me no because he does not like drawing. Kristine had been telling me since day 1 that I always have to be the one in charge, regardless of the situation. I told him that in the social work room, we are there to have fun, but that we always need to follow directions. He opened up, and drew his picture. After that moment, he did seem happier and more open to talking. Our session was over, and he said he was looking forward to next week. I was glad he was happy about it, because I was unsure as to how the session went.

There was a PBIS meeting this morning. PBIS stands for Positive Behavioral Interventions and Supports. There are “Cool Tools” that the board members are creating to be put in place around the school. These Cool Tools are a big hand that says “Give me 5!” This stands for respecting yourself, the school, and others. They are reminders to behave and they have pictures of young children behaving properly in the correct setting. The meeting was interesting because the board members disagreed on what the visuals should look like. I was assigned the task of creating the actual hands and finding pictures.
After the meeting I went to get Annalaise. She told me that she was feeling worried because her grandma was looking for a job in another state. She lives with her grandparents, which would mean she would have to move with them. She does not want to move, but she knows that her grandma needs money. I do not feel that her grandparents should be worrying her about financial issues, but that is what I am here for. She needs extra support, and I am working with to be just that. After we talked about that, she wanted to play Mancala. We played the game, and just continued to talk about things. She was laughing, and it was good to see her in a better mood. Overall, it was a very effective counseling session.
I worked on the PBIS Cool Tools until noon, when I had to pick up Colin. Kristine had warned me about him beforehand, and made sure I knew that I was to always stay in charge. He seemed much happier about coming to see me than Westley did. I told him the rules of the social work room, and he seemed to oblige. He said he had been there last year, and he knows how strict Miss P is. I found it relieving that he knew the rules and would not try to manipulate me. I had him draw his family picture, and he told me he was sad because his older brother was moving. I was happy that he was so open to talking to me about a big issue on our first meeting, but sad that he was going through the problem. We talked out his feelings and I think that the session went very well.

No meetings this morning. Today is Kristine’s planning day. She gets two planning days a year where she gets to prepare for all the CSE’s she is chairing. Jodi and I are still taking our kids, but we have to counsel them in the hallway. Today we implemented the Bully Box. This box is located in the main office, and if any students feel that they are being bullied, they put the situation in the box. Jodi and I are responsible for reading all that goes into there. We first need to access the validity of the claim. Once we find that the claim is true, we need to investigate deeper. We first interview the person who wrote the claim. We talk to them about what they are feeling, and help them learn the proper way of dealing with a bully. We make sure that they are okay, and make sure that they know they can always come talk to us or Kristine if need be. Our next step is to interview the actual bully. We talk to them about the actual situation, and talk to them about how bullying is not nice. We also talk to them to make sure everything is okay in their lives. Sometimes if they are being bullied themselves or are having problems at home they tend to bully. If they are having problems, we will counsel them and work with them to become a better person. If a person is reported in the bullying box twice they are sent to the principal’s office. I think that this is a great anonymous system to help the epidemic problem of bullying in schools.
Today I worked with Westley. I decided it would be best to play a game that I can beat him in. He gets apprehensive about losing, and strives to be best. It is a good tool to help teach him that winning is not everything, and how to accept losing. We played Connect 4. I beat him at every match except for one. He got very upset, and began to call me names. I took this opportunity to counsel him about the proper way of winning and losing. I assured him that winning is not everything, and that it is okay to not always be the best at everything. He seemed to listen to what I had said, and the session went well.

There was a SST meeting this morning. I never realized how much teachers have meetings about students until now. This meeting was not actually about any students. There was a guest speaker from UB’s Autism program. North Tonawanda school district always sends their autistic students to UB’s program to help stimulate and educate the child and family. However, UB is dropping their program. The professor was here to talk about certain aspects of the program that can be brought into the classroom. Such topics were revolving around math facts. Math Minute sheets were recommended to help the child with their math facts. Not only do these Math Minute sheets help to stimulate the child, they can give the child a confidence boost if they do well on them. There were other activities mentioned which parents can use at home. It is unfortunate that this program is ending due to not enough funds. I hope that the autistic families will be able to go somewhere else close to home that will help their family and child with their problems.
After the meeting, I went to get Annalaise. We came back to the classroom and talked about her feelings. Today she was feeling scared. Her grandma had yelled at her this morning, and she felt that her grandma was going to kick her out. She confided in me that her parents do not love her and she only has her grandma in her life. She began to cry and thought that nobody loved her. I settled her down and assured her that there are people in her life who care. I told her that she has her family, teachers, friends, and myself. After we talked about her feelings and I counseled her, we played a game. Today I let her pick the game, and we played Battleship. I have noticed that she tries very hard to buy my affection. She will skip her own turn to allow me to have more turns. If I hit her ship once, she would act as if I sank her ship. I know that she had a very emotional session, so I will work on this with her next week. The session ended, and I talked to Kristine regarding her situation. We decided to call her grandma, and let her know that Annalaise was feeling very emotional about going back home. Her grandma appreciated the call and assured us that everything was good at home.
In the afternoon, I picked up Colin. He asked me if it would be okay if we had his session at the cafeteria today. I decided that this would be okay, and I sat at lunch with him and his friends. This turned out to be a great experience for me. I was able to observe him with his friends, and could see firsthand what he needs to work on in order to make better friends. We brought Perfection, and I just observed him today. The session ended, and I feel that I have a

There was no meeting this morning. Kristine had meetings all day, so I had to take my own kids plus her. The morning began with Annalaise. She was in much better spirits than last week. She told me she was grounded from TV for a day and that was it. She always told me she was feeling happy today because of Saint Patrick’s Day coming up. I had planned a coloring activity for today. I feel that coloring allows me more time to counsel her instead of playing a game. Kristine has coloring sheets so I allowed her to pick one. We were coloring and just talking about school. I brought up the issues I noticed last week, but did not elude to our previous session. I talked to her about making friends for the right reasons, and that you cannot buy friendship. We talked about the right ways of making friends, and some things she can do in the classroom to make more friends. She seemed to enjoy the session and hugged me goodbye.
The next group was a handful. There are four kindergarteners, all with special needs. I enjoy this group because they are a challenge, and are very open to counseling. I decided to play the Let’s Go on a Picnic! Game. This game involves sharing and teaches lessons as to how to interact and share with others. I feel that this group is very conducive to the lessons, and that they were beginning to share with each other for the real reasons, not just to win the game.
My next session was individual counseling. She is in 3rd grade, and is bossy. We played Sorry Sliders! She was very demanding when reading the directions and did not let me go first. I used this as an opportunity to counsel her about her actions. We talked about things and the session ended well. I had some free time and worked on the binder. The day ended with two more groups.

Once again there was not a meeting this morning. Jodi and I worked on the binder until she had to get Jaxon at 9:00. I observed her and worked on the binder until I had to get Westley. Jodi has two other boys from the same class at the same time that I have Westley. We decided to take them together as a group today to see how Jared (one of her boys) would interact in a group setting. The session was interesting. Westley was being extra competitive. We were coloring, and he kept stating that if this was a coloring contest, he would be the winner. Jared was interacting well, so the session was both successful and unsuccessful. The other boy, Austin, was not affected either way from this session.
After the session, I went to the Bullying Box. There were a couple of notes in there, which I began to investigate. One story involved a boy calling a girl in his class a lesbian. I talked to her about it, and she seemed relieved. I then talked to the boy. He began to cry and said that he hated the school and had no friends here. I counseled him as to not to bully, and talked to Kristine about the problems he was talking about. She said she would talk to him the next day.

Today was a half day. I worked on cleaning the room a little bit in the morning, and then started my day with Annalaise. She said she was excited because it was a half day. She was very talkative and we played Sorry! That is her favorite game, which is why it seems I am always talking about it. There was not much to work on with her today, so we just had a fun day. The session ended and it went well. Kristine then sent me to Wegmans to get subs for lunch. Today is parent teacher conferences, and there was an hour staff lunch before they got started. I came back from getting the food and worked on the binder and cleaning the school a little bit. I attended the lunch and then shadowed Kristine during the conferences. It was interesting to see how she interacted with the parents of the kids I am used to seeing every day I am there.

Another half day. I am supposed to see Westley today but I will not have time because his session is after the day ends. I spent the morning working on the binder again. I am about halfway done. Jodi and I observed more parent teacher conferences.

There was another PBIS meeting this morning. We worked on creating the hands and talked about better ways of implementing the Cool Tools. This meeting was pretty ineffective because the staff disagree on almost every aspect of PBIS. The meeting did not end on a good note, and I started the day with Annalaise.
I started the session with the usual sharing of our feelings. She was feeling happy today and asked if we could play Sorry again. We played Sorry! And talked about her father. She confided in me some of her father’s problems and why she lives with her grandma. It is a good sign to see that she is comfortable talking with me. I asked her how she doing making friends in class. She said that she began sleeping over a friend’s house. She said that she had never done that before and she is happy to make some good friends. She is definitely improving since I started seeing her. She is opening up in talking to me, and seems more confident in herself. After talking with her teacher, she has observed that she is making more friends in class. It makes me happy to see her improving.
I picked up Colin later in the afternoon. There had been an issue with him the previous day. He punched a kid in the face and said he was trying to kill him. I was nervous seeing him so soon after the incident, and did not feel that I have the adequate skills to deal with such a situation. Kristine had talked to me about it, and had put confidence in me to handle the situation properly. I started the session letting him know that he was not in trouble. If he had felt that he was, I know that he would not have been open to counseling about it. I asked him why he acted the way he did, and he said that is what he sees at home. I talked to him about better ways of handling his anger and then we played a game to lighten the mood. Overall I was satisfied with the way the session went. I spent the rest of the day working on paper work.

There was no meeting this morning. Jodi and I are working to implement a bullying program into every classroom. We are using a software and website called Stop Bullying Now! There are webisodes that are used to teach lessons about the effects of bullying. Jodi went to pick up Jaxon, and I continued to work on our program. I worked on the program all day, and had a ‘test run’ in a sixth grade class. They participated in the discussions and I think that I learned the most effective way of teaching lessons about bullying. Westley was absent today, so I had some down time and worked on the binder.

I have not been doing my practicum because I went away for spring break. Kristine counseled my kids for me since by the law they require to be seen every week, regardless of the situation. The morning started with an SST meeting. This meeting discussed Jordan. She is responding to the intervention her teacher implemented, but still not at a fast pace. The group decided to keep up with her intervention and sent a permission home with the student. The school would like her to get the BASK testing completed, as well as a speech and memory test. The results from the test will decide if the school should send her to CSE, or continue at the SST meeting.
After the meeting, I had to help do paperwork. There are many pre and post tests to be corrected from the bullying program Kristine has been working on in the classrooms. These tests are easy to grade, but everything has to be officially documented. I worked on this until I had to pick up Westley. Today I took him outside and we worked with Jodi and her two students. We ate lunch together and then played catch. The ball had counseling activities on them, and whatever your right thumb was on your hand to do the activity. It was a fun way to engage the students and I feel that the session was highly effective.

There was no meeting this morning. Kristine asked me to come up with an activity that all the children can work on and use as part of the counseling process. I decided upon a coloring activity called “Spring Cleaning.” This activity has a large picture that the children can color. Belong the picture there are two lines which ask the question, “What are two things I would like to ‘clean up’ about myself?” We used the questions as a guide to the counseling session. It was interesting seeing what the children could pinpoint as their own faults.
I began the morning with Annalaise. I was excited for her to be the first child to do my activity. I know she loves coloring, and she really enjoyed it. She said she wanted to change her homework habits and wanted to help around the house more. We talked about why she does not always do these things, and I talked to her about better ways of achieving her goals. The session ended and I think it went very well.
Kristine had CSE meetings again, so I took over for all her groups. Today was easy because every group had to work on the activity. One of her groups coincided with the time to meet with Colin, so I included him in the group. Some children did not think they needed to change anything, so I suggested basic things to them. I feel that it would have been better if I knew what they were in counseling for, so I could cater what they need to change to their actual lives. All in all the day went well. Next week is their spring break, so I will not go back again for another week.

We are having a party for the Special Friends program next Tuesday. This morning I had to print out invitations for each student, and distribute them throughout the day. I worked on the actual invitations before I started with Annalaise.
This morning Annalaise and I played Manacala and talked about state tests. She said she was very anxious about her upcoming math state test and that it was affecting her at home. We talked about good ways of letting out your anger and frustration. I suggested she talk with her Grandmother and go play outside with her dog. I know she has a tendency to bottle in her emotions, so I emphasized how important it is for her to talk to someone. I told her it was great she confided in me and I hugged her.
There are other state tests today, so I was not allowed to be in the classroom. I went to the library to work more on the binder. I did not see Colin today because he had state tests. Today was very easy due to state tests, I worked on paperwork and filing. With next Tuesday being our last day, Kristine had be working on cleaning out the interns filing cabinet after the state tests were over. I worked on that until the end of the day.

Today is my last day at Meadow. I am sad but also happy to have learned so much. Today also flew by! The morning started with a staff meeting, so Jodi and I worked on cleaning up the classroom. The school is remodeling next year, so we had to box up most of the books and stuff we used to learn proper counseling techniques. I worked on paperwork and such things until 11am. Kristine gave us our final supervision as interns. She talked to Jodi and I about what we have improved on, what we do good, and what we need to work on. I found her insight to be very interesting, and on par as how I self evaluated myself.
After the supervision, Jodi and I took Westley and her kids outside again. We did the same activity as a couple of weeks ago, the counseling ball game. The mood was different today because the boys were very emotional about it being their last time with us. They all cried, and we consoled them after the game. It was a learning experience for both of us, because we typically do not deal with the upset children, Kristine normally takes them.
After the session ended with the boys, we began to set up for the party. We baked brownies, cupcakes, and cookies. Most of the children’s parents were coming also. There were around 30 people there, and it was an amazing experience meeting the children’s parents. I am glad that the party was the last thing I did at my school. It was a great way to end the internship. I hugged all my kids goodbye and thanked Kristine for all that she has done for me. I learned so much at this internship and I know that I would love to pursue a job in the school field.