I went in for one day before the semester started to become acquainted with the environment and the personal I will be working with. Upon entering the school, I went downstairs to Dr. Kevin Duffy’s main office. Here I met with him and discussed what I wanted to do in regards to the internship. I remarked that I wanted to grasp a more advanced, hands on, knowledge of the job. He mentioned working with a specific student, and working on test administration. I agreed to this and we began talking about the job itself. We started to discuss the main difference between a school psychologist and a school social worker. He shares an office with a school social worker name is Stacey Ali, however she was not in at the time. In recent political changes, the roll of a school psychologist has changed. It appears that if you are planning on going for a specialist degree (which I am), then most of my counseling work would be handed over to a social worker due to the fact that they can be reimbursed by Medicaid. This caught my attention and I then made arrangements to spend some of my time with Mrs. Ali.
Week of 1/16
This was my first hands-on experience of the job. We largely spend time walking the halls as he introduced me to various faculty members of the school. We stopped to talk to most of them. Some notable names are the school principal Mr. Kevin Eberle, the Vice Principal Mrs. Marchequo, and the Student Support Team Chair, Mr. Rich D’agastino. I also met several teachers including the 7th and 8th grade English teacher Mrs. Womack, and the music teacher Mr. Schwanz. Mr. Eberle, I found out, is a graduate of Canisius College, so we talked quite a bit about the program I am in and how the school has changed. Much of the remaining time was spent shadowing Dr. Duffy, and seeing what exactly he does. I also attended my first Student Support Team (SST) meeting on Wednesday, although it was cut short so I did not grab a full grasp of this meeting. It is worth noting however that this is a weekly meeting and I look forward to next week so I can become acquainted more with the members of the SST, as well as the process of dealing with the students.
Week of 1/23
This week was more so dedicated to becoming acquainted with a specific student. Dr. Duffy said that he wanted me to watch the student and note what I found about his behavior. For privacies sake, I shall use the name “Syd” instead of the student’s actual name. When I first met Syd, he was in English class during 4th period with Mrs. Womack. He appeared well behaved but he did seem to have a hard time paying attention when he was instructed to do work. I noticed that when the teacher looked away, or look at her desk, he would stop doing work and just simply look around, or sometimes socialize. He did not quite know that I was there to watch him specifically. Upon the conclusion of the class, I more properly introduced myself, and the teacher commented on how much of a “problem child” Syd is. I found this to be a rather extreme viewpoint as I saw little behavioral issues, but she informed me that he acts much worse in other classes. After hearing this, I made a mental note to watch him in as many classes as possible over the next few months.
Week of 1/30
Upon entering the office on Monday, I interrupted a meeting with Mrs. Ali and a woman from a shelter for Latino Americans that suffered from Domestic Abuse. The woman, who’s name I unfortunately did not get, wanted to have an assembly with the students in the upcoming week about the effects of domestic violence in their lives. I sat in on the meeting for a while until Dr. Duffy came into the room. From there I tracked down Syd to meet up with him and see how he was doing in class. I noticed how differently he asks in different classes. On the next day, I made it a goal to watch him in as many different classes as possible. Dr. Duffy agrees that this was a good plan. I observed him in Health, English, Social Studies and Spanish. He was noticeably more disruptive in Health and Spanish, as opposed to the other classes. He never once showed any signs of disruptiveness in English, with his teach Mrs. Womack.
Week of 2/6
On Monday, I came down to Dr. Duffy’s room and he was not there. I went up stairs and dropped my belongings off in Mr. D’Agastino’s room and decided to track down Syd. I was able to watch him in a different class as well today. I observed him in Music today. The student of the school rotate the “specials” schedule, so this was a new class for me based solely on the day that I went. He was not noticeably disruptive, but I did notice that he would talk to a student behind the teachers back. This seemed to me to be more of an attention issue rather than a behavioral issue.
We had the assembly on Wednesday of this week (from the women from the Latino American Domestic Abuse shelter). The assembly was held at two different times, once for the high school age boys and once for the high school girls. This was to get rid of the possibility of the child’s boyfriend/girlfriend being in the room. Each session was approximately an hour long. I spent the time watching the children and making sure they were well behaved. There were several boys in the back that were not very well behaved, other than that however, the groups as a whole were very respectable to the woman that was presenting. She talked about the warning signs of domestic abuse and the outcomes that can be derived from it.
Week of 2/13
Monday I came into school and both Dr. Duffy and Mrs. Ali were both there. There was an incident in the school that happened while I was not there. A student grabbed a teacher’s wallet and ran out of the building. She took money, credit cards, her drivers license, and everything else that was in the wallet. She was held in Mr. Eberle’s office until the police got there and asked her questions. She claimed to take the money and throw out everything else in a city garbage can. When teachers investigated the garbage can, they found that it had been recently emptied. The student was going to be charged with theft, and because of the high value of the credit cards she would most likely serve jail time because of this infraction. We spent much of the time talking about this case and the repercussions of it on the school. We also talked about the role that the school psychologist and social worker would take in the matter.
On Wednesday, I was able to sit in on a meeting with a student that was becoming too old to graduate. The student was a 16 year old 8th grader. His mother was not able to get out of work, so she was placed on speaker phone for the rest of the room to hear. The meeting took place in Ms. Marchequo’s office and she was in attendance along with Dr. Duffy, Mr. Merrick, the student’s math teacher, the student, and myself. The meeting was largely Mr. Merrick talking about various opportunities the student had to get a GRE. He noted that the student might be too young this year, but next year most programs would let him in. The rest of the day was spent observing Syd in two classes, Spanish and Social Studies.
Week of 2/20
Vacation Week.
Week of 2/27
Coming back in on Monday, I was in the office with Stacy for several minutes with a fellow teacher when a woman from Child Protective Services (CPS) came into the room. She started talking about a young female student whose parents were arrested in a drug sting in the City of Buffalo. The young female is from Cuba so she has no other family in the area. This was a rather interesting case and the CPS worker had a lot of very useful information and a unique insight towards the situation. The case was still ongoing, but the idea that was passed around was to ask her grandparents to take custody of her, but it was uncertain if they were legal residents in the United States or not. This lasted quite a while and after wards Dr. Duffy and myself went up to Ms. Marcheqou’s office and helped her with some running around and monitored the halls for her.
On Wednesday, I reviewed all of the notes I took about Syd. Dr. Duffy commented on what was good and what needed work. The biggest comment he had was to actually talk to the teachers. I had the notion that his behavior changed depending on which class he was in, but he said that this was only something I could have observed and developed an opinion on. I should talk to the teachers more to attempt to gain a better grasp on how he behaves in various classes.
Week of 3/6
Monday was a particular interesting meeting for myself personally. Dr. Duffy and I were called into a class room to discuss the behavior of Syd and other students in the classroom. The meeting was held in Ms. Womack’s classroom (a teacher I’ve come to know rather well). We discussed the specific behavioral problems that the students have. When the discussion turned more towards Syd, I was able to add a lot on insight to the conversation. This seemed to be a small personal victory. I was able to talk to the teachers about what I felt would aide him. I was able to apply my knowledge of psychology, as well as my knowledge of Syd to help them out. I felt able to do this because Dr. Duffy was sitting right next to me, so if there was anything he felt differently about, he would have spoken up. This was the highlight for me so far personally. The meeting took a little over an hour and a half, so the rest of the day was spent observing Syd, I returned to his room around 12:30 and we reviewed my notes to conclude the day.
On Wednesday, I came in and we further discussed more about Syd. We also came up with an idea to combine the college with the school. We could develop a program where students that were interested in going to college could work with us in analyzing data. The data could be information collected via the “NELS” data set. The NELS data set is a set of data collected from a longitudinal study. The data has a wide variety of information pertaining to school settings. It would be very useful to use this data to compare the students of the school to make improvements to the school. I will have to talk to Mr. Merrick, the school guidance councilor, to gather more information on sending out a survey to the student body.
Week of 3/13
When I came in on Monday, I went down to Dr. Duffy’s office to start the day. I did some office work for him early on in the day. After the work, getting copies of articles and paperwork for him, I asked if I could go up to Mr. Merrick’s office to talk to him about the survey project. He said yes, and I went up to his office and found out that he was getting ready to administer a survey on Wednesday. He asked for some help with getting questions and setting up the SurveyMonkey.com account. So I stayed up there with him for a few hours setting up the survey, and we talked about our predictions for the results. I found it strange that they would have to pull students out of class to do it. I asked, “Why not just have them e-mail to the student?” and Mr. Merrick made the point that not all students have internet access at home. It is also very hard to get students to do anything school related outside of the building, so it works better to have them do it while they are in school. Afterwards, I stuck around and talked to Dr. Duffy for a little while about the outlook of school psychologists in the job market. He said that currently the laws were changing and things were looking rather poorly for psychologists with a specialists degree, but if I was planning on getting a doctoral degree, the outlook would look fine for me. This is something I should really look into for future education.
On Wednesday, Dr. Duffy was not in the building. I called him and he said he would not be able to come in and that I could just ask Ms. Marchequo if she needed any help. I asked her and she said that it was rather quite, and she did not need anything. We talked a little bit on my schooling and where she went to school. Then I went to Mr. Merrick’s room and dropped off my coat and bag. He reminded me about the survey going on in an hour later in the day so I decided to help him. I went up to the room and met a friend of his that was in town. We all talked for a half hour or so, and we all found out that we were all graduates of Saint Francis High School. After a short conversation, we starting booting up the laptops and computers. We loaded up the survey and began waiting for the students to enter. When the bell sounded, students shortly filtered in. I listened to the directions he gave them prior to the survey. The directions were very simple, and clear. After that, I walked around the room assisting the students if they needed help with the technology, or if they were finished. We did this for a few periods and I helped Mr. Merrick return the laptops and lock up the room.
Week of 3/20
This week was Spring Recess for Canisius College, I did however go to International Prep at Grover for my practicum regardless. I decided to go in on a Tuesday and Thursday instead of a Monday and Wednesday due to the fact that I never have been able to go to the school on these days as classes hindered my availability. When I entered on Tuesday I spent a lot of the time up with Mr. Merrick talking about the survey. He told me that the results were very helpful, and thanked me for my help. He said that the questions were generally about the students interest in going on to college, and their knowledge about college. After talking to him for a while, I tracked down Syd some more and talked more in depth with him. I found out he liked football so I was able to talk to him about that. I figured this would build a better relationship in the event that I get to work more one on one with him. I also found out that he likes Bob Marley, so I was able to talk to him about this subject as well as football.
On Thursday I talked to Dr. Duffy about getting to deal with Syd more one on one, and he said that we needed parental consent prior to me dealing with him. I then talked to Dr. Duffy about his parents and he told me that his parents were very active in their child’s schooling, but in recent months they stopped contacting with the school, and no one has heard from them. After discussing this with him, Mr. D’agastino came into the room and we discussed what to do with several students. I merely listened in to the conversation between Dr. Duffy and Mr. D’agastino as they discussed student placement. This lasted for a little while and I ended up going to watch Syd a little longer. Hopefully his father will contact the school so I can deal with Syd in a more one-on-one way. I feel that having someone there to help him stay on task would work wonders for him.
Week of 3/27
Dr. Duffy was not able to come in to school today. I dropped my belongings off in Mr. Merrick’s room and called Dr. Duffy to see if there is anything he needs me to do while he is away. He said that there was nothing specific for me, but that I should talk to Ms. Marchequo to see if she needs a hand. She told me that she didn’t need much, so I told her that I would just observe Syd for a little bit and do some more practice with Dr. Duffy with reviewing my notes. Then she told me that if I could get information on where Syd’s father worked, then we could possibly locate his father to get permission to allow me to interact more with Syd. So I tracked him down in English, and the class was mid-way through already. I talked to him as we switched classrooms in the hallway a little bit and then we went to health. The teacher was passing out papers so I took this chance to talk to Syd about his father. He told me where he used to work (a local hospital), but he was not sure where his father currently worked. He seemed a little hesitant, as if he knew but did not want to tell me. He was recently in trouble and it was requested that his father comes into school, so he had a reason to avoid telling me where his father worked. I tried to report my findings to Ms. Marchequo but she left for the day, so I will have too on Wednesday.
On Wednesday I came in and Dr. Duffy was in school. He told me that he will not be in school on Mondays and Fridays because he will be working with pre-schoolers that the City of Buffalo has asked him to test. The new location for this is at Baker Victory in South Buffalo. He said that he would possibly be able to allow me to sit in and watch him administer a test, but he would need prior consent from the school. After we talked about this for some time, I told him that I needed to run upstairs to talked to Ms. Marchequo to talk about Syd’s father. I told her where is father used to work, and she thanked me. Unfortunately there was little we could find out with just a former place of employment. I decided that I would try a little more to build a report with him, and then try to find out more information about his father. I went back down stairs to talk to Dr. Duffy and we were going up to the SST meeting. This meeting was a much longer one than any prior one. It got rather heated at some points, due to the fact that people had opposing viewpoints on what was better for a few students. This lasted until around 12:30pm or so, and then I talked to Dr. Duffy about a few of the students in question, and the laws regarding child abuse. There was also an issue with a student that moved to Canada and was requesting transcripts. These were just two of the issues presented. After a lengthy conversation about this matter, I went back home.
Week of 4/3
Coming in on Monday, I met up with Stacy Ail. She told me that she had a rather busy day today and I asked her if there was any way I would be able to help her. She told me that there were some errands I could run for her, but most of the things I wouldn’t be able to help much. She told me that she had a lot of kids coming in today and I asked her if I would be able to watch her counseling with them. She said that I could for a few, but not all of them due to the fact that some of them would “shut down” or due to privacy issues. So I watched the first child, a young girl whose parents were recently arrested. She did not speak much English, so it was very interesting to watch the two interact. Stacy was very friendly, and she did not engage the child in the difficult topics. It seemed instead, that she formed statements that made the child bring up the issue herself. I thought that this was a very interesting topic. This allows two key things to happen, it eliminates the feeling of stress on the child when one asks a very personal, touchy, topic. It addition to this, it allows the social worker to build trust with the child. The child would not have just openly expressed some of the issues to anyone (I would presume as they were rather private topics). After this child, I went up to run an errand for Mrs. Ali when she had a student that would not appreciate my presence. I went up to Mr. Merrick’s office to talk to him about what happened in the SST meeting that was held previously, as Mrs. Ali had a question about a specific student. Mr. Merrick and myself talked in length about the child, and I went back down to Room 20/20A at around 12:20, the time that Mrs. Ali told me to come back. I was able to watch her talk to one more child before I left, this child was recently in a fight with a teacher, and was rather distraught. Mrs. Ali talked to her, and allowed her to stay in her room for the remainder of the period. The three of us were able to discuss her school life, and this seemed like great practice in developing skills as a councilor. Being able to communicate on a students level is a very important task to master, and I feel after watching Mrs. Ail that I did a rather acceptable job.
On Wednesday, Dr. Duffy and myself left the office as soon as I arrived. He told me that we had come business to take care of at School 12. Now, I assumed we would be testing another child and a different school. It turns out however, that School 12 is a building that holds all of the Buffalo City School’s offices. We were going largely to see Ms. Kyle Morrison, whom is a supervisor in the district. She assigns all of Dr. Duffy’s preschool cases and he had to talk to her about a specific child. I mainly maintained a “fly on the wall” mentality during the meeting, as I was never spoken to directly other than being introduced to her. The meeting lasted quite a while and later we went back to International Prep at Grover. While we were back there we started to review the cases that Dr. Duffy had. He had not tested them as of yet, but we were able to discuss the importance of a good social history. Things that I would have never thought about, turned out to be very important. Things like their birth weight, complications with birth, prematurity, and developmental milestones, all played a major role in what the child is today. If there was a premature birth, many of them are born with a lack of oxygen to the brain, thus stunting the growth for those moments until the doctors can place it on oxygen. This stunting of the brain plays a major role in why a child is the way they are. I never previously thought about such small details before, so it was rather refreshing to learn about all the factors that influence a child’s brain and neurological development.
Week of 4/10
On Monday, I arrived at International Prep at Grover at my usual time 9:00am. The week prior however, I learned that a graduate student at Canisius College was holding a clothing drive for the children. I thought that the Psychology Club might be able to help out, so we came up with the idea of having a raffle for a Ryan Miller jersey. I wanted to run the idea before Mr. Eberle first however to see if he liked it. He was very pleased that we decided to help, and he loved the idea. We talked about some of the details of the project, like who would be purchasing the tickets, and how we each could use the event as a “public relations” boost, both for the club, as well as for I-Prep. Afterwards I went down to talk to Stacy Ail about the project. She loved it and told me that she would help any way possible. I told her that it would be best if I gave the money we raised to a staff member, and have them buy uniforms as opposed to me doing it. She agreed and offered to buy them, and I said I would appreciate that. Around this time, Dr. Duffy sent me a text asking to see if Mrs. Marchquo needed anything. I went up to talk to her, and she told me that there was nothing specific she needed but we engaged in small talk. After a few minutes we began to talk about the jersey raffle. She said that the money would be put to good use if we put it towards the student’s prom fund. This was an idea and we discussed just adding the money as a donation to the school. This seemed like a more appropriate action so I told Mr. Eberle and Mrs. Ali. After this, I reunited with Syd. It had been a while since I was able to observe him, but little had changed. He still showed signs of being easily distracted and disruptiveness. After class, I walked him to his next class, and sat in with him there as well (social studies). After this, it was time for me to take off, and I left for the day.
On Wednesday I met up with Dr. Duffy. I told him our idea about the raffle, and that I had already purchased the jersey. He was rather pleased that I would go to such lengths to help the school. We also discussed my recent findings with Syd. He asked me to write up a more formal report on my findings with Syd, and he would review it in a few days. So he set me up on his computer and I pulled out my notes and began to write a more formalized version of my notes. He gave me a template showing how the City of Buffalo wanted it typed out. This was perfect practice in actually typing up a FBA/BIP, which are used for students that are involved in with SST and possibly learning disabled, among other things. This took a little longer than expected, but I finally finished, and I gave it to him. He then told me he would review it later, and he gave me some of the write-ups he had about the preschoolers he is working on. He tested a few of them, but not all of them. I went over some of the scores, and I was able to recall the test he used from a class taught at Canisius by Professor Servoss. The main test he used was the Woodcock, which is very appropriate for his age group. He talked about how specific tests can suggest what disorder a child has. For example, children with ADD often score poorly on the math because they often overlook the signs (telling them to add/subtract). This is just one of the issues he thinks about when he grades a test. It is not just simply grading something as correct or incorrect, it is trying to figure out why the child got it wrong. After this discussion I left for the day. The next week is Easter Break for I-Prep but I plan on doing something with Dr. Duffy regardless.
On Wednesday I met up with Dr. Duffy. I told him our idea about the raffle, and that I had already purchased the jersey. He was rather pleased that I would go to such lengths to help the school. We also discussed my recent findings with Syd. He asked me to write up a more formal report on my findings with Syd, and he would review it in a few days. So he set me up on his computer and I pulled out my notes and began to write a more formalized version of my notes. He gave me a template showing how the City of Buffalo wanted it typed out. This was perfect practice in actually typing up a FBA/BIP, which are used for students that are involved in with SST and possibly learning disabled, among other things. This took a little longer than expected, but I finally finished, and I gave it to him. He then told me he would review it later, and he gave me some of the write-ups he had about the preschoolers he is working on. He tested a few of them, but not all of them. I went over some of the scores, and I was able to recall the test he used from a class taught at Canisius by Professor Servoss. The main test he used was the Woodcock, which is very appropriate for his age group. He talked about how specific tests can suggest what disorder a child has. For example, children with ADD often score poorly on the math because they often overlook the signs (telling them to add/subtract). This is just one of the issues he thinks about when he grades a test. It is not just simply grading something as correct or incorrect, it is trying to figure out why the child got it wrong. After this discussion I left for the day. The next week is Easter Break for I-Prep but I plan on doing something with Dr. Duffy regardless.
Week of 4/17 (Easter Break for I-Prep)
This week was Easter Break for International Prep at Grover, so I ended up meeting up with Dr. Duffy at Baker Victory Preschool. He was only having sessions with the children once over break, and I had a few extra hours already so we were only able to meet once this week. I did however get a wealth of knowledge in this short time. I was able to watch Dr. Duffy administer Woodcock tests to three preschoolers. It was very interesting how he kept their attention focused, he seemed to be more instructional with them as well. This particular subtest is good for preschoolers, as it has many visual tests, as opposed to writing and language tests. The exams were much shorter than I thought they would be. This may be due to the child’s inability to focus for long periods of time due to their age. Many of the children were very responsive towards the testing, and I felt that most of them would score rather well on the tests. After the testing, we spoke to a teacher that worked at the school about two of the children. She commented on how the first child was very well behaved, but the second child was very immature for his age. Dr. Duffy extracted as much information to write a concise write-up and we left. On the way out, I asked him how the children tested (as I felt that they would be rather average). He told me that he thought two of them were rather average, but one he had a feeling was rather disabled. There can be no clear way of knowing however until we grade them. He told me that I would assist him in grading them the following week.
Week of 4/24
One Monday, I entered school and Dr. Duffy was at Baker Preschool. I went downstairs to see Mrs. Ali in their office upon my arrival. I had the raffle already going, so we talked a little about that. We decided I would remain doing what I had done previously, that is, sit in on some of the consoling sessions, and for others I would go observe Syd. I started observing the children that she had coming in to see. The first student was the same as the previous week. Her parents were arrested and she was having a hard time finding a place to stay. She told Mrs. Ali that she talked to a CPS worker, and that the worker was trying to find her a place to stay that would be safe. Other than this, they talked about how she had misbehaved in a class earlier in the day. She explained her case, but Mrs. Ali told her that it did not match up with what the teacher had told her. The child tried to make excuses, but eventually confessed that she was in the wrong. After this, Mrs. Ali gave her a piece of candy (something she does to all her students) and sent her back to class the next period. I went to see Syd again, but he was in the middle of an examination in Spanish class, so I went down to ask if Rich D’Agistino needed any help with anything. He asked me to run a folder to room 107 (their Special Ed room), so I did that for him and I made my way back to Room 20, where I watched Stacy Ali work with other students. I could see her report with them was rather good, as they came in every Monday, so this was the second time that I saw her interact with them.
On Wednesday, I was able to work with Dr. Duffy again. He told me that he had the folders of the preschoolers, and that he would like me to review them with him. We went over the social history of all of them students. It was remarkable how thorough he was with them. It seemed that each case had a minor detail that was rather large once he informed me about it. For example, a child was born with high blood lead levels, but it was reduced within a few years. I did not think much of this, seeing as it was a very old issue. It turns out that high blood levels affect the brain and it delays brain maturation. This insight shows that the child has a “false start” as he put it. He starts off slower than other kids based on biological factors. This is very important to note in a report. After we review all of the folders, a process that took a rather long time, we looked towards the tests. He went through the exam subtest by subtest to show me how everything was graded, and the importance of each subtest. After we went over the subtests, he showed me how to enter an exam into his computer program that tells him the Standardized Scores and the Percentile Ranks. This eliminates a lot of math work! The program was very easy to use, just rather time consuming. He gave me a child’s scores to input as a sort of test and I completed it without error. After this, Dr. Duffy told me it was time for him to leave, as I stayed much later than I normally do to review all of the folders with him. Next week he said he will let me work more with the folders and he had a surprise for me but did not say what it was.
Week of 5/1
On Monday I went in and I saw Dr. Duffy in the main office. I thought this was strange because he usually is with preschoolers on Mondays. He told me however that he had too much work to do at International Prep at Grover, to go over to Baker Victory. When we walked down to his room, I offered to help out anyway with his workload. He said that I really needed help with running the tests into the program. Seeing as I already knew how to do this I offered to help him out in this task. The process took my entire time there for the day, but it was worth it to help him out. I feel that I was able to gain experience in the idea of testing. I was able to see what some of the more common mistakes were, and how to grade the exam. It is very important to know when to stop giving credit for responses. It is also crucial to know when to award points in subtests that have multiple points that can me awarded (usually 0,1, or 2). I gave my best judgment, but always asked Dr. Duffy for the final verdict on the matter. I was rather consistent with his view however in this regard. I stayed a little later in the day to help him, and I did all the folders he had. He was extremely grateful for this, and I left feeling rather accomplished.
One Wednesday I came in for my last day. He reminded me of the surprise that he had, and the surprise was that I would get to finally watch an IQ test and a WAIS test administered. This was a great surprise because we have been trying to schedule these all semester and the students all bailed out. This student however was being driven in directly by her mother, who is one of the more active mothers, so there was a high chance that she would come. She was scheduled to come in at 12:00pm, so Dr. Duffy told me I could say goodbye to the people I have come to befriend. I stopped up to talk to Mr. D’Agistino, Mr. Merrick, Mr. Eberle, Ms. Marchequo, and Mrs. Ryan. I had conversations with them about my future plans and what not. I came back into the room around 11:30 or so, and Dr. Duffy was going to go upstairs to wait for her mother so I followed. She dropped the child off and we went downstairs. I watched as he administered the tests that he was planning on giving. She was 16 years of age, so he gave her the adult versions of both. I sat behind her, as not to distract her in any way. Even by sitting behind her however, I was able to watch her responses. She was clearly disabled, and it was rather interesting now how Dr. Duffy dealt with the awkward times when she did not know an answer. He would simply ask for her best shot, then end the questioning. He seemed to know when she had enough, or when she was not getting the directions. We did this for both exams, and then her mother came down to talk to us. Dr. Duffy suggested various programs for her to enter in. The main problem was that she was only 16, so she could not enter many GED programs as she was too young. He gave her a few phone numbers of programs that deal with students in this exact problem. The mother carried herself extremely well, and she was very well versed in the programs that he was offering. The child left without a proper home, but she was given to tools to find a placement in a school program. Given the activeness of the parent, I know she will find a perfect home. After the mother left, Dr. Duffy and I said our goodbyes. He said that we needed to go golfing in the summer, and I completely agreed.
In Closing
I feel that the time I spent at International Prep at Grover was extremely worthwhile. I have learned a lot about the practices of a school psychologist, as well as a school social worker. I felt that I was also able to build a lot of relationships with much of the faculty at the school. This will greatly aid me in my quest to ultimately become a school psychologist. I am extremely grateful for the work and assistance that both Dr. Bayer, as well as Canisius College, provided for me to allow me to participate in this. This was easily the more rewarding “course” that I have taken in the college thus far. I look forward to eventually being in the same field as Dr. Duffy some day. I also feel that this practicum will give me an edge in graduate school programs, as I can say that I have prior experiences in the field. The knowledge I have gathered in this program would never have come from a classroom, it was all hands on experience, which one could argue is the most important type of knowledge. I would like to thank everyone involved for making this possible, and I soon hope to be enrolled in graduate school going to be a school psychologist.
