Hello Everyone!
My name is Monica Helinski and I am a graduate of Canisius College Class of 2005! I majored in psychology and had minors in school psychology and clinical counseling psychology.
Currently I am in my third year of graduate school at John Carroll University in Cleveland, OH. It is a small Jesuit school much like Canisius. The program that I am in has 6 students. We lost 2 along the way. We received our Master's Degree in Education last January. After that all the classes we take are considered post-masters and therefore when all is said and done we will have an equivalent to a Specialist degree. We won't be completely done until June of 2008 because the whole last year is a full time paid internship (something unique about Ohio). This June, we will apply for certification.
This year I am placed in Brecksville-Broadview Heights City School District for my full time internship. It is a large suburban middle class school district. I work 5 days a week in 4 different buildings. I work in the Pre-school (where the law for School Psychology is quite different), Elementary building (K-3), Middle School, and High School. Experience at each level is very important so that when the time comes to look for and apply to jobs, I have knowledge of each. Furthermore, the experiences vary a ton.
In the Pre-school, which provides services for mainly children who are qualified as "Pre-schooler with a Disability" under IDE(I)A, I am involved in screening for suspicion of disabilities (part of Child Find), as well as assessments for initial evaluations. This involves observations, interviews, and testing. Another part of this job is transitioning these students to "school-age."
At the Elementary school, I am involved in assessements that include observations and testing also. I have worked on initial evaluations as well as reevaluations for special education. I have been involved in counseling two students in the area of social skills. I have been involved in using DIBELS, a system to identify at-risk children in reading as a part of Response to Intervention. I consult with teachers often and am involved in designing and planning interventions. I also take part in direct intervention with some students with reading difficulties.
At the Middle school, I am involved in reevaluations of a large list of students. This process involves planning the reevaluation, speaking to parents, teachers, performing observations, testing, reports, and presentations to both parents as well as members of the IEP team.
At the High school, I am involved in observations, testing, and reports as well that are part of reevaluations. In addition, I am involved in evaluations and services in non-public schools (another different part of the law). There have been a variety of issues that I have had some level of involvement in the areas of suicide, crisis, alcoholism and attendance issues. As you can see, it is a huge variety and there is always something that keeps me busy.
This past November (2007) I took the Praxis School Psychology exam. This is the exam that when receiving a qualifying score, you get your licence. In the state of Ohio, the score is a 630. To earn national certification the qualifying score is a 660. I received a 780!
This past February (2008), the National Association of School Psychologists is offering its annual conference in New Orleans. My peers and I have presented on the topic of mental health, caring, and resiliency. It was a great experience and a great line to add to my resume.
Also in February, I was one of the presenters at QUEST, a parent organization who have students with disabilities, about the preschool program. I presented about my school district as well as changes in the standards coming this July.
In March (2008), I helped implement the SOS Suicide Prevention Program to the 6th graders at the Middle School. This included teaching classes about suicide and what to do. It also includes a video that the class watches. At the end of the presentation, a rating scale was given to the students to complete in order to assess their level of depression. Finally, students were able to see individual counselors, the school psychologist or myself to talk if they wished.
April and May (2008) were the busiest months as a school psychologist. I worked on a lot of reevaluation cases at the elementary through high school level. Through this year I worked with students under the following categories: Autism, Cognitive Disability, Emotional Disturbance, Hearing Impaired, Other Heath Impairment, Specific Learning Disability, Speech and Language Impairment, Traumatic Brain Injury, Visual Impairment and Preschooler with a Disability. I did not have the change to work with the other four: Deaf-Blind, Deaf, Orthopedic Impairment, and Multiple Disabilities. However, 10 of 14 is pretty good.
So it is now the end of May 2008 and I am on the job hunt! I have sent resumes to almost all the schools in the county I live in as well as two other counties. I have had one interview and one more coming up. I am hoping that the job market starts to open up! I am excited and a little nervous for my first school psychologist job. I am ready to get out there and do this!
Resources:
www.nasponline.org
www.ospaonline.org
I will continue to add updates on important topics in graduate school.
Check out my web page!
http://www.geocities.com/mcihelinski/resources.html
If anyone wants to talk to me about my graduate program or experience feel free to contact me:
MHelinski08@jcu.edu
Monamello@juno.com
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