CanisiusPsychologyWiki: SchmidtSchoolPsychPracticumSpring10

Daily Practicum Journals-Spring '10
1/26/10
Today was my first day of practicum. My placement is at Grover International Preparatory School/Grover Cleveland High School; they are located in the same building. I am doing my practicum with Dr. Duffy, the school psychologist. Today we sat down to meet and set up a schedule of when I would do my hours. This week is Regents exam week for the high school so there will not be much to do with the students either in exams or out of the building. I was introduced to the school social worker, who shares a room with the school psychologist. Additionally I was introduced to one of the school counselors. The school counselor and Dr. Duffy talked to me about their weekly SST meetings, which stand for Student Support Team. It is where the school psychologist, school counselors, the social worker and others come together once a week to discuss different students who are referred and what their course of action is to help those students.
We spent most of the day reading different books on RTI, which is response to intervention. RTI is a new way of doing intervention with students. There are many people in the field of school psychology who have different viewpoints on how best to do this intervention. Some believe in doing no assessment before you begin intervention on a child, and then see how the intervention helps them. While others believe there still needs to be assessment done in order to assess the child’s problem and to figure out what the best plan for them will be.
I was able to spend about twenty minutes talking with a young girl today. She came in to talk with the social worker because she had been kicked out of class and written up the previous day. Instead of just talking with the social worker, the social worker had the girl sit down and talk to three other interns and myself. She shared with us why she got angry with her teacher, and many other times that she gets angry with others. She also showed us a journal that she writes in when she gets angry as a way to calm herself down.
1/28/10
Today was the second day of practicum and it was still exam week so there is not that much to do. Dr. Duffy gave another intern and me the file for the student we will be working with. We looked over his IEP, other paperwork on him, and different reasons on why he was initially referred to the school psychologist. His IEP states that he was diagnosed with ADHD and ODD. Many of his problem behaviors include walking out class, skipping class, leaving the building, swearing in class and getting frustrated easily. He has been suspended four times this year thus far. We looked through his file and began to brainstorm different ways of how we will be able to help improve his behavior. The other intern and I then met with his Special Education teacher who is with him during all of his core classes except lunch and specials. We will be working with her to implement a plan for him. While we were going through his file we also looked through different books on executive functioning problems. These are problems students have with not being to make a plan or see how to organize things that they need to do. He can verbalize what he is supposed to do, but does not do it.
2/2/10
Today we began by meeting with the students who we were supposed to be observing. The three kids were already sent to the assistant principal’s office during first period. We went there to meet the students; two other interns and I were each assigned a student to observe. The other two students were sent back to class with their intern who would observe them. The student I was assigned to was suspended and sent home. He may not be coming back to school at all. He slammed the classroom door shut and hit the teacher’s knee, hurting him. This student was diagnosed with ADHD as well as ODD. About two hours after he was sent home, one of the interns saw him in the lunch room. A group of us then went to search for him in the hallways; he was not allowed to be back in the school because he was formally suspended and it was technically trespassing. As I was standing in the hallway with Dr. Duffy and the assistant principal the student came running up the stairs and down the hall past us looking for a place to hide out. He has oppositional defiant disorder and it was interesting to experience a child with that disorder firsthand. This student hates being in school and skips classes to avoid it but then when he was told he was formally suspended and would not be allowed back for a while, he snuck back in the school and was running around.
Afterwards one of the other interns then told us that the student she was observing ran out of the middle of his class. He asked the teacher if he could go to the bathroom, she said no so he ran out of class and was running through the hallways. He was upset that there was someone observing him. He ran around the building, and we all split up looking for him. He finally reported back to the assistant principal’s office and was suspended; he cannot come back until he brings his mom with him so they can have a conference. This student was also diagnosed with ADHD and ODD.
2/4/10
Today the first thing I was sent to do was to check to see if the one student who was suspended was back in school because his mom did not come in for a conference. I found him in one of his classes, he just came to school anyway, so I brought him down to the assistant principal’s office and she called home. Then Dr. Duffy gave me a list of students that he needed to test. I had to have all of their schedules printed up so we knew where to find them. Dr. Duffy ended up not having time to test anyone today though. Later, Dr. Duffy went through the Woodcock Johnson III Tests of Achievement and the WAIS-IV, the Wechsler Adult Intelligence Scale IV. He showed us all of the different sections and told us what each part of the test measures. There are parts that measure working memory, short term memory, planning, attention to detail, reading comprehension, spelling, math, and much more. He said that when he is administering the tests he pays close attention to the way the students figure out the problems and how and why they get the questions wrong or right.
2/9/10
This is my third week at Grover Cleveland. Today Dr. Duffy gave me two articles on RTI to read and emailed me three additional articles on RTI, dyslexia, and reading disorders. RTI is response to intervention. In most models of RTI there are three tiers. A general overview is that, in tier 1 there is general effective classroom instruction by the teacher. Students’ progress is monitored and most of them will respond to this intervention. If some students still do not respond they will move on to tier 2, within this tier students will receive more individual instruction form the teacher and their progress will be monitored. For those students who still do not respond they move into tier 3 and those who still do not respond will qualify for special education.
I sat and read one of the articles on RTI and Dr. Duffy told me to read the other four at home so we could discuss them later. Later today I observed one of the students in two of his classes, because he is on a list for referral. First I went to his architectural design class, in which he sat there and did absolutely nothing but talk to friends for the entire period. Out of the eleven students in the class only five were working on projects, all of the others just sat there and the teacher told me they had not done anything for the past 20 weeks. The student I was observing did not listen to the teacher. He was given some directives but ignored them. The teacher finally had him move his seat; he just sat next to someone else and talked to that student loudly disrupting the class the entire time. Towards the very end of the period some of the other students were getting riled up so he was getting out of his seat walking around and put his iPod in before class even ended. Then I went to this student’s next class with him where there was much more structure and control in the classroom. He still wandered around and it took him a while to finish the task that they teacher instructed him to do, but he did attempt to work on his project with his group member.
2/11/10
This morning we called one of the students down to test him, he is also on Dr. Duffy’s referral list. First Dr. Duffy read me the teacher’s reports on this student. Basically all of the teachers said that they were frustrated with him, they said he is disruptive and it’s hard for them to teach class when he is there. They also said that he needs a lot of personal attention and does the best when the teacher is right next to him helping him. First Dr. Duffy administered the Woodcock Johnson III Tests of Achievement and I was able to observe the entire time. After this student was done Dr. Duffy sent him back to class and told him to come back after lunch so he could administer the other test. I scored the test with Dr. Duffy and then scored it on the computer and interpreted the standard score and percentile rank of all of his scores. This student scored very low in the Math Fluency section. Although he didn’t make many mistakes it took him a long time to do it which showed us he doesn’t have his basic math facts memorized. He scored in the 2nd percentile in this section, which is extremely low. He also scored low on the Calculations section. It was apparent that his lack of math fluency and basic math facts contributed to his problems in the math calculations. All of the calculations took long for him and he had to put forth a lot of effort to figure them out. He also had trouble with the passage Comprehension section. He had trouble reading sentences to himself and finding a word to go in them that made sense; he didn’t understand the passages. Another observation we made when he took this test was that he would blurt out answers and then say no let me change that. He did this 6 times on one of the tests. This showed his impulsive side and went along with what the teachers had reported, even though it was on a much smaller scale. This test showed us that this student could use help with memorizing his math facts which will help raise his ability to do harder math problems.
When he came back Dr. Duffy was then able to administer the WISC-IV, an intelligence test. During this test he scored well on everything except on the letter-number sequence section. This showed us that he has problems with working memory and keeping things in mind when something else is said to him. He also had problems with the picture concepts section; he needed the standard directions repeated 5 times until he understood them. This matched up with the trouble he had understanding the passage comprehension section of the achievement test. We can tell he has trouble understanding receptive language. We can imagine that when teachers give 3 or 4 directions at one time, he has trouble understanding and finishing the task.
Next week Dr. Duffy is going to have me stay with this student for the day observing and helping him in his classes. From looking at his behavior during the tests, we think that he can benefit from me repeating directions for him and breaking multistep directions down. I will also be able to keep him on task, redirect him, and give him more personal attention. In addition we know that he needs to take time at home to memorize and practice his math facts using flashcards. It will be interesting having the knowledge of his weaknesses while he is in class, and using that knowledge to then help him.
2/16/10
Today we went in, but it is a conference day for the students so there were no students at school. Dr. Duffy had us come in to read school psychology literature, but we only stayed for about two hours today as opposed to five and a half. I read three journal articles entitled, Dyslexia, Assessment of Children With Intellectual Giftedness And Reading Disabilities, and Cognitive Hypothesis Testing And Response To Intervention For Children With reading Problems.
2/18/10
Dr. Duffy was not here today, but told me that I could still come in and observe the student that we tested last week. I stayed with him for two periods before lunch and two periods after lunch. In his one class the teacher repeated the directions three times. I had to tell the student to ask for a sheet that he didn’t have. Then after the directions were given by the teacher, the student was not doing any work so I had to tell him to open to the page he was supposed to be working on. Then I repeated the directions that the teacher gave him and then he was able to fill out the column that he needed to, to complete the worksheet. It was interesting to see how he needed help and benefited from me repeating the directions and keeping him on task. This goes along with what the test revealed, which was that he had problems with receptive language. During this class when the teacher was giving directions, the student said to me that he couldn’t comprehend the teacher’s complicated directions.
In his later classes when I observed him my presence kept him on task and caused him to try to be on his best behavior; although he did talk out of turn and get up in the middle of the class to use hand sanitizer without permission. My presence in his next class which was an AIS (Academic Intervention Services) math class also kept him on task. This class was a free period in which the students are allowed to do their homework, the student I was observing was the only person in the class that did any work. He finished two of his math sheets. I had to point out the directions to him and tell him how to go about doing one of his math sheets, before he could start it.
2/23/10
Today I observed Dr. Duffy administer the WISC-IV and the WJ-III to a sixth grade female student. First he administered the WISC-IV and she got through it all but looked at some of the hard things and just gave up at first glance. Then he began to administer the WJ-III and she got through some of the subtests. During the passage comprehension she just gave up and was really upset. This girl was a tough girl and she was almost in tears. We sent her back to class and told her to come back down after lunch to finish the rest, so she could have a break.
After lunch we called the student’s classroom to bring her back down and her teacher said she was suspended during lunch. The girl was so upset about the test that she got herself suspended on purpose so she could get out of finishing the test. We spent the rest of the day reviewing folders of preschoolers that Dr. Duffy received. The Buffalo School district is having him test children who will be entering kindergarten next year. We just looked through the folders and copied down their social history and the scores from the previous times they were tested; most of them were previously tested when they were two years old.
2/25/10
Today when I got to school Dr. Duffy had me observe one of the students that are up for an evaluation. I went into three classes with him to record his behavior. In his first class he had a substitute teacher and therefore did not do any of his work. The substitute told me that he has not done any work all week, for as long as she has been there. During his second class his behavior was pretty good. He did what he was supposed to and presented a project with another student in front of the class. In his third class he also did the work that he was supposed to. In both of his classes he was talking out of turn and to other students; although it was only a couple of times in each class.
Then I went back down to the office, because the children had advisory and lunch period. After lunch we called the student down that we needed to finish testing from Tuesday. She finished three of the subtests of the WJ-III that she hadn’t finished before. We will score her tests on Tuesday to see how she compares to students of her same age.
3/2/10
Today Dr. Duffy had a meeting so he had me do some observations of three of our students who are up for referral for special education. First I observed one male student in three of his classes. In his first class I walked in at the very end of it and saw that he had done no work the entire class period. Then the teacher brought over his folder of recent in class assignments that they have been working on and most of them were blank. He just refuses to do any work in this class. Then I followed him to his next class. In this one they were supposed to be copying down notes that are a review for an upcoming test. I had to give the student a blank piece of paper and tell him to copy down the notes about four or five times. He kept getting off task and was talking to the students around him. Then I followed him to his next class and it took him almost half way into the period until he finally decided to do any work. He then moved his desk away from the other students and laid his head down on the desk. I had to walk over to him and tell him to get started on his paper. Then he would get distracted and I would have to tell him to move onto the next question and read the directions. From talking to the teachers of this student, and from my observations in his class it is apparent that this student needs constant attention to get him to do any school work. Dr. Duffy believes he would benefit from being placed in a 6:1:1 classroom where he can constantly be redirected and assisted throughout the school day. I spent the rest of the day observing two different students who are also up for referral for special education.
3/4/10
We had two CSE meetings today. First Dr. Duffy had me type up the background section on the reports for those two student’s meetings. Then I was able to look through the rest of the report and look at what sections are included on it and what Dr. Duffy had written up on the students. These two students were also the ones that I was able to observe him administering the WISC-IV and the WJ-III to. Then I sat in on the first CSE meeting. A parent did not attend the meeting for this child. To begin the meeting the chair person introduced herself and then asked for the first teacher’s observations of how they think the student is doing. Then the second teacher talked about how she believed the student was doing in class and brought a couple of her spelling tests to show everybody. Both of the teachers believed this student was at the benchmark of where she had to be and did not see any reason that this student needed to be referred for special education. Then Dr. Duffy gave his results of what he observed while he was testing the student. She was the student who did very poorly on reading, spelling, and writing. She is a student who should be in 7th grade but is only in 6th, and according to the testing she performed very low compared to students who are in 6th grade. They talked a little more and agreed that right now even though the tests showed she was having a lot of trouble that they would not change anything just yet. The teacher’s said she is doing fine and they decided it would be best to keep her in the classes that she is in. Dr. Duffy said that at the beginning of next school year they can go back and reevaluate her and look to see how she is doing next year with a new set of teachers.
Then after a short break we had another CSE meeting, the parent did show up to this meeting. In the meeting with this student everyone agreed that he does not have any learning disabilities and is not mentally retarded but his behavior gets in the way of him learning. He gets distracted easily, can be impulsive, likes to clown around in class to gain attention, and ends up not getting any work done. His father was very insightful and understood the student’s problems and said he has been trying to explain to his son for a long time how important getting an education is. The decision for this case was that this student would be put into a general education classroom next year which has a co-teaching model. In the classroom there are at most twenty students and two teachers. One of the teachers would be there to help not only this student but other ones who also needed the special attention. There would be an extra adult in the room and the general education teacher could continue teaching while the consultant teacher would be able to control his disruptive behaviors and keep him on task.
3/9/10
I only spent a couple of hours at my practicum today. I spent my time looking over and talking about an FBA with Dr. Duffy; an FBA stands for Functional Behavioral Assessment. This assessment gathers information on a student’s problem behaviors, antecedents, possible reinforcements, and other specifics of the intervention.
3/11/10
When I first got to my practicum today I spent my time working on an FBA for the student who I had been observing. I was also able to sit in on this student’s CSE meeting last week. After I worked on the FBA for some time, Dr. Duffy called down one of the students he needed to test. This student is in 7th grade and is fourteen years old, so he really should be in 9th grade. He asked me if I wanted to administer the WJ-III to the student, while Dr. Duffy sat next to us helping me if I needed it. I administered the entire WJ-III; this student was overall an easy student to test. He understood all of the directions and did not give me a hard time, or get frustrated if he didn’t know an answer to a question. Then the student went to lunch and afterwards the student came back to the office and Dr. Duffy administered the WISC-IV to the student.
Afterwards we were able to score some of his test it seems he has the largest problems with math and spelling. Although it was interesting to look at the score the students received, Dr. Duffy advised us to also think about the clinical observations we were able to make when he was taking the test. When I gave him the one math section, he was able to use scrap paper. Afterwards we were able to take a closer look at his scrap paper. When he needed to multiple 120 by 12, he had to add 120 twelve times. This along with his score on the math fluency section showed us that he cannot do math efficiently. It took him a very long time to get through simple addition and subtraction problems. He showed us that he does not have his math facts memorized. Overall we concluded that this student does not have a mathematics disorder but instead has checked out and has missed out on a large amount of math instruction over the past few years.
In looking at his spelling, Dr. Duffy pointed out that the way he misspelled words is an important thing to notice. This student misspelled a lot of words but the way he spelled them was the way they sounded. This tells us he had an understanding of letter sounds and creating words. This is different as opposed to a student who does not spell words as they sound; a child who does that may be trying to reproduce the word by how they remember it to be spelled rather than by trying to sound it out themselves. We will talk more about this student’s problems next week and we will score the WISC-IV that he took.
3/16/10
Today I went up to the classroom of a student who needs to be tested. I observed her for about thirty minutes in her class. Her behavior was good; she didn’t talk out of turn or talk at all really. She was working on sentences and her teacher came by to tell her that she needed to redo her sentences. The teacher tried to explain to her why her sentences didn’t make any sense and told her to start over. The girl got a new packet and started over.
Then I brought the student down to the office with me and Dr. Duffy let me administer the WJ-III to her. This student scored extremely low. On the subtests the student needs to get six correct in a row in order to move forward, and ultimately give them all of the points prior. With this student I had to go back extremely far with very simple questions, in order for her to get six correct in a row. After I administered all of the subtests I scored most of them. Her scores were equivalent to first, second, and third graders; this student is in sixth grade and is twelve years old.
After we tested her I drove to Dr. Duffy’s private practice with him because he had to sign some reports. He also works doing evaluations on children and adults out of an office.
When we got back Dr. Duffy brought the student back down to the office and administered the WISC-IV to her. We scored the WISC and took a look at her scores. She scored a seventy two, which is only two points above the cut off for mental retardation. It seems this students needs a lot of support already and will need a lot more support when she gets into high school. She has almost no skills and struggled through most of our tests.
3/18/10

Today when I arrived at Grover Dr. Duffy had two CSE meetings to go to so I went with him. The first meeting was for the student we tested on Tuesday. Her parents did not show up to the meeting. This student was the one who’s scores were extremely low, she scored only two points above the cutoff for mental retardation. Her scores on the achievement test were also extremely low. The general education teacher reported the same finding and concerns that we had found after testing her. The teacher was concerned that she didn’t possess the skills necessary to complete or understand the sixth grade material. After discussing the test scores and concerns of everyone at the meeting they decided that this student would need to be moved into a classroom with a co-teaching model and see how that works for her. In addition this student was already receiving services for speech therapy, so they continued those services and also added the classification that she is a student with a learning disability. Then they went through some of the possible goals for her new IEP. They created new goals having to do with learning to write a paragraph, reading comprehension, modified testing conditions, less homework expectations, use of a calculator, and much more.
Right after this meeting we then had a meeting for the other student that we tested last week. It was found that this student does not qualify for special education services. He has a lot of problem behaviors and fails to come to school on time for the majority of the time. It was found that since September he has progressed, although slowly. He has recognized that he was very distracted by the other students so he moved his seat to the back of the room, away from the other students. This student can take a long time to get started, but when he does get started is able to complete his in class work. His apathy towards school work and his problem behaviors has affected his school work; it was found that he does not qualify for special education services.
3/25/10
Today I sat in on a CSE meeting for a student; this student’s aunt came to the meeting for her. This student had transferred from another school where she was a ninth grader and was put into tenth grade. She comes to school so infrequently that she actually has zero credits for high school. She has a baby and currently the biological father was awarded custody. She is currently in substance abuse counseling for her problem with alcohol and marijuana. She also has terrible and unsafe living conditions at home. The possibility of physical and sexual abuse is present at home and there is currently an open CPS case on the mother. There were two teachers present at the meeting, although they weren't able to speak much about the student’s performance because she is hardly ever there. Most of the meeting was about the possibility of the student looking into a GED program. Dr. Duffy also talked about the student’s performance on the WJ-III and the WAIS-IV, her IQ score was low and she scored the lowest in spelling and math on the achievement test. They committee went over some of the accommodations for the student that would be put/continued on her IEP. Most included testing accommodations, use of a calculator, extra examples in the directions, and several other things. This IEP would stay with her, and she would be able to receive these services when taking the GED.
Another main problem that was discussed was her family and living situation. She needs to get out of her house, but she is afraid of leaving her siblings alone in the house without her there to protect them. The student told us that CPS would be coming to the house tonight, but her aunt asked Dr. Duffy to also place a call into CPS. Dr. Duffy also addressed his concerns that the student was possibly suffering from depression and was attempting to self-medicate to escape her reality. He suggested that the student look into counseling and medication to begin helping herself. After the meeting ended we went back to Dr. Duffy’s office and he placed a call to CPS about this child. The rest of the day we worked on writing reports.
3/30/10
Today I came in and observed a student in one of his classes. This was the same student who was formally suspended for three months starting in January. Dr. Duffy tested him yesterday so he wanted me to see how he is behaving in his classes after coming back to school. He did not do much work, he was writing a note or doing something personal that was not his class work. He finally got started on his class work late into the period. He was playing and texting on his phone throughout the entire period. Then the substitute teacher grabbed his cell phone out of his hands and ended up giving it to the principal. Then after class I saw the guidance counselor in the hallway and told him where I just was. After speaking for a few minutes about what class I was just in with the student we realized he had skipped his first period, because the guidance counselor had seen him in a class he shouldn’t have been in. The student ended up being suspended for one day for skipping first period and for using his cell phone in class. The behaviors this student is emitting after coming back from a three month suspension are not normal. We would think that a typical student would want to keep himself under the radar and not in any trouble. Instead this student has been back to school for three weeks and has been suspended twice already. Later that day I spoke with one of the special education teachers about any more students who we need to be concerned about. She gave us a list of four students to possibly observe and test.
4/13/10
Today we worked on doing pattern determinations for students who have been suspended. We were looking for a pattern between their IEP, their goals, their behavior modification plan (if they have one) and ultimately if their reason for being suspended had to do with any of those things. We found that there was a pattern for two of the students. The first student’s reasons for being suspended were bringing a weapon to school, harming people, insubordination and other similar things. This child was classified as having an emotional disability. One of his services on his IEP was counseling, a behavior modification plan in place and well as social and emotional annual goals relating to his behavior. Therefore a pattern was found between this student’s actions and their deficits. What this means is that the student can no longer be suspended for these actions. Additionally they need to set up a new CSE meeting for this student.
The other student we found a pattern determination with is a student who had lead poisoning and is classified as Other-Health Impaired on their IEP. Lead poisoning has been shown to result in cognitive deficits as well as hyperactive and impulsive behavior. This student was suspended for behavioral misconduct four different times. The term misconduct goes along with other health impaired and hyperactive behaviors. Therefore a pattern determination was found for this student.
This morning we also had a teacher come down to tell us that she was worried that one of her students was going to harm himself. This teacher was close to this student, he had a very sad home life and he was telling her that he didn’t know why he woke up this morning and that he doesn’t know if he wants to wake up tomorrow. Dr. Duffy then called Spectrum Cares, which is a crisis center for children. They opened a case, had to get permission from the student’s adoptive parents and then came to the school to meet with the student. If Spectrum then determined that this student was an immediate danger to himself, they would then call ECC to have him picked up by an ambulance and taken to the hospital for a psychological evaluation. The reason Dr. Duffy did not want to meet with him first to determine if the child needed immediate attention was that Dr. Duffy would have to call the hospital on this student. In the past, when this has happened the student then does not trust Dr. Duffy anymore and will not open up to him again. This way Spectrum can make the decision and Dr. Duffy and the social worker can maintain trust with this student for the future.
4/15/10
When I first arrived at Grover today, Dr. Duffy had me go up to the class of one of the students that we had worked with in the beginning of the semester. This was the student who ran around the building and was suspended for three months when I first started at Grover. Since he came back he has been skipping class, so I went to class with him to make sure he is there. In doing this I found out that he was twenty minutes late to first period, and was wandering the halls the beginning of second period. I am going to check in on him at the beginning of each class to make sure he goes to all of his classes. When I checked in on him later in the day, I found him wandering the halls, so I walked him to his next class. For another period I went to go meet him at his class so I could walk him to his next class. Instead I found he had left his class five minutes early because he was bored. So I walked with him to his next class and waited until the bell rang so he could go in. Then I walked him to his last class of the day.
4/22/10
Today I spent the entire time working with one of the other students on the Functional Behavior Assessment/ Behavior Intervention Plan (FBA/BIP) for two students. In the FBA/BIP we had to come up with an intervention plan for the students to help decrease their problem behaviors. We added in positive reinforcement, punishment, and many other things to help increase good behaviors. We also had to problem solve on what we thought was the antecedent to their problem behaviors. The problem behaviors we focused on for the first student was his lack of ability to get to class on time. He would leave class early if he was bored and go to class late if he felt like it. If he didn’t like one of the classes he just skips, usually he skips English. The second student’s behavior problems are being distracting during class and sometimes disrespectful. He likes to be the class clown and uses it as a way to get out of doing any work.
5/4/10
Today at Grover I spent most of the time working on an FBA/BIP for one of the preschool evaluations that Dr. Duffy has to do. This particular child has problems with staying on task; they need to redirect him often. A larger concern that they have for him is his aggressive behavior issues. This child was adopted but still has set times that the court has allowed his biological mother to visit him. He was classified as emotionally disturbed, he has had traumatic emotional experiences and because of that has a lot of anger. When he gets mad he has tantrums, hits, bites, and has urinated in public. He usually lashes out at adults rather than classmates and they would like to work on his lack of respect for authority
Dr. Duffy and I spoke about the child and what kind of behavior plan would be best, although I worked on it mostly independently. I added in things for appropriate behavior, praises, prompts, consistency, small class setting, and relaxation techniques to help combat his aggression. I also added in a token economy with rewards that are reinforcing for him. In addition to working on the FBA/BIP I checked in with one of the students who likes to skip class. I made sure he was in his classroom, doing what he was supposed to be doing and not roaming the hallways of the school.
5/6/10
I spent my last day at Grover typing up the FBA/BIP’s that we had previously been working on. Dr. Duffy had me type them up into the document form that they use for the formal FBA/BIP that they put into the child’s folder.
Overall at my practicum I have learned so many things. I was able to get firsthand experience of exactly what a school psychologist does on a day to day basis. I also gained experience with folder reviews, testing, CSE meetings, encounters with students, and many other aspects of the job. I felt that gaining experience in a middle/high school in the Buffalo School District was very valuable. I have never had experience with this population before and am glad I have had the chance. This population was full of mostly students with behavioral problems, attitudes, disrespect for authority, and disorders such as ODD and ADHD. I found this population challenging and I think this experience will help me later in life as a school psychologist. The last thing that I gained from this internship that I didn’t think about prior to starting was learning about the politics within the school. Behind the career, there are directives from administrators, issues with other faculty and staff and many other things that affect the experience of the job on a day to day to basis. It is important to actually experience the job and every aspect of school psychology rather than just reading it out of a textbook.

Dr. Duffy and I spoke about the child and what kind of behavior plan would be best, although I worked on it mostly independently. I added in things for appropriate behavior, praises, prompts, consistency, small class setting, and relaxation techniques to help combat his aggression. I also added in a token economy with rewards that are reinforcing for him. In addition to working on the FBA/BIP I checked in with one of the students who likes to skip class. I made sure he was in his classroom, doing what he was supposed to be doing and not roaming the hallways of the school.

We had two CSE meetings today. First Dr. Duffy had me type up the background section on the reports for those two student’s meetings. Then I was able to look through the rest of the report and look at what sections are included on it and what Dr. Duffy had written up on the students. These two students were also the ones that I was able to observe him administering the WISC-IV and the WJ-III to. Then I sat in on the first CSE meeting. A parent did not attend the meeting for this child. To begin the meeting the chair person introduced herself and then asked for the first teacher’s observations of how they think the student is doing. Then the second teacher talked about how she believed the student was doing in class and brought a couple of her spelling tests to show everybody. Both of the teachers believed this student was at the benchmark of where she had to be and did not see any reason that this student needed to be referred for special education. Then Dr. Duffy gave his results of what he observed while he was testing the student. She was the student who did very poorly on reading, spelling, and writing. She is a student who should be in 7th grade but is only in 6th, and according to the testing she performed very low compared to students who are in 6th grade. They talked a little more and agreed that right now even though the tests showed she was having a lot of trouble that they would not change anything just yet. The teacher’s said she is doing fine and they decided it would be best to keep her in the classes that she is in. Dr. Duffy said that at the beginning of next school year they can go back and reevaluate her and look to see how she is doing next year with a new set of teachers.
Today I went up to the classroom of a student who needs to be tested. I observed her for about thirty minutes in her class. Her behavior was good; she didn’t talk out of turn or talk at all really. She was working on sentences and her teacher came by to tell her that she needed to redo her sentences. The teacher tried to explain to her why her sentences didn’t make any sense and told her to start over. The girl got a new packet and started over.
Today when I arrived at Grover Dr. Duffy had two CSE meetings to go to so I went with him. The first meeting was for the student we tested on Tuesday. Her parents did not show up to the meeting. This student was the one who’s scores were extremely low, she scored only two points above the cutoff for mental retardation. Her scores on the achievement test were also extremely low. The general education teacher reported the same finding and concerns that we had found after testing her. The teacher was concerned that she didn’t possess the skills necessary to complete or understand the sixth grade material. After discussing the test scores and concerns of everyone at the meeting they decided that this student would need to be moved into a classroom with a co-teaching model and see how that works for her. In addition this student was already receiving services for speech therapy, so they continued those services and also added the classification that she is a student with a learning disability. Then they went through some of the possible goals for her new IEP. They created new goals having to do with learning to write a paragraph, reading comprehension, modified testing conditions, less homework expectations, use of a calculator, and much more.
Right after this meeting we then had a meeting for the other student that we tested last week. It was found that this student does not qualify for special education services. He has a lot of problem behaviors and fails to come to school on time for the majority of the time. It was found that since September he has progressed, although slowly. He has recognized that he was very distracted by the other students so he moved his seat to the back of the room, away from the other students. This student can take a long time to get started, but when he does get started is able to complete his in class work. His apathy towards school work and his problem behaviors has affected his school work; it was found that he does not qualify for special education services.
Today I sat in on a CSE meeting for a student; this student’s aunt came to the meeting for her. This student had transferred from another school where she was a ninth grader and was put into tenth grade. She comes to school so infrequently that she actually has zero credits for high school. She has a baby and currently the biological father was awarded custody. She is currently in substance abuse counseling for her problem with alcohol and marijuana. She also has terrible and unsafe living conditions at home. The possibility of physical and sexual abuse is present at home and there is currently an open CPS case on the mother. There were two teachers present at the meeting, although they weren't able to speak much about the student’s performance because she is hardly ever there. Most of the meeting was about the possibility of the student looking into a GED program. Dr. Duffy also talked about the student’s performance on the WJ-III and the WAIS-IV, her IQ score was low and she scored the lowest in spelling and math on the achievement test. They committee went over some of the accommodations for the student that would be put/continued on her IEP. Most included testing accommodations, use of a calculator, extra examples in the directions, and several other things. This IEP would stay with her, and she would be able to receive these services when taking the GED.
Today at Grover I spent most of the time working on an FBA/BIP for one of the preschool evaluations that Dr. Duffy has to do. This particular child has problems with staying on task; they need to redirect him often. A larger concern that they have for him is his aggressive behavior issues. This child was adopted but still has set times that the court has allowed his biological mother to visit him. He was classified as emotionally disturbed, he has had traumatic emotional experiences and because of that has a lot of anger. When he gets mad he has tantrums, hits, bites, and has urinated in public. He usually lashes out at adults rather than classmates and they would like to work on his lack of respect for authority

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