Ok, so the first week of internship was alright. It involved sitting through hours upon hours of meetings and realizing that I have a shit-load left to learn. Shit. Load.
So today I spent my first real day in the office doing LSSP-y things. It was horrifically intimidating. I know that I have a good **cough expensive cough** education under my belt and I know that I have spent countless hours preparing for this moment. Yet, today, the first day I was asked to do something real, I was so overwhelmed. Now, before any of you freak out, I’m sure every intern feels like this during the first few days. Or at least I hope they do, because I don’t want to feel alone. So all you other interns out there, speak up and make me feel better…
Anyway, so I basically spent my first day in a bilingual ARD (my very first) and calling schools across the nation in order to get records on kids who are transferring into our district. Sounds relatively simple, yet for some reason I feel like the slow kid who just doesn’t quite keep up with the rest of the class. I feel like I’m always one step behind because everyone else is so familiar with the terms and classifications and protocol and expectations and I’m just….. not.
But tomorrow is another day. Tomorrow I will be more knowledgeable about how to get information from schools, how to use the fax machine, how to use my calendar and email, and I’ll know just a few more people by name than I did today. So overall, I’m getting there. One tiny step at a time.
Filed under: internship
It has been a week of great change and much (MUCH) learning. Or at least listening to people attempting to learn. Being new is tough. More on all that later. I’m sure I’ll be whining incessantly as I realize I have no idea how to do all of these things they’ve attempted to teach me to do in my first week.
The most amazing thing I’ve learned so far is cooperation. And this doesn’t mean that I have learned how to cooperate with others. I feel that, over the years, I have fostered a relatively well developed ability to share my toys with others without crying. I can also understand when others have ideas different from my own, and I’m no stranger to compromise. However, I have learned that my school district has a version of cooperation that I never thought possible.
During my practicum, I learned that all diagnosticians are morons, and there is a great divide between their capabilities and my own as a LSSP. I witnessed the horrific disdain each group held for the other, and in my naivete, I believed it was like this everywhere. Luckily, this is not the case. I have found a school district where diagnosticians and LSSPs not only get along, but work hand in hand. In fact, I have yet to figure out which of the people I’ve met in the past 5 days are diagnosticians and which are LSSPs.
I am excited to be in a place where personal feelings of superiority aren’t as blatant as I once thought normal. I love seeing professionals working together to better the education of kids throughout an entire district. I can’t wait to see how this plays out over the rest of the semester…
Filed under: internship
Wow. I’ve had so much learning to do over the past two days. Things are moving at a frightening speed, but I’m starting to find out that I’m in exactly the right spot. I’ve been so impressed with the staff here so far and although I’m currently thoroghly overwhelmed, I have great hopes for the next year. I think this internship/job is going to offer me the very things I need and want to continue my education in this great profession. From what I have witnessed so far, this district has a very firm grasp on what is important and what is trivial. They are focused on having an organized system for caring for the educational needs of students and making sure they are served quickly, efficiently, and completely.
I’ve only been through two days of training so far, but tomorrow will be the true test when I go to my campuses and meet my co-workers, get my office set up, and find out what the heck I’m supposed to be doing. Wish me luck!
Filed under: internship, Musings | Tags: elementary, internship, middle school, placement, school psychology
Well, I finally have my internship assignment, and I will be working at an elementary school that is about 5 minutes away from my house, and a middle school!! I’m very excited and I can’t wait to go through training and start meeting people at my campuses. Can’t wait to start telling you all stories!
