Rafts Away!!

This past weekend I had the wonderful experience of going white water rafting for the first time on the Ocoee river. It was an amazing experience and I had a lot of fun with my friends tackling the water and rowing away. I'd be lying if I didn't tell you I was scared though. First off, I don't know how to swim, second, the rocks were the size of small islands, and third, I can't swim (I had a traumatic experience with an evil swim instructor as a child....don't judge me).

It took a lot to get out of the mind set that something bad was going to happen to me and that I couldn't do it and today in class we touched on that. A member of my cohort did a presentation on Rational Emotive Behavior Therapy and started off with a quote by Buddha: "What we think, we become." This is an important point in my opinion especially working with youth. This counseling theory focuses on attitudes and beliefs and addressing irrational thoughts with the client. While we should identify these problems with our clients it will be important to address them in ourselves as well.

Our feelings and thoughts could be clouded by irrational beliefs that need to be confronted head on so that we can support the students we serve. Is it really that important to be liked by EVERY teacher or if an intervention you recommended is unsuccessful, are you a failure as a School Psychologist? Just like we would tell a student that these thoughts are untrue we must recognize those thoughts in ourselves.

That's what I did on my rafting trip. I told myself I could do it, that there were people there to support me if anything happened, and most important, I wasn't going to die....and I have to say I had a great time going down the rapids! If you think you can do something, you can do it!

 

That's me on the back right with my hand up :)

Interviewing 101

I feel at this point in my career and probably yours too, you know the basic do's and don'ts of interviewing, but I felt the need to touch on this subject because of the poor choices I witnessed people make this week and it fits since I have an interview coming up myself  :)

While I was sitting at the reception desk earlier this week at one of my jobs a young lady came up and asked to speak to the person she was interviewing with. She didn't address them as Ms. or Mr,. she just said their first name and she didn't tell me she was there for an interview either. On top of that she had on a short little polka dot dress, which don't get me wrong was cute, but not interview attire.

So my first tidbit is to dress the part. You should at the very least be business casual for an interview but if they specify otherwise, adhere to that. Don't overdue makeup, wear shoes you can't walk in comfortably or draw any unnecessary attention to your appearance. You want them to focus on what you're saying during the interview, not those huge earrings in your ears. It'll distract them from important points you may be making.

With everyone you meet, you should be friendly with and maintain a pleasant demeanor (I think this should be a part of your everyday life but that's all on you LOL). The young lady who came to my desk in my previous example wasn't rude but I also had no idea why she was there. Provide specific information if possible and address people as Mr. or Ms., call me old-fashioned but if you don't know the person yet, I wouldn't refer to them by their first name. Plus at other jobs I've had, even though I was not the one making the decision about whether to hire someone, my opinion was asked of. You never know who you're talking to and how they can impact your potential position.

Piggy-backing off 'know who you're talking to', make sure you do your research. Employers are impressed when you know their background and have some idea of what you're getting into. You also don't want to say the wrong thing. My professor gave a great example of this referring to a student interviewing for internship. She told the committee she did not approve of projective tests, one of the people on the committee was a huge advocate for the use of projective tests, so clearly he approved and in turn she was not offered a position at that site.

In sum, look the part, know your stuff, and know that when you're there, EVERYONE is interviewing you. Even when you're with the people who you're interviewing with,  how you're interacting with others may be evaluated. If you keep these simple tips in mind, you'll be good to go!

First Day of School!

First day of classes started today and thankfully I'm not as overwhelmed as I anticipated. It's probably because I haven't really slowed down yet today to think about the workload I'm about to accumulate. I have a HUGE new planner though so hopefully that will give me the illusion that my life is in order.

I have to get up super early tomorrow morning but I wanted to make sure I shared two really interesting things that I saw today. One is about perspective. In every aspect of our lives but especially working with children in the school system, it is important to look at problems from every possible angle. It's easy to get comfortable in a role and a way of doing things and not consider if the best option is the one that's chosen. My professor showed us some artwork from a 3-D chalk artist by the name of Julian Beever. If you look at this first picture, you can't tell what the picture is, but if you come at it a different way....WOW!

Even if you think you see the whole picture, there could be an even better view if you just change directions a bit.

And this video is something another one of my professor's shared that an IT person made to show teachers and principals that data doesn't have to be intimidating. We all got a BIG laugh out of this, hope you do too!

Click this link to see more artwork from Julian Beever! Great stuff!

Medicating our Youth

I got a suprise skype call from my former tutee last night. I tutored her my first semester in grad school and unfortunately had to stop due to my class schedule. She has ADHD and like most children who are diagnosed, she often lost focus in the classroom and when completing homework. I often found it difficult to keep her on track and not rush to finish an assignment but actually think about how she was solving a problem. She happily reported to me last night though that she is on a new medication that is much better for her and how she is much more organized (she showed me her super clean closet to prove it LOL) and is doing much better in school. I am so proud of the progress she has made but it also made me think about the issue of medicating our youth.

As a future school psychologist, I know this is undoubtly an issue that will come up on a regular basis. According to a recent article I read, "Between the years 1994 and 2001, there was a 191.7% increase in number of office visits resulting in a psychotropic medication prescription among children and adolescents" (Thomas, Conrad, Casler, & Goodman, 2006). One of the things that struck me the most about this article and that I appreciated was the call for School Psychologists to be informed about commonly prescribed medications. Since we often serve as the advocates for students, we should have a solid knowledge base to better inform administrators, teachers and parents. Personally, I would like to see some type of course or training offered in School Psychology programs, even at the Master's and Specialist level, so that we are more familiar with these issues when we work in the schools.

I honestly would not like to have the responsibility of prescribing medication to children because there are so many side effects and adverse reactions that can arise. There are many psychologists (in general) though who are working to make this option available for licensed psychologists. What are your thoughts though? How do you feel about the increasing prevalence of presciptions being issued to children? What can we as School Psychologists do to be more informed in this process? Would you like to be able to prescribe medications in your practice? Go on, comment :)


You can access the article I mentioned by Jeffrey D. Shahidullah by clicking here: http://www.nasponline.org/publications/cq/40/8/off-label.aspx NASP membership is required to access it.