Oh, dear…where to start!  There were so many new experiences this week…I suppose I should start with leadership, since I don’t get to write about that all that often.  This week, I was put in charge on an activity in the classroom.  I was to sit at the head of the table and lead the children in stringing beads onto shoelaces, to help develop their fine motor skills.  I was taken by surprise when I was asked to do this, and although I have been in charge of children the same again before, back when I taught Kinderkarate at my dojo, there was still a difference, especially since I was under direct supervision from the other instructors, the specialists, and the some of the parents of the children, who were watching through the one-way window.  I managed, after a couple minutes, to not appear as flustered, but I definitely hope to get in more practice in the future.

            Character development reared its head and bit me again this week – a while ago, I wrote about how difficult it was to let a child self-soothe.  This week, one of the children was constantly searching for comfort – she wanted me to cuddle her and keep her in a close embrace.  We eventually solved this problem, to a degree, by putting her in a body suit, but it was difficult for me to take her out of my arms and try to wake her up, when she seemed to be in such desperate need for comfort.  I need to develop of thick skin, I suppose, or rather learn have better control of my actions, whatever my emotions may be.

            I was proud of our teamwork this week.  The new student underwent separation for the first time on Thursday, and we had to keep on rotating positions with him – since the staff is made of a variety of specialists, each had his/her own duties to perform in the classroom, meaning that we had to keep trading the post of watching over and comforting the new child (in this case, self-soothing was not an objective, as it was the first day of separation – self-soothing with come later).

            Lastly, I had a bit of a run-in with technology this week.  I needed to make a copy, but I had a bit of a scare with the copy machine, leading me all across the office on an epic journey to find someone who could fix it.  Apparently, the copy machine had been acting up all day, so it wasn’t too hard to find someone who had fixed it before.  Thankfully, the copy machine was up and working again without a hitch, and I learned how to use it to produce double-sided copies which served to be more functional than the single-sided ones I had originally intended to produce.  Hopefully, I will be more prepared if the machine breaks down again.

            My goals, both short term and long term, haven’t changed since last week.  Short term:  find a semester project.  Long term:  make a permanent difference in the lives of the children I work with.

This week was fraught with problem-solving techniques.  For example, a new student has joined our class.  This student was the younger brother of a previous student, so his mother was more familiar with classroom procedures than other new parents, but the child’s initiation into the class routines was still a little difficult.  However, we decided to pander to the child’s preferences, hoping to cause him to associate good memories with Kindering.  His favorite food, avocado, was served at snack, with his mother close at hand (for the first days in class, the parents usually stay with the child – separation usually occurs within a week or so).  Thankfully, he accepted the food without too much complaint, and we hope that his first experience with the class has been a positive one.

            One pitfall of the week was communication – I can’t say very much about this, as there are NDA’s involved, but I can say that because I had switched classrooms in the first month of interning at Kindering, I missed out on some important instructions and went about a whole process all wrong.  I wasn’t scolded, but my mentor did have to explain what was wrong in the first place.  This could have been avoided, had I more actively attempted to ensure that I was on the same page as everyone else when I switched classrooms last month.

            Once again, I must write of gracious professionalism – I have written about paperwork before, but doing it over and over again, even when it is part of the job, can sometimes be boring.  However, I’m finding that I actually enjoy this occupation – it helps me wind down and gives me a break from a hectic day.  I suppose this goes to show that a little gracious professionalism can yield surprising results.

            Lastly, I need to work on my time management.  This week, when writing my reports on the children after class, I kept going over the time I had allotted myself – by the time I was finished with the reports, I had much less time to file paperwork than I would have preferred.  There is no set amount of paperwork that I have to file every day, and it is important to be thorough in writing my reports, but I suppose I have to be a bit more careful, so that I can accomplish what I need to.

            My goals for this week are still unchanged.  Short term – I need to think of a good semester project, and fast.  Perhaps a journal on one individual child?  That might be a little difficult, seeing as I would have to work around the NDAs.  As for long-term goals, I still hold to my wish to eventually make a permanent difference in the lives of the children I work with, and I do not anticipate any change in that goal anytime soon.

Communication became an issue this week as well – I had been told by my mentor that Tuesday was going to be a staff development day, and that I would still be able to come in if I wanted to, to help with the filing.  On Monday, however, I received an email that Felise, the administrative director and a co-mentor of mine, might not be in on that day.  This time, I sent an email from my computer, so that the escapade with my phone would not be repeated.  However, I received no reply, although I kept checking my email all throughout the school day.  I went to the site and called my mentor, but I was sent to voice mail.  Finally, I attempted to enter the center, but found the doors locked.  My mentor had not been answering since she was in fact NOT on site, and away from her work phone.  I went home after this, but vowed to find a more reliable way to contact Felise.

                Job-specific skills came into play again this week, this time in dealing with repeated instances of disobedience.  One of the children was having a rather bad day – he had arrived drowsy and remained unresponsive for a few minutes before entering class.  However, he returned to his usual self quickly, and seemed to be behaving normally.  However, he repeatedly refused to share an object when asked, causing a violent tantrum – slamming toy carts against walls and hitting a classmate on the head with a ball multiple times.  My mentor got ahold of him quickly and calmed him down, and he returned to his usual self, but after a while, he exhibited the same violence as before.  I was forced to take food out of his mouth again during snack time, and he responded by hitting me.  I had to tell him very firmly to stop, and hold his hands down so that he could not repeat the action (he was definitely trying to).  Multiple times after that, I had to hold him in place firmly, but not so roughly that I would hurt him.

                 I also began what might stretch into a long, several-week attempt at problem solving.  I noticed that one of the children who appears to be very high-functioning was exhibiting some strange behavior – she would say something, like “beep beep” while riding one of the little carts in the motor room, and not be able to move on from this action until someone noticed and said “yes, beep beep.  That’s a car!”  This is rather intriguing, and I would definitely like to observe this girl more carefully to understand her behavior patterns.

                Lastly, teamwork:  since I was sick last Thursday, I did not attend last week’s weekly meeting.  Because of this, I had missed out on an important instruction the entire team was given – to minimize our discussion as adults during the actual class time, and save all comments on behavior until afterwards.  Thankfully, not knowing of this instruction did not do any damage, but I definitely need to be more careful about catching up after missed meetings in the future.

                My long-term goals, like last week, are to learn as much as I can so that I can make a lasting difference in the lives of these children.  As for my short-term goal – like I said last week, I need a semester project.  I think I have a few ideas, and I need to talk them over with my mentor.

Please, please forgive these late posts!  Lately there have been many things cropping up -- school and college apps music and martial arts...but enough with excuses!  They only do discredit to both you and me.

This week was rather unusual – unusual in the sense that I only spent four hours (one day) on site, due to illness, and those four hours were all spent re-labeling all of the active files in the system.  Once again – character development.  I spent some time addressing the need for patience in my past journals, but this…was much more than I expected.  Thank heavens the peppermint tea is free…

Speaking of filing, I will now introduce a topic that has not yet been mentioned in my journals – gracious professionalism.  Of course I did not want to spend my time filing – I would much rather have helped out in the other class or even simply gone home.  However, this was a job that needed to be done, and it was my duty to graciously accept it.  Having this reinforced in my mind only makes me more thankful that I have taken an internship at this point in my life, before my selfishness or self-pity can have any drastic consequences.

Job-specific skills – although I complained about filing above, I did manage to encounter several areas where I had to make conscious decisions during my re-labeling of the file system with my wonderful co-mentor, Felise.  I had to decide whether to mass-produce labels rather than make a small batch at a time and apply them to the files, and whether or not using stickers rather than cut-outs would create a more permanent filing system depending on which material they were applied to (plastic sheaths or paper files).  I realize that this sort of decision-making is not the most exciting of skills, but it is necessary, and very important, considering the review of all of the active files that is about to take place.

Communication did turn out to be an issue this week, since I got sick in the middle of the school day – I sent an email to my mentor, stating that I would be unable to go to my internship.  However, my phone took four days to send said email, and I only realized that the email had not been sent after I had been home long enough to eat lunch, take a long nap, and start the work I would have to make up for the next day.  I flew into panic mode and called my mentor – rather foolish of me, since she would have been teaching the class at that moment – and sent another email.  Fortunately, there were only a few people in the class, so there was no want for help, and my mentor understands the many intricacies and frustrations of technology.

            My long-term goals remain as they have been – make a permanent difference in the lives of these children in whatever way I can.  As for my short-term goals, however:  it’s time for me to think of a semester project!