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!

            This week we had a rather wide array of experiences at the Kindering center.  For example, the team had an attempt at problem solving, although it didn’t quite go as planned.  We had noticed that in previous weeks two of the less active girls seems to bring out the energy in each other when playing side by side.  This week, on Thursday, we decided to see if we could try to wake one of the girls up a little bit by placing the two together – this one student was incredibly drowsy and unresponsive during the entire class, so we had hoped that we might get some more reaction out of her if she was paired with the other quiet child.  However, we did not observe any change in energy levels in either student.  To tell the truth, neither one is very energetic in class – even when amplifying each other’s energy, they are still quiet at best on a good day – but it worth an attempt.

            Job specific skills, just like last week, were a surprise part of Thursday’s class.  In a position like Kindering, one must have one’s wits about oneself – one child, at snack time, was overly eager to eat and would not take small bites of his food.  We tried to cut his food into little pieces, but he would just put them all in his mouth at once.  As the closest supervisor, it became my responsibility to keep him from choking.  This was a delicate job, since I couldn’t tell whether he intended to take small bites or not until the food was halfway in his mouth already, at which point I had to yank the rest of it out.  I had never done such a thing before, and I was at first not very confident in my skill in such a delicate job, but it warms me that the specialists trust me to keep a child from choking on his food.  I’m just grateful that I didn’t freeze up and fail to do my job.

            Character development was one of the most prominent aspects of my week at Kindering.  One of the children was incredibly reluctant to leave his mother and much crying and tantrums ensued after she left him for class.  Despite what we had been told about handling tantrums, and despite the fact that the specific goal for this particular child this week was self-soothing, it took all of my control to keep myself from rushing to him and trying to comfort him.  I didn’t know before just how little self-control I had in this area, but being firm is certainly something I have to work on.

            Lastly, teamwork had a role at my time on site this week, except this time, the collaboration was with the mother of one of the children.  I spoke with the mother of the child I wrote about before, the drowsy one, just before that class.  She and I have been discussing how to bring the student out of her shell in class, and at the end of Thursday’s session, I reported back to her about her daughter’s progress and we spoke about her at length, comparing our observations – mine of the child when at Kindering and her mother’s of her daughter when at home.  So far, we have managed to make some progress (although not this Thursday, unfortunately), and I hope to continue to do so in the future.

Oh, for heaven's sake, I'm late again:

This week at Kindering, I was required to gain job-specific skills – specifically, dealing with a temper tantrum.  Every class, we take the children to the motor room, where they are allowed to run, climb, ride tricycles, play on slides, and jump on trampolines.  One child wanted to place one of the cars from our “roller coaster” (a small, shallow track with for small carts of glide across) on the slide and ride down the slide upon this cart.  This was incredibly dangerous, and I, as the closest supervisor, had to physically stop the child from doing so, leading to a temper tantrum.  I had never had to deal with such a situation before, so I had to quickly figure out how to get the child to calm down without giving in.  I ended up taking the cart away, but explaining to the child (while holding onto the child very firmly, to prevent him from thrashing and trying to run away) that while the cart couldn’t go on the slide, he could – by presenting an alternative, I promoted the idea that the rules could be just as fun as more dangerous forms of play.

            There have also been some developments this week in communication.  My mentor has to attend home visits right after class, so there is no time to orally present her with my observations anymore.  However, the first time this happened, I wrote down my notes about every student and left them in her mailbox, and she has decided that I can begin documenting their progress using official progress notes that will be filed with the children’s records.  This provides an efficient way to communicate with my mentor about the children while making sure that the information is kept secure.

            There was also a notable instance of teamwork and collaboration this week.  In a position such as Kindering, it is essential that the entire team is constantly on the same page and works together.  However, there was one instance that stood out to me this week – we were attempting to assess the development of one of the students.  However, each of us had only observed one aspect of the child.  When we began discussing this child at the meeting, we were able to pool all of our knowledge and even think of some new ideas as to how to treat this child’s condition in the classroom setting.

            Lastly, time management had its place among the notable developments of the week.  I have been assigned the task of making sure that all of the active and exited files on past and present patients have been properly alphabetized.  While this is not a particularly difficult task, it is very easy to drift off into a daydream while sorting through the files.  In order to ensure that I did not waste time (since I only get about an hour and a half every day to work with the file sorting), I had to keep myself muttering the first letters of each name aloud.  In this way, I was able to get through more files, quickly and efficiently.

I am so, so sorry that I waited so long to post!  My next journal will in all likelihood be up a couple days after this, but let's just pretend it's been a week, shall we?
Okay, here it is!  Week 2:

Character development comes in all forms – this week, mine came in paperwork.  I’ve always believe that I’m a patient person, and I suppose that in a way it is true.  But I am patient when doing things that I love doing.  For example, I will be incredibly patient when making a teddy bear from scratch as a birthday present.  However, paperwork was another story.  I was introduced to Kindering’s filing system, and although my mentor for this part of my internship is possibly one of the sweetest people alive, and although filing is relaxing for a while…it gets tedious quite easily.  However, I am actually very thankful to be able to find out now that I am not as patient as I used to believe, rather than later.

            Problem solving had a role in my time on site this week as well.  The classroom I was working in had too high of a ratio of adults/caregivers to children, making the children feel crowded and overwhelmed, while the adults were constantly worried about smothering the children.  As the intern, I became more of a floater, since I did not have any specific predetermined jobs to carry out, like the speech and motor therapists – I was meant to emulate them.  However, Kat, my wonderful friend who was lucky enough to get an internship at Kindering as well, has to leave, due to her father's weakened immune system -- it's probably not a good idea for her to work with kids so often.  Anyway, much as I am sorry to see her go, her classroom has almost twice the number of kids than mine, our mentors have come to an agreement – when there are too many adults in my original classroom, I will take Kat’s place in the other classroom.

            Job specific skills were, again, required this week. From my time teaching three-year-olds the basics of karate, I learned how to help a child move without hurting them.  This skill was required when working with a new student, a twenty-month-old girl.  This girl wears splints on her feet and walks with a walker.  Needless to say, she is far more comfortable crawling, and she frequently attempts to lie down or crawl when she is supposed to be trying to walk.  When this happens, I was often the one who had to help her back onto her feet and hold her gently when she tried to twist out of my grip.  I had to be a bit more careful with her because of her age and her difficulties using her legs than I did with the kids in kinderkarate, but it was the same in essence.

            Communication plays a great role in this internship as well, not just with the staff members, but with the children.  A couple of the children are echolalic, meaning that they might repeat what someone says to them, but will not really comprehend what is being said.  For example, a parent might ask “do you want some raisins?” and the child, regardless of whether or not they want raisins, or even whether or not they are hungry, they might repeat “do you want some raisins?” or perhaps just “raisins,” which would cause the adult to believe that the child actually does want raisins.  Part of the job at Kindering is understanding what the child is actually trying to say.

            My goals this week are fairly similar to last week’s goals: to learn as much as I can about each child’s disorder, as well as how I may help to treat them. My long term goal, as last time, is to see marked progress in each child’s abilities during my time with them.