MSPP Student Voices

I am officially a school psychology nerd. Tomorrow I will be giving a full cognitive assessment to a first grade student, and I’m excited! Who knew intelligence testing could be so thrilling? This will be my first full case to complete at my site, and the first evaluation of a student not yet in special education. The results of my work will largely determine his educational future. Gulp!

But – this is a student I know well, and I will be able to put considerable time into his assessment – more time than perhaps I would as a full-time practicing school psychologist who is juggling 5 evaluations, 6 counseling cases, 2 social skills groups, multiple IEP meetings, consultation office hours, mental health team trainings, and other duties. While I know this case will be complicated, and that I will look to my supervisors and others at the school for guidance, I’m confident that I can put my best foot forward and complete a sound assessment. I will also have the opportunity to observe, in the field, many of the theories and concepts we have learned this year. My acquired knowledge about learning disabilities, ADHD, cognitive assessment, elementary school curriculum, brain function, school supports, social-emotional learning, speech and language development, motor coordination, family-school collaboration, report-writing, special education, and bayblades (they’re the hot new toy – look ‘em up) will all come into play. Better go shine my shoes and sharpen my pencils without erasers. Nerd alert!

This week marks our last full week of classes. We are done with 9 hour Mondays, bidding adieu to our Tuesday and Wednesday nights, and beginning to look ahead to our finals and first year exam. I admit that, at the beginning of this semester, I viewed a couple of the class syllabi with outright horror. I could not begin to imagine completing some of the laborious, new, and intimidating assignments. A full case study? A Functional Behavioral Assessment? Those are the things that real school psychologists do! How can I possibly be ready to to it, too?
Looking back I almost feel as though there was some illusion, some magic trick involved. Voila! We have cast a spell and magically stuffed years of learning into your turbo charged brain!
In fact, I have put in the effort and gained skills rapidly. Importantly, however, I have done so with a little help from my friends & the MSPP community. So thanks- thanks to my cohort of wildly supportive, always willing to laugh at 6:50 pm, bagel bringing and Bananagram playing friends. Thanks to my professors, whose high level of expectations and precariously balanced workload energized our learning. Thanks to all of my advisors/supervisors, from the program director to the 3rd year intern at my field site. Thanks to my family & loved ones, and to my dog, who made it impossible to stay in any sort of work induced coma.
Cue the orchestra…

School psychology is a relatively unknown field, and is certainly not often talked about in the popular media. There are T.V. shows, movies, and mini-series about teachers, principals, doctors, clinical psychologists, police officers, lawyers, politicians, chefs, models, and even tornado-chasers (think Twister). Social workers make frequent appearances in the media (portrayed in both negative and positive lights); for better or worse I have yet to see a school psychologist in action in film or on T.V.

However, I recently saw a wonderful film, which I viewed as the closest thing there is to a school-psychology movie. Mary and Max is a claymation feature about two lonely outcasts who become pen pals by chance, and communicate across oceans through hand-written letters and lovingly prepared packages.

At one point, Max writes to Mary about his newly discovered condition – Asperger’s syndrome. His description is well-illustrated (thanks to the wonders of intricate clay forms), easy to understand, comprehensive, and funny.

You can see the clip here:

The ultimate lesson of the film is that we as humans have many quirks– to be truly happy with who we are, we must accept these eccentricities, and find friends who accept us as we are. Max sums it up when he tells Mary, “Dr. Bernard Hazelhof said if I was on a desert island, then I would have to get used to my own company – just me and the coconuts. He said I would have to accept myself, my warts and all, and that we don’t get to choose our warts. They are part of us and we have to live with them. We can, however, choose our friends, and I am glad I have chosen you.”

And this in essence, is the work of school psychologists. To work with children and adolescents in an encouraging way, so that they and their teachers can accept, account for, and adapt to their differences – whether they be cognitive, physical, emotional, social, or medical. School psychologists strive to help students with a spectrum of diverse traits, needs, interests, and personalities be successful in school and in their social environments – hopefully with the company of at least one good friend along the way. Movie night, anyone?

St. Elmo’s Fire is a truly terrific movie about a group of seven friends who are startled to find the transition from college to the real world to be surprisingly difficult. They must learn to break away from sheltering parents, cope with compromising ideals to pay the bills, and for the first time, truly stand on their own two feet. Many of them understand, for the first time, that they have yet to discover who they truly are.
Now, the fact that this is a Brat Pack flick in all its glory and that the 80s tunes snaking through the background is a huge bonus. But the central reason that I love this movie is that while there are numerous high school and even college angst films, Hollywood seems to ignore the truly terrifying post graduation limbo in which many of us find ourselves. What do we do now? How do we start the rest of our lives?
In hindsight, while I may not have had as much difficulty as Emilio Esteves or Demi Moore, I absolutely coasted for a few years and took my time selecting my future profession. Now, though, I am positively amazed at how far a single year of graduate school has propelled me. I feel very competent, have begun to follow my own cases from start to finish, and am happy to find that I like coming in to school in the mornings. I am making informed, educated decisions on how to proceed with each child, rather than making stabs in the dark. I think that making the decision to move forward is half the battle: once you’ve begun, everything begins to come together.
I have yet to find a Hollywood movie about a group of friends living successful, contented lives, let alone one set to 80s music. I guess viewers would find it predictable and boring- but I do hope that there is a large group of people out there who would see themselves in it!

We are honing in on April break here at MSPP – which falls a mere 2 weeks before the end of the semester. While I had no specific plans for April break, a turn of events has changed that. I plan to be SLEEPING. I have been sick for the past 3 weeks or so, and a couple of weeks ago I learned that I have mono. Ew! I thought I was too OLD for mono (plus, it’s not like I’ve been playing spin-the-bottle in my free time!).

Getting mono towards the end of my first year of graduate school was certainly not on my agenda, but I’m finding my professors – and classmates- to be both accommodating and compassionate. They have agreed to allow me extra time to complete assignments, understand when I can’t make it to class, and genuinely care that I’m feeling crummy. While I may need an incomplete or two to make it through, I think most of my work will still get done on time.  So, although I’m crossing my fingers that I won’t miss the tail end of this semester, I feel supported by my professors (and fellow students) to help me along if I do. And now, nap time…..zzzzzzzzzzzzzzz……..