Seminar - Busy Day

Last week was a very busy day. Right from the start of the day we were constantly moving from meeting to meeting to testing and more. We began the day immediately with a staffing. Like other meetings, it was heavily related to the testing data. In addition, it was very critical of the student. It appeared to me like the student was given no options or choices, which had me disturbed. As the school psychologist is the advocate for the student, I felt like we did not hear the student out enough. I saw this at my previous practicum site a few times also. I think it's very important, especially at the high school level, to really understand the student before making all kinds of changes to their lives. It directly affects the student.

After the staffing, we went to a quick vocational education meeting about how the school could add more vocational opportunities (or credit recovery). After that a student was give the WAIS-III by the school psychologist. While I watched this testing situation, I did give a student the WISC-IV later in the afternoon. I was very pleased with the opportunity to do this, however the student I was given was very low functioning. It was difficult to stay within the standard boundaries of the test while working with this student. It makes me question why we even give the tests at all. I realize that the students need a recent record for life out of high school, I just wish that it did not need to include this form of assessment. Sometimes it is so obvious that a student needs supports out of high school that I wish we did not have to put them through the testing.

That being said, I tried to move away from the standardization of the test, but it was difficult with all of my training in Cognitive Assessment. Fortunately, the school psychologist could save me at certain points of explaining the directions so that at the very least the student could understand what was going on. It was a great learning experience for me because it helped me loosen up a little -- which is very necessary I think in this situation.

Aside from conducting the WISC-IV later in the day, I was also able to set up a time to meet with a teacher from the ED program I am doing my research project on -- for my consultation project. She is perfect because she is a first year teacher and has a lot of students to think of for our consultation. I met with her the next day for an hour or so to discuss the situation. I will be going in to observe her class and begin the brainstorming process for what could be going on. I like the concept of this project. It feels a tad bit unnatural to use the framework we were given, but it's a good place to start and my teacher was very understanding about the formality of it. It should be an interesting process.