How can we stop?

National Breast Cancer Awareness, Domestic Violence Awareness, Stop Cyber-Bullying are just a few of the issues that October stands for. Out of these two of them stick out to me. I thought I would pick one today to touch on since it has been in the news quite a bit these past couple of days, which is this cyber-bullying. 

A friend from high school blogged about this a couple months ago and it really got me thinking. Then this week with all of these news stories of these young kids committing suicide due to being bullied, I have thought about this issue even more.


I do agree that today kids are being bullied more than ever. These days there are more outlets to bully someone using email, text messaging, instant messaging, blogs and various social network sites. I started to think about my life and thought that I am glad that I am not a kid in today's times with all this technology. I remember back when I was in I believe third grade it was a big thing to have 6 small Apple computers in the classroom at school, which were used to play games such as Oregon Trail on our lunch breaks. Now days schools have large computer labs for students to use for typing out papers and anything else.

I like probably any other child who grows up in the world, had my share of  being bullied or teased. I was pretty chunky for my age, didn't have a whole lot of money, extremely pale skin, not athletic, and had a speech impediment. With all of these issues I was a prone target for being teased. I would come home on a daily basis in grade school in tears because some girl had called me fat or asked me if I was stupid because I couldn't form one sentence with out stumbling over easy words like dog or garden. I didn't want to go to school in times and prayed on the first day of school that some of these kids who picked on me were not going to be in my class.

I look back now and still have one saving grace and that was my mom. She put me in speech therapy from Kindergarten through fifth grade to help with my stuttering, she gave me the support I needed when I came home in tears from being picked on, and she even had me look up words in the dictionary to use when others called me names. One of the words that I learned was "rhesus" which we all know is a monkey. Well when I started to call the mean kids these wierd names...they stopped because they realized that their picking on wasn't going to phase me.

Over the years of being out of school I have come to deal with what went on in school. At one my high school class reunion, the girl who picked on me in grade school came up to me and apologized for everything that she called me and did to me. I was just shocked and blown away, but I smiled and felt like it was good. She told me that her children are starting to pick on kids at school and she is trying to correct them.

As Dr. Phil stated this week, "If you are even an innocent bystander you are still part of the problem." I am sure all of us have been on the end where we have been in the group that has teased someone else. I know that when I was in high school a classmate of mine didn't bathe on daily basis and my group of friends one day had placed bars of soap under her chair in choir. Now as a kid this is innocent, but now looking back I feel awful that I would do such a thing.

But really, if I had to go through school today with all this technology I can see why kids are attempting or commiting suicide. This has to stop. The social work side of me comes out when I hear about these stories. There needs to be groups in the schools where it is a safe haven for these children who are being teased. There needs to be some coping skills taught rather than the "don't listen to it, don't respond, and tell a trusted adult". The three steps are good starting points, but in the mean time while the teasing and what-have you is still going on...these children need to know how to deal with it. I don't know what the answer is on this, but it is something worth looking into.

If you have kids...talk with them and lets help try and stop this issue.

Cheating, I think not!!

Last night was the first night of my Social Welfare Policy class. Before class started, a classmate from my Human Behavior class from last trimester stopped by to hand me back an item that she had borrowed. I thanked her and I went back to my desk.

STOP THE TAPE....time out...let's refresh from a couple weeks ago...

Remember how last trimester my professor informed us that she was strongly encouraged by a full-time professor that the class should read Tuesdays with Morrie?? *shaking your head...right? lol* Now, remember how my own professor had told us to go out and get the book on cd/tape and listen to it so that we could discuss it on the last day of class. The full-time professor had expressed that some type of paper should included with the book. Well my professor decided since it was so late in the semester and a different paper was already assigned to not worry about a paper. 

ROLL TAPE...back to my original story...
When I got back to my desk I opened the cd case to ensure myself that all the cds were in there. I knew where my classmate was going to be just in case one of the cds was missing. The guy sitting next to me who is taking the Human Behavior class this trimester looked to see what I had. When he noticed that I had the "Tuesdays with Morrie" on cd he looked at me and called me a CHEATER!! I was mad that he would call me that with out knowing why I had that!! My response was, "How am I a cheater?" He responded with, "You have the book on cd!" and I told him, "This is what my professor asked for me! So how is that cheating?!" Oh I was upset!!! I was thinking in my head...this is not cheating even if I had to read the actual book to write a paper. It is not like I am reading the Cliffnotes of this book. The audiobook was the entire book and not an abridged version. I drive a ton so why not listen to the book, buy the book as well so that I have page numbers to refer to in the paper that is probably required?? If this guy was smart, he would go out to the Borders store this weekend, get the cds, listen to them and be done with the book!!

I was thinking that I was going to have to take an English Lit. class last term. When I told my advisor that I am a bit leery about taking the class as I am a slow reader. She said, "well maybe you could find the books on tape and listen to them while you are driving to and from work or to and from school." So obviously listening to books on tape is not a form of cheating if my own advisor is suggesting such a thing to help me in a class!!

I am ready to be done with this group of students. I wish I was in with the Seniors. Not because I want to be done with school, but more because I like the group of seniors for the social work department. *sigh*

Just eleven more weeks left of classes at Iona. I can do this. I will ignore what people may tell me to throw me off course...I will stride through and get what I came here to do.

Internship update & progression

I have been working with my Internship at ARI for almost two months now. Hard to believe that it has already been that long. Today I had my first counseling type of session with a girl that we will J. She is 21 and I was just getting to know her a little bit today to make her feel comfortable with her being around me. I took a pad and paper with me to help record how the conversation went so that if I had to do a process recording, I would have at least something to go off of. :) The session last for about 20 minutes. I thought it had only been 10 minutes and then realized that it was already 20 minutes. I will start out at 20 minutes, but will eventually have a full 30 minutes to an hour with J. My supervisor wants me to work with J to explore what she thinks a relationship is and what a friendship is. It was a good short session...we didn't break any ground quite yet. Give it a couple sessions...and then maybe I will get somewhere.

In my group work...I am observing or using behavior analysis with the special needs adults that I work with. Today the job was to help place price tags onto some shawls that will be soon sold at a store like Burlington Coat Factory. Anyways...I was sitting down next to one L who tends to have jealousy issues when other people talk to me. She will tell them to shut up or be quiet. I worked with her today though and told her that was mean of her to say to her friends and she needed to pretend other people were not making noises or talking to me. She gets distracted real easily and so I modified her job. Her job was to take the shawls out of the package, place them into a pile so that I could put the price tag on them. What did I do?? I made the job a game. I asked her to just concentrate on five bags at a time rather than the whole stack. She would then count out her five, open them, place them on the pile. I would reward her by saying, "good job! Now do another five!" She was getting antsy with about twenty minutes before lunch. I told her, "ok...lets see if you can finish that whole stack before you leave for lunch, ok?" She agreed and wanted me to time her. With this she completed the stack that she had with in 15 minutes. I was proud of her and told her she did a great job! When I left for the day (at lunch time for her), I told her, "Now when you come back from lunch, I am not going to be here. So just pretend I am sitting right here and asking you to do five at a time." She liked that idea and I told her that I would check back in with her on Monday when I am in next.

When my group goes to lunch, I head upstairs to talk to my field supervisor and give him the run down on what has happened. He was impressed that I worked with L and made some type of progress. He said, "see! you are using the behavior analysis that I have been teaching you for the past two months!" I felt that finally all of this is clicking. I am just hoping that I will get my full 100 hours in by May. At this point...it will be awhile as I only work 2.5-3.25 hours each time I go in. I know that the readings that I am doing is counting towards my hours as well. I would have more hours in if this snow would not have came so often.

Selling Open Adoption??

Monday evening in class my social work professor had myself and my two other classmates do a role play as a social worker in the field that we want to go into. Therefore I played a social worker who was working in an adoption agency. I envisioned myself being in an open adoption. here is how the role play situation went down....

Me: Hi my name is Amy. What brings you here today?

Idelle: Hi, my name is Idelle and I want to know about adoption.

Me: What have you heard about adoption? What are the good and bad things you have heard?

Idelle: I have not heard anything about adoption.

Me: Ok, since you have not heard anything about adoption, I will explain the three different types. Open, Semi-Open, and Closed.

Idelle: ok...

Me: Closed is when the child and birthparent have no idea who each other are. the child grows up not knowing anything about the birthparent. Semi-open is when the birth parent has limitations on contact with the child. Open adoption is probably the best option for all parties involved. The child, birth parent, and adoptive parents all have open contact from the get go.

Idelle: ok..

Me: Do you have any questions for me?

Idelle: no. I was just curious.

Me: Are you the one who is pregnant or are you inquiring for someone else?

Idelle: Not for me, but my daughter who is 25 and pregnant.

Me: Do you think your daughter would be open to coming in to talk with me?

Idelle: Probably not because of the situation of how she became pregnant.

Me: Ok, thanks for letting me know.

End of role play.

At this time my professor reflected on the role play. She asked me, "do you think you were trying to tell your client that Open Adoption is the BEST way for everyone?" "Do you think that you were 'selling' open adoption to your client?" I said, "i do not think i was selling open adoption. i envisioned myself sitting in an open adoption agency. therefore open adoption agencies advocate for open adoptions, but it is the choice of the birth parent of what level of openness she wants with her child." I also had red flags go up when the client told me that she was inquiring for her daughter who as 25, and yet the daughter didn't want to come in due to the way of how she became pregnant. I was thinking, "Why is the mother coming in?? What is the real reason of why the daughter is not coming in? Is the client not wanting her daughter to be a mom?" I know that all of these questions would come in later with answers.

Ever since my professor asked me if i was  "selling" open adoption, it got me thinking. Were all of us open adoption birthmothers sold to choose open adoption?? I personally do not think I was. I knew walking into the agency doors that the agency does open adoptions. I did my homework before entering the agency. So here are my questions that I need to ask about. "How does a social worker phrase things in a way that don't sound to be 'sold'? How does one learn to not pass judgement on a mother just coming into the office and inquiring about the different types of adoption?"

I know that I have a lot to learn. :)

Feeling unproductive today

I am not feeling 100% today which is a bad thing. I have to complete that psychology disorders paper today since it is due tomorrow. *sigh* I had to go to the urgent care this morning to get meds for yet another bladder infection. I hate feeling crappy on days like today when I have so much other stuff to be doing.

On the note of the paper...i would normally be done with it by now. For some reason though this paper has been extremely difficult to write. the stuff i have written down just seems jumbled. thank goodness it is only a five paged double spaced paper...but this is like pulling teeth for me right now. anyone want to write it for me?? no...i am just kidding. I will write it, turn it in and hope for a reasonable grade...even if that would be a "B".

not much else to report today. i had a social work junior field placement orientation yesterday. i think i would have rather put needles in my eyes only because i have been with my internship for about a month now. oh well...it is part of the class and so that is what is required for me to do.

"Tuesday with Morrie" - Amazing book!!

Today I listened to the entire audio book version of "Tuesdays with Morrie" by Mitch Albom. I am one who normally does not listen to audio books, but it was encouraged by my human behavior professor. At last minute she was told that our class was highly encouraged for the students to read it. Since it is so late in the term, Dr. Grosset told the three of us to go and find the audio version as it would a quick listen. Our job would be to pay attention to the "biopsychosocial" dimension for both Mitch and Morrie. In the social work class this is what we have been studying the whole term, so it is fitting to have to pick out these for the story.

The audio version is on 4 cds. I put it in my car this morning and started the first disc on my way down to my internship. With in the first ten minutes of the cd I had tears streaming down my face. I knew that it was about a student having meetings with his ailing professor, but I didn't know of what. I soon found out that the professor was suffering ALS which is also known as Lou Gehrig's disease. I guess I thought about how my grandfather has Parkinson's Disease and it is really starting to take over him. By the time I was halfway home from my internship I was on the second cd. I had class tonight and so on my way down I finished the second cd and started the third. I was drawn into the story and was surprised in how good it actually was. I remember it being a very popular book back when I was in high school but didn't want to read it as I am not one who buys books because of the popularity or hype that one my have. Maybe that is why I never got sucked into the Harry Potter or Twilight books. Anyways...when I got to school I knew I didn't have much left of the third cd. I wanted to just sit in my car and listen to the rest of the cd. If it would have been warmer I probably would have done just that. I could not wait until class was over so that I could jump back into my car and get sucked back into the world of Mitch and Morrie. I finished the story just before I got home. Such an amazing book. It is about life, love, death, and what one should do before passing on. It is about the friendship between the student and professor that was created from the first class back in the '70s when the student was a freshman in Morrie's sociology class and how the friendship developed over the years, then fell to the backwoods to pick back up when Morrie was dying from ALS.

With completing this book I also think back to which professors, instructors, or teachers had made a great impact on my life. Which ones took the time to sit and actually care if I was learning more than what was being taught in class. I enjoyed my own Sociology professor this Fall term, which I am sure I will think of himk now everytime the McDonaldization topic comes up in conversation or if I see it in movies. There are just some people who make lasting impressions that will never leave us.

For my readers who have not read this book, please do!! What an awesome book. If you read the book it will be a quick read as it is only about 200 pages. If you listen to the audio version it will consist of four compact disks.

Temporary Home - Carrie Underwood

Last night when I was driving down to school, I changed the music channel on my radio. I was getting bored with what I had been listening to and flipped it over to one of the country xm stations. Carrie Underwood's new song came on the radio and the lyrics really hit me. I listened to them and thought of how each situation is one that a social worker would interact with. The first verse is about a little boy who is in the foster care system, the second verse is about a homeless mom with her kids, and the last verse is about an elderly man who is in his last days of life. All of these are part of the social work system. Foster Care workers, Homeless shelter workers or a worker who helps homeless people get back up on their feet, and then hospice care, nursing home workers. As a social worker we need to see how we can help better our clients and the people we interact with on an every day basis.

Thought I would share the video and the lyrics of this song for you to sit and think about.

Temporary Home Lyrics

Little boy, 6 years old
A little too used to bein' alone
Another new mom and dad,another school
Another house that'll never be home
When people ask him how he likes this place
He looks up and says with a smile upon his face

"This is my temporary home
It's not where I belong
Windows and rooms that I'm passin' through
This is just a stop, on the way to where I'm going
I'm not afraid because I know this is my
Temporary Home."

Young mom on her own
She needs a little help got nowhere to go
She's lookin' for a job, lookin' for a way out
Because a half-way house will never be a home
At night she whispers to her baby girl
Someday we'll find a place here in this world

"This is our temporary home
It's not where we belong
Windows and rooms that we're passin' through
This is just a stop, on the way to where we're going
I'm not afraid because I know this is our
Temporary Home."

Old man, hospital bed
The room is filled with people he loves
And he whispers don't cry for me
I'll see you all someday
He looks up and says "I can see God's face."

"This is my temporary Home
It's not where I belong
Windows and rooms that I'm passin' through
This was just a stop,on the way To where I'm going
I'm not afraid because I know this was
My temporary home."

This is our temporary home

Internship - Session 2

This morning I went and worked at my internship for about two and a half hours. Most would say that is a pretty short shift, but my field instructor advised me that I would get more hours later on. Today I worked again with the special needs population down in the Production area. Today they did have a job to work on, so no Bingo today. Today their job was to put together a game for a store to sell. What game?? It is called "Get Bombed". As I looked over it a little more closely...it is the official "beer pong" game. I kid you not. If you play this game you can go to Getbombed.com to check it all out. So what was my job?? Well I worked in the last station that placed the little clear seals on the boxes and also the price tag for the stores to scan when a customer wants to purchase the game. I am assuming that this game would be sent to a store like Hot Topic or Spencer's. After two hours of working in the Production room, I went upstairs to talk to my field instructor. We talked a little about the readings he had given me last week. I am working on one chapter for each meeting. The readings are about challenging behaviors that I will experience when I am working in the Production area and as well out in the field. I also met the field supervisor that takes teams out to work in the area for cleaning and landscaping. I will go out tomorrow with one of the cleaning crews to see another aspect of what ARI does in the community with this certain population.

I hope that my other classmates will all experience a type of internship like mine, rather than get stuck filing papers and making coffee!!

Memento of my life story...

In my social work class that I am in right now we have a weekly journal entries that we turn in for grading. Most of the time the journal entries are about the weekly reading and our understanding of the biophysical, psychological, and social dimensions of the multidimensional approach. This week our weekly journal entry question was to describe some sort of memento that represents our life story. At first I thought this would be easy to do until I sat down to type out the entry. I thought for awhile and found that I could not just choose one item, so I chose four. Here is my weekly journal entry for this week.

After reading the topic for this journal entry, I would have thought this one would be easy.  I am drawing a blank on what would represent my own sense of meaning that represents my personal story in life.  A few things come in mind.  These things would be a moving truck, a violin and two journals.

Each different person would look at my list and wonder why I chose such different items, rather than just one.  I cannot just place one item for my whole life story as each item has a significant part of my life story.

Let me explain the moving truck.  I have done a lot of moving in my life. I was born in Nebraska and lived there until I was four and a half years old.  When I was four and a half, my parents decided it was time to move out to Oregon where my maternal grandparents were living at the time.  When living in Oregon, my family moved around quite a bit until I was in second grade.  I was constantly changing schools every year and it was hard, as I would have to make new friends, which was hard for me since I was extremely shy.  In second grade though, my parents bought a house and are still living there today.  When I was almost 21 years old, I moved out of my parent’s house to learn how to live on my own with a friend.  That year was one of the roughest years of my life due to an emotionally abusive relationship with a guy who I had been engaged to. At almost 22, I moved back home for another couple of years.  I then lived with my little sister until she moved to Olympia, Washington to be closer to Fort Lewis which her husband would be stationed at once he returned home from Iraq.  When I was almost 26 years old, I moved from Oregon to Arizona so that I could live in the same city as my husband (fiance at the time) while he was finishing his doctoral program at University of Arizona.  This was the first time I had lived more than thirty minutes from any type of family.  Rob and I were then married in 2007 and then moved out to Connecticut for three years.  Shortly after the spring term of 2010 at Iona, I will be packing up my house again and moving to somewhere else.  I am getting good at moving, as it seems I have not been in one spot for a long time.

The next item would be a violin.  I started playing the violin when I was in 5th grade.  I remember asking my parents if I could learn this instrument.  They agreed with the understanding of I had to stick with it for the entire year.  I found it difficult, but I loved it.  I played the violin then from fifth grade clear through my senior year in high school.  I was more of an average violin player, but I was just playing it for fun. By playing the violin, I gained the appreciation of classical music.  I do not have a violin anymore as I donated them to my local high school a couple years after graduation to ensure that another child would be able to have the experiences I did with the violin.

The last thing would be two journals.  Ever since I was probably in fourth grade, I have written in a journal.  My mom found that it was a positive expression of one person by writing down their daily activities in a journal.  She said that she could always tell when I was not journaling, as I seemed more stressed than normal.  Today I have two journals that I work with.  I have my own personal journal that is written in when I get a chance to sit down and meditate, while the other journal is for Kaylee.  Ever since she was just a newborn, I have written her letters in this journal.  I started when she was only a couple days old, explained why I placed her and how much I loved being able to call her my own when we were in the hospital.  After placement, I wrote to her about once a week, and then changed it to once a month, then every time I had a visit with her, and now I try to write something down on any major holiday, birthday or activity.  When she is old enough, I will give her the journal for her to see that I never gave up on her.  When writing in the journals, I imagined myself sitting across the table from her and having a conversation.  I put in what my favorite movies were at the time, my favorite movie stars were, and what the big music craze was.  I feel that journaling is almost a written time capsule.  Each person uses his or her own journal differently. 

So as you can see each item holds a different value with my life story. I am sure if you looked back onto where you have been you would have different things than I.

Where am I moving to?

I find it kind of funny now. I tell people that I am moving and their first response is, "Oh really? Where to?" I then respond with, "I don't know! But I will be moving in late May to sometime in June." They look at me as if I am crazy and carry on with a new conversation. I thought I would fill everyone in on the schools that Rob has applied at. Rob and I are both hoping to know where he will be teaching in the fall by late April and early May at the latest. I am excited about the change as it is yet another adventure to my life. Rob promised me when we got married that I would have an adventure and it sure has been so far. :)

Below is the list of schools that Rob has applied to. I like just about all of them, as most of them have a social work program of some sort. :) The ones with a star next to them are the ones that I am personally hoping for.

School	City/State
Southern Indiana University	Evansville, IN
Univ of Arkansas - Little Rock	Little Rock, AR
Shippensburg Univ	Shippensburg, PA
USF Polytechnic	Lakeland, FL
Elon University	Elon, NC
Cleveland State	Cleveland, OH
Penn State	University Park, PA
Ohio Univ	Athens, OH
Southern Polytechnic State	Marietta, GA
Black Hills State	Spearfish, SD
*Oregon Institute of Technology	Klamath Falls, OR
Tarleton State	Stephenville, TX
*Belmont	Nashville, TN
*Savannah State	Savannah, GA
Robert Morris	Moon Township, PA
*Pacific Lutheran	Tacoma, WA
Metropolitan State College of Denver	Denver, CO
Augsburg College	Minneapolis, MN
*Univ of Washington, Bothell	Bothell, WA
Utah Valley University	Orem, UT
*Univ of Texas at Dallas	Dallas, TX
*Western Carolina	Cullowhee, NC
*Oklahoma Baptist	Shawnee, OK
*University of Oregon	Eugene, OR
*Minot State University	Minot, ND
*University of Louisville	Louisville, KY
*University of Colorado - Pueblo	Pueblo, CO

Rob has heard back from Un. of Arkansas with a "Sorry we have filled the position" type of letter. So that one is out of the running. But we still have quite a few good schools on the list. He has heard back from a few just confirming that they have received his application. A lot of schools have been on Winter Break, so hopefully this week he will start hearing some more feedback from some of these schools. Some of the applications had to be sent via US Postal service rather than electronically.

Internship

Today was day one of my junior placement internship at ARI of Connecticut. For a full review of what I will be doing at my internship please read this post first (Junior Social Work Placement).

I met with my supervisor at 930am. He went over what I will be doing for the next couple of weeks while I am at ARI. He told me that for the first two hours of my day I will start down in the production area and work with Renee who is the production supervisor. Then I will spend 30 minutes with my field supervisor discussing how I am feeling and learning while I am down in the production area in addition to the readings that he has given me. The readings that I will be taking a look at will help my learning of how to respond to people who are mentally disabled and what behaviors to look for to help correct if needed.

My two hours today in the production room was fun. I was with Renee and she said that when there is no mailings to do or any other paid projects to do, then she has her group of adults play games to keep them busy for the day. Today we played Emotional Bingo. Basically BINGO with pictures of emotions on each square rather than numbers. Renee let me run the game which I found fun. Today there were close to 12 or 13 people in production room today. When I came into the room, Renee told me that everyone was on break and so they will be surprised and excited to see me as I am someone new for class. One by one everyone started to filter in. They all noticed me quickly and came up and said hello, asked me my name, and some tried to make small talk. I could tell that some of the mentally challenged adults were more higher functioning than others. I noticed that some had downs syndrome, a few may have had a mood disorder, and I think a few may have been autistic. As I get more comfortable with Renee, I think I will ask if she knows what each person is challenged with only so that I can have a better idea on how to respond to each adult in the production room.

12pm ended my session down in the production room as it is lunch time. I wandered back up to my field supervisors office to see what he had for me next. He had the full reading packet for me and so he went through the entire reading packet with me. He and I agreed that I would come in Mondays and Wednesdays from 10-1230 for now. My reading part will consist part of the remaining hours each day as I need to have 8 hours per week until I have 100 hours completed.

I am looking forward to next week when I can go again. :)

Open, Semi, and Closed Adoptions? English Please!

As part of the adoption world these three terms are used over and over again. When someone outside of the adoption world hears these words they may not know what they all mean. This happened last night in my social work class when my professor explained that she is an adoptive mother of two children. One adoption is open and one is closed. Her daughter's adoption started out closed and when she was a couple years old the birth grandmother contacted my professor to see if the adoption could be opened. My professor was ok with this but she said, "Now if you come in to be grandma to my daughter you will be grandma to my son as he will not udnerstand since he has a closed adoption." The birth grandmother agreed and understood why my professor would ask of this.

Once my professor got done telling her story, a classmate of mine asked what an open adoption was verses any other type of adoption. My professor asked me if I would like to answer this. I grinned and said, "Sure!" I explained the differences of each type of adoption.

For my readers who do not know the difference, I will tell you also the difference. I feel like everyone should know the difference due to the up rise of celebrities adopting and the talk of adoption in many prime time shows on each network lately.

First let's start with Closed Adoptions. A closed adoption is when the birth parent & adoptive parent have no idea who each other is. Closed adoptions would be international adoptions and any adoption that took place before probably 1980. I could be wrong on this date, as I am not an expert.

The second type of adoption is called Semi-Open. Semi-Open adoptions are when the birth mother and the adoptive families know who each party is. The birthmother may recieve pictures, emails, and letters of the child through out its life with out any visits. The information of each party is limited such as an address or phone number. Contact may be sent through the adoption agency to help keep information seperate.

The third and final of adoption is an Open Adoption. Open adoption are when all parties involved know all vital information. The birth mother recieves pictures, letters, emails, cards, visits from the adoptive family and child. The adoptive family is chosen by the birthmother where as in a closed adoption the adoptive family may choose the child.

Open adoptions are becoming more and more popular these days. This option is the best option for all parties. The child knows both families through out their life and there are no hidden questions. This is why I chose to place Kaylee into an open adoption. I wanted to be able to see her grow up while I gave her a better life than what I could have ever given her. I know that she will be able to come ask me questions when she gets older and I will be completely honest with her. She will not go her life wondering who she looks like, where she came from and so on.

Classes up and running...

Today classes start back up today for me, where most college students still have another two to three weeks of vacation. I have a class this evening and then again on Thursday evening. Today I will be finishing up some reading that I have put off to the last minute in addition to a write up on the chapter that I have to read. Tomorrow and Wednesday I will start to study for my Psychology test. The test should be pretty easy as it is just on the 12 disorders that we have went over so far in class.

Tonight's class is my social work: human behavior class. Myself and the two other students in the class are working on a group project through out the class. The project is to raise a child (fictitiously of course) from conception to death over the entire class. Each student has three installments. This week I will be presenting on Infancy. The child we are raising is a Japanese female who was born just after the second world war. I pretty much explain to the class the stages of infancy while adding a story about Tobi and her parents and other family members. Part of the assignment is that the child we raise has to be from a different ethnic background from any of the group members. Hence the reason why we chose a Japanese ethnicity. The project is interesting as it forces the students to learn about another culture while learning the boring items of how a human behaves and develops.

Junior Social Work Placement Interview....

Today, I went for my Junior Social Work Field placement interview. My placement coordinator emailed me last Thursday about an agency located in Stamford, CT that worked with the special needs population. The placement sounded very interesting and so she encouraged me to call and set up a meeting with the supervisor. My interview was at ARI of Connecticut with a man named Carey. This agency helps the special needs population learn how to be independent with in their own community. They do job placements, training classes as well. The interview went pretty well. By talking to Carey, I learned what my duties would be as an intern at ARI. My biggest fear of an internship would be spending 8 hours a week filing papers, making coffee, and anything else that is not related to my field of a social worker. Carey explained that I will have many different things to do for my internship. 50% of my time I will be working with another supervisor down in the production department (a department where their clients work in a mail room by folding papers and placing them in envelopes and getting them ready for the mail), I will then also act as an observer in a field work area where some of the more skilled special needs clients are doing landscaping or cleaning jobs out in the community and bascially observing how this process works, another item I will be doing is taking on my own client case to work with, and lastly do some readings and training on the special needs population. I will also do some observing in the classrooms to see how their training classes are ran for the special needs clientele. I am excited for all of this, but freaked out at the same time. I now this is normal only because it is different and to think that I will have my own client is probably the most scary thing I can think of right now. I just do not feel prepared enough, but I guess I will learn fist hand. I will start in early January, though, where as most of my other classmates for junior placement will not start until Feb or early March. The reason why I will be starting early is because with working with the special needs population, it is hard for them to understand why a worker is coming in and then leaving so quickly. Which is to be expected. My field placement will consist of 4 hours two days a week, so basically 8 hours a week until the month of May. I only have to put in 100 hours for my junior placement, but where I will be starting earlier, I will probably have a little bit more than that.

It's Been A While...

It has been awhile since I posted here last. I guess life has gotten busy and I just can't find the time to sit down and blog. These next two weeks will be probably two of the busier weeks for me, though. The Fall Trimester is coming to a close and so the paper deadlines are drawing near. I fortunately have only one paper due, but that is still alot when the paper is quite a bit of the grade in the class. The paper is for my Social Work: Processes I class and I had to choose a field of practice in which social workers work in. I chose adoption agencies only because that is my passion. The first part of the paper is to do a lit review on what is going on in the field of practice. For example: explaining what the field of practice is, which population is being served, what types of services are offered, what are the roles of the social worker in this field, and so on. The second part of the paper is to describe the interview that we had to do with someone who is in this field of practice that we chose. Since I am friends with my own adoption placement social worker, I emailed her to see if I could interview her. She aggreed and so I gleefully sent along my questions. Finally the paper asks what I have learned about this field and if my interests have increased for this field. All of this is due by the 12th of November. Alright...no big deal. I have been good and actually started the paper way before it is due. I am giving myself a personal deadline for the 7th of November only so that the paper can sit for a day or two and then be worked over again if needed. When one person writes a paper it is normally done linear. I on the other hand jump out of this norm and work on the segments that are the easiest first. With this being said, I have completed the introduction and the interview portion of the paper done. What I will struggle with is the list review only because it is hard for me to put the words down on paper. I find myself trying to answer the questions but sounding as if I am a freshman in HS, which is not what I need to do. So for awhile I may just get some words on the paper and see how it looks. I am sure this is what authors do when they write a book. I do know that my professor has said that the majority of the paper will probably focus on the interview, so that makes me feel a little bit better. I just need to do the hard stuff and try not to over think it.

Other than school...life seems to be going pretty well, I think. Rob and I went to Texas a couple weeks ago, so that he could attend a conference in Houston. The weekend before the conference, we drove over to San Antonio to visit my sister's family. My parents were visiting my sister as well. It was great to see everyone. While in San Antonio we visited the Alamo and also walked along the Riverwalk. While walking along the Riverwalk we found a really great little mexican food cafe. Rob and I were in heaven while the rest of my family thought it was ok, as they are not really into mexican food. Houston was hot and muggy...but that is normal for that area of Texas. On the last full day in Houston, we went out to Johnson Space Center (NASA) for a couple of hours. I found it interesting but yet I wished that there was more for civilians to see while at the center. :) That evening we went to Lakewood Christian Church which is where Joel Olsteen preaches. He was not there that night, but it was still cool to go to his church. How cool be able to spread the gospel to 66,000 people at one time under one roof. Well it is more than that due to the church services being podcasted, televised, and so forth...but you know what I mean. So overall it was a good trip.

This weekend, Rob and I are headed out to Ohio to spend it with my inlaws. We are going to celebrate Thanksgiving early due to my inlaws spending the winter months out in Arizona with my sister-in-law. I am jealous that they will be in warm weather while I will be burried in snow this winter, I am sure.

Well I should get back to writing that paper that I took a break from so that I could write this blog. :) 

October = Pumpkins and Fall!

 
October already? Really? As I am excited for it to be October I am sad as well, because of how fast this past year has gone. I do like this time of year though. I never thought that I would like Fall, but with living up in the New England area, I find myself anticipating the changing of the leaves on the trees. Growing up in Oregon I saw trees change colors, but I never saw full mountain sides in full firey reds, yellows, and oranges. My house has been in full fall decor for the past several weeks, and I know soon Rob and I will be packing up the fall items and putting up the three christmas trees and all of the winter decorations through out the house.

The weather is getting much cooler outside. I am having to pull out my long sleeved shirts and sweaters to wear. I wish that I worked at a job where I could wear my sweaters and cute long sleeved shirts. I know that though in just a few years, I will have that luxury. So for now, I wear my cute stuff on the days that I am at school for the day or on my days off from work when I am out and about. :)

So what brings to the month of October? Rob and I are headed to Texas next weekend! I am very excited about this. We leave next Friday and then will return the following Thursday. Rob has a conference in Houston and so we are headed down a couple days earlier to spend the weekend with my sister's family and my parents. I am excited to see all of them. It will be my first time to San Antonio and also Houston. As part of the conference during the week, we will be going to Johnson Space Center. I think that will be very cool to visit.

Not much else going on. School is going well. I have about a month left for my Social Work class. Hard to believe that I am almost done with one of the classes this term. This week we were assigned to our "Triad" groups in class. In these "Triad" groups we are learning how to be the social worker and learn different aspects of an interview process and helping process with a client. This week we learned the "Open Ended Questions" method. To begin though each person in the group had to think of a current problem that they feel comfortable sharing about with their group to help their "social worker" help the "client". Each time we are the "client" in the scenario each week, we will use this problem as our base. Since there are 13 students in my class there is an extra person for one of the "triad" groups. This extra person is part of my group but will act as the floater for a group if they are missing one of their "triad" members that week. This is all going to be very interesting. I am happy for who is in my "triad" group and I do not have to worry about having that rude girl who cut me off couple weeks ago be in my group. yay! Sociology is going well, despite my professor being ill the past couple of class meetings. We are behind on the class work, but he is still expecting us to be caught up in the readings or ahead, so when the time comes to talk about the readings all students have it completed. Our first paper was due on Thursday. Just moments before my class started I over heard my professor talking to a student from the previous class about the paper that was currently due. By listening to what was suppose to be in the paper by my professor, I realized that I forgot to put the last required part in the paper!! The last part was my own opinion about the article which we had to write on! I feel like a complete idiot!! You know how you keep reading something that you have written and in your head you say, "Something is missing. I don't know what it is...but there is something missing!" Well I did that all weekend and kept drawing a blank. Well the blank wall completely filled my head. Grumble!!! So here I turned in a paper that is only 2/3rds done. I hope that I can manage a decent grade as the papers are weighted pretty good. I just was so embarrassed. I didn't say anything to my professor as he was being bogged down by other student's excuses of why their paper was not being turned in. So it is now just a wait and see. I still feel dumb and I am sure I will feel dumb until my next paper is due. I know for sure the next paper will have the opinion included!!

That is all I have for now. Until next time...

Is it that hard?

One part to my social work class is on an online database called Blackboard. For those of you who do not know what Blackboard is, it is simply an online classroom forum. Once a week I have to post my answers to a question that is provided by my professor. Then once a week I must respond to three other student's postings. From now on, I almost hope that no one responds to my own postings. There is no word limit or minimum for the responses. I find myself annoyed reading my fellow classmates responses to my postings or to someone's posting. I find myself reading responses like, "I really like your post because you used the word care. As social workers we must care for our client's problems." I know it is only one part of the class, but come on!! I had a discussion on Facebook with some friends about this and one of my friends who uses Blackboard for her seventh & eighth graders admitted that her students have more fulfilling responses to another student's posting. I just feel as if I am back in grade school when reading the replies to the posts.

This past Thursday for class, I had to sit through a Library Orientation. I think that I would have rathered plucked my eye-lashes out than sit through this, as I already know how search in a library database to find books or journal articles. I did learn though in the orientation where else I could look for journal articles on the databases. There were a few databases that I had never thought about using. So that was useful to use. After the librarian finished talking she went around the room to see if students needed help. A girl sitting behind me was completely clueless, as if it was her first time using the databases. I do not think I could ever go into IT and actually have to help people like the girl who sat behind me. I would probably find myself slamming my head against the wall as I was telling someone how to do something.

I did learn that it is highly recommended for Social Work students to gain membership with the National Association of Social Workers (NASW) and that students get a discounted price for the membership. I talked to Rob about on the way home from school Thursday evening, and he said, "Do it! Sign up..this will give you an advantage when you are looking for a job!" He also encouraged me to go to any of the NASW conferences to help myself network with other people who may be hiring with in the next couple of years. So I think that I will go ahead and sign up. He said that when he was a PhD student he had signed up with a couple different organizations as the membership dues were so cheap for students. I doubt any of my other classmates will sign up, but why not get involved and do some networking and some help while I am still learning about the whole field of Social Work.

School - 1 week down...how many weeks until December?

Week one of classes did not kill me, but I know if I get behind on ANY of my readings for my two classes, I will be dead before the end of the term.

Sociology is going to be very interesting to me. I guess I am one who likes to learn about other human groups. :) It is an introductory class, and so I will just get a basic overview of what Sociology is. This class requires three books, which are all read through out the term. I will have two papers, a midterm, and a final for this class. My first paper is due towards the end of September. I have the choose one article from the assigned book to write about. I will use the article to analyze the topic along with using another required textbook. I think I will write about the Amish and how they fit in today's society. I find the Amish culture very interesting. Most of you probably do not know this, but I actually have Amish heritage from Holmes County, Ohio. Scary thing is, that is where Rob grew up. So wierd, I know. The second paper will be similar to the first but I will be told to use a different assigned book.

Social Work is going to be a very time consuming class. There are two books required along with a CD-Rom and PDF files from the Blackboard school site. For those of you who don't know what Blackboard is...it is an online Forum based teaching tool that alot of Colleges and Universities use to bring in an Hybrid part of the class. My professor is having the students read a chapter in one desired book or pdf file, then the students will discuss it on blackboard each week. We then have to respond to two or three of our classmates postings. Along with all of this there are 4 quizzes, 1 large term paper, and then a Report Analasis fromk our practice in class group work. Each week we will break off into an assigned group of three and work on a certain emotion. One person will be the client, the other will be the social worker, and the third person is the observer who will give pointers for the social worker on what needs to be said or not said. This class teaches us the first basic model in working with clients in a social worker setting. The term paper for this class will be on a social work profession of our choice. I think that I will choose the social worker position in an Adoption Agency. I am hoping that my professor gives more detail soon on what she wants in this term paper. I have heard horror stories about this class from my social work classmates who are now seniors. I miss having those classmates in class with me, this year!!

So that is it for the first week of class. :)