it's too late, too much to forget about
So apparently it's been awhile since I updated again. It doesn't seem like it's been two weeks, because they've kind of flown by, but at the same time, it has been a jam-packed busy busy busy two weeks.
Let's start with the new job, since I don't believe I've talked about that yet. Nope, I couldn't have, since the last time I wrote was the day before it started. :p I'm not sure how many details I gave you guys about the place I'm working when I interviewed and got the job, so we'll recap. I'm working at a program designed to teach social skills to kids who need them. There are 24 kids at my location (there's another down in Pennington that has something crazy like 60 kids or something), divided into two classrooms by age. I was originally hired to be a floating counselor for the blue class, which meant that I was there to help out wherever I was needed within that classroom. I could sit with any of the three groups of kids, help out any of the individual counselors or the lead counselor, etc. My classroom definitely has some challenging children, so I felt like there was no shortage of places where an extra hand would be appreciated.
So that was what I did last week and the first three days of this week. Then, on Wednesday, one of the individual counselors up and quit with no warning. Well, that's not entirely fair: she had been pretty vocal about being unhappy (evidenced by her flat out saying on the second morning of camp that this was not what she'd signed up for), but I don't think any of us really expected her to quit. So on Wednesday, all of the counselors in my room huddled together to decide who our camper of the day was going to be, and at that point the unhappy one was like 'Oh, by the way, I quit and today's my last day, have a nice summer.' I honestly thought she was joking, the way she said it; Wednesday had been a really chaotic day, with at least 4 children having meltdowns of various kinds and just a lot of general craziness, so I thought it was a 'haha, this is such a mess, I quit' kind of joke. Nope. A little bit later, the director pulled me and the counselor who quit into the hallway, informed me that she really had quit, and asked me to take over her group. I believe my reaction was something along the lines of 'uh - what - o-okay, sure' because I still didn't entirely know what was going on, but I obviously wasn't going to leave 4 kids without a counselor.
As of today, there's a new floating counselor who will be starting Monday, but it made more sense for me to take over the counselor-less group since I already knew the kids and had been working with them for a week and a half. So it's been a little crazy this week, but overall, it hasn't been a terrible adjustment. I knew the kids already, and I'm still doing a lot of the same things, just mostly with my group instead of with the whole class. But I feel like the counselors who are still there are really working well together as a team, which makes it a good environment to work in, even when the kids are off the wall and driving us nuts. I feel like the rest of us support each other well and are totally willing to help each other out whenever and wherever possible, and that makes it a lot easier to put in 100% with the kids. And oh man, but these kids need 100%. They don't have to have a diagnosis to attend the program, and I don't think that all of them do, but they're here because they need to be, and that's pretty evident by this point. Even still, I can tell that this program is doing something good for these kids, and that progress is being made already. I really am enjoying working there, and if I could do it again, I would without hesitation.
It's actually making me wonder whether I'd want to work with typically developing children or children with special needs in my future career. I'd always thought I'd prefer working with typically developing children, but doing programs like this, where I really feel like we're making such a difference, kind of gives me pause. Granted, I'd say for the most part, these kids are higher functioning than say, the overall level of the kids I worked with at TCI, but they're still clearly set apart from their typically developing peers. I feel good working at this program, with these children, so at very least it will definitely be something I consider when I start looking for a specific direction to guide my career. I don't know, I also loved what I was doing when I worked at ESF, and those were typically developing kids, so we'll see. I seem to keep finding amazing jobs that I love and would be happy to keep doing . . . except they're only for the summer. I need something like this as a full time job! If someone finds such a thing, let me know.
So, aside from work, I'm just trying to get ready for my move, since it's now in less than a month! I'm super excited. Last weekend, I drove up to Toronto after work on Thursday, getting to Brad's around 12:30 or 1 am. Long day, for sure, but it was so worth it to be up there with him. I took the opportunity to bring up a bunch of my stuff, so that I'll have less to bring in August when I go up for real. We didn't really do anything particularly special, but I had a great time anyway, because it was just wonderful to be with him. I completely didn't want to leave on Sunday to drive home, because it was way too short a visit, and then the drive home sucked many kinds of balls. I sat in near-stopped/crawling traffic at least five separate times, which caused the trip to take over 12 hours. I wanted to stab something by the time I finally got home, and it made me never want to make that drive again. Hopefully I won't have to for a very long time. I'm selling my stuff this month, trying to help Lauren find someone to take over my room in the apartment, and generally just being really psyched that I'm going to be moving on August 8!! Oh yeah, and I've got a birthday coming up soon, too, which I'm thinking will involve mini golf and a trip to Sonic. :p My roommate said it was an 11-year-old's birthday party, but honestly, I'm pretty okay with that. Details will be coming when I figure them out. Meanwhile, I think that's all I have. Enjoy the weekend, kids!
Let's start with the new job, since I don't believe I've talked about that yet. Nope, I couldn't have, since the last time I wrote was the day before it started. :p I'm not sure how many details I gave you guys about the place I'm working when I interviewed and got the job, so we'll recap. I'm working at a program designed to teach social skills to kids who need them. There are 24 kids at my location (there's another down in Pennington that has something crazy like 60 kids or something), divided into two classrooms by age. I was originally hired to be a floating counselor for the blue class, which meant that I was there to help out wherever I was needed within that classroom. I could sit with any of the three groups of kids, help out any of the individual counselors or the lead counselor, etc. My classroom definitely has some challenging children, so I felt like there was no shortage of places where an extra hand would be appreciated.
So that was what I did last week and the first three days of this week. Then, on Wednesday, one of the individual counselors up and quit with no warning. Well, that's not entirely fair: she had been pretty vocal about being unhappy (evidenced by her flat out saying on the second morning of camp that this was not what she'd signed up for), but I don't think any of us really expected her to quit. So on Wednesday, all of the counselors in my room huddled together to decide who our camper of the day was going to be, and at that point the unhappy one was like 'Oh, by the way, I quit and today's my last day, have a nice summer.' I honestly thought she was joking, the way she said it; Wednesday had been a really chaotic day, with at least 4 children having meltdowns of various kinds and just a lot of general craziness, so I thought it was a 'haha, this is such a mess, I quit' kind of joke. Nope. A little bit later, the director pulled me and the counselor who quit into the hallway, informed me that she really had quit, and asked me to take over her group. I believe my reaction was something along the lines of 'uh - what - o-okay, sure' because I still didn't entirely know what was going on, but I obviously wasn't going to leave 4 kids without a counselor.
As of today, there's a new floating counselor who will be starting Monday, but it made more sense for me to take over the counselor-less group since I already knew the kids and had been working with them for a week and a half. So it's been a little crazy this week, but overall, it hasn't been a terrible adjustment. I knew the kids already, and I'm still doing a lot of the same things, just mostly with my group instead of with the whole class. But I feel like the counselors who are still there are really working well together as a team, which makes it a good environment to work in, even when the kids are off the wall and driving us nuts. I feel like the rest of us support each other well and are totally willing to help each other out whenever and wherever possible, and that makes it a lot easier to put in 100% with the kids. And oh man, but these kids need 100%. They don't have to have a diagnosis to attend the program, and I don't think that all of them do, but they're here because they need to be, and that's pretty evident by this point. Even still, I can tell that this program is doing something good for these kids, and that progress is being made already. I really am enjoying working there, and if I could do it again, I would without hesitation.
It's actually making me wonder whether I'd want to work with typically developing children or children with special needs in my future career. I'd always thought I'd prefer working with typically developing children, but doing programs like this, where I really feel like we're making such a difference, kind of gives me pause. Granted, I'd say for the most part, these kids are higher functioning than say, the overall level of the kids I worked with at TCI, but they're still clearly set apart from their typically developing peers. I feel good working at this program, with these children, so at very least it will definitely be something I consider when I start looking for a specific direction to guide my career. I don't know, I also loved what I was doing when I worked at ESF, and those were typically developing kids, so we'll see. I seem to keep finding amazing jobs that I love and would be happy to keep doing . . . except they're only for the summer. I need something like this as a full time job! If someone finds such a thing, let me know.
So, aside from work, I'm just trying to get ready for my move, since it's now in less than a month! I'm super excited. Last weekend, I drove up to Toronto after work on Thursday, getting to Brad's around 12:30 or 1 am. Long day, for sure, but it was so worth it to be up there with him. I took the opportunity to bring up a bunch of my stuff, so that I'll have less to bring in August when I go up for real. We didn't really do anything particularly special, but I had a great time anyway, because it was just wonderful to be with him. I completely didn't want to leave on Sunday to drive home, because it was way too short a visit, and then the drive home sucked many kinds of balls. I sat in near-stopped/crawling traffic at least five separate times, which caused the trip to take over 12 hours. I wanted to stab something by the time I finally got home, and it made me never want to make that drive again. Hopefully I won't have to for a very long time. I'm selling my stuff this month, trying to help Lauren find someone to take over my room in the apartment, and generally just being really psyched that I'm going to be moving on August 8!! Oh yeah, and I've got a birthday coming up soon, too, which I'm thinking will involve mini golf and a trip to Sonic. :p My roommate said it was an 11-year-old's birthday party, but honestly, I'm pretty okay with that. Details will be coming when I figure them out. Meanwhile, I think that's all I have. Enjoy the weekend, kids!