Hi, My name is Amanda Granger. I am doing the PSY 498D Practicum at Cleve-Hill Elementary School. My supervisor, who is the school counselor is Mrs. Brenda Wagner. Her email address is bwagner@clevehill.org, telephone # is 716 836-7200 ext 8202.

January 29, 2007 : 830-330
Today was my first day at Cleveland Hill Elementary School. Being the first day I was very anxious and did not really know what to expect but I was very excited. My day started at 830 and as I arrived there was a group coming in to meet with Mrs. Wagner. This was a group that needed guidance with social issues. We sat and played a board game with the three boys. This board game taught different social situation, such as the store, school, and the playground, and how to react in these different places. After the group had ended, Brenda and I went to two different classrooms and did a lesson about occupations and what each job means. We then went around and Brenda has showed me the school and I met some of the staff. I had met the principal, assistant principal, the school psychologist, and some of the teachers. In the afternoon, a little boy with anger issues had come in to speak with Brenda. We also sat and played a game with him and discussed what he should do when he gets angry in school and at home. Brenda had given him some ideas on how to calm down when he gets mad. Also, we dealt with an 2nd grade boy that was having bathroom accidents. It had been an ongoing issue, and Brenda thought that a bathroom/behavior chart would help him. They had spoke with his parents and they were going to take him to the doctor to see what the problem was. For my first day, I really enjoyed working at his school and working with Brenda. I hope that through this experience I can learn more about the field of school counseling.

February 7, 2007 : 830-330
Today we followed up with the second grader from last week, that was having a bathroom issue. He seems to be doing better but still having accidents, but not as frequent. Brenda has been in contact with mom, trying to figure out the problem. They are keeping up with the bathroom chart. Later in the day, I sat in on a meeting with four students, Brenda, and the assistant principle, Mr. McCabe. The meeting was to address an issue of the students calling each other racial names. For lunch that day, Brenda and I ate with a fourth grade girl who was caught stealing from a teacher. She was suspended for a few days and then came back and got caught again. Brenda is trying to work with her and make her feel as though she can trust her and help her not to steal anymore. In the afternoon, I watched a video on Black History Month to see if it was appropriate for elementary students to watch. Also, we put up a "break the bullying chain" on the walls. The third graders had thought of ideas on ho they could stop bullying and we put all of their ideas up. At the end of the day, I had put up the honestly bulletin board for this month. At Cleve-Hill, every month they have a different character trait that is expressed throughout the whole school. The use character ideas such as loyalty, perseverance, honesty, and many others.

February 12, 2007 : 830-330
When I first got there today, I organized activities for our meeting with an boy that had anger management issues. I went through a book and found different coloring/interactive activities for him to do. After our meeting with him, Brenda had some work for me to do. I had to research on the internet, interactive websites on bullying for our fifth grade group. This group wanted to get online and surf the web, but I had to find appropriate websites for them to work on. Every months, Cleve-Hill does an assembly for all the grades to give out awards for each class. I had to write out their "BUG" (Behaving Unusually Good) awards. Brenda had told me about this boy that came from one of the poorest families in the district, and he was having problems in school. The little boy came and we discussed his home life, and what was going on at school that he couldn't focus. Brenda said that it happens every once in a while and she talks to him, and things are fine again. More and more, I feel like this is a career that I want to choose. I really enjoy doing what Brenda does. I see how she speaks to the kids and they really like her. She seems to make a huge difference in the children's' life.

February 26, 2007 : 830-330
First thing today, I sat in on a meeting with a mother of a student, the principal, school psychologist, Brenda, the teacher, and the resource teacher about a girl with borderline ADHD. She is on the verge of being abused at the home and the family needs interventions on how to control the girl. The girl is in 3rd grade, and she needs help with organization, speech, and just basic social skills. They had given the mother ideas on what to do, and suggested maybe counseling for the whole family. This Monday, the same little boy with anger management problems came in for his regular meeting. Brenda and I played a game that teaches him to think before he does things when he's angry. Meeting with him every week seems to be working. He seems much calmer.
Brenda and I met with the vice principal to discuss Diversity Week. We brainstormed ideas and ways to get the whole school more involved. We then talked to a boy that was being bullied by one of his friends in the classroom. I got a little more involved in this discussion than I have before. I felt so bad for the child, I tried to give him strategies and ideas on how to get over being bullied and to not be so hard on himself. The afternoon was a little slow, but in March, class lessons start again, so we will be busier. I am hoping to actually teach a lesson for one the classes.

March 5, 2007 : 9-330
Today was a very busy day! It started by having the child with anger management problems come in and discuss what was wrong with him all morning. He said that kids were making him angry, so Brenda tried to work out things with him in order to calm down. Then Brenda had me cut out some laminated posters for Diversity Week. Then I made up the Honesty awards for Character Ed for all the different students that had received the awards from their teachers. I had also put up the new bulletin board for this months character ed, acceptance. I researched different ideas and pictures to hang up. We had a few meetings with different kids throughout the day for many different reasons. Some of the kids were fighting, one kid was being bullied, another kid came in, and Brenda was just starting to meet with him, so she is still trying to figure out his problems. He seems to like to lie about things so Brenda and I tried to figure out why he was lying so much. We were thinking that his parents have told him to lie about things. Towards the end of the day, I helped Brenda figure out the time slots for Diversity Week. They are having a lady come in to do arts and crafts with the different grade levels. This will show them different things from different cultures. We organized a little bit for that, and prepared for next week. The next time I will be there will be Diversity Week...it should be very interesting.

Week of March 11, 2007 : Spring Break

March 19, 2007 : 8-330
Today was crazy! It was the beginning of Diversity Week and Brenda had me doing a lot of things to prepare. When I first got there, I had researched Hospice Services for one of the students. The students' grandfather is terminally ill and the mother doesn't know how to tell the chilren. I had looked up many different organizations that offer services and counseling for children and families involved with a terminally ill person. After that, we had our regular Monday meeting with the boy with anger problems. He seemed to be having a good day compared to the week before. We had played a game teaching him ways for him not to lose his stars in the classroom. Then I made out the "bugs" for the kids caught Being Unusually Good . I also interviewed Sue Raijnisz, the school psychologist. For the rest of the morning, I hung up a diversity alphabet in the main hallway, along with other posters promoting diversity week. In the afternoon, i had made more signs with different sayings and all the details fo the event taking place the next day. I went and hung them up throughout the whole school. Brenda and I just went through all the details for the event and made sure everything was ready. I really wish that i could be there the next day, but i have class and cannot make it. It sounds interesting. A lady is coming in and showing the children all different art work from different countries, and the children will make them after the presentation. Should be fun!

March 26, 2007: 8-330
This morning we met with a number of different children with numerous problems, such as attention problems in the classroom, anger problems, etc. A Cheektowaga Police Officer came in also, to speak to a child who had been fighting on the bus. Brenda and I taught two lessons to classrooms about careers. Every month, each classroom gets another part of the career lesson until the end of the year. The children got to fill out a packet about their ideas and what they enjoy. From there, they got to pick two careers out of their highest level of interest. We discussed them a little bit, and they picked a picture of their career person to color. Next month, the same lesson will be elaborated for the same classes. I also reviewed a powerpoint for Brenda. It was about "Girls Night Out," which is a night where the fourth and fifth grade students come in with their mothers and puberty is discussed. At the end of the day, I filled out some monthly awards, for the kids that showed acceptance. These kids were nominated by their teachers.

April 2, 2007: 8-330
Today I redid the bulletin board in the main hallway for this month. I made some posters and redid the boarders. I also went throughout the school and took down all of the diversity signs. There were a ton of them! After that, we organized Mrs. Wagner's room. We went through the prize box, where all the kids get prizes for the group/individual meetings or if they had a good behavior chart for the day. We threw away a lot of old paperwork and I looked through some of her counseling books. We also met with our normal Monday groups. We did a lot of the same things today and we do every Monday. I am really excited for Thursday because I will be attending an SST meeting.

April 5, 2007 8-330
First thing today, Brenda and I went to an SST meeting. This meeting is a with the school psychologist, the principle, teachers, and aids. These meetings are intended to discuss certain children that are need of extra assistance or that need to be classified. The kids discussed are currently receiving aid but the meeting is determining what should happen next year, whether or not the children will still need help next or if the child should be held back. Also, psychology testing is also discussed. After this meeting, we met with two little boys who are in the same class, but do not have the appropriate social skills. We played a bingo game, and they were given social situations and had to pick how it would make them feel. It was kind of a laid back day because it was the last day before vacation. IN the after noon, we met with a few different children having problems with kids in their classes. Also, I played a game on the computer with a boy that was being rewarded for having done good on his behavior chart. Later in the afternoon, we had another SST meeting to discuss two more children. To wrap up the day, I went to two different classrooms to give two different kid their rewards for behaving good all week.

Week of April 9 : Spring Break for Cleve-Hill

April 16, 2007 : 8-330
Today, I read a book to a kid about blaming things on other people. He has an issue with blaming things on other kids in his class. I read him a book about the Bernstein Bears. We also met with two girls that are dealing with sick family members. The first girl, her mother has been diagnosed with cancer and is getting worse. The child seems to be dealing with it okay, but still is having some problems. She seems to understand what is going on. The other girl, her grandmother is dying. She is very close with her grandmother, and as of now she cannot see her because she is in the hospital. She seemed very quiet but seems to understand what is going on. Also today, Brenda and I met with the assistant principle, the school psychologist, Mrs. Rajinsz, and the childs' teacher. The child has ADHD and was not on medicine until recently. The medicine hasn't began to work yet, so the teacher is having a hard time. Mrs. Wagner and Mrs. Rajnisz were throwing out ideas on what could work with this child, but the teacher seemed very bias, and didn't want to do anything. She didn't seem to want to help this child. She seemed very frustrated. For the childs' sake, I hope that his medicine starts to work, so that the teacher doesn't seem to frustrated and take it out on him.

April 20, 2007 : 8-330
Today we had a problem with a few students in fifth grade dealing with sexual acts. I don't know really what happened or what was going to happen because the principal and other school officials were still meeting about it. This past Monday, Brenda had met with a girl whose grandmother was sick and was expected to pass away, so we met with the child to discuss it. I found out today, that the grandmother passed on Tuesday, so Brenda was going to have another meeting with the child to make sure she was okay. We had some other meetings with kids throughout the day.

April 23, 2007 : 8-330
Today we met with our morning group and did a listening activity. The boys were very hyper and weren't listening very well and listening was the lesson for the day!! We also met with another kid about tattling. His teacher said that he tattles on everyone and everything, so Brenda did an activity with him about the difference between tattling and telling on someone. I listened to Glenn Colten Cd's and found songs for the character traits for each month. Also, we met with a first grade teacher, the principal, and the school psychologist about a first grade student that is having an attention problem and disrupting the class. Later, we had met with three girls that were passing notes around about other girls and using curse words. The assistant principal called Brenda to talk with them. After that, I researched different career websites for the kids to look at for their May lessons that Brenda teaches. At the end of the day, Brenda, the assistant principal and I met with three fifth grade boys about bullying. One of them is the main bully, and they were trying to get all of them to stop and try to be nice to each other. All three of them were bullying each other, so they were trying to make it stop because parents were getting involved and it was affected the kids in school.

April 25, 2007 : 8-330
Today we had a morning group with a few different girls. We did the same listening activity as we did with the boys on Monday morning. They were much better behaved and they listened very well. Also, I had found a website that would help Brenda with her May lesson about careers. I had showed her that and what I had found. I had also helped her make a Behavior chart for the 1st grader that they had a meeting about on Monday. Later, I had put the names of the kids that would be getting awards for this month character trait, patience. I had just put all of their names on a world document. It wasn't a very busy day.

Total hrs as of April 25 - 94.5

April 30, 2007 : 8-330
Today we had our normal Monday group with the boys. Brenda and I also worked on the April bullitin board, changing it to this months character trait (cooperation). Brenda had a really good idea for the board; two teams of kids (cutouts) playing tug-a-war, showing the kids cooperation! I thought that it was a great idea. She has really given me some good ideas about school counseling and fun things that you can do for and with the kids. Later in the day, I made out the awards for the character assembly on Friday. I filled out all the papers for all the grades. I also made bugs out for the select kids that won for the last assembly. At the end of the day, I attended a meeting with Brenda, the assistant principal, the principal and all the fifth grade teachers. There have been some issues with note passing and spreading rumors about people. They are trying to figure out the consequences of doing these things, because it is getting out of hand. Also, they discussed the different activities that are offered to all the fifth grade students at the end of the year (a talent show, field trips, lunch outside, etc).

May 2, 2007 : 8-330
Today we had a group session with 3 girls about social skills. They read a book about a rotten cat that was mean to his owner. The book was teaching the girls not to be mean and bully other kids. After that, we went through some of Brenda's things and organized some folders. I made the rest of the awards for the assembly as well. We also, got online and looked for more website about career exploration because Brenda had lessons in the afternoon. The lessons were for the fourth grade classes on different jobs and what they need for these jobs (education, experience, the salary, etc). The lesson also showed the different websites they could go on, and showed examples of the different careers. Some of the websites we kind of dull so we tried to find some with more interaction and color.

May 7, 2007 : 8-200
Today, first thing we met with our boys' social behavior group. These kids were so crazy and hyper today. It was very hard to handle them this morning. We then had our meeting with the single boy that has social issues. He seems to be doing very well lately. He really seems to grasp the concept on how to act, he just has a hard way of actually doing it. We also spoke with a girl today whose parents came in to see Brenda because they are concerned with her moving up to sixth grade. We talked to her about what is going on at home, and to let her know that throughout the next couple of months, Brenda will be working with her on social skills, studying, and what to expect when she goes up to the middle school. Also, we talked about how to handle her parents, and tried to get to the bottom of eveything. We also ate lunch with a girl today whose grandmother died recently. She came in to eat and to talk about everything. Also, in the beginning of the year, the teachers were concerned with her family because it didn't seem like she was getting a full lunch. They took care of that problem. In the afternoon, Brenda and I went into a first grade classroom for their monthly lesson. This month, they were learning about good touch and bad touch. Brenda handed out a little booklet and read to the kids about bad touches and good touches.

May 10, 2007: 8-12:30
Today is my last day at Cleve-Hill. First thing this morning, there was an SST meeting to discuss two kids and the concerns for next year. I also did my own group today. I met with two boys that are in the same class and have the same social problems. They are very good kids, but they seem to have a hard time with some issues. We played a game together and discussed ways of being nice and well behaved for their teacher and others. I loved being able to lead my own group with my own ideas. We played a game with different situations and the kids had to answer, but i felt myself saying a lot of the same things that Brenda has said. After that, Brenda and I went down to a kindergarten room and did their monthly lesson. Their lesson is about the differences of tattling and telling. Brenda talked to them for a bit, then put in a movie. She had to go and do somethings, so when the movie was over, I talked to the kids a little bit more about the differences and what to ask yourself before telling on someone. I am very sad to go. I wish that I could work in this school. I've learned soo much from Brenda. I hope to be able to work in a school like this one day. I really appreciate this experience, and it gave me an open mind on things that happen in schools. I really enjoyed it! Thank you!

Total hrs. 120

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