Living in the Community You Work In

So when we get ready to move on from the lecture to the field work we must ask the question, "Should I live in the community I work in?"  Many will say "yes", even the ones who currently don't reside in the same community they work in.  Perhaps, this is not an issue for most.  Many do not mind the blur between work and personal life.

I have not really answered this question for myself.  There are good arguments for it, and good arguments against it.  My biggest concern is conflict of interest.  At this point in my life I don't have any children so it won't be too difficult to keep that professional line drawn.  Living right in the community you work in though might prove to be an issue.  One can no longer go outside or around town without being recognized, talked to, or possibily asked questions about work that should not be discussed in public.

The service I work for recently switched my schools and I will now be working right here in my own town.  I am excited that it will be less drive time and less gas to burn, but there is still that worry about my personal life conflicting with my professional life.  It is a VERY small town.  I enjoy my privacy.  Will I be able to keep it?

Comments on this topic are welcome. 

waiting to exhale

Still waiting on word from KSDE.  I had to send them an official copy of my Praxis scores.  I forget about bureaucracy.  Things have to be just so.

I have been reading "Creative Interventions with Traumatized Children" by: Cathy A. Malchiodi.  Amazing book.  Greats ideas for therapeutic intervention using various forms of art.  I have to admit though, the case studies sometimes make me a bit teary. 

License Stuff..check...internship contract...check

Well it takes some effort to get the ball rolling when you're going to be working in a different state then you go to school in.  I am in the final semesters of graduate school at the University of Nebraska at Kearney.  I have spent 3 years of my life here on a roller coaster.  In the end I am thankful for having had such an incredible experience and education. 

So the internship contract is in my supervisors box and the Kansas Provisional Licensure documents are in the mail.  Tomorrow my husband and I finish packing up the rest of our life and drive 5.5 hours to Kansas.  Then our life begins again on this new journey in true independence and success.

The Internship Hunt

I started late.  All of my classmates had their internship by April.  I was still interviewing.  What did I learn?  Don't procrastinate.  Don't allow fear to keep you avoiding it.  The brighter side of several interviews is practice!  I had a chance to perfect my self presentation.  I had a chance to build more confidence.  Although the confidence level was a roller coaster ride in and of itself.  I have a lot of people to thank for keeping me going.  My friends and colleagues were always there to encourage me and tell me to keep going.  My practicum supervisor was amazing and encouraged me a great deal.  No matter how much this battle made me want to quit he convinced me not to.  He believed in me so much that I had to pay attention to it.  If there are so many people who believe in me....well, then why can't I believe in myself.  And that made all the difference.  Believing in myself got me the job I had wanted all along.  By the time I got to that interview I had practiced 2 already.  It went wonderful and now I am working on getting my provisional license in Kansas.  I found my destination after all.  This long hard road does have a light at the end.

About this Blog

I am just starting out as a School Psychologist. This upcoming school year, 2010-2011, I will be out on internship. Finally, I will get to be in the schools every day of the week and get PAID!!  I am relocating from my home of 7 years in Nebraska to a new state.  Off to Kansas we GO!  By this time next year I will be blogging as a Nationally Certified School Psychologist!

This blog with focus primarily on my experiences around being a School Psychologist. There are many issues that we face daily and sometimes people just don't talk about the impact it makes on our profession and individually.

Most recently I was deeply troubled by hearing of another school psych who had been accused of sexually inappropriate conduct with a student. This accusation was thrown at him by the mother of a child, of whom she did not want services for. The accusation turned out to be completely false. But it is frightening the power of those kinds of accusations, particularly if you are a male. A false accusation of this nature could put a person out of a job for good; true or not. People tend to lose all rationality when it comes to sex and children.

It's a scary world we live in and the people in helping professions tend to be the most vulnerable to accusations like these. We forget that we have to be careful and somewhat paranoid. It's a shame we have to be that way, but protect yourself.