Reflection On Practicum

Life is full of little meaningful events and experiences, they go so unnoticed that we don't realize they can change our lives forever. Sometimes those little moments can mean so much more than what they seem. One way an experience can develop into something meaningful is when you can express it in a way to help others. This experience for me was when I won SGA Vice President. Being Vice President today is a challenge and a blessing. As SGA Vice-president I am responsible for the activities of the entire school. When I accepted the position of Vice President my abilities were tested to the fullest, this leadership role forced more responsibilities such as public speaking, calling meetings, and developing strategies under difficult circumstances. For instance,

The leader must be sure to take the group dynamics into consideration. It is important to make everyone involved feel that their needs are important. For the project to be a success, everyone participating must feel as if they are contributing and that they are being valued equally.

My practicum was a good learning experience of practical public health work and exposure to how zoonotic disease is handled by multiple public health departments. I appreciated my experience giving me the knowledge of day-to-day public health work and what it means to be epidemiologist. My classes in epidemiology prepared me well for understanding terminology and the process of outbreak response. Particularly, my Applied Epidemiology course provided me with the critical thinking skills to evaluate published literature. In reviewing my work I used multiple public health competencies including biostatistics, epidemiology, communication and informatics, leadership, professionalism, and program planning.

Henderson, Mrs. Sherri Coale, and the alumni that came back to speak, among many others, helped me in my development as a person. For example, Dr. Henderson’s lesson on not chasing awards, but striving to do better for other people, was a very inspiring speech for me. This reminded me that receiving awards on campus is not as important as making a positive impact on the people’s lives around me. Another great lesson from those speakers was from the alumni. Their messages all seemed to follow a general theme of building relationships with the PLCer’s around me. I made sure to follow that advice and have not only made exceptional friendships, but also will have these great leaders around me pushing me to succeed for the remainder of my college years. That is what I ultimately think PLC is all about. A bunch of leaders all pushing each other in a friendly competition to reach higher and do

Participating in a third-year practicum placement has been very effective in increasing my knowledge surrounding Ontario’s context of youth services. Now, in my last few months of my time at Alternative Learning Styles and Outlooks (ALSO), I have continued to relate my in-class knowledge to a practical setting. I recently experienced the struggle of maintaining social work principals while trying to balance support of the Reading and Parents Program (RAPP) and maintain self-determination. Building from this, I learnt the importance of continual advocacy, through prosperous and difficult times. I learnt that a slight change in a slightly related subject might completely cut funding for essential programs to non-profit organizations. I also took place in a community consultation regarding the

The practicum learning agreement created between the masters of Science in nursing (MSN) student and the instructor was approved for the goal to perform in the role of a nurse educator at the Domiciliary Rehabilitation Program at the Orlando Veterans Affairs Medical Center (VAMC). The population of the Domiciliary Residential Rehabilitation Program is veterans with multiple and severe medical conditions, mental illness, addiction, or psychosocial deficits. Military-related posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) can negatively affect the veteran’s well-being (Health Services Administration, 2010). The care needs of the nursing staff were assessed to identify the need for the educational program in the

This week in class something that stood out to me was the “pageant”. I think that this activity was a really good way to get us out of out comfort zones. I would never be presenting or talking to my class by choice. We also finished watching Poverty Inc. I really enjoy learning more about the topic of poverty because I feel like we are only given the basics of the topic normally. I think the activities that get us out of our comfort zones are teaching me some life skills for my future.

As part of my Master's program, I completed a practicum project. Through a four-quarter course, I developed a global health project that culminated with my practicum experience. I spent four weeks in Puerto Escondido, Mexico during the month of October. Through this experience, I learned more about primary care and preventative medicine in Oaxaca, one of the poorest states in Mexico. I also strengthen qualities such as cultural competence, teamwork, sensitivity, reliability, and service orientation.This is a very meaningful experience since it is a project that I was completely in charge of: from choosing the topic and location of my practicum to analyzing the data and creating a final report. Through conducting questionnaires and accessing

Running a 14-week sports program (once a week), for Belvoir children. This developed and furthered my interests with helping children in physical way rather than just cognitive. Noticing improvement in 6 months from tutoring a friends’ daughter’s younger child with her homework; this was a very uplifting and gave me more determination to teach others.

For example, I have had the opportunity to learn the importance of leadership and planning. This past summer I was asked to lead a direct mail marketing campaign which involved determining the mail population, ordering the required materials, and hiring the temporary help to execute the campaign.

The first challenge I have already experienced in this practicum process is to define the project, since I was thinking about a project that would require more than the 4-8 weeks that we will have for the actual practicum experience. I think this could have been anticipated if since the beginning I had thought about every aspect that would be involved in my practicum, all of the stakeholders, the location, the time, and my resources from the beginning. But now that I have a more defined plan and a specific location, I am able to have a better idea of my plan, of the challenges I will face and of the assistance I will get through the partnership with CFHI.

In my practicum I had a classroom of 20 children. 1 child was African American, the rest where Caucasian. All of these children were low-income children, on free and reduced lunch. This classroom was also a split classroom consisting of half kindergarten students and half slower learning first grade students. This made the classroom very diverse and allowed me to see different ways to teach students in this situation. My teacher taught her lessons by grouping children based on their learning level. This allowed for each student to get more one onone help from the teacher, along with having the lesson adapted to his or her grade level. One child in the classroom had developmental delay in fine and gross motor ability. This student left the classroom each day at a specific time and had received help from a specialist. I was fortunate to be able to watch the therapy and learn how they help students like this in the school district.

As this week's discussion board open to a free discussion theme I have been wrestling on the topic until yesterday. During the practicum meeting between my program supervisor and Ms. Lisa Walz as WCTC representative, I was asked if this direction and population was satisfying to me. That I do enjoy working with mental ill population is obvious to those who know me well enough. However I faltered how to express this convincingly at the time until I heard someone mention something about community need(s). Than it all came together. Thus here it is, limitations and community needs.

One of the activities i participated in was the emerging leadership conference. This conference was a var of workshops that helped me see more aspects of leadership then just being dominant. I attended two workshops that helped me learn what characteristic are needed to become an effective leader. One workshop

Evidence based instruction is a collection of practices that have been tested and show a record of success and improvement. Evidence based instruction is based on information that is reliable and with verifiable as well as valid evidence that shows when this practice or program is implemented, there is a moderate to substantial chance that students will make strides in achievement. Research based means that there has been researched, but does not definitely imply success or achievement.