Archive for February, 2008
The Nerves Are Present
February 26th, 2008 | 
Author: As the sun rises, I reflect on the morning’s beauty and it’s sheer annoyance. I was more awake than asleep last night, and even took off from elementary school to study for my exam this afternoon. As rays of sunlight beam through my window, I stare blankly at the screen and wonder why, on this important day, I couldn’t have had a good night’s sleep just this once.
The only positive thing I can think of that came out of this incident is that I am much more calm now than a few hours ago, when my heart was beating faster than Roger Clemens’ when he adamantly denied his steroid use. Several times last night I meditated in an attempt to calm myself down enough to sleep, but to no avail. I have an exam today, a make-up test on Friday because the class average was a 58%, St. Augustine this weekend, and an exam Monday before Spring Break on the 7th (also my last day at the elementary school).
So you can see that there was a clear reason for me to be anxious and unable to sleep. Not to mention I still have no summer job and still haven’t heard back from China yet. Just take one day at a time and everything will reveal itself as necessary.
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Psychology in Practice
I noticed that every time I go to James’ classroom he is always away from the rest of the class. His desk is physically away from other desks and when I walked in today the class was in one corner listening to the teacher read a book while he was preoccupied at his desk with something else. He had begun acting out in class again, something he hadn’t done since we started spending time together in January. I confirmed his teacher’s worst nightmare: next Tuesday is my last day at school, and this is why he’s acting out. I had a talk with him about it, and he told me he was trying to alter his behavior to create a more socially acceptable pattern for himself to follow.
I told him if he was really doing that, he should at least attempt to work on becoming close to others and learning to trust them. I talked with him and then his teacher. I told them both that I wanted to implement an incentive program for him. If he has been good throughout the day, the teacher is to move his desk 1″ closer to the rest of the class. If he has been bad, then she moves him 1/2″ further away from the class. It became clear to him that it was in his best interest to behave well in my absence, thus giving him the chance to socialize with his peers again.
Because his reading level is below his mental capacity, and those of his peers, I told him I would give him 20 Goosebumps books to read as a reward for trying this new incentive program. The IQ test revealed he is way above average at 129, while the average person’s IQ is 100. His math skills are amazing, and I want to motivate him to catch up in reading so he doesn’t continue to fall behind.
Funny How Things Change
Today was amazing in the sense that I didn’t have the elementary school. Ever since I learned yesterday about the world of Behavior Specialists, I started reading my Psychology of Behavior textbook with more enthusiasm, paid more attention in class, and approached my teacher to ask if we can talk about Applied Behavior Analysis (the masters degree I’d be going for if I wanted to become a Behavior Specialist). We’re going to meet on Monday.
I’m going to Chabad tonight for the first time in a few weeks. I miss everyone dearly! Another reason is because next weekend I’ll be in Saint Augustine helping my parents with the uncle’s house now that my dad is finally executor of the estate. Woot!
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Some people can change, as opposed to my post a few days ago. I’ve proven in a matter of days that just changing the way you think can radically you. I’ve noticed a smiles from a few girls in just the last two days when I hadn’t had any in a long time, which I attribute to the long-term self-imposed garbage that’s now long removed from my mind.
All you need to remember is that when things get tough, tell your brain to shut up and start telling it how to think instead of letting it think for you!
Never Say Never!
Today was really good. I forgot to set my alarm and ended up waking up at 7:20 (as opposed to the norm of 5). At Idylwild I had my ear drums blown open by a little girl screaming her lungs out for a good 20 minutes. Afterwards, I saw William and we talked about phonemes. He was able to repeat the sounds flawlessly, but required me to prompt him first. I let him write on the board with the marker, which proved interesting. You see, he writes bottom-to-top, right-to-left, which leads me to believe he might be dyslexic, as some of his letters and numbers are backwards too. I discussed this with the county-appointed Psychologist.
After discussing him at length, we turned the subject to me and my experiences at the school. What I do is get to know the kids and play with them. After establishing trust, I’m able to sit with them in their class and help them, or take them out of class and talk to them. Usually we talk about their home and school lives. Whatever it is, I do it because these kids are absolutely adorable. Usually I see them because they have a history of behavior problems, but I also see kids in speech therapy, occupational therapy, or kids without any problems.
She told me that I should look into becoming a Behavior Specialist. The funny thing is, I never considered myself a “behavior psychologist” until a week or so ago. I was always the “holistic” or “social” psychologist in my mind. Now that I’ve been exposed to a different style of Psychology, I find it fascinating. My teacher has a degree in Applied Behavior Analysis, and at the beginning of the semester I thought it sounded boring. It’s hilarious how life changes so fast, so everyone out there, never say never baby!