During the past sixteen weeks of my practicum for my master’s counseling program, I have learned several things. From my experience I learned that there usually are not enough hours in the day to get accomplished everything that you wake up in the morning needing to get finished during your work day! I have been responsible for my full time job as a fourth grade teacher as well as completing practicum requirements. At the beginning of my practicum I would bring home hours of work, I soon learned that I had to come up with a method that would work for me to accomplish what had to be done without bogging myself down every evening. That is when I learned to use every minute as efficiently as possible to take on the dual role that I found myself in at the time. From my practicum experience I also learned that most people in my building have no real idea about what a counselor’s job description really is. I learned that most people think a counselor is someone who comes to their class teachers a lesson about character and lets that particular homeroom teacher have break for an hour. If something happens that demands a counselor’s immediate attention and the counselor can’t make the guidance lesson for reasons beyond their control, the counselor gets frowned upon by the teacher who didn’t get her break for that day. This is probably the most frustrating thing that I encountered while in my practicum. I still count this experience as valuable because I learned how to deal with colleagues who did not understand a counselor’s foremost duties and responsibilities. I think that because of this experience early on, I will be equipped to deal with future situations in a manner that will help colleagues see that counselors are not simply ‘break givers’.
I also learned some things about myself that I wasn’t fully aware of. I learned that I have a higher tolerance for people than I thought I did originally. I know I have patience, but having my patience tried a few times, I learned to become even more patient! I learned that kids are more resilient than what most people give them credit for and usually they react to situations the best way that they know how to. Problems seem to occur the most when kids don’t know the appropriate way to respond to situations, and that is because their experience is still developing and they are encountering a lot of first time issues and don’t have the skills to help them make the best choices. This is where counselors can help educate kids about the situations that will arise that may not be part of their academic education, but is no less of importance.
I do believe that I have grown as a counselor because I learn best from experience and experience is what my practicum has provided me with. I have learned to how to build a counseling relationship with kids that is different from the relationship between a teacher and student. That was hard for me because I have been a classroom teacher for so long. I had to learn to not talk as ‘teachery’ to the kids I was working with in my practicum.
The blogging experience through this class was not as bad as I thought it would be. I was not a blogger before this experience and to be honest I probably would have never become a blogger without having to do it for my practicum. I will continue to use my blog after this practicum is over. I think it will be a good way to keep in contact with others from this class and help gain insight and perspective to counseling from my peers. With communicating on Blackboard, it seems that when the class is over, that is it, you have lost contact with other members of the class too. Sometimes I found relief in reading other people’s blogs because they were experiencing some of the same successes and frustrations that I was going through and it was interesting to read about how other people were facing and dealing with similar situations.
Advice for future students would be is to work out a time schedule for your practicum quickly. In the beginning of the semester you think you have plenty of time to get everything in and to make sure you have all your hours, however, remember that time flies because you find yourself so busy and it seems like you turn around and a month is already over and before you know it the semester is quickly winding down. This is not a class for procrastinators! Nevertheless, I have learned things in this class that I don’t think I could have learned from a scholarly text book. It is very much like my student teaching experience, you have to get in there hands-on and learn while you are doing. It is important to realize your scope of knowledge and lack of experience as well, and ask for help from your clinical supervisor.
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