Monday, November 25, 2013

Blog 12, The Delivery System in Action

As I started to read chapter 12, I felt (and a little too quickly I might add) linked with Kanika because I do prefer where high schoolers are at, and I feel I will a better advocate to that age group. I would never turn down and elementary school counseling job (if I were able to immediately dual cert) just because it is not my proffered placement. At this time I need to maintain a part time job to cover rent and expenses and I just cannot justify taking out more students loans, so for now I will only be receiving my middle/high school certification. I'm wondering where Kanika went to school that her K-12 certification process resulted in her thinking that elementary school counselors read Mother Goose and use puppets all day, this does not seem very realistic.

To support my earlier claim that I prefer high schoolers, I find the search for identity, independence, self-definition, meaningful relationships, and way to make a unique contribution(p.210) as invigorating work. I enjoy the challenge of these struggles paired with the higher level of thinking that the maturity of high school students will bring. I am also passionate about individuals finding career paths that the student is not only able to be successful at, but that they will also be happy in. I feel that sadly the assumption seems to be that you either have to be good at your career, meaning you make good money, or you enjoy it and make little. Sometimes this is the predicament that we will find ourselves in, but I do not feel that these are exclusive relationships. There can be a happy medium!

I really loved how this chapter breaks down individual components of the model at each level. I think my ONLY criticism for this graduate program is just that we did not start really diving into the model soon enough. I think that the CSCP can be made to be years easier by having a more solid prior understanding of the model. Its not that the model is difficult to understand, quite the opposite. I know however when I am learning something complex, I really get more out of the overall experience when there is enough time for more detailed information like the model to meld into my processing. Ii had been hitting a snag in my portion of the CSCP, but this weeks reading really helped me this past weekend when I was getting hung up.

In closing, I just wanted to give some feedback on the panel of school counselors that came to visit last week. I wish we could have visitors every week! Jason and I were having a conversation about how excited we got after those presentations. Yes, there will be a lot to become accustomed to, and yes, there will be a lot o adjusting to do in the beginning but their presence is not a deterrent! I know this seems to be an out of place statement, but the one thing I feared about GPD was walking out of this class and feeling like I didn't want to be a school counselor. I am happy to say that my feelings of future success and capability are aligning more with my desire to be a school counselor than my fear that I do not want to do this. I have very little doubt that this is my place, and hopefully there will be more panels in the coming week!

Dollarhide, C.T., & Saginak, K.A. (2012). Comprehensive school counseling programs (2nd Ed.). New York: Pearson, Inc.

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