Another school year starts...

I start school again tomorrow. It's kind of weird to be going into my third year of grad school. Even though I have two years left, I can sort of see the light at the end of the tunnel (which is a really good feeling). I only have class one day a week this year. I am taking Advanced Biopsychosocial, which means that once I am finished I can a) be licensed - which I intend to do when I graduate - and b) can diagnose people once I am licensed, and said diagnosis can be accepted. Ah the power. However, I think that people are often misdiagnosed and are even given diagnoses as a "label", or as a way to be able to receive services. I am not totally throwing out the idea that diagnoses such as ADHD, autism, or bipolar disorder exist - I have certainly seen them in my line of work (given the fact that I have been working with physically, mentally and developmentally disabled people for almost 10 years...scary!). However, I think that parents often use it as a convenience or use it as a way to "explain" their kids behavior when it may just come down to what is going on in the child's life at that moment. I'm getting off my soap box now though. I am also taking Social Work Research and have to do a big project. I am thinking about comparing two methods of teaching kids with autism - an individualistic method and a group method - and coming to a conclusion about which may be more effective for the child. I will later expand that and do a thesis next semester (I may need to have my head examined).

Having school only one day a week will be helpful. It will give me more time to be able to see clients, even though I will have to work until 8 at night a couple of days a week. However, I like this job because it is giving me the flexibility to do what I need to do, and it pays me what I am worth so to say - they see that I have my bachelor's degree, that I have a lot of experience, and that I am getting my Masters. I don't think I would have been able to find anything else that could have given me that flexibility that I need and recognized me for my skills. I may have to work one weekend day, but I am leaving that for Saturdays. Hopefully I will be able to be done early enough so that if something is going on up in Bangor, I can go up with Chris. I will just have to make sure that I get my work done before I go up.

Updating the focus of this

It really isn't going to be so much of a change, but I figure that I could add a couple of more things to the mix.

I start school again on Thursday. The good news is, I'm only in school one day a week (Thursdays). However, I need to do a large scale research project during the fall semester and during the spring semester, I need to finish that off and maybe present it (I'm not 100% sure). However, I am planning on doing a thesis in place of the final research project. It gets me out of taking the class and I just need to periodically meet with a professor about what I am doing for guidance. Last semester, I wrote a research project on different educational programs for children with autism, so I am going to continue with that, except probably focus on a couple of specific programs and weigh the benefits, as well as the minuses, of both. It will be an undertaking, but it will also free up my time so that I can work more. I need a new car in the next couple of years, so I need to start saving up for that. In addition, I don't always want to be living in my apartment, and I do want to get married and start a family at some point, so I need to start saving up for a house (I've already got some money put away for that).

That being said, I'm probably going to lose my mind at some point this year with reading nothing but journal articles and books about educational programs. I do intend to try to read for enjoyment as often as possible so while I am going to continue to use this as my platform to vent and just talk about what is on my mind, I am also going to blog about the books I read. It will help keep me sane and it will also help me keep track of what I read.

So I know that I have been quiet for a while...things continue to go well with my new job. I lost a couple of cases due to the parents being noncompliant with the services, but am going to be taking on two more cases, in addition to one that I am still working with (who knows how long that may last for though...the clinician who was on the case with me had to leave because of a family emergency and the mom is worried about how the kiddo is going to react to the new clinician and if there are going to be any problems...not that I blame her, we basically are starting over from square one again). I'm finally going to be full time next week, which will help a lot with the finances - plus I will finally be able to get benefits.

School is done for the summer. I enjoyed my class and think that I did well in it. Hard to believe that in the fall, I will have 2 years left. Here is hoping that it speeds by quickly.

Chris and I are going away for the weekend to Baxter State Park to go camping. Although we won't be able to see any fireworks, we do plan to do a lot of outdoorsy stuff - hiking, boating, just walking around the trails. He took me up there a couple of weekends ago to go hiking and it was absolutely beautiful. We need a break from Portland, so this will be good.

The big excitement yesterday was that there was a moose wandering the streets of Portland. I didn't see it, but I guess that Chris's brother Brian did...literally walked right through his backyard and by his front window. There have been a couple of moose wandering around in civilization recently. I heard today that it may be because of the bugs and the recent heat.

YAY!

I finished my last couple of assignments for grad school and am now done with my second semester! 2 more years!

Relief!!!

Done with all of my assignments for grad school for this semester! I'm officially at the half way point....two more years to go!

To write a thesis or not to write a thesis

So I have a research project due for my research class in May. If we choose, we can base this on our BIG research project that we have to do in our final research class. The topic I chose is teaching methods for children with autism and what the advantages, and disadvantages, are with each one. It is a topic that I do find interesting and it is relevant to my new job at Providence, so I can always glean information from there.

The big question is, does this topic interest me enough to write a thesis during my final research class. I think that delving into something that deep would be very worthwhile, and could benefit in my long term career (if I become a school social worker). Another benefit is that I don't have to go to the class every single week. However, I am afraid of becoming so bored with the topic, especially if I have to write, and rewrite, my thesis. I guess I have time to decide this, but it also seems that it may be something that I need to decide now...