5 day school week...

So this week is the first 5 day student school week that I will have since Christmas break. We've had 9 snow days (only 2 of which should have been snow days, in my honest opinion), parent-teacher conferences, teacher work days, and throw in some holidays and you have yourself a blissful 2 months of irregular work weeks and cranky kids off of a daily routine. Needless-to-say the work load is now piling up and we have a ton of evaluations and other activities going on that keep getting pushed farther and farther back. For the first time in my internship I have actually felt really busy, like there is no downtime (which I love b/c it means that the days fly by). Only 3 more months left of my internship! And then its back into the career world... How exciting!

Here are a list of some things that I've learned in my time as a school psychologist intern:
1. I don't really like the highschool setting. Maybe its because I could still pass for a highschool student. Or perhaps its that I work with the tougher kids in a school and they could totally take me out. Could it be that I just really like the supportive, community environment found in an elementary school? Or maybe its simply that the highschool level is just too chaotic for my taste... I'd say its probably a little of all -- but I don't really like it. I like middle schools and elementary schools, I would probably even enjoy early childhood/preschool settings - highschools are not for me.

2. I can't handle people who stress out over deadlines. The work will get done on time and it will be done well. I really don't like to work with high stress people, it drives me nuts!

3. I really like working with systems level (school-wide) projects. I like the organizational aspect to it. Although I love working with individual kids, the three-tiered model of prevention and intervention is so much more effective than the test and place model.

All-in-all I am really enjoying my internship. And I have really started to enjoy Missouri. I have no intention of staying here beyond June, but I am finding the people more exciting and the whole experience is a good one. I am no longer waking up and asking myself "Why in the world would anyone move to Missouri?"