Burning Out

I'm tired. I can't wait for this semester to end. I've got a lot on my plate, and I'm realizing how much has to get done in the next few weeks.

My supervisor posed an interesting question to me. She asked me which setting I preferred, elementary or middle school. I told her that I liked working with the middle school population, but I hate how the middle school is set up. The school psychologists at the middle school have a lot of administrative duties, and when they aren't doing paperwork, they test children. Ugh! They don't have dedicated counseling caseloads. I enjoy counseling, and there's only so much testing you can do. Well, the question my supervisor asked me was "Do you think it (the middle school's school psychology practice model) could be changed?" I hadn't thought of that.

When I think about applying for jobs, I think about how the "perfect" job probably doesn't exist. There is a huge gulf between the utopia of how school psychology should be from the university's perspective vs. the harsh, ugly reality of what actually happens. I haven't thought about finding a situation that's okay, but could be changed. In my mind, I think that I could change things, so that may contribute to where I decide to work, (that and whoever has an opening!) It would be hard to gauge in an interview if a system could be changed to fit my needs. I guess I would need to have some key questions that I would ask of the administrators, so I could get a better picture of how well I would fit.

BBC