Cheesecake!

^^^ This is Blair and me.

Tuesday was my new friend Sami's 21st birthday! To celebrate I went with her and 6 other interns to the Cheesecake Factory. My FAVORITE. :-) We all had cheesecake to celebrate.

Tomorrow is the last day of week three. One more week after this then I'll be headed home. It's a bittersweet feeling. I'm going to miss my new friends and being in this big city. I'm kind of ready for the internship to be over though. The newness and excitement has worn off and now it's just routine. I'm still enjoying it, but I won't really be sad that it's over. I'm ready to get back and finish my last year of undergrad. There are a lot of exciting things that are going to happen within the next short while, and I'm ready to get the ball rolling.

I'm also ready to get back so I can see my brother on TV. I've missed seeing his very first noon shows. :-(

9 days until my Will gets here!

Love and miss you all.

Amy

the little girl, in the big city

Chapel Hill

The rest of week 2 went smoothly and week three has started off well. This week our theme is "Yum Yum, Let's Eat!" We will be exploring different foods and the food pyramid. I don't teach this week, so it should be *relatively* low stress.

This past weekend my roommate and wonderful new friend Blair and I went and toured the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. They have one of the most respected programs in the nation. Really. It's amazing. Better than Vanderbilt. We spoke with someone from the speech pathology program and she gave us lots of information. The school is VERY competitive. Last year 238 people applied for the program...they accepted 46. Ha. Yeah. I've got a lot of work to do if I want to be accepted into the program. Blair and I would love to go together and be roomies!

Here are some pictures. Enjoy!

Blair and me

bell tower

We would be in the School of Medicine

This is the building all of our classes would be in...

pretty walkway

one of the libraries

Love and miss you all!

Amy

the little girl, in the big city

Teaching

Wow...teaching... It is definitely not for everyone. Today was my day of being the lead teacher for our class of ten preschoolers. All of the activities I had planned went well, and I got some great interaction out of my children, even the nonverbal one! They seemed to enjoy the songs, games, craft, and our language and science activities. Afterwards, however, I met with the speech language pathologist who observed while I was teaching. She had quite a few comments.

She told me that my day was "pretty good" and that I "accomplished all of my goals," but she definitely had several areas that she felt could be improved. She said I need to work on being more assertive and offered several ideas on how I could have incorporated more language skills into my activities. At first I was overwhelmed by her seemingly limitless list of corrections, but after a few minutes of digesting it all, I realized that I am thankful for her comments. I didn't come to this internship to only hear "great job! You're the best!" I came to learn. And how else am I going to learn if no one criticizes me? I know that the SLP only meant well and is genuinely trying to help me become better, so I am taking in her comments and focusing on how I can incorporate them into my next day of teaching.

Teaching for me is not natural. Teaching a classroom of developmentally delayed 4 year olds is certainly not natural. Teaching children who don't speak, can't sit still for more than ten minutes, and don't transition well is, once again, not natural. But I know that I will become more comfortable with it as time passes.

Sometimes we learn best by falling flat on our faces first. I didn't get the impression from the SLP that I fell flat on my face; all of the other girls said that she had a lengthy list of corrections for them too. But still...

I keep reminding myself that I am NOT going to be a teacher. This is not what I will be doing. I will be working one-on-one or at most two-on-one with children. I won't be "teaching", I'll be doing therapy. Also, I will not have to plan things for them to do from 9 AM to 1 PM. At most, I will have a child for one hour. While my career setting will be extremely different from this intern setting, I know that the things I learned from my SLP today will carry over into my career. Some way, somehow.

So here's to day 2 of teaching...and everyday of teaching from here on out! May each day be better than the day before!

Still learning. Still growing. Still miss and love you all!

-Amy

the little girl, in the big city

Special Gifts

Today is Sunday, which means tomorrow is Monday... The start to a new week! While I'm excited to see what this week holds, I thoroughly enjoyed my few days off. The rest was definitely needed. Friday night I went to an art gallery crawl downtown. Super fun. Yesterday was a rainy, lazy day with a short trip to the pool. Today was another great day at church. I love being reminded to surrender my life to God's will. It is so easy for me to get caught up in planning my future. I find myself telling God where I want to go to school, where I want to work, where I want to live, etc and then praying for His blessing on my decisions. But that just is NOT how it works, nor is it how I want it to work. Being a Christian means you have denied yourself and have yielded your desires to His. I struggle with this everyday, but I know that if I continue to seek Him, He will guide me.

This week I will be the lead teacher. SCARY. I got a lovely email from one of my most favorite people ;-) with this encouragement:

"Working with young kids who have no issues is hard, so I know that these are a really challenge for you. Remember that God has given each one of these precious children a special gift. Sometimes you can see it and sometime it takes a certain person to pull it out. Sometimes it just takes time. This is a wonderful opportunity for you. Savor every minute."

...and that's exactly what I'm going to do this week. Focus on the special gifts of these children. They have so much to offer, so much to teach us, and so much to show us.

Love you all. Miss you tons.

Will, your plane lands in Charlotte in 20 days! I'm warning you now that as soon as I see you, I will be sprinting across the airport to you crying. Just be prepared to be embarrassed. I love you so much.

Amy

-the little girl, in the big city

overwhelmed

I've been working at TSGI for one week now. Each day is different, each day is a challenge. I very much underestimated how difficult this internship would be... Working with a group of 10 developmentally delayed children is a handful. It takes a lot of patience and a lot of energy. I'm enjoying getting to know the children and their personalities and enjoying the activities we do with them, but it definitely takes a toll on all of us interns, emotionally and physically. I love the work. It's just overwhelming. I'm learning a lot and quickly realizing that I do not know near as much as I thought I knew, but that's what an internship is for, right? To learn. So I will. I have three more weeks with these wonderful children. We are all working very hard to help the children see some sort of improvement in these four weeks. I love each and every one of them and there is no doubt in my mind that this is the type of work I am called to do. Like I said, it's just overwhelming to try to implement therapy when we have so many children that are so low functioning all together. Group therapy= not my thing.

I'm not legally allowed to take pictures of the children, but I took some pictures of my classroom for you guys!

Enjoy!

As always, prayers are appreciated. Love you all.

And it begins...

Today was our last intern training day. I met with the other interns/ graduate students/ speech language pathologist that I will be working with these next four weeks. I will be working with the "Bopping Bluebirds" class. These are the 4-5 year olds. There are 11 children in my class. 9 boys and 2 girls. My caseload includes D.S., a 4 year old male with articulation delay and R.M., a four year old male whose diagnosis is language delay, but he exhibits many autistic characteristics. R.M. has a vocabulary of ten words and uses mostly sign language to communicate. I'm excited to learn a lot from these boys and the rest of the children in my class. I'll be teaching next week (week 2) and week 4. Lots to plan and lots to do! Sunday I will get to meet the kids in my class at open house, then regular daily class starts Monday. Let the fun begin!

Greetings from Charlotte! Today was a whirlwind. I drove through Birmingham AND Atlanta... you all know this was quite the accomplishment for me considering my previous driving record. The ten hour drive from Pontotoc to Charlotte wasn't near as terrible as I expected. I met up with Aaron in Gwinette, GA at Varsity. Much fun :) Once I got to Charlotte we explored the university area and I found where I'll be staying for my internship. I'm excited to be here in this new city and can't wait to get started at "work." I'm also scared out of my mind, but I know I will get situated eventually. To quote Aaron, I'm "f'ine'... Freaking out Insecure Nervous and Emotional" Love you all! Miss you! Prayers are appreciated!

Correction: Now it's 4 days...

So I found out earlier this week that I do not have to be in Charlotte until Thursday. Consequently, I will now be leaving on Tuesday, July 6^th instead of Saturday. While I am extremely excited and more than ready to begin this adventure in North Carolina, I will NEVER complain about more time in Pontotoc with my family. Words can never express how much I love these people and how much I enjoy each moment that I have with them… It doesn’t hurt that the extra time I have in Mississippi includes a trip to Starkville either. J Mugshots, anyone?

I’ve also decided to start a new devotional while in Charlotte. My Utmost for His Highest by Oswald Chambers. I had intentions of waiting until Charlotte to begin the book, but I just couldn’t. I had heard too many great things about the book and was entirely too excited. During the next few months of my life, I will be making the most important decisions I’ve probably ever made… everything from relationships to jobs. Then of course there’s school. Move off or stay close? Vanderbilt, UGA, UNC, Alabama, Ole Miss, Washington D.C.? So many decisions. I truly want to seek God’s perfect will in all of these areas. Today I began the book and already I have been blown away by how much it has spoken to me.

Excerpt from July 1^st’s devotional- “And the moment you realize that God’s purpose is to get you into the right relationship with Himself and then with others, He will reach to the very limits of the universe to help you take the right road.”

I am to seek a right relationship with Him FIRST and THEN seek a right relationship with others. He is FIRST. When I fully and truly realize this, He will stop at nothing to guide me in every area of my life. When I place Him before all others, He will lead me down the right paths. He knows what is best for me in each situation of my life. And I want Him to be in control. Not MY will but THINE be done.

Wow…long post.