Perks of Preschool!

One of the perks of being at the preschool....... FIELD TRIPS!

Sat on the Boilermaker Special today.. the Purdue train basically. And went to different Purdue spots that I didn't even know exist. The fountain, the animal statues, the football stadium, oh and the Purdue airport. Is it absolutely kiddish of me to have actually had a tonne of fun!? The best part? Getting a tour of the FedEx plane and being able to see the cockpit! I was just thinking to myself that that was the first time I've ever really seen a plane's cockpit! But then I remembered how a friend in undergrad kinda snuck us into Miami's airport and let us get on one of the private planes parked in the hangar. Oh, and we drove in his car, really fast on the runway with our heads sticking out of the roof and arms wide open just like Titanic (but without a guy, and in a car) haha. Twas a pretty good night. Getting on the plane today though, with a bunch of kids... was different. It wasn't scary and nerve-wrecking, instead I had to talk and describe everything to the kids (just like how we were trained, lol). Btw, did you know that the FedEx plane has seats in them? I guess FedEx ships people as well? :)

It's hard to believe that this is my 2nd and last year of grad school. I'm almost almost done! I'm actually mentoring 1st year grad students now! And it's so interesting seeing them dabbling in clinic for their first time! Reminded me of my first year, and how I was with my first client, and I still remember thinking that my 2nd year mentor was soo good at saying the right thing, the right way and at the right time. And I remember hoping to myself that that will be me by my 2nd year. I'm proud to say that I think that I've been trained well. Some things are ingrained in us by our supervisors, and it's obvious because those are the things that we pick out as difficulties that the 1st years have in clinic!

Three golden rules, that you don't really know when you first start clinic:
Rule 1: Ask fewer questions. Make more comments. It's therapy you're doing! Not an interview!
Rule 2: Pay attention to your client. Don't just think about carrying out your activity. You need to cater your activities to their responses. Flexibility is key!
Rule 3: Use simple, direct sentences. Pause often. Emphasize on key words. Don't speak in a whole jumble of sentences.

If there's nothing else that I remember from grad school, I'll at least remember the 3 golden rules. :)