Being An Internship Supervisor: Settling Into a Therapist Routine

I worked about an hour and a half extra last week and will be punished if I show up early this week, so I am taking a bit of extra time this morning because it seems to be the only way that I can get things balanced out. I am not allowed to bank hours to use when needed, so here I am, in my towel, at 5:58am, waiting to get going until 6:45am because I want to get to work around 7:30. That will take up 15 minutes of my time, and I will be leaving as soon as my bus duty commitment is over, so that will take up another 15 minutes of my time. We have parent-teacher conferences this week, so I will have to be taking several hours from my personal time since I cannot use the extra time that I work as credited time. I have to go to the dentist this afternoon for an appointment that I am not looking forward to, so there you go. My Monday in a paragraph.

My last intern completed all the required assignments and paperwork last Tuesday, but has not been present at the facility since February 17th, so I have had a bit of time to be "Therapist." I am enjoying the role. It is nice to just run sessions rather than give feedback and evaluate the work of others. I am bringing back old songs, different ways of doing things, and getting some rules back in place before the next intern arrives.

I had two intern interviews last week. That's all I can say about that.

I am still trying to organize my time with all the individuals and all the group sessions that I have on the schedule. I have plenty of time, but I have not been able to use that time the way that I want to use it due to the aforementioned interviews. I will have three interrupted weeks in a row - no Friday groups for the next three weeks - this week is an inservice day, next week is Spring Break, and the week after that is the Midwestern Region Conference, so I will have three weeks without my prep/planning day. This complicates things a bit, but it also makes this month go past quickly. I will have one more Friday off in April. While I prefer having Fridays off to Mondays, I am missing my planning time right now. I could have used that time on Friday when I had an intern applicant to entertain...

Lesson learned here - do not have intern interviews on Fridays. There we go.

It is now 6:11am. I am anxious about being late. I am hungry, but I have trail mix to help me with that particular trait. I have to go to the dentist this afternoon, and I am not looking forward it. I have four groups and four individuals today. I need a strategy for what we are going to do that will allow me to get things done. If I leave now, I will have some time to get the Slides presentation ready for sessions - that will take up lots of session time this week. I want to expose students to musicians and musical traditions from New Zealand as part of our curriculum. I just need to get the presentation ready. I will have more time if I leave now...

Guess the anxiety wins out a bit this morning - less than usual, but still wins out...

See you tomorrow.


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