Intern 12.1

What a strange week this has been.

My somewhat bewildering student that would forget her cane or generally be non-cooperative was behaving very bizarrely on Monday.  We found out last Friday that she has what is essentially a mental illness.  My problem was that I didn't think she needed to stay in mobility (based on her past behavior) but I was asked to give her a second chance.  So Monday and Tuesday of this week were pretty frustrating on my part.  Well lo and behold this student ended up going home yesterday.  She said that she will be coming back in a few weeks, but who really knows. 

We were supposed to go to Southeastern Guide Dogs today for a tour of the campus and the students were going to walk with a real dog in harness.  These students have all taken the Hadley Guide Dog Course, several have done juno walks, and they all know guide dog users here on the campus.  I thought everything was good to go for our tour but then I found out on Monday that SEGD was not planning on having the students walk with dogs, get a tour of the dorm, or even get to see the puppy kennel.  We were working on this most of Monday and yesterday, trying to salvage the trip, but were essentially told that it was new policy to just give prospective students a presentation on the school's program. 

We put this up to the students, and they rightly decided that it wasn't worth our time to drive down there just for a presentation.  And then this morning I found out that the director of training had contacted Holly at 6:00am and said that he would make sure we got what we wanted when we showed up today.  Unfortunately it was too little, too late.  Hopefully a tour can be rescheduled, but I know Steve and Holly are pretty disappointed in SEGD at this point. 

Another one of my students has been struggling with depression lately.  She cried through most of my class yesterday (because of several things) but basically feels that nobody cares about her or listens to her.  I was trying to be sympathetic and help her, but I'm not a counselor.  She ultimately went to talk to one of the case managers on our staff who also happens to be a counselor.  I'm not sure how this student will be doing today; there really wasn't much we could do in class because of her emotional state.

Overall, I'm trying to wrap up with my students and get as much instruction in as I can before I leave next Friday.  It has been slow here at the center as far of the number of new students coming in while I've been here, but apparently that is going to change dramatically in the next month or so.  So while Steve and Holly both only have three students right now, they will have seven students apiece when I leave (one student for each period).  This doesn't leave any time really for planning, writing reports, or much of anything.  They need to hire a third mobility instructor but apparently approval for that won't come easy.