Classes I Have Taken
SW 3101 - Human Behavior and Social Environment I
Human behavior I taught me a lot about different theories that can be used in the school setting as well as in working with adolescents. This course focused a lot on the early stages of life and touched a little on later stages. The main assignment that I had to do for this class was the developmental theory paper, and I choose to focus on childhood mental health and how the early stages of life can affect a child's mental health long term.
SW 3102 - Foundations for Multicultural Social Work
Foundation taught me ways to interact with others that are different than myself and have grown up in a different environment. The key points of this class were what white privilege is and what it looks like in the workplace. After taking this class I now feel like I have a better understanding of what it means to have white privilege, and what it looks like in everyday life.
SW 3201 - Human Behavior and Social Environment II
Human Behavior II taught me a lot more about later adulthood and how the ageing process can have some major effects on a person later in life. In addition, this course taught me a lot more about how the environment that someone grows up in could have an effect on them later in life in a positive or negative way. Within the course, I was exposed to the different levels (macro, mezzo, and micro) of social work
SW 3203 - Fundamentals of Social Work Practice
Fundamentals taught me the professional skills that I would be expected to use in the field. A few other points that I was able to take away from this course were good interview skills, being aware of my body language when talking to clients, and getting better at my problem-solving skills. I took a lot away from the role-playing we did in class and was able to use these skills in my field placement. one of my favorite assignments was done in this class and that was the interview assessment.
SW 4970 - Social Work Seminar I
Seminar I focused a lot on the concepts of the practice of social work in a variety of different settings. The major aspect of this course was sharing our experiences with our field placements to our peers. This allowed us to be able to share ideas of how to handle hard situations that we would faced at our internship throughout the semesters. This was very helpful for me because some of the things we talked about I brought back to my field placement and they worked.
SW 4103 - Social Work Practice I
Social Work Practice I had a major emphasis on knowing how to assess for suicide and what the major signs are. This is something that was really stressed in this class because Scott Smith ( the professor I had) said that a lot of programs didn't teach this and that these students would not learn how to do this until they were faced with it for the first time when they were working in the field. The main aspect of this class was pulling apart different case files and figuring out what was really going on with the patient.
SW 4203- Social Work Practice II
Social Work Practice II had more of a macro social work focus I definitely learned a whole more about what it is like to be a social worker on the micro side of things. The main assignment for this class was the program design paper where we had to create a program of our choosing.
SW 4971 - Social Work Seminar II
Seminar II had a much heavier focus on self-care, and really how we were doing as individuals. This course also continue to let us share what was going on at our field placements and get advice on different situations that were happening at our placements. The major assignment for this class was the capstone, which included a paper and a website. I enjoyed writing the paper because it made me reflect back on my experiences, challenges, and successes in the social work program.
Field Experience
My field placement was at Mount Clemens Middle/High School. I was able to work with both middle and high school-age students. I also had the chance to work with both general education students and students that were in special education. I had my own caseload of students that I had to check in on a weekly basis. I would do different things with each student sometimes I would do a social skill activity or look over their grades, and help them with their missing work. I also would go in weekly to the special education class and do one big group activity on different social skills. I also learned a lot more about what goes on behind the scenes of what it takes to get a student on an individual education plan or a 504 plan. Another thing that I learned was how to properly observe a student, and what things to look out for.
The key takeaways from my field placement that have helped me to be ready to enter the field are that I have been able to learn how to be able to work in a very high-paced environment and work with people that have to grow up in a completely different environment than myself. The biggest takeaway is that is ok to share things that I have experienced with my clients. I had a student open up to me about the same thing I am going through. I shared that he was not alone because I understood his feelings and that if he needed to talk about it I was there for him. This was a very defining moment.
|
Mount Clemens Middle and High School
|