This one is for you Steven.... here goes my super speed update of the past 2 and a bit months.
In September...
Dan and I moved into our new apartment. We are really enjoying living above ground (sounds strange?!?!?) and love our new neighborhood. Everything is at our fingertips as the intersection for the major subway lines is less than a 3 minute walk from our place. So far no rodents, crazy bugs, floods, break-ins etc. So things are looking up!
I started my final year of school and it is so hard to believe that in less than a year I will be a practicing SLP. This semester has been a tough one so far. Lots of exams and group assignments! I learned that I will be receiving an award in November for the best overall performance in my Child Language courses and internship. I was very proud and honored to find out that I will be receiving this award in particular because it is the area that I am eventually interested in practicing in.
I found out that my next placement for January and February will be at West Park Healthcare Centre in the AAC (Augmentative and Alternative Communication) Clinic. I was originally disappointed as I had really hoped to get a placement in Sudbury which had additional learning experiences in the areas of interprofessional practice and Aboriginal healthcare, but think that the placement I received will be a great learning experience. I will be working mostly with clients who are entirely non-verbal for a variety of reasons and who need alternative means to communicate with others. It will be my third placement in a highly specialized area, so I am hoping that my final placement will be a more "generalist" experience.
In September...
Dan and I moved into our new apartment. We are really enjoying living above ground (sounds strange?!?!?) and love our new neighborhood. Everything is at our fingertips as the intersection for the major subway lines is less than a 3 minute walk from our place. So far no rodents, crazy bugs, floods, break-ins etc. So things are looking up!
I started my final year of school and it is so hard to believe that in less than a year I will be a practicing SLP. This semester has been a tough one so far. Lots of exams and group assignments! I learned that I will be receiving an award in November for the best overall performance in my Child Language courses and internship. I was very proud and honored to find out that I will be receiving this award in particular because it is the area that I am eventually interested in practicing in.
I found out that my next placement for January and February will be at West Park Healthcare Centre in the AAC (Augmentative and Alternative Communication) Clinic. I was originally disappointed as I had really hoped to get a placement in Sudbury which had additional learning experiences in the areas of interprofessional practice and Aboriginal healthcare, but think that the placement I received will be a great learning experience. I will be working mostly with clients who are entirely non-verbal for a variety of reasons and who need alternative means to communicate with others. It will be my third placement in a highly specialized area, so I am hoping that my final placement will be a more "generalist" experience.
We also had a lovely weekend visit with Dan's mom on her route to New Brunswick to visit her family. We enjoyed visiting with her and exploring Nuit Blanche in the evening.
My cousin Rodney also visited Toronto and was kind enough to deliver a package of things I forgot at home during the summer. I enjoyed a lovely dinner with him and his friends at Wayne Gretzky's restaurant.
In October...
I endured 6 weeks of exam....lets not go there!
AND THEN...
Grandma and Grandpa Dietrich came to visit me for a weekend and we had a lovely time seeing each other and enjoying some sightseeing. We rode the sightseeing tour bus and made stop-offs at the Hockey Hall of Fame, CN Tower, and Casa Loma. It was really nice to take in some of the sights that I wouldn't have necessarily went to on my own. I really had fun showing them around my environment and just enjoying their company. ( I will add pictures later)
In November...
not too much to report so far.... lots and lots of group projects and presentations!
I have been working feverishly on my research project that I am completing in my "spare time" with a professor in the SLP Department Alice Eriks-Brophy. The title of the project is Part of the Problem or Part of the Solution? Issues of Potential Bias in Communication Assessments of Aboriginal Children Residing in Remote Communities. What a mouthful.... It is a really interesting project. Definitely the best I have ever worked on before. Currently, we are working on a paper that will be submitted for publishing in a textbook on Crosscultural assessment. If all goes well, I am proud to say that it will be my second published work. So exciting! We are also going to present the findings in a work group session in March.
