Day Three

I thought that switching careers would keep me from working in a school setting... I was wrong. I guess it's no surprise since I want to work with children and families, but I thought that focusing on mental health and behavioral health would open doors to the population in a different setting. Don't get me wrong. Being a clinical social worker does. But so far my experience during the MSW program has been with Communities In Schools which allowed me to work with community college students which wasn't too bad. Thankfully, I was NOT placed at a K-12 school. I'm afraid of my teacher mode turning on. And now I am at an agency that has a few people confused with why I am here. I think it's because there are other field students here, and some of them are education majors. More than one person has asked me if I am an education major.... Been had. I can't wait for my next internship in a children's hospital. I am ready to learn about how I can help children and families in another setting already!!!

Today (and part of yesterday), I learned about the education system in Hong Kong, and I have visited kindergarten classrooms here. Although it is very interesting to learn about kindergartens in Hong Kong since I've worked in schools in Japan and South Korea, I would like to do more mental health type things. But I am trying to make the most of my experience so far, and hopefully, I can think of an awesome project to start at this placement.

Here are some photos from my visit today. The kindergarten class I observed are predominantly ethnic minorities who are from Nepal and Pakistan. They are rehearsing their graduation song that is in Chinese. Flashbacks of my time teaching at SLP in Seoul came back... Repeating the songs over and over and using incentives in order to bribe them to focus and learn the song PERFECTLY! Today the children were given M&M's if they were able to remember the Chinese vocabulary in the song. HAH.