Experiencing Internship Guest Post

Today I'm excited because my intern is guest posting at the Corner as a part of her homework from me. What a delight it has been to work with this eager newbie and help guide her during the last few months of her school counseling program at the University of Houston-Clear Lake.

Thank you, Krystle, for your willingness to learn, grow, and share.

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My (not so) Teeny Tiny Experience by Krystle Smith

My name is Krystle Smith and I am currently working with Barbara as her intern.  Lucky me ... right?!?  I completely agree; my experience with her has been a blessing and such a wonderful learning experience. I feel more confident when working with the students … I am still working on gaining confidence in using the puppets. I just don't know how she knows what the puppets are going to say … then to give them a voice to match ... a true talent!

Last week, my Professor was coming out to observe me in an individual counseling session … to say I was nervous is an understatement. I was terrified because he is a difficult man to impress. I am happy to say it went really well!  I have some areas to improve upon, which I completely understand and am ready to work on. I struggle with letting go of the teacher side of me and becoming the counselor. Please keep in mind that I am still learning as you read about my lesson. 

My session objective was to target lying, with a focus on exaggeration and little white lies. I wanted my client to understand that telling a little white lie and/or exaggerating is still considered lying. After consulting with Barbara, I used one of her peace-class ideas and changed it to fit my objective. I began the session using a pre-test assessment. I asked my young client, "On a scale of 1 to 4, with 1 being I don't know anything and 4 being I know everything, rate how much do you know about being honest."  My client was so eager and said a 4, indicating that she knew everything possible though she is only in first grade ... that's impressive, friends!  LOL. Then I asked her if she ever heard the saying "Finders keepers, losers weepers" and what it meant to her. She said she had never heard it before, so I briefly explained it. 

Then, we read the book, Ruthie andthe (not so) Teeny Tiny Lie by Laura Rankin. We started with a picture walk and talking about a fox, how sly and sneaky they can be. During the book, I stopped at many different parts and I told my client she is now playing the part of Ruthie.  For example, we stopped on the page where Ruthie finds a teeny tiny camera and says it is hers now. We discussed if this was a lie or not. She explained it was a lie because it was not her camera. {Enter the fun part} When Ruthie tells a lie, I loosely wrapped yarn around the client. As we continued reading, Ruthie tells more lies. We pause and the client decides if it’s a lie or not, then is tied up with one more layer for every lie. Once the client starts to get wrapped up, I stop and assess. "How does it feel to be wrapped up? Is it easy to move around?" I then explain that when people lie we get wrapped up in our lies and it weighs us down and it makes life more difficult. Then we continue you with the book. Eventually Ruthie begins to tell the truth and apologizes to her friend. As she begins to tell the truth, I begin to unwrap the client and again we talk about how it feels when we tell the truth or admit that we are wrong. 

After the book was finished, I went back to the page where Ruthie apologized to her friend, Martin. Ruthie says. "I am sorry I took your camera." and Martin's response is "It’s okay." To me, this response is almost validating what Ruthie did as no big deal, but really it was a big deal. I asked the client what he could say instead. I was hoping she'd refer to the "I Feel" statements we’d learned earlier this year. When it didn't go this way, I led her to it and she completed the statement, "I felt sad when you took my camera and I need you to not do that again. I forgive you."  This had more meaning to me than just, "it's okay.” Then I wanted to connect this to a real-life situation. Her teacher had just consulted with me earlier in the week about her telling little white lies. I 'made up' a story modeled after something that had happened with her. After telling the story, I asked her if the person who made up some details was actually telling a lie. She said yes and, as I helped her apply it to her own situation, she hesitated but then admitted she’d done that. We agreed that, while it is a little white lie, it is considered lying. Lastly, we talked about exaggerations. I told her that my dog had twenty puppies the other day. She said that's not true because that can't happen. I said you're correct; I exaggerated the truth. My dog did have puppies but only 4. (well not really, my dog is a male...lol) I closed the lesson with asking the same questions from the pre-test. I asked her again to rate her knowledge on honesty, again she told me a 4. When I reminded her that she had just learned a few new things, so did she really think she has it mastered?, she reluctantly brought it down to a 3. You just have to love a confident kid!

I plan to continue the discussion on white lies and help her to connect it to more real life situations. I want her to pretend to be an investigator and to be on a mission to spot people telling the truth at school and at home. I want her then to report back to me about what she has noticed. 

I hope this lesson can be used again with some of your and your students. Feel free to change it to make it work best for you. I feel the best ideas are borrowed from next door, harvested and cultivated with our own little twist added on to them.

Clearly our future looks bright with interns like Krystle graduating, joining our school families, and leading the way.