Intro to Social Work
Topic: School Based Social Work
Story:
During my freshman year at College, I was mad aware of a job opening at a local public school on Staten Island. Some of the college’s students spent their first semester volunteering there for their freshman learning community. By the second semester, all the volunteers left because the atmosphere of the school was challenging. With all of the free help gone, the school put out a flyer for paid after school help positions. I jumped at the opportunity for a paid job in which I only had to work a few hours each day. I had spent time in high volunteering at my neighborhood public school, so I had experience working with children in a school setting. I am also from a low income, ethnically diverse neighborhood, so what my peers deemed as a “challenging neighborhood” made me feel right at home.
By the spring of 2007, I had been working as an after school tutor and recreations counselor for over a year. My place of employment was Public School Number. The organization I worked for is a non-profit company called, which runs a out of the school. At the same time I was also debating entering the education dual major program, which required me to do student teaching. Within the school I had many roles which made me a visible member of the community.
I fell in love with the children I saw everyday. I slowly but surely worked my way up to greater levels of responsibility. I eventually received my own group of children to regularly supervise. On a Thursday afternoon, one of my children began tugging on my uniform shirt. I immediately turned my attention to the child. She was a first grade student I will call “Tammy”. Tammy began to cry. Crying is not unusual in an after school program that deals with children, so I was not alarmed but I did try to calm the child. Tammy was holding her stomach so I asked if she had a tummy ache. She nodded yes. I tried to encourage her to use her voice. I wanted Tammy respond to me by speaking so I
Story:
During my freshman year at College, I was mad aware of a job opening at a local public school on Staten Island. Some of the college’s students spent their first semester volunteering there for their freshman learning community. By the second semester, all the volunteers left because the atmosphere of the school was challenging. With all of the free help gone, the school put out a flyer for paid after school help positions. I jumped at the opportunity for a paid job in which I only had to work a few hours each day. I had spent time in high volunteering at my neighborhood public school, so I had experience working with children in a school setting. I am also from a low income, ethnically diverse neighborhood, so what my peers deemed as a “challenging neighborhood” made me feel right at home.
By the spring of 2007, I had been working as an after school tutor and recreations counselor for over a year. My place of employment was Public School Number. The organization I worked for is a non-profit company called, which runs a out of the school. At the same time I was also debating entering the education dual major program, which required me to do student teaching. Within the school I had many roles which made me a visible member of the community.
I fell in love with the children I saw everyday. I slowly but surely worked my way up to greater levels of responsibility. I eventually received my own group of children to regularly supervise. On a Thursday afternoon, one of my children began tugging on my uniform shirt. I immediately turned my attention to the child. She was a first grade student I will call “Tammy”. Tammy began to cry. Crying is not unusual in an after school program that deals with children, so I was not alarmed but I did try to calm the child. Tammy was holding her stomach so I asked if she had a tummy ache. She nodded yes. I tried to encourage her to use her voice. I wanted Tammy respond to me by speaking so I