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If you have an urgent share*, please color code your post.  To color code:  1.  Write your post.  2.  Click anywhere else on the screen. 3.  Click the three dots at the top right hand corner of your post.  4.  Choose RED (very urgent) or YELLOW (somewhat urgent).

*If your share involves danger to yourself or others, please email Victoria first.

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(We will all do this one the first week.  Please choose a green card to respond to the first week).

Be an open, receptive and active listener while others share. And be prepared to offer feedback, support, encouragement, or ask questions BOTH using the add comment feature in the padlet AND in class discussion. When you choose this card, you are actively responsible for leading the feedback for others.

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Do you have a topic that doesn’t quite fit into the other card categories? Use your ‘Wild Card’!

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Tell us about a cool moment/ experience/story/reflection from your internship.

What happened?

Why was this important/ special?

What are you taking forward?

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Professional Development (workshops, trainings, coursework, even new texts) is about building your skills, tools and ways of thinking to make you the best youth worker you can be.  Discuss a recent professional development opportunity you participated in. What was it? What did you learn? How can you apply it to your work?

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Do you get regular mentorship or supervision in your internship?  Do you get positive and/or constructive feedback on the work you do? Are you encouraged to reflect on your practice at your placement?  How would you change the ways you are being mentored?  Can you “mentor up” if you are not getting what you need?

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A “Dilemma of Practice” is a professional challenge or incident that YDEV leaders face in our work. This might be an ethical dilemma, a boundary issue, a question of safety or something else.

What happened? What are the implications? Next steps?

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Your YDEV ideology informs every decision you make in the field.  Discuss the similarities and/or differences between your values/ideology and that of your field placement site or supervisor.

Risk and Resiliency

Positive Youth Development

Civic Youth Development

Social Justice Youth Development

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On February 4th CREAR Futuros (my internship) had a workshop on burnout. Benaifer Bhadha led the workshop; they have experience as a social worker, therapist, and educator. I thought the workshop would be formal, and I had to take notes mainly lecture-based, but the experience was enjoyable, and I took a lot out of it. We defined what burnout means and how people deal with being burnt out, whether work-related, school-related or just life. I feel it is difficult to pinpoint when I am experiencing burnout because I am just an anxious person. It made me realize that I am currently experiencing burnout, but it shows in ways like being snappy, “lazy,” unmotivated, tired, and anxious. Being able to pinpoint it and recognize that I need to make time for myself has aided me throughout managing everything. Benaifer also taught breathing techniques (take 5, tapping, somatic releasing, and body scanning) and the open bowl technique of listening. Basically, what it is is listening fully. For example, when you speak to a person, you do not know you listen fully and make no assumptions about what they may speak about. BUT for a person you already know, say like your parents, you know what they're going to say, so you go into the conversation with set intentions on what they may say or the attitude, etcetera. The open bowl concept means being able to listen fully with everyone and recognizing sometimes you may not be able to do that, and setting those boundaries. I feel like this is something that I would like to work on in my personal relationships and was something that highlighted my experience in the workshop.

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Between my values of positive YDEV and Civic YDEV and my field site, there is a term that is similar to both which is inclusion. My supervisor included everyone regardless of disability because it's all abilities matter. In my internship, we give everyone the opportunity to play the sport they love the most.

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i do have a mentor at my internship, but i do question the way she handles some things. she does give me positive feedback with the way i work, but she does also complain about the children a lot. if i could change the way i was mentored i would honestly find someone who was more involved in doing fun activities with the kids, and someone who had more patience and was better at handling situations with children's behaviors.

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At my internship, I have a mentor that I meet frequently to discuss important issues or events happening at the center. I also explain and share my lesson plans with my mentor and receive helpful feedback to help make each lesson stronger. After completing a lesson my mentor will always ask me follow-up questions regarding how it went and ways to make it better. Through my time as an intern, I have learned so much more about ways to run a successful child care center. I wish I was able to learn more about the child outreach services that are offered to students who might be developmentally delayed. But overall, feel that I have gained so much knowledge through working with a mentor and am thankful for the opportunity to get more of the insight rather than just being a toddler teacher every day.

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I work at an elementary school site for the YMCA in West Warwick.  My boss put me at this "more challenging site" because of my previous work experience and because usually I like to take on challenges and do not shy away from them.  At my site the youth face different challenges such as emotional/learning/behavior challenges, etc.  We recently had a training at our monthly staff meeting titled, Trauma Informed Practice Introduction.  We learned that trauma affects our youth and how their families could also be experiencing trauma as well. This could also apply to staff and other people or adults in general.  We learned how trauma impacts the developing body (behavior)/mind and the science behind challenging behaviors.  We also learned additional resources/supports for staff and young people.  Some goals for learning and that can be applied for work is having/build empathy/capacity for working with people that have had trauma and to establish attitudes and procedures for best practices, if we did not have this already or to practice this as well. This can be applied to work and how I support my young people at my site to be more informed about trauma. I have had trauma trainings in the past from my other job and also have saw/heard traumas first hand from people who are close to me so, it was nice to get more information on how to assist people better and understand different things that can cause trauma to youth/ adults as well.  It is also important to be applied to work because this way we can focus on having positive relationships as their role model (staff) with our youth, collaborate with others in the community, educate ourselves more about trauma/behavior through trainings like this and more.  Also, it is important in our work to remember to take care of our personal needs so, we can better serve our youth as well. (many of these aspects are related to Ydev values, etc) The other take aways are to consider the traumatic risks facing our communities, the way we speak/treat to young people because this could be a literal life/death matter and it is a very serious/sensitive topic that has to be handled with care/understanding/listening.  We can change the outcomes through how we think/speak/act to young people in our care or people in general and the importance of being aware/mindful!

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Recently,  I had the opportunity to work with the choreographers Alex Beigleson and David Dorfman for residencies in the dance company. The two choreographers, while very different in their teaching methods and style, both taught me a lot about how to facilitate a room creatively. Since my internship is choreographing two solo's I found this experience very beneficial. I loved how Biegleson was very musically driven choreographer, a lot of his movement comes from the dynamics of the songs. From Dorfman, I learned how choreography can be collaborative and how working together with the dancer makes the experience more exciting and meaningful. Both of these approaches have influenced where the pieces I'm creating. They have helped me work through creative blocks and communication with the dancers. From the new knowledge I have, I've noticed that I'm going back through the choreographies and making them more interesting. I'm also vocalizing to my dancers to find areas in their dances where they can take initiative in their movement. This experience was really great and I find that learning from these types of experiences really help me in my work!

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At my internship, I have two mentors that I talk to everyday that give me quality advice before my afternoon shift. We would normally discuss topics on lesson planning, how the day before went in the classroom, and they always ask my opinion on some ways to improve the program. This is a huge opportunity because they both know that I am pursuing a degree in YDEV but are not shy to tell me what I need to improve on some days. I also like how they ask about my self care and make sure I am taking care of myself because you cannot let your personal problems get to you while working with youth. Great mentorship from both and I am just looking for more ways to improve while fixing some mistakes that they may see in me as a staff. But I'm glad they give me feedback as I look forward to becoming a better youth worker.

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For the past year, I have been participating in a Registered Apprenticeship at my work. This apprenticeship has allowed me to earn my CDA- Child Development Associate credential as well as earning countless hours of professional development. During the training for the CDA I completed a course through CCRI and learned many things about early childhood that can relate to youth work. Although I currently work in a daycare, I plan on working with middle to high school age students but after working with young children it was very interesting to learn that the two different age groups are quite similar. In my CDA class I learned that children just want to be heard and understood which is exactly how young adults want to feel. By being there for them and being somebody they can trust, you can have a major impact on their lives.

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Cool moment I had was when I first facilitated my group of students (instead of helping the teacher facilitate) the students already knew me for a few weeks so we hung out and did some art while chatting. One student said something along the lines of "no offense jill but you are not a teacher." and I told her I didnt take it offensive, I took it kindly! I asked her what she meant and pointed out that she probably feels that way becasue I am not trying to be the kind of teacher they are used to (and not a teacher at all really) and that I'm glad she sees me more as a mentor/someone who treats her and other students in a way that isnt a teacher/student power dynamic!

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So all my life I’ve grown up going to catholic school. I’ve learned all the ways they teach. My junior year I went to public school. This was something new to me and it was such a different experience. Now in college, my internship has allowed me to explore a new setting. In these last few years in college I learned about Montessori schools. Now I get to experience it on hand. Although it was something unfamiliar to me it is very interesting to learn about it now.

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A “professional development” this week that helped me sharpen some of my skills was being able to be apart of a meeting with a student and my mentor (the school social worker). This session helped me develop my communication skills, interpersonal skills, empathy, leadership skills and more as I listened and took note of different ways of dealing with conflict and problem solving. These skills will grow over time to help me work one-on-one with students to understand and advocate for them.