Day 2 Graduate Student Trip – Mental Health
We began our morning with a quick breakfast before heading out to set up for Safe Kid's Day! Safe Kid's Day is an event promoting prevention strategies to help parents and kids stay safe. The event was organized by the Pettis County Health Center, and we were so excited to help run some of the activities! When we arrived, we were assigned to stations where would would do activities with children and families to get them engaged while also giving them valuable information to prevent injuries and accidents. At the first station, our participants discussed ways to help parents be aware of dangerous substances, and we provided information to prevent ingestion of harmful substances and how to intervene if their child was to ingest something poisonous. The next station was dedicated to fire safety, where children and families would win prizes if they could answer questions about their fire safety plans. Parents were provided with additional information to add to their pre-existing safety plans. The fire stations provided a fire safety house as well to teach children in a hands-on environment what to do if their house was on fire. The next station focused on safety in sports; they spoke about traumatic brain injuries and concussions briefly, and they spent a lot of time on how to stay hydrated when playing sports. The next booth was showing children how to be a safe pedestrian and how to use crosswalks and read street signs. The next station we assisted at was covering more general home safety, and students had to point out safe strategies in a house versus situations where kids may not be safe. The event included another station where kids received free bicycle helmets, and the helmets were fit on each child individually. Lastly, Safe Kids Day organized for car seat checks, so parents were abe to get their child's car seats checked by trained professionals to make sure they were installed properly.
The event this day was much less scheduled and jam-packed as what we had done on our first day, so we really enjoyed working with those in the community outside of the school environment in a more laid back location. Our entire team had a blast; we were able to educate both kids and families about safety. When we first planned out trip, we were hoping to have a more mental health focus, but we were ecstatic to have this opportunity to volunteer in the community this way. After reflecting on our experience, we felt that there was so much more we learned from the activity than we had originally thought. School psychologists have a focus on prevention and early intervention of problematic behaviors and conditions, and we were essentially providing preventive education for these families in an engaging way. We also took away many aspects that we will keep in mind for our future practice as school psychologists. We were able to witness how important community work is, and this inspires all of us to be active in the communities we will work in. It is easy for school professionals to stay in that environment exclusively, but making more connections in the community has extreme benefits for improving home and school collaboration and overall school and community climate.
We were able to eat a famous Sedalia restaurant for dinner, Kehde's Barbeque, which is fashioned from a 1920's train car. The food was absolutely incredible, and we were sad to leave our undergraduate teammates behind as we set off to return to Columbia. We cannot believe how quickly our trip went by, and we felt so honored to be able to serve Pettis County, specifically the city of Sedalia. We are truly inspired by the people we connected with in the city, and we look forward to other opportunities to get involved in the community! A special shout out to MizzouEd and the Mizzou Educational, School, and Counseling Psychology Department for supporting us on this trip and helping us develop professionally!
Day 1 Graduate Student Trip-Mental Health
The morning began at 5:30 am when we all met at Townsend to take off. Everyone was in good spirits and the drive went quickly. We arrived at Sedalia Middle School around 7:00 am so we had plenty of time to prepare for our 7:45 start time. The first professional development on mental health went really well. We built in several opportunities for discussion and brainstorming and the group of teachers was not shy about sharing concerns or successes. Our team felt like we gained so much in terms of understanding teachers' frustrations and stressors concerning mental health. The first presentation did not get very far because the group was so talkative and engaging. However, many of their early concerns were brought up in the powerpoint so I feel we did a good job picking our topics. Teachers barely had time to fill out the evaluations but they quickly completed them for us. During the break, we reviewed their feedback. It was overwhelmingly positive!
On the break we were able to prepare for the next session and eat a quick lunch. The second round of presentations also went well. This group was less talkative and supportive than the first group but still engaged and shared concerns, especially one team of teachers. A few shared that they were really overwhelmed by the level of mental health need this year. We worked to validate their concerns in the PD and discuss ways to collaborate with others to support students. The School Counselor sat in on this presentation which was great because many suggested on the previous evaluation that the School Counselor attend. We were able to pull him into our PD and have him discuss his rationale and the referral process. There were several concerns brought up regarding their referral process in both PD sessions and in the second PD the group was able to develop an easy solution to several of the concerns. It felt so good that we were able to facilitate this needed discussion and let the teachers and counselor find a solution themselves. One of our first year students stepped in at the end and gave a rousing speech about the power of prevention and how teachers can support protective factors with students. This ended the presentation on a high note. We all felt great about this presentation as well and the feedback on the evaluations was also positive.
The presentations were completed around 2:00 and we were completely drained! We must have been on an adrenaline rush during the day and then the exhaustion hit us all at once. We were planning to go into the community in the evening but we were too tired. In the afternoon, several participants went on a walk around downtown Sedalia while the co-leaders went grocery shopping. The undergrads and grad students cooked a large spaghetti dinner and all ate together around a large table. It was really nice to share a meal together after the crazy day we survived together. Two participants had birthdays so the co-leaders purchased ice cream cakes and we sang Happy Birthday.
Afterwards, we completed a large reflection together. The reflection flowed naturally and there were many observations and take-aways. Many School Psychs learned how teachers have students' best interests in mind and want to learn strategies to help them. Grad students also reflected about systems change and how it is a difficult long process but felt that we helped play a role in systems change that day. They also felt that the PD was the most beneficial when we let the teachers discuss amongst themselves and solve their own problems. They felt it was really rewarding to hear teachers discuss their concerns. One School Psych stated "Today taught us that collaboration is important" and another stated regarding professional development, "it is better if we are not giving the school a package, it needs to fit to the school." The undergrad future teachers discussed how they realized that promoting social-emotional development and positive relationships is crucial within the classroom. Many discussed the importance of supporting students and making them feel comfortable within school and classroom, especially regarding bullying. They also learned a lot about their skills as future teachers and learned what was effective. Overall, both grads and undergrads learned the importance of school climate, communication, and support within the school and all felt that the day was extremely applicable to their future careers.
After dinner, the grads kept the reflections flowing and discussed desires to complete professional developments throughout the year. They also called for working with school counselors on professional developments to offer a more interdisciplinary perspective. The hands-on experience within the school had a large impact on all grad students and increased our confidence and desire to continue working with teachers and gaining new perspectives. Grads also discussed how they appreciated the support from the Educational, School, and Counseling Psychology Department to take this trip and we can't wait to tell our faculty members about the experience.
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