Hello everyone! Thank you for continuing to follow my journey as a Community Support Worker student. If there are any specific questions you may have about what I’ve written about school or about working as a community support worker, please let me know. Now, back to our regularly scheduled programming!
When I first started the month-long practicum, my mind would race at 100km/hr. I didn’t stop and think. I just reacted to what was going on around me. I wasn’t comfortable in my surroundings yet. But, after a while of getting used to the schedule, becoming familiarized with the staff as well as the individuals we support, I became very comfortable, and the richness of the practicum experience began to reveal itself.
Having the ability to feel comfortable during my practicum did not come overnight. Because we followed a routine schedule each week, I started to recognize and anticipate what would happen next. Who knew following planned detailed schedules could be so comforting!
In addition to adjusting, learning, and becoming comfortable with the schedule of daily and weekly activities, I began to develop my working relationship with the staff and the individuals at the program. Everyone began to learn more about me and got to know me better as well.
Fridays were the days that I enjoyed the most because on Fridays we would take day-long field trips to enjoy the beautiful scenery we have outdoors. We would begin our Friday by going to Tim Horton’s as a group to enjoy a drink, and then make our way to the park or the beach to enjoy our lunch outdoors. Some of the locations we went to on Friday included Bear Creek Park in Surrey and Crescent Beach in White Rock. Being able to relax and enjoy the outdoors together were great bonding experiences.
One component of my practicum that I really enjoyed was The Project. The goal of the project is to demonstrate your leadership or creative skills in facilitating or leading an activity. The idea for my project didn’t come right away. However, after getting to know the individuals and the staff after a few weeks, an idea came to me!
During the afternoons, after lunch, many of us enjoyed getting up and dancing to the songs on the radio. I thought to myself how awesome it would be to incorporate everyone’s love for music in another way—and that’s when the idea came to me. I love singing! I love singing in public, alone, in the car, on the bus (quietly) or anywhere I feel like it. I’m pretty sure I wasn’t the only one in the program who enjoyed singing, so I asked if they thought it would be a good idea for me to bring my karaoke machine and have a karaoke session with everyone! Fortunately, everyone thought it was a good idea so we did it! I brought my karaoke machine on two occasions. I also brought some little drums and other small shakable musical instruments that we could use to enhance the karaoke experience. Everyone took part in either singing or playing instruments, clapping or just dancing while one or two people sang the lyrics to a popular song by following the words on the TV screen.
I was very happy that I was able to share my love for singing during my practicum, and what was even better was that everyone had a great time. My practicum experience was an opportunity to learn about being a support worker. I learned about the different activities, the unique individuals we support, and how we can share ideas and be creative in how we carry out our programming. I learned that being a support worker is a collaborative experience where everyone’s voice means something, where we can be spontaneous and have fun and still be at work.
I’m very thankful to everyone at 64th Day at Delta Community Living Society for making my practicum a great learning experience for me, and I hope you all continue singing on!
