Carlena Lowell

SEI 513 Self-Evaluation

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Self-Evaluation
Carlena Lowell
SEI 513
April 28, 2014












Carlena Lowell
SEI 513 Self-Evaluation
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Self-Evaluation
In this self-evaluation of my work for SEI 513, I will discuss several components:
my direct work with children and families, completeness and quality of my projects and
required portfolio components, my work in relation to the five competencies I focused
on, and my participation in the practicum seminar. Although this was a semester in
which I was required to work diligently, this practicum allowed me to focus in on my
professional growth and development in a new position. I feel I understand how to
better work within my position now than I did four months ago, partly due to gaining
experience, but also due to the reflective thinking I was able to do for this practicum.
Looking back to January, I was not sure how I was going to make it through this
semester and maintain my personal standard of high-quality academic and professional
work. This was my first semester with two classes and a 40 hour per week position.
Alas, April is coming to a close, and I made it through without compromising my work
ideals. I realized early on in the semester I needed to put forth more hours per week in
order to do so. Although work was done to my expectations, my mental health took a
toll at times; at one point during the semester, I worked for 48 days without taking a full
day to myself. However, I am happy to report with the extra effort, the quality of my
work did not suffer this semester, and my mental health is now in good standing. It was,
though, an extraordinary semester in terms of hours worked.
My direct work this semester focused more on interactions with parents and
caregivers, given my role as a service coordinator. A goal set forth in my Individual
Practicum Plan (IPP) was to improve upon skills in a number of different meetings I
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SEI 513 Self-Evaluation
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facilitate in my role as a service coordinator. One such set of skills was my ability to ask
questions, both the way in which and the types of questions I pose to elicit information,
particularly regarding the creation outcomes. I do feel there will always be room for
improvement with this goal; however, I also feel I made substantial progress with it
throughout this practicum. I was able to focus on my question asking skills throughout a
variety of meetings, then afterwards reflect and consider how to do things differently,
and then apply my reflections at the next meeting. Throughout the semester, I began
asking more open ended questions than I previously had. This allowed the parents and
caregivers to provide me with more information regarding their wants and needs, which
I could, in turn, often phrase in the form of outcomes.
My portfolio began in the spring 2013 semester with SEI 516. Since its inception,
I have worked diligently to keep it updated. This semester was no exception as I
updated it weekly with my contact log and reflective journals. As I completed the other
tasks of the semester, I added them one by one, slowly building the SEI 513 tab. I am
proud of this portfolio and the organized way in which it showcases my work throughout
various practica. At this point in SEI 513, all components of this practicum are included
in the portfolio. It begins with my IPPs, both the original I submitted in the beginning of
the semester, and a final version submitted at the end. I veered from my original plan
only slightly as I ran out of hours each week to complete the Connect modules I had
originally hoped to do; the final IPP reflects that. However, I am happy to know about
the modules and hope to use them in the future.
Following the IPPs is my contact log, delivering the information of what I did,
when, how long the event was, and whether or not it was direct work with families. Next
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SEI 513 Self-Evaluation
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up in my portfolio is my reflective journal. In my original IPP I had mentioned I wanted
to write shorter entries more often, given the nature of the amount and timing of
meetings I participated in this semester, which I was somewhat successful at. I then go
on in my portfolio to present a case study I completed for a child on my case load. This
was a helpful assignment as I was able to go through his information with a fine toothed
comb, hence giving me a greater understanding of his and the familys situation. Over
the semester I collected books and articles I found helpful to me. I divided my
reading/resource list into three topics that I worked toward this semester; the list is
found in my portfolio after the case study. Finally, my portfolio exhibits all of the write-
ups for my activities. I organized my portfolio in such a way that if you click on IPP or
Activities you will be directed to a page that gives an overview of the assignment, and
then you can hover over to go to the individual documents. In addition, I wrote a few
sentences about each of the six activities on their own page, explaining what each is
and what competency areas the activity addressed.
Two of the five competency areas I focused on this semester were family
partnerships and teaming, collaboration, and consultation. These are the two areas in
which I feel I gained the most professionally. Both of these areas were identified as
being a competency area I worked toward in five out of my six activities. My work with
families is such now that I felt family partnership was a critical area for me to focus on in
my activities, and I feel it paid off. I feel much more comfortable asking questions of, as
well as answering questions for families now than I did at the beginning of this
semester. In addition, my role in teaming, collaboration, and consultation now, in Part
C, is much different in some ways that it was when I was working in Part B. I am
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SEI 513 Self-Evaluation
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actually on an early intervention team, and at least one of those members is with me at
all meetings, with the exception of the intake visits.
In addition to these, I focused on the competency areas of assessment,
intervention, and assistive technology. This semester taught me that as a service
coordinator, I use assessment more than I previously thought. I was able to consider
this area in three of my activities: completing intake visits, completing Battelle
Developmental Inventory-II evaluations, and conducting Routines-Based Interviews. I
was able to consider this assessment area in various situations over the course of the
semester. As a service coordinator, I feel intervention is not something I directly provide
to families at this point; yet, it is something I manage with families making it happen
through team discussions, development of the IFSP, and referring to providers.
However, conducting an RBI with the family is the starting point to being able to provide
intervention. Through these discussions we were able to create a plan to address
various needs of the family divulged during these two-hour sessions. Throughout the
semester, I heard from several people and did much research on the area of assistive
technology in Maine. I now feel as though I have a wonderful knowledge of where to
turn if my team or a family is in need of assistive technology that CDS does not have on
hand. As a bonus, I was able to provide this information to my Part C team leader to
enhance a collective community map of resources we are creating at our site.
Many of us in this program have been on the same track with classes for the last
two years; I have come to greatly appreciate discussions with this group. I hold a great
amount of respect for them and their knowledge of the field, including many early
intervention resources in local Maine communities. This semester I appreciated taking
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SEI 513 Self-Evaluation
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part in discussions about various topics presented by my peers; I felt I was able to offer
some ideas regarding these topics, and hope they were found useful. I also valued the
feedback and ideas provided to me about topics I brought up. I found the format of this
semesters seminar beneficial as we all come up against scenarios that are better
navigated with input from peer discussions. When taking part in these discussions, I felt
both helpful and appreciative.
Overall, I am pleased with the work I completed in SEI 513 this semester. I met
goals I put forth for myself in terms of my academics, as well as my professional work
with families. I participated in seminar discussions with my peers that I found useful,
and hope others did as well. I grew both professionally and academically, although it
took more effort than past semesters given my increased professional work load. I was
able to persevere through this semester without sacrificing the quality of my work, and
for that I am proud.