F2F

The occupational therapy program I'm a part of at the University of Minnesota has put everything online it can while still including face-to-face (F2F) sessions. This semester covers a lot of theory and involves reading and writing papers. As a result we meet together once a month for two days from 9 to 4 or 5. As time goes on and the course work becomes more hands on we will be going to campus more often. In our final semester we will be in class three or four days a week.

This past week was our October F2F. The Occupations as Therapy class requires analyzing daily things we do, identifying the specific skills needed as well as the specific steps involved. As part of our class time we played a game with our group and identified effective and ineffective use of specific motor, process and communication/interaction skills. We were also given our next two projects: working with copper and leather. At least there is one class where parts of the assignments can be done away from my desk.

We spent the rest of the day mainly with the professor who is the head of the program. She wanted to know how we were doing which gave us the opportunity to give some feedback on it would have been helpful to have orientation BEFORE classes started rather than during the first week when we were trying to figure out how everything worked in the midst of a normal workload. She was grateful for our input and I hope next year's class benefits.

Thursday morning was spent discussing the strengths and weaknesses of various personalities and how those can affect our relationship with our clients. We spent the afternoon listening to seven 30-minute presentations on various health related topics. We tried really hard to be a good participatory audience but by the end we were all fried.

One of the best parts was being able to interact with those in my cohort for two days. By the end I was able to put a name to a face with about half of the 25. After spending two years at a community college where I dreaded group projects because it always seemed that half the group didn't really care, it is great to be part of a group of students who are used to doing well and put forth the effort. That doesn't necessarily mean that group work is easy but at least everyone will pull their own weight. After class on Thursday about half of us went and got something to drink together and I appreciated the opportunity to get to know three of my classmates outside of the classroom.

My week ended with a drive down to Iowa on Saturday. The weather was beautiful and I got some good sleep. Best of all I got to help my niece celebrate her 10th birthday.  She was thrilled with her gifts because 1) she drops generous hints as to what she likes and 2) she is easy to please. Her mommy is mourning the fact that Elizabeth will be in Junior High next year and a little girl party will no longer be cool. I hope the family party will still be cool for a long time.