Day 1: Wednesday, July 05, 2017

 

Day 1 was as excited as it was expected to be. At first I was nervous to find out about the project that would be assigned to me; at this time I was unsure of what it would be. At the same time I was going to be meeting the new Field Placement Coordinator (FPC); she was the one who was going to assign the project. I was nervous to be working along her side since I was unaware of her expectation or her working style. Was I going to be able to impress her? Would she understand my health condition? Would she understand my availability and my need to work full time? All these questions were going through my mind as I was waiting to see the new FPC. Once the meeting was over I wasn’t nervous anymore. Everything went well; aside from the project was ready to be handed over. However, we both were able to share our feelings with each other about the project, about working with each other. Now all I think of was how excited I am to be representing GH and having the opportunity to complete my field placement here.

 

Day 2: Friday, July 07, 2017

 

Today I was called in to see FPC. I was going to have the project handed over to me.  I was going to find out the details of the project, her expectations, the goals and deadlines. I couldn’t be more than excited. I was excited to see how this project be compared to the one assigned last term. Would it be addition to that one? Would it completely different? Was I going to be working with a partner? How much time will I be given to complete? Was there going to a presentation expected at the end? All these questions were answered during the meeting. This project was going to be much different from the previous one. I was going to have the opportunity to represent GH and contact field placement sites to update their information on file. At the moment it seemed easy, I mean what could possibly go wrong? I had to call/email sites, get the information and update it on the USB provided to me. I had a partner working with me to complete the tasks on time. I think I am going to have a lot of fun working on this project.

 

Day 3: Monday, July 10, 2017

 

Meeting and greeting my partner. Today I made an appointment to meet my partner, share the project with her, divided the duties and begin the assignments. It turned out I had previously worked with this partner before. This meant that this project was only going to get easier. I was already well aware of her working style. Sometimes it can be difficult working with someone else on the same assignment because we are professionals in the field. Thus, finding a mutual time to meet and work can be a challenge. It looked like this was going to be one of those situations. After the meeting was over, my partner and discussed our concerns and ideas of the project. We discussed our schedules and divided the work accordingly. It seemed that everything will go according to plan at this time. We discussed our next meeting time and the work that should be done by then. I think that having Partner A will make working on this project as bit simple since I have previously worked with her. I look forward to more placement days with her and the FPC.

 

Day 4: Tuesday, July 11, 2017

 

Today’s task consisted of my partner and I meeting to divide the work that was assigned to us. We sat together to view the data on the USB. Right then I thought, this is going to be a challenge. I am not an expert in using excel; I have previously used MS office however it has always been a challenge for me. I wasn’t sure how to navigate around the data or how to recover information just in case it went missing. That being said, the meeting with my partner went well. We went through the files in order to see things that weren’t so clear to us. We made side notes to discuss with the FPC in our next meetings. Aside from the excel challenge nothing major affected my day today.

 

Day 5: Wednesday, July 12, 2017

 

Today’s task was simple. Nothing was going to make me nervous or frighten me today. I had to simply update site’s address and phone numbers according. Sure it was time consuming but that’s that was no challenge. I had to double I didn’t make any mistake inputting the data in as I mentioned in my earlier blog that I am not an expert in excel. Therefore that was one thing I made sure I did, double check the data.

 

Day 6: Thursday, July 13, 2017

 

Excited, nervous and just more excited. That’s how I can explain how I felt today. I was finally going to begin task of my assigned part today. I was excited to make my very own phone to a field site as a representative of GH. That was a big responsibility. Would I stutter out of nervousness when making that phone call? Would I sound nervous as speaking to the person on the other line? I didn’t how I would sound thus I made a practice phone call. I used the phone call techniques to practice what I would be saying to the person to sound prepared and professional. Yes it may seem that making a phone call to a site and confirming their information is no big deal but I had never done this before. Therefore I think my nervous was justified. Though this task took longer than expected but that’s okay as long as I was able to accomplish some part of my work today.

 

Day 7: Friday, July 14th, 2017

 

Now that I have gained some experience calling field placement sites, this task doesn’t make me nervous. I had stutter during the first few calls like I imagined I would but as I moved on from one site to another. The only thing that I felt that challenged me today was that some sites didn’t get back to my email nor my voice mails. I do understand that sites are busy and that don’t necessarily get back to you right away. However, this left me waiting and I did not want to be disruptive calling the site again. The only thing I had to do was to make a note on the side about the site and wait for them to get back to me.

 

Day 8: Monday, July 17, 2017

 

Today’s task was the same as the previous placement day’s task. Thus my responsibilities and duties remained the same. I am enjoying working on this project; it’s giving me a sense of understanding of administrative assistant’s duties in an office. Through my placements I have gained a variety of experience, this one is a new experience. Even though I am not going directly to a site, I am making connections with them over the phone. I am representing GH and acknowledging sites in a professional manner. I guess I can say it’s from one professional to another. I am learning something new every day. Sometimes when I call a site, I am able to get the information requested right of way, sometimes the phone call gets passed on to the available/person in charge. This never changes how I present myself over the phone.

 

Day 9: Tuesday, July 18, 2017

 

Today’s task consisted of finding out about the sites; is it profit, or non-profit? This task enhanced my research skills. Most sites list such information on their website, on their home page or within the mission/vision statement. Therefore it wasn’t difficult finding out information. In fact I enjoyed taking time off from phone calls. Although some sites did not have this information on their website, therefore I had to make the phone calls. I just learned to be more patient from every point on. When I found out the details of this project, I assumed it would be easy but time consuming. I was right; there weren’t any major challenged I face up to now but it sure it does take a lot of time. Also because I work fulltime, I am unable complete each task in one sitting. I do it in parts; before work, during my breaks at work and after work.

 

Day 10: Wednesday, July 19, 2017

 

Today I had planned to continue my task from yesterday. And it was all I did. I continued to research the requested information, first on sites website then through phone calls. At this point I am starting to feel worried about whether I will be able to complete this project on time or not. As I mentioned before I work full time and this project is very time consuming. It’s not that I am not giving it my 100%; I really am. It’s that most places are only open during the day; like the day care I work at. Therefore it’s hard to find someone on the phone after hours, and that’s usually the time I am available to make such phone calls. This is why I make an effort to make calls before work and during my breaks at work. That’s because placement to me is just as important as work and other classes.

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Day 11: Thursday, July 20, 2017

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Task # 2 has been keeping me busy for the past couple of days. I am assigned the duty to find out if a site if for profit or non-profit. Profit means the organization has a an owner and run to maximize profit and non-profit means organization has no owners, aim to provide for society’s needs and qualify for any government grants. I assume if you work at a centre you would know if the centre is for profit or for non-profit however that isn’t always the case. Many sites I called were unsure if they are for profit or for non-profit which surprised me. I believe one should know such basic information about the organization they work for. Small things like these go on my “to know list”, for when I find a fulltime job within the ECS field.

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Day 14: Tuesday, July 25, 2017

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Today’s task mostly consisted me working on task number 2. I feel that every day I come across a new challenge with excel and then I learn something new about it. If it were up to me I wouldn’t have used excel for this project however now I am glad I did. As I slowly learned about all the functions about excel I realize there is so many short cuts you can use and so many functions to organize your information. At least now I feel comfortable using excel, if in the near future I am assigned another assignment on excel, I wouldn’t be afraid to accept it and work on it.

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Day 17: Monday, July 31st, 2017

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I am excited today because slowly and steadily our project is coming to an end. I was able to take out additional time out of my schedule to officially complete task # 2 and move on to task #3. This means now I had to look for information about site’s insurance. The questions were to simply ask if they are covered under private insurance or WSIB. As simple as it sounds, it didn’t turn out this simple. For the most part sites did not want to provide that information over the phone or most people answering calls at the center were unsure of the answers. Which meant, I moved onto to using the email etiquette where supervisor felt more comfortable answering this question. This I can understand and some supervisor simply had no time to answer these questions and preferred an email to which I simply said no problem and responded to them with an email. Most of the sites I called did not feel comfortable answering the insurance related question however I was prepared for a situation like that. I simply followed the phone call etiquettes and assured them that I only need information on the type of insurance and no policy number/insurance company name was needed. Some sites understood that and some didn’t which was also fine. This only delayed the task on which I will be working on the following day.

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Day 20: Thursday, August 3rd, 2017

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Today’s day was very similar to the previous placement day. My task remained the same and so did the challenges. Most of the sites I called did not feel comfortable answering the private insurance/WSIB question. Some of them responded not so politely which almost discouraged me to continue working on the task. However I had to remain dedicated and assure myself that the sites are only being extra careful and do not want to pass on the information unless they are 100% sure I am calling from GH. I can understand, if/when in the future I take up a supervisory position I too would take the precaution and not pass on information that’s personal to the Centre. I however will make sure I remain polite to whoever I speak to over the phone. After all I am representing a big institution and thus I will remain professional when speaking or presenting myself in front of another personnel.

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Day 23: Wednesday, August 9th, 2017

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After spending a couple of days on the same tasks, I am happy to say it came to an end! Thus I arranged a meeting with my partner to meet with her and put the whole project together. Everything was going well today, most of the sites were polite and cooperative thus it quickened the process of the completing this task. Then I came across a field placement site which was not nice at all; instead of being rude in return I simply thanked her for time and moved on to the next call. I took that as a learning experience even though I had a difficult time after that calling the next site. I was afraid they would respond the same way or simply not want to answer the questions. But I put that aside and continued working on the project as the due date was coming soon.

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Day 25: Friday, August 11, 2017

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Today’s day mostly consisted of my partner and I meeting up to put the project together. At first I thought it shouldn’t be so difficult and that we would finish in no time however that wasn’t the case. My partner and I arranged a meeting to begin working on task 4; which was creating an organizing sheet and put all the sites into five separate categories, school boards, child care centers, hospitals, specialty and therapeutic. Though this seems easy if you consider yourself a pro in excel however I am not thus I had more difficulties than I expected. Copying information from one file to another lead to many difficulties which resulted in delaying the completion of the task. Nonetheless, work needed to be completed! So we did what we could do and planned to meet the next day as well to finish putting the work together.

 

Day 27: Tuesday, August 15, 2017
 

Today’s excitement is a reflection of the successful completion of the project. We have officially completed the project and it is ready to be handed over to the field placement coordinator. Yet another field placement experience gained and another placement has ended. I am happy that I was able to meet all needs of the project, I completed all the tasks assigned to me. No doubt that I came across many challenges whether they were communication related with field placement sites or excel related issues, I worked past them through external sources. Today, I am overly excited to be officially finishing my placement and sharing my experience with field placement coordinator.  My partner and I met up much in advance to put the whole project together and categories them according to organization type. By the end of it the file was more readable, understandable, clear and concise. I am hoping that, it is what the field placement coordinator was expected from us.

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