Internship hours & testing

So apparently internship hours are in short supply this week. I am only scheduled for 8 this week and none of them give me an opportunity to interpret anything. They are all observation hours or mentor meetings. But the up side is that I will have plenty of time to practice on my own. I forget if I mentioned it or not, but we only have class on Fridays now. Before we had it on Mondays & Fridays. So today I had four of my 8 hours. Tomorrow I have two and then one Wednesday and one Thursday. I hopefully will have both my deaf language mentor meetings Wednesday as well but otherwise, my days are wide open. Oh, well....I forgot one minor detail......and yes, I really did forget!

We are taking the EIPA pre-hire screening assessment. I'm scheduled for Wednesday morning for an hour. (9:30 my time, 11:30 CLT time) It's similar to the full EIPA (Educational Interpreter Performance Assessment) but is shorter. It doesn't give a score like the full EIPA but rather gives basic information to a potential employer to show whether or not the testee is able to interpret in a classroom situation. I took the full EIPA in May 2009 and scored higher than necessary to legally interpret in NC schools. My skills have greatly increased since that time and this is more of a data collection for the program than for my benefit, so I'm really not concerned about it. I do think it will be a good opportunity to be in a testing situation before the NIC though. We will get our results back within 72 hours! Yep, that's waaayyy different than the full EIPA which took four months to get my results! I'm hopeful my results will be very positive and that will help build my confidence for the NIC.....if they come back less favorable, let's hope it doesn't do the opposite for my confidence!

Then on Sept. 13 we also have an assessment we will be taking that was created by the Professional Development staff here at Sorenson. It also is to help collect data to gauge the program's progress and success. So again, I'm not stressing about it. Some people don't like testing and are really stressing over these as well as the NIC but it doesn't bother me.

So this week, please pray that I will use my time wisely and be able to practice and improve my skills, that I can enjoy some less hectic days, and that I'll do well on the EIPA screening. Please remember Mark and Clay as they are home alone dealing with issues with Clay's car and trying to find an inexpensive yet dependable car for me for my return.