[jamescw1234]

So these are two courses you take at the same time, 3DD6 is the field placement, where you are placed into a real social work setting and learn the skills required to practice social work, you are to complete 390 hours in placement. 3D06 is the classroom component, in seminars of about 15-25 people you integrate what your learning in the field into a more academic context, you'll discuss placement and do assignments related to placement. You have the option of either doing a concurrent placement (Sept-April, 2 days a week in placement, 3 hours a week in seminar) or a summer block placement (May-July, 4 days a week in placement, 6 hours a week in seminar). I did a summer block placement (usually for second degree, part time and students who entered the program after 2nd year) so my review may be a bit different as opposed to a concurrent placement. If you have received at least a B+ in 2A06, possess a social service work diploma, and have 2-3 of work experience under supervision of a social worker you may be exempt from placement. If you have 2/3 requirements you can be exempt from the placement, but not the class. This is usually reviewed on a case by case basis. In order to register for placement you must have gotten a C+ in Soc Work 2A06, 2B03 and 2BB3.

First, I would like to talk about the process of obtaining a placement. Usually in the January before you start placement you will have three orientations led by the head of the field education program Sheila Sammon.In the first session, she will tell you that placement is a very emotional and mentally draining experience and do not do placement until you feel ready. She will also give a summary of what one would expect in placement. This is very true, you have to think about if you're ready to do it or not, because she said she has seen people crash and burn fast. The second session you talk about how to create learning objectives for placement. The third session she will tell you placement opportunities for either summer block or concurrent. Once you have had the sessions, you can log onto Community Connections (a site used to pick your placement) and submit your learning objectives and three placement choices. Sheila will contact you via email about which agency you can contact to schedule a placement interview. You may not get your choice of placement, but you are welcome to discuss any issues with Sheila.

The placement interview can be a formal structured interview, or an informal chat, some agencies may have a group interview. When I had my interview at St. Joseph's Villa I was asked about what I want to get out of placement, how I learn, and if I had any issues or concerned related to learning. As this is not a job (you do not get paid) but a learning experience, the interviews are less pressured and it's moreso to see if you and your potential field instructor and agency are a good match. If the interview went well, then you can let your field instructor, seminar leader and Sheila know that you have secured a placement. If the interview did not go well, contact Sheila and she can set you up with another interview.

Once placement has begun you will create new learning objectives specifically related to the placement. I won't go too much into what you will do at placement because it depends on where you are placed. You'll learn general interviewing skills, assessment, advocacy, and basic case management for the most part. If you're in a community development placement things may be different. Your seminar leader will meet with you at your placement twice for a midterm and a final evaluation. You will also discuss what learning objectives have been met and what ones have not been met. After submitting the evaluation to your seminar leader you will receive a Pass or Fail grade for the 3DD6 part of placement.

Seminar:

Once a week you will meet for seminar. My seminar leader was Sandra Preston. Sandra is a really great seminar leader as she will make you think and reflect on everything you do. However, she can be disorganized at times, so you will have to remind her about certain things. We had to complain about "check in" taking up 5 of the 6 hours of seminar, and she made sure it no longer did. Seminar will open up with "check in" where you will discuss how your week went. Some people will say very little, others will say a lot. You can learn a lot from other's check in's, and you can learn from your own as you'll get many perspectives on issues.

We discussed many of the topics that are appropriate to social work practice. Such as engagement, assessment, termination, applying anti oppressive practice, working in teams, maintaining hope, all that jazz. There is a lot of reflection and learning about yourself and how you think about these topics.

Course Breakdown:
As I did summer block which is shorter than concurrent, it was a bit more crammed and we had fewer assignments, concurrent generally has another paper I believe:

Article Summaries: 15%
Three times unannounced throughout the term, summaries of the readings will be collected. So essentially you have to come to every class with summaries as you don't know if they will be picked up or not. While this was incredibly annoying, it did force us to do the readings making seminar more engaging.

Take Home Exam: 25%
In class we watched The Pursuit of Happyness and had to do an assessment based on Will Smith's character, they have done other movies in the past for this assignment. The take home was about 12 pages, and you had to look at his strengths, environmental issues, create a plan and use various theories to look at his struggles. It was a difficult assignment, but it helped me think about assessment.

Group Project: 20%
We were given a particular model of practice and a scenario, in groups of 3-4 we had to create a skit between a client and a social worker using the model. Models included solution focused therapy, cognitive behavioural therapy and crisis intervention. After the skit we were to discuss with the class the strengths and limitations of the model and how it applied to the case.

Project Reflection: 10%
The week after your presentation, you had to submit a 2-3 page reflection paper about the assignment. You discuss what you learned, what you thought went well, how you would use the model differently, and if anything surprised you. It was very easy to do.

Integration Paper: 30%
The final paper due at the last day is 12-15 pages, you are to pick a particular issue in your placement that has puzzled you or a overall theme and write a paper on it. You have to apply a theory to the case, look at social work values and ethics, anti-oppressive practice, organizational issues of your placement and your own personal thoughts. It was a long paper, and very difficult to write as it made you critically think about everything you've done at placement. I would suggest sitting down with your field instructor to seek advice about a good topic.

Attendance/Participation: Pass/Fail
You must attend at least 80% of classes or you will receive an automatic Fail. And like other foundation social work classes you must get a C+ in the seminar and a Pass in placement in order to continue on in the program. If you receive lower than C+ you will receive an F in the class and an F in placement. If you fail placement you will receive an F in the class, so it's important to come to class and work hard

Phew, I know this was a lot, but placement is the hardest part of social work education, so I wanted to go over the entire process as much as I could. Remember: there is no harm in waiting to do placement until you feel ready. A lot of people will finish all of their courses then do 3D summer block, then 4D fall block right after. But if you feel ready, then go for it!

Sandra Preston is an excellent seminar leader. She challenges students and calls people out on their bs. Very progressive professor. I enjoyed the course as it was fairly flexible but check-ins could be brutal.

Originally Posted by sinthusized

check-ins could be brutal.

I shudder at the thought of check in.