Podcast 67 The Work - 21119 7.42 PM

An exploration of the rational for doing what we do when we are trying to introduce new strategies to make the world a better place.

Podcast 90, "Hero or Change Agent," explores strategies developed to sustain one's efforts to be of assistance to others when frustrations are encountered.

Podcast 89, "Learning the Culture," provides examples of the importance of valuing the uniqueness of every subculture we encounter.  In the case of the sub-cultural issues within the educational cooperative's school systems, it was critically important that I and the graduate assistants understand and honor their sub-cultural processes in accomplishing our common goals of assisting children within the educational setting.

Podcast 88, "Humor in the Stress," relates the high degree of stress the providers of the psychological services encountered due to the lack of understanding of the new 1973 special education law.  This lack of preparedness to implement the law produced a great deal of misunderstanding and fear in the minds of many educators. The educational cooperative's service providers were the change agents for the school systems.  The role of a change agent is a stressful one.  We developed strategies to reduce that stress.

Podcast 87, "Startling Revelations," reveals some of the things I learned about the cooperative after my employment began in July 1973.  I was surprised by the reactions of a school system's staff members when I made my first in-service presentation concerning the implementation of the new special education law.  There were funding issues in the beginning.  It seems there were always funding issues.

Podcast 86, "Getting Started," finds me reviewing my past experiences that had prepared me for my role of creating and implementing the psychological services delivery model for the cooperative's member school systems.  This entailed delivering the bulk of the services through the use of senior doctorial level graduate students in school psychology and providing them with an in-depth understanding of the new special education laws of 1973.  They needed this information in order to fulfill their role in the law's implementation and in providing in-service training to the teaching staff within their assigned school systems.

Podcast 85, "The First Task," relates unexpected difficulties I had to face with the educational cooperative in my new role as its Director of Psychological and Educational Services during the beginning days of July 1973

"Employed" relates how the Little Tennessee Valley Educational Cooperative employed me and what I learned concerning the creation and mission of the cooperative (LTVEC) in the summer of 1973.

Welcome to season three of the podcast series, "Finding My Way," by Jerry Morton.  Season three begins with several stories about my early years with the Little Tennessee Valley Educational Cooperative.  Podcast 83, "Finding Employment After Graduation," relates my search for employment in anticipation of completing the training as a Ph.D. school psychologist in the summer of 1973.

Podcast 82, "A Water Tower Adventure," is an account of a college prank in the spring of 1963, that became more consequential than planned.