Certified Trainers Blog

 Archive for the ‘Deanna Bisaillon’s Posts’ Category

Happy Teacher Appreciation Day! While it is actually “celebrated” tomorrow, I just wanted to thank all the teachers out there!

At Oak Hill, while we all have various “titles” one of the most important hats we all wear is that of “Teacher”. While we don’t all work in classrooms, life in general is what we teach to our residents. How to maximize the quality and “normalcy” of their life is what makes us important educators.

In “therap world”, we are again looking forward to the CT user’s group to be held at Oak Hill in May. At these time, we all bounce ideas around and try to help each other make the most out Therap. It is also great to be able to meet with other folks from nearby agencies!

Will blog later about our group and looking forward to presenting at the CT Conference in September!

Until next time…..
Deanna

Here at Oak Hill, we are forging ahead with the training component. My co-worker, Mary Beth has been hard at work (as usual) getting everything set up!!!

We are continuing to enjoy using the Time Tracking…it has been very helpful in tracking sleep for our individuals. Hopefully, over time, we will be able to expand our usage to other components of data such as mood scales.

It has also been interesting switching some of my data collection from a BER to an ISP. I still love the BER, but it has been easier for staff to use an ISP for certain things. I guess my confidence level is improving with using ISP’s!

Anyway…hope everyone has a wonderful Easter and enjoy the long weekend!!
Deanna

On Monday, I conducted my first Webinar! It was a bit awkward only being able to speak “at” the people who called in. My topic was BER (setting up, collecting data, and reporting). Throughout this past year, I have taught this same topic to a “live” audience which was much easier to do. With the webinar I struggled a bit with not getting immediate feedback. Likewise, I wonder if the people who called in struggled to follow what I was trying to teach.

Hopefully, as I continue to do Webinars I will get better at it…hopefully!!!!

Deanna

Last week, therap hosted a regional conference in Meriden, CT. As usual, the days were filled with information and meeting new people! We were excited to discuss the new “time tracking” module as this will be quite beneficial to our data collection system especially for tracking sleep and eventually mood.

As Oak Hill forges ahead, we are now looking towards starting the MAR’s and training management system. What has been reassuring is that many of our “issues” or problems that we may encounter can be resolved and/or discussed at our CT user group meetings.

I also met a few other behaviorists and am looking forward to helping them learn about BER’s.

Finally….be on the lookout…..I have scheduled my webinar (topic: BER’s) for November!

See everyone soon!
Deanna

Hello! It’s been awhile since my last blog! I have been on maternity leave so things have been crazy at home…I feel like I come to work to relax!!

It was great to finally join in on a CT users group last Friday.  It was held at Oak Hill’s NEAT building and we had a pretty good turn-out.  We spent a lot of time discussing the MAR’s and how other agencies were getting along using them.  Hopefully, Oak Hill will be on board with the MARs very soon!

I also spent a bit of time going over how to do a BER and subsequent reporting. One agency will be starting with the BERs very soon!

Overall…I enjoyed talking about and learning what others were doing and brainstorming solutions to any problems.  Hopefully these meetings will continue over the next year!!
Deanna

Hello Everyone!
Oak Hill continues to move forward in the world of Therap! We are still waiting anxiously for the time tracking (AKA: Sleep/Mood) to be released. This will be a huge benefit to our participants!

We have also just learned that Oak Hill is hoping to host its first CT User Group! This is such exciting news as it will be another outlet to network and brainstorm! I’m sure there will be more info to follow.

On a personal note: I will be on maternity leave for the next few months but will be looking forward to “hosting” my first webinar upon my return. Hope everyone has a wonderful summer!!!
Deanna

Hello! Since becoming a certified trainer at the conference in Fishkill, I have been waiting to start my first blogging experience! So…consider this to be my practice blog!!