Things I Leave Out Of My P-Notes
At the end of every session with a youth, mentors are required to fill out a progress note. These are always written in third person, and mentors always refer to themselves as, "The Mentor." Because these notes reflect the progress of the youth, the following moments had to be excluded from some of my p-notes.
"While walking around a park, the youth appeared fascinated with the high number of honeybees flying around. As he looked closely at them, the mentor made multiple puns about bees."
"While waiting for the youth to arrive at day care, the mentor began to sweat through her shirt. In order to appear fresh, the mentor took old Subway napkins and wiped the sweat off her stomach. The mentor left a few napkins under her shirt as a wicking layer until the youth showed up."
"The mentor took the youth bowling and totally kicked her ass: 122 to 81."
"After the youth made a comment that the mentor suspected to be a string of rap lyrics, the mentor responded with a series of extremely white comebacks. 'True that,' 'that's just the street in me,' and and slow, deliberate, 'word up, homie,' were among them."
"The mentor was forced to suppress rollicking laughter while the youth explained that she wasn't grounded, she just wasn't allowed to leave the house or call or see any of her friends."