Therapeutic Music Experience (TME) Thoughts
I came up with a couple of new Therapeutic Music Experiences yesterday. I was sitting in my spot for hallway duty, and I was trying to think of something to write down on my session planning sheet. I didn't have anything in mind, so I just thought a bit about the clients that would be coming to see me later that day. I also wanted to do something different than the things that I usually pull out to do.
I went to my TME database and started browsing through the years and years of songs and TMEs that I've collected over the years.
I have a database. I have the contributions of practicum students, interns, and all the resources that I have ever found in one large database of materials. There are over 2,000 TMEs in that database, and I use it often for session planning and inspiration. I have more ideas than those that are in the database - I've really slacked off on the "writing things down" thing that I do recently - but those ideas form the basis of my resources when it comes to TMEs.
Anyway - I was looking through my TME database and started flipping through the pages (it's an electronic database, but I use a paper copy for my hallway duty time). I decided to do something about the weather, but my usual just wasn't really tweaking my interest, so I started thinking about other songs. I decided to use If All the Raindrops to frame our weather discussion. I've used this song before, but I decided to make it a bit different this time around.
We sang about Hershey bars and milkshakes, chocolate-covered ice cream cones, and lemon drops and gumdrops. We sang about the weather we were experiencing at the moment and about the weather we would prefer. We sang about our choices based on what we liked to eat. We were just a bit goofy.
The second new TME came from another brainstorm. I have a couple of groups that are struggling with appropriate peer interactions, so I decided to give them opportunities to work with specific peers towards a common goal. They were tasked to make a drum skee-ball game. I brought out all of my hand drums, paddle drums, and gathering drums. They were asked to choose groups based on who they were able to interact with in a positive manner (that was interesting to see) and given the task. Whoo-ee.
That was interesting, to say the least.
I spoke on the topic of group management at the Online Conference for Music Therapy this past weekend, so it was interesting to see what my group members did through my group management goggles.
Some group members acted in isolation. They did not interact with other group members at all. Other group members took over the process and told everyone else what to do. Yet others acted on those orders.
What did I notice about my group yesterday? There are many who want to be leaders in that group but do not have the appropriate interaction skills to be taken seriously by the other group leaders. There aren't that many followers in that group of clients. There are wanna-be leaders and individuals. That's all. My next step with that group? Splitting them up even further. Giving the individuals the leadership responsibilities and giving the wanna-be leaders some following responsibilities. Hmmm. I've got a robot TME that might be interesting to this group of students.
I'm going to do the same things today with different groups of kids. It will be interesting to see what happens with those groups and individuals.
I need to take some time to write these ideas down in my TME database so I'll be able to find them again later.
SHAMELESS PLUG: If you are interested in getting access to some of my TMEs, please consider purchasing any of my sing about song packets on my website. There's one for free, and many more available for purchase! The next edition is coming in March!
I went to my TME database and started browsing through the years and years of songs and TMEs that I've collected over the years.
I have a database. I have the contributions of practicum students, interns, and all the resources that I have ever found in one large database of materials. There are over 2,000 TMEs in that database, and I use it often for session planning and inspiration. I have more ideas than those that are in the database - I've really slacked off on the "writing things down" thing that I do recently - but those ideas form the basis of my resources when it comes to TMEs.
Anyway - I was looking through my TME database and started flipping through the pages (it's an electronic database, but I use a paper copy for my hallway duty time). I decided to do something about the weather, but my usual just wasn't really tweaking my interest, so I started thinking about other songs. I decided to use If All the Raindrops to frame our weather discussion. I've used this song before, but I decided to make it a bit different this time around.
We sang about Hershey bars and milkshakes, chocolate-covered ice cream cones, and lemon drops and gumdrops. We sang about the weather we were experiencing at the moment and about the weather we would prefer. We sang about our choices based on what we liked to eat. We were just a bit goofy.
The second new TME came from another brainstorm. I have a couple of groups that are struggling with appropriate peer interactions, so I decided to give them opportunities to work with specific peers towards a common goal. They were tasked to make a drum skee-ball game. I brought out all of my hand drums, paddle drums, and gathering drums. They were asked to choose groups based on who they were able to interact with in a positive manner (that was interesting to see) and given the task. Whoo-ee.
That was interesting, to say the least.
I spoke on the topic of group management at the Online Conference for Music Therapy this past weekend, so it was interesting to see what my group members did through my group management goggles.
Some group members acted in isolation. They did not interact with other group members at all. Other group members took over the process and told everyone else what to do. Yet others acted on those orders.
What did I notice about my group yesterday? There are many who want to be leaders in that group but do not have the appropriate interaction skills to be taken seriously by the other group leaders. There aren't that many followers in that group of clients. There are wanna-be leaders and individuals. That's all. My next step with that group? Splitting them up even further. Giving the individuals the leadership responsibilities and giving the wanna-be leaders some following responsibilities. Hmmm. I've got a robot TME that might be interesting to this group of students.
I'm going to do the same things today with different groups of kids. It will be interesting to see what happens with those groups and individuals.
I need to take some time to write these ideas down in my TME database so I'll be able to find them again later.
SHAMELESS PLUG: If you are interested in getting access to some of my TMEs, please consider purchasing any of my sing about song packets on my website. There's one for free, and many more available for purchase! The next edition is coming in March!
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