Bullet Journaling and the Music Therapist

So, I started this thing almost a year ago (I think I started last September). I became part of the bullet journaling movement - sorta - kinda - well, not really. I wanted to be part of the bullet journaling movement. I was seduced into trying to make my weekly pages all cutesy and full of stickers, but it became quickly apparent to me that none of those things were me. As a result, my bullet journaling became lots less like the cute journals that are featured on Pinterest and became much more of a monthly collection of appointments and thoughts.

I decided that this way of doing things is fine for me.

Fast forward to early last month.

I got a coupon in the mail for a free teacher planner if I spent at least $20.00 in the store. That really wasn't a problem - I needed some specific headphones to go with my listening station, so I received a new teacher planner.

Now, I don't usually use planners. None of them have ever really given me what I need in order to make my session strategies, but this new planner and my quest to be a bullet journaler sparked my thought process.

How could I use my planner as my bullet journal?

 I want to include monthly themes into my music therapy session strategies. My students are often NOT successful in other music settings, so this may be the only time that they will participate in any type of music education. So, my monthly themes include coping skill introduction and practice, music notation, instrument spotlight, and a musician of the month. Each week will have a different focus, but the themes will stay the same all year. 

So, knowing that I would have these themes to help me center the music education side of things, I am starting to use my bullet journal/planner to organize those aspects of the session. If you look at the pictures, you can see what I've planned for my first week back with students. The first picture has three columns - one for each of the pods at my facility. The Nova pod and the Comets pod will be doing almost the same thing that first week. We are going to talk about rhythms, learn about the rhythm wheel, and then identify different music symbols. The other pod, the Cosmos pod, will be doing rhythm wheels as well. 

This is the start of my session strategy. In addition, of course, there will be some music therapy interventions that go on during the session. I will choose my materials on Monday for Monday and Tuesday sessions and again on Wednesday for my Wednesday and Thursday sessions. This will help me develop my session strategies, shaped to the goals of each group member and each group (as a whole). As you can see, I've left room for that strategy development. (By the way, the themes play an important part in my strategy development as well.)

The other page of each week includes information about my weekly focus, individual session information, and meetings. The last column allows me to put in any other bit of information. On the 10th (the day we go back to work before kids return), I need to make sure that teachers sign up for a time to use the music therapy room on Fridays, and I need to schedule all of my individual sessions.

This is my way of doing my bullet journal. There is a place for my thoughts and processing, there is a place for planning the next week/month/focus. There is space for strategy development as well as thematic development. I've purposely left my journal in pencil and with as little color as possible so I can easily change things. At some point, I will add my weekly schedule to the book. I also want to attach a sturdier cover and figure out something that could hold my pencil and a pad of super sticky post-it notes.

This book lives in my work bag. I take it to and from my home every single day. It serves as my reminder to organize my work for the benefit of my clients.

It will be interesting to see if this system changes during the school year.

Thanks for reading!

~mj