Thursday. Here It Comes!!
Today is Thursday.
Now, in the range of things, the fact that today is Thursday is not really all that big a deal. I mean, they happen once per week, don't they? For me, however, a Thursday coming around means that I have a long therapy day with limited opportunity to sit quietly and contemplate things that need to get done. The contemplation has to start early in the morning.
What is there to contemplate?
Not much regarding the actual daily work that I have to do. The teachers from the Novas Pod gave me a copy of their educational themes for the year. I've taken those themes and determined Therapeutic Music Experiences (TMEs) to do each month that support and enrich the thematic materials.This week's themes are Letters and Kansas (Kansas Day is coming up on the 29th). We did Letters on Monday and Tuesday. Wednesday and Thursday contain a Kansas themed TME - we're going to sing Home on the Range (the state song). Theme accomplished! The rest of the session will be based completely on what the clients are doing at the time. The other pods are working on assembling Orff instruments and then playing the typical Blues riff of tonic, subdominant, flat third (flat median??), tonic. We're also improvising some Blues lyrics, taking off the F's and B's and then just playing together. Therefore, I don't have to spend any time thinking about what I'm going to do with my clients today. The planning is finished.
Most of the contemplation that I need to do today has to do with a peripheral job that I have. I am a member of the Positive Behavior Interventions and Supports team. That lofty title means that there is lots of work to be done towards changing our treatment paradigm and changing the treatment milieu to emphasize the positive things our students do during their day rather than focusing on the negative things and behaviors of concern. There is a bit of resistance to the change in ideas coming from the teaching staff, but I am working on that, one person at a time. This is where most of the contemplation has to occur.
There will not be much time to think today. I go from session to session to meeting to session in a fevered pace. Tomorrow will be a day of contemplation during the day. I need to get music lessons arranged and then small group treatment groups going. I think choir will be happening, and it will be easy to keep things going during the day.
I will need to sit down and focus my task list as soon as I can.
I have found that task lists help me focus on one thing at a time. I am also able to move from idea to idea without losing any progress that I've made on other tasks. I can schedule in a time for thinking about specific things.
Well, I'm off to think deep thoughts and trivial ones as well. We're going to sing about our state. We're going to sing about the Wintertime Blues, and we're going to make good music today in my little bitty music therapy room.
Happy Thursday!
Now, in the range of things, the fact that today is Thursday is not really all that big a deal. I mean, they happen once per week, don't they? For me, however, a Thursday coming around means that I have a long therapy day with limited opportunity to sit quietly and contemplate things that need to get done. The contemplation has to start early in the morning.
What is there to contemplate?
Not much regarding the actual daily work that I have to do. The teachers from the Novas Pod gave me a copy of their educational themes for the year. I've taken those themes and determined Therapeutic Music Experiences (TMEs) to do each month that support and enrich the thematic materials.This week's themes are Letters and Kansas (Kansas Day is coming up on the 29th). We did Letters on Monday and Tuesday. Wednesday and Thursday contain a Kansas themed TME - we're going to sing Home on the Range (the state song). Theme accomplished! The rest of the session will be based completely on what the clients are doing at the time. The other pods are working on assembling Orff instruments and then playing the typical Blues riff of tonic, subdominant, flat third (flat median??), tonic. We're also improvising some Blues lyrics, taking off the F's and B's and then just playing together. Therefore, I don't have to spend any time thinking about what I'm going to do with my clients today. The planning is finished.
Most of the contemplation that I need to do today has to do with a peripheral job that I have. I am a member of the Positive Behavior Interventions and Supports team. That lofty title means that there is lots of work to be done towards changing our treatment paradigm and changing the treatment milieu to emphasize the positive things our students do during their day rather than focusing on the negative things and behaviors of concern. There is a bit of resistance to the change in ideas coming from the teaching staff, but I am working on that, one person at a time. This is where most of the contemplation has to occur.
There will not be much time to think today. I go from session to session to meeting to session in a fevered pace. Tomorrow will be a day of contemplation during the day. I need to get music lessons arranged and then small group treatment groups going. I think choir will be happening, and it will be easy to keep things going during the day.
I will need to sit down and focus my task list as soon as I can.
I have found that task lists help me focus on one thing at a time. I am also able to move from idea to idea without losing any progress that I've made on other tasks. I can schedule in a time for thinking about specific things.
Well, I'm off to think deep thoughts and trivial ones as well. We're going to sing about our state. We're going to sing about the Wintertime Blues, and we're going to make good music today in my little bitty music therapy room.
Happy Thursday!
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