Working It Through...One Thought at a Time
I am getting a presentation ready for the American Music Therapy Association's National Conference next month. It's a presentation that I haven't given before, and I think I bit off more than I can chew, but I am moving forward and will have something helpful to present to my audience on November 18th at 11:30 (I think - I should check on that...).
Here's what I am trying to do - I am trying to figure out a formula for writing objectives and benchmarks...something that helps me plug in desired outcomes and generate good benchmarks with limited time useage.
Sounds good, right?
Yep. Sounds good. I am close to being able to figure this out. I have many pages filled with equations and operators that make sense to me, but I'm afraid that they won't make sense to anyone else.
To further compound this process, the cat is extra cuddly today and insists on sitting between me and the computer. This fact, while I love cat cuddles, makes everything just a bit more difficult as I try to navigate around her to the keyboard. I even tried the trick of putting the computer very close to my knees with little desk space, but she put herself on my lap. So, I take a break to attend to the cat on this chilly fall morning until she decides she is finished with the attention thing and leaves me in the lurch.
The last thing that is affecting my ability to focus on this was a comment made by a reviewer for another conference. Someone asked me to guarantee that I would not be teaching students how to write goals in a way that was completely different from how they taught their students to write goals. (They also stated that their students were challenged by figuring out how to write goals and objectives on a regular basis.) I can't guarantee that. I have no idea how this particular person teaches students to write goals, so I cannot guarantee anything. Who even asks for a guarantee in cases like this? Seriously?? We'll see if the presentation is accepted for this other conference.
So, now as I sit down to figure all this out, I am haunted by that pressure of "ruining a student's understanding of goal writing." I know that it is ridiculous, but it's there anyway.
I'm going to spend some time with my graphic organizer program later this week to arrange and organize my thoughts into something that might help someone else. I am going to spend my time remembering that additional information offered to students may confuse them, but in the end, hearing different ideas may actually help more students figure out what their professors are talking about. I have to remember that I was a divergent thinker who had to figure out other ways of understanding things (different from how my professors presented information). As soon as I figured it out, I was able to do what they wanted. As long as they kept saying the same old things, I was confused. I figure that if I can present a different perspective, someone out there may actually figure out something that has challenged them for a long time. That can't be bad, can it?
(As you can see, I am still being haunted by that comment from an anonymous reviewer... Stuff it, MJ, stuff it!)
Anyway...
For me, the most important part of writing objectives and benchmarks is figuring out the data collection process. My contention is that as caseloads increase, the amount of available time for data collection and documentation decreases. Data collection has to be configured in a way that allows for effective and meaningful data collected in a short amount of time. So, when you are writing your goals and objectives, you have to consider how music therapy treatment will be offered. Otherwise, you will be trying to take duration recordings for one client while taking frequency counts for another client and pla-checks for yet another client, all while trying to run therapeutic music experiences. Why do that when you can get important information with less work??
I have 75 minutes to express everything that I want to express. As a result, I am going to pare down what I want to say into the most relevant and important parts. Later, I'll turn this into a CMTE course module, so I'll be able to talk for much longer about this idea in that format.
Well, off to spend some time thinking about what I want to say and how to convey it to a diverse audience of music therapy thinkers. I think I am going to use the AMTA Professional Competencies as my exemplars - might as well. We all should know those competencies, and there are good examples and really bad examples of good goals in that document. There you go.
Off to work and to think and think and think.
Happy Wednesday, all!
Here's what I am trying to do - I am trying to figure out a formula for writing objectives and benchmarks...something that helps me plug in desired outcomes and generate good benchmarks with limited time useage.
 | |
| Early morning cat attention. She's proofing the post... |
Yep. Sounds good. I am close to being able to figure this out. I have many pages filled with equations and operators that make sense to me, but I'm afraid that they won't make sense to anyone else.
To further compound this process, the cat is extra cuddly today and insists on sitting between me and the computer. This fact, while I love cat cuddles, makes everything just a bit more difficult as I try to navigate around her to the keyboard. I even tried the trick of putting the computer very close to my knees with little desk space, but she put herself on my lap. So, I take a break to attend to the cat on this chilly fall morning until she decides she is finished with the attention thing and leaves me in the lurch.
The last thing that is affecting my ability to focus on this was a comment made by a reviewer for another conference. Someone asked me to guarantee that I would not be teaching students how to write goals in a way that was completely different from how they taught their students to write goals. (They also stated that their students were challenged by figuring out how to write goals and objectives on a regular basis.) I can't guarantee that. I have no idea how this particular person teaches students to write goals, so I cannot guarantee anything. Who even asks for a guarantee in cases like this? Seriously?? We'll see if the presentation is accepted for this other conference.
So, now as I sit down to figure all this out, I am haunted by that pressure of "ruining a student's understanding of goal writing." I know that it is ridiculous, but it's there anyway.
I'm going to spend some time with my graphic organizer program later this week to arrange and organize my thoughts into something that might help someone else. I am going to spend my time remembering that additional information offered to students may confuse them, but in the end, hearing different ideas may actually help more students figure out what their professors are talking about. I have to remember that I was a divergent thinker who had to figure out other ways of understanding things (different from how my professors presented information). As soon as I figured it out, I was able to do what they wanted. As long as they kept saying the same old things, I was confused. I figure that if I can present a different perspective, someone out there may actually figure out something that has challenged them for a long time. That can't be bad, can it?
(As you can see, I am still being haunted by that comment from an anonymous reviewer... Stuff it, MJ, stuff it!)
Anyway...
For me, the most important part of writing objectives and benchmarks is figuring out the data collection process. My contention is that as caseloads increase, the amount of available time for data collection and documentation decreases. Data collection has to be configured in a way that allows for effective and meaningful data collected in a short amount of time. So, when you are writing your goals and objectives, you have to consider how music therapy treatment will be offered. Otherwise, you will be trying to take duration recordings for one client while taking frequency counts for another client and pla-checks for yet another client, all while trying to run therapeutic music experiences. Why do that when you can get important information with less work??
I have 75 minutes to express everything that I want to express. As a result, I am going to pare down what I want to say into the most relevant and important parts. Later, I'll turn this into a CMTE course module, so I'll be able to talk for much longer about this idea in that format.
Well, off to spend some time thinking about what I want to say and how to convey it to a diverse audience of music therapy thinkers. I think I am going to use the AMTA Professional Competencies as my exemplars - might as well. We all should know those competencies, and there are good examples and really bad examples of good goals in that document. There you go.
Off to work and to think and think and think.
Happy Wednesday, all!
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