Making Monday Count

Extended School Year (Week Two)

Last week was a week full of humiliating circumstances that I had to go through - people changing things from how they were supposed to be to what they thought they should be without checking with the people who were directly affected (e.g., ME!) I looked wrong in all those circumstances (something I REALLY hate!), but I wasn't. I am hoping that this week will be a bit more settled.

I declare, here and now, that I am going to make this Monday count.

I'm not entirely sure how I am going to do this, but I am going to, by golly!

This week is Centers week. I feel woefully unprepared for everything these days, so I'm not exactly sure what we are going to be doing. I'm thinking that the Orff instruments will play a role. We are working on the theme of "Helping Others." We could use the Orff instruments to play familiar songs with one client helping another to find the correct notes. We can use the boomwhackers and drums to make musical sculptures with partners. We can repeat our Musical Coding therapeutic music experience (TME) with some of the clients - not everyone completed the task last week, so only some could do the task right now. I also finished my most recent file folders, so I can make up a song to go along with helping pets find their homes.

Even though it is Centers week, we probably will not be able to do Centers in most of my groups. Our staffing numbers are seriously low, so none of my sessions have full staffing at this point. I will probably not have enough staff members to cover my Centers, so we will probably do most of the Center activities as large group activities. I may be able to set people into small groups doing each of the tasks simultaneously, but we shall see who arrives and what we are ready to do on this Monday.

To prepare for this day, I've finished my file folder assembly, I made a CD of "Helping" songs, and that's about all. I spent this weekend doing things for me and my self-care routine, including establishing my morning routine in a more formal manner again. I've already completed two of the eight things I've identified as morning tasks, so I am off to a good start. (Blogging is the third thing on the list.) My to-do list continues to grow, but it will shrink again as soon as I get going with tasks.

This Monday is the first time that I will actually be able to demonstrate to my intern about what music therapy is at my facility. As far as I know, she'll be with us in music therapy sessions during most of the week, so she will get an idea of how music therapy works at my facility. Before the end of today, I need to finish her assignment calendar and get her full-time music therapy schedule established. I also need to arrange some classroom observations for her so she can see what others do. All of that needs to be finished, printed, and provided to her so she can see what she will be doing soon.

I now work extra time to accommodate the schedule that I've set in place for my interns. This means that I do not return home until significantly later than I did in the past several months. I now have an evening routine to go along with my morning routine. I will start that evening routine this evening, checking off tasks as I finish them.

For now, though, it is time to move further into my morning routine so I can get to work on time (not early!) and make this Monday count.