Three More TMEs for the Database

I've determined that my current "NTM" TME challenge level is 3 "new-to-me" therapeutic music experiences (TMEs) per week. I've tried hard to break into the 4 per week level, but I'm not sure that I can do so - 4 seems to be an unattainable level at this time. By Thursday, my brain is trenched in rut and does not get out of it at all. I also use Thursdays to catch up my groups so that they can experience the new TMEs.

I am enjoying this process since it is making me look for new ideas to bring to my clients. 

A side effect of this particular personal challenge is that I also am finding some old TMEs that I haven't used for quite a bit of time, and I'm using those in music therapy as well.

Last week's selections were things that my most recent former interns wrote and introduced to our clients. Some of the students that are with us now don't know these TMEs, and the ones that do are great models - they just sing strongly to familiar songs. I love it. I love it all.

I'm going to be looking for other things for my "NTM" TME challenge this week - maybe some of the resources that I have from Prelude Music or from Elizabeth Schwartz. Maybe not. I also have a book to read - Multimodal Psychiatric Music Therapy for Adults, Adolescents, and Children: A Clinical Manual (3rd Edition) by Michael D. Cassity and Julia E. Cassity. This is has little to nothing to do with my current challenge, but it folds in nicely to my current thinking about documentation and tracking goals and objectives. I also crawled behind the conga drum and found a book of silly songs that I have no recollection of ever purchasing or receiving - it has the name Jenkins scrawled on the cover. This is worth examining later on because there are several songs that have good TME potential - I have four TME ideas just from flipping through the book.

I'm hoping that I can keep up this pattern during my last two weeks of school and the week of break that I have before our extended school year session starts. Oh. Two weeks of school left. Let me let that sink in...two weeks left. 

Okay, can't get distracted by that fact - I still have two weeks left.

I have two weeks to run sessions, coordinate the annual Talent show, practice graduation songs, figure out my schedule for next year in conjunction with the schedules of 20+ other professionals, figure out how to do afternoon bus duty the way the principal wants, and rearrange the student incentive store. Eeek! I only have two more weeks!

So, it is time to move on and head into these last two weeks. I want to add six more "NTM" TMEs to my repertoire in these days. I also want to figure out why I've been so tired lately that I've been sleeping most of my weekends and evenings away and why my brain just seems to stop working about 2pm every afternoon. 

Happy Monday...

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