Busy Day Ahead...Week One of Our Extended School Year is Over

Today is a day off from work. During our Extended School Year, we have school from Monday through Thursday, and we have Fridays off. During the summer, I have the luxury of three day weekends - something I really enjoy. During the rest of the year, I have one day weekends, so three days is a mini-break every week. I love this schedule and would love to have it all the time (I've tried to figure it all out, and it doesn't work for our contracts...).

Anyway, today is a day away from work, but it is not a day of rest. Today is the day that everything has to happen. I have a new washer and dryer set coming sometime between 8:30 and 10:30, the new cat sitter comes to check us out at 11:00, and I have lots of laundry to do (because of the need for the new washer and dryer) as well as about seventeen errands to do as well. Everything happens today.

I've spent this past week getting back into the routine of working. I arrived early every day (not good for me or my morning routine) and stayed late almost every day. I have a completely new schedule, so I am trying my best to remember that schedule while preparing things for my students as well as to think about who is coming in next. It's a struggle, but it will (hopefully) stay the same once summer is over. That's my hope, at least. I made one mistake on my personal schedule and another group made a mistake on their schedules, so I did have success with 18 out of 20 groups this week. That's not bad for the first week.

I used a "New To Me" TME this week as well. I am using lots of old folk songs as piggyback material these days. They are easy for me to remember, most of them have little to no connotation for my clients, and the music is something that sticks in the brain - if it didn't the songs wouldn't have survived this long, I guess. I've been changing lyrics to fit my desired outcomes, and I've found that my clients just go right along with me. It's been very gratifying.

For this week, I took the music for "Did You Ever See a Lassie" or "Ach du Lieber Augustin" and changed it into "Have You Ever Heard an Instrument" or "Have You Ever Played an Instrument" depending on the group in front of me. I would name each of the novelty instruments selected and then we would do a bit of targeted listening and solo play before all playing together during the chorus. I'm working on an adaptation where clients have to select an instrument that approximates a specific sound. I'm not ready for that version quite yet, but it's rolling around in the back of my head. 

I have a stack of laminating projects to cut out, prep, and send off to music therapists around the country. I have a bunch of certificates to send out to people all over the world as part of my role as continuing education director for a CBMT approved provider. I have lots of things to do on my to-do list. I can check off "schedule car maintenance" now - I love online booking, especially at 5am in the morning! The trick is to balance out the to-do list with time and energy. I have lots of time in the next three days and not much energy to go with it, so I am finding that it is difficult to be balanced.

Time to leave this part of my day and move back into the organizing/cleaning part of my day. People are coming over, so I need to get going.

Next week brings a complete schedule and more challenges...I'll be figuring out some more "NTM" TMEs. I've found that my piggybacking tendencies are also awakening my creative tendencies - whoo-hoo! I have a summertime improvisation to make concrete and a bunch of other ideas for visual aids to generate and put onto my Teachers Pay Teachers store. Stay tuned. Also, sing about august will be released by the 20th, so stay tuned for that as well.

Lots to do...I'm going to get going. "See" you all tomorrow.