Back To School - Professional Clinical Goals for School Year 2019-2020

Today is the day. Today is the day where my next school year officially starts (for contract purposes, the official start date was July 1, but this is the time when all the folks who don't have to do extended school schedules starts, so it is the first day of the new school year!), and I woke up at the correct time, got out of bed, have done some of my morning routine (a bit out of order, but still), and now I am ready to move into this new year. I have a day full of training ahead of me, and I'll be trying desperately to stay engaged during some of that training, but I think I am ready to go.

Today is the day for declaring my clinical goals for this next school year. Yep, that's right - even 27 years into my career, I still have professional clinical goals that I address for my own therapeutic skill development just like I did as a music therapy student. I hope that I am not alone in this practice - I think we all should identify areas where we need to focus our study and practice on a regular basis. If not, I think we stagnate and then we burnout. There you go - my rationale for why I engage in this self-improvement process.

Now, I developed by goals way back at the end of June before I went on vacation to Hawaii. It seemed to be a good time to evaluate what I want this school year to look like for my clients and my upcoming interns, so I sat down and did some fancy stuff in my work journal. I have a new year cover page and goals on a smaller page so I can find it by tactile sensation easily. I do not have that book in front of me, so I'm not sure that I'll get all of the goals written the way I have them in my book, but you'll get the general idea.

My goals this year are an attempt to focus back into basic skills. I have not been using the keyboard very much in sessions, so I am going to specifically plan weeks where I play the piano or the keyboard with my clients. I am also going to specifically plan Orff therapeutic music experiences (TMEs) to use the classroom set of instruments that I have in my storage area. I am also going to intentionally work on my internship program - reminding myself of things I forgot in my time as an inactive internship program and adjusting things for the newest generation of interns. I am going to pack as much into the music therapy sessions that I have for my clients as I possibly can - in a purposeful way. I am also going to continue my "NTM" TME process - that has been a good habit to cultivate. It has spurred me to get a bit creative with my session implementation.

I am going through a period of philosophical exploration and growth. Every so often, I wonder what exactly I should be doing with my clients. I get feelings of guilt because I am focusing on some things more than others, and I have to ground myself and find my direction. Am I supposed to be teaching kids how to play instruments? I don't think so. Am I supposed to focus only on psychosocial development? I don't think that's quite right either. So, I go into a brief tizzy where I am not exactly sure what I want - so I try to do a bit of everything.

On Monday, when the students return, I am going to teach them a new song. It is the STARS song and is based on our PBIS expectations. I'm writing it now. I will probably sing this song every month for every single class, just to remind them of expectations. I want to come up with something that the students and staff can do while I am singing the song to help them become more involved in the recitation of the expectations. I will need several different things so that kids who are around for a long time do not get bored with the same old thing. Maybe a puzzle one time - a lyric puzzle another time - lyric sheets...hmm. That will be a good thing to work on while I am listening to some of the same old stuff in training today. One "NTM" TME!! Whoo-hoo!

Time to link this into my systems - goal planning and data collection (see, it works for more than just clients!!).

On my work bullet journal annual page, I have written all of my goals down. I have a small grid where I will check off when I have accomplished each of the goals for each of the months. (My book is in the car, or I would be taking pictures and uploading them here - I will try to do that for tomorrow's post.) Some of the goals are once per month type goals - using Orff instruments and using the piano with clients, for example) and others are set with more criterion. I want to be writing my "NTM" TMEs four times per week, so I will not be able to track my completion with a simple check - I want to record the number of TMEs that I develop each month in the box. 

It is now time to get more of my morning routine going - creative expression time! I'm thinking I may want to make a sign for my office - something inspirational...hmm. I think I'll go to my quotation compilation for something to shape into art.

If you are interested in learning more about my "NTM" TME process, feel free to check out this post from the last school year! Would anyone like to join me in this challenge? It's pretty easy and doesn't require new compositions all the time - just things to do with clients that are new to me. If you are interested in this, please leave a comment below or on social media. I'll get back to you!