TME Tuesday: Starting with a Goal and Then Going Into Composition Mode

I cleared off my work desk yesterday, and spent some time working in my TME file and on several of my projects. It is pretty satisfying to be staring at a clear(ish) desk surface, and I am ready to concentrate on my current Tuesday theme - the return of TME Tuesday. Today's TME is going to be a work-in-progress as I haven't quite finished it all up, but I am working on it.

As you know, I collect therapeutic music experiences (TMEs) in a database for my own use. My ideas are in my database as are the ideas of interns, students, fellow professionals, my Girl Scout leaders, and many others. This database is mine to use during my professional interactions with my students, and I have used this database since way before we used computers to organize these types of things. I used to use my index cards more than anything else, but now I use the computer more than anything else. You get the idea.

Tangent.

Today's post is all about developing a therapeutic music experience (TME) to use with my clients. I think I will focus on my most challenging group right now, and shape my ideas around that particular group of individuals, using them as my focus for this Tuesday.

This group comes to me on Mondays and Wednesdays from another service. Most often, this service does not allow my students to move around much. As a result, when they get to my wide open room, I think they want to move and the room does not offer many boundaries. I will try to provide some smaller spaces to move during tomorrow's session to see if that will help a bit. Most of the students do not demonstrate any type of impulse control, so I will be removing materials from their gaze during every session from now on. I want them to sit down as a group for a period of three minutes. That's my current goal. Baseline is currently 30 seconds when they are all sitting in their places. Egad - 30 seconds!!

So, the TME that I need to be developing is something that can work on movement, can encourage and reinforce sitting behavior, and is interesting enough that group members will want to engage rather than run around the room.

Okay - start with gross motor movements - we can jump, run, slide, hop, stomp, march, wiggle, and all sorts of stuff. I'm thinking that using the guitar would be the best option for live music as it can attach to me as I am moving with the students. I'd like to include a verse for sitting down to encourage that particular behavior. That could be the chorus - When it's time, I sit down on the carpet. When it's time, I sit down and take a rest. It is time to sit down on the carpet. It is time to sit down, down, down, down, down. There are the lyrics to the chorus. Okay - time to improvise a bit on the guitar.

The song will be in D major and will be at a moderate pace - I can change the tempo to accommodate the movements that I want the students to complete.

Here's the verse - it will change based on what is happening in the group at the time. "When it's time to jump, I can jump, jump, jump. When it's time to jump, I can jump." Repeat then sing the chorus. Moderate tempo to be adjusted with specific movement pattern cues from the students. The goal is to wear out the bodies so that they will want to sit rather than trying to avoid sitting.

I have a made a crude recording of the song until I get it transcribed - this will help me remember it when it is time to replicate it. For now, though, it is time to move from this place to my workplace where I need to finish things up on my to-do list and get ready for some new adventures. I will see this group (that I'm thinking about) tomorrow morning, so I have a day to figure out how I will proceed.

Sorry that this isn't a full-fledged TME yet, but it will be someday. Look for "When It's Time" in my Teachers Pay Teachers store and on the website.