I am Learning More and More Every Single Day.

My word for this year is "Deepen." I selected this word way back in December 2020, and it seems to encapsulate all of my intentions for the year of 2021 - it worked for me, and it still does. I am thinking I might want to keep the same word for 2022.

For me, this word means to take what I know and learn more. It means to explore stronger relationships with my clients in and out of the music therapy session. It means to actively explore things that elude me and to seek out new opportunities.

This past week, I have been taking some time to deepen my knowledge of Google Slides as a teaching mechanism. If you are new here, here is a bit of background for you. As a school-based music therapist in my particular job, I have done almost every role that others have done EXCEPT live telehealth situations. Many of my peers in our Monthly Music Therapy Meets have been doing sessions virtually with their clients. I have not had to do that, mainly because my facility does not have the technological infrastructure to do so. I am now finding myself in a situation where I can start to use the tools available to many others all along that are now available to me!

I searched for Google Slide tutorials and found one by Midnight Music titled, "Google Slides for Music Teachers." Whoo-Hoo! This two-hour, FREE presentation gave an excellent overview of how to do some of the things that my music therapy friend, Rhonda, had shared during on of our Monthly Music Therapy Meet way back before this was something that I had to do. It was nice to watch a review session. There is another one up as well that is titled, "Google Slides - Advanced Tips for Music Teachers," that I have just now found! I am looking forward to learning some more via these resources.

This is happening because I have a new Promethean Board that I can do some things with but that I want to think about using a bit more. I am very interested in setting up things for my clients to do that have themes, that work on specific skills, and that prompt things that can be practiced away from the music therapy room through access just about anywhere. I am exploring these things for both my music therapy practice and for sharing with others. There is no reason to make things if these things are not shared with others, right?

This pursuit and learning focus is the way I am organizing my time and thoughts during this season in my life. Right now, I am working on a theme of Vocations for use during the week of Labor Day...except I am thinking that I should save that for the week that I will be on bereavement leave and out of the state so students have some music therapy interaction besides the YouTube channel. At this time, I have a slide for singing, a slide for learning about music jobs and roles, and a slide for songs about other types of jobs. I think I will be making some additional resources - mazes or word searches or other things - to supplement this type of interaction. I am trying to include client choice as a part of these interactions because I do not like it when students come to music therapy and just stare at a screen. I will be adding my own face into these videos on a regular basis.

My goal for any type of professional development that I do is to have an immediate effect on my clinical work - whether that be new techniques to take into sessions or new instrument skills to share with clients, or deepening the foundation of my knowledge base with respect to the clients I serve. I have little to no use in taking courses just to take courses. I do not need or want to collect letters behind my name. I want to focus on things that enrich my clients' lives through their interactions with music. I have always wanted this from all of my professional interactions - conferences, workshops, CMTEs - something that will make a difference in how I do music therapy. 

While I am getting a bit more with the 21st century technological advances that are now available to me, I want to make sure that the core of what I am doing stays the same. I want my clients to be working on their goals and objectives by actively engaging in music making rather than just touching a screen to have music generated for them. So, I am working out how to get these things to happen using asynchronous formats. I don't think I will ever get it to be the same, so this will just be a tool that I have available to me...something to supplement what we already do...something that anyone can run, but that still needs the expertise of a music therapist to develop. That's the goal, at least.

So, I have started my first interactive Google Slide presentation. Like I said earlier, it is focused on jobs. I will include some music videos and lyric sheets and lots of choices. I know how to link choices to specific pages. I know how to include video links. I know how to organize this stuff, but I am not sure how I want to use it.

My goal is to have a finished project by next Friday, but I think I will save the use of this file until I leave for my bereavement leave. I have to head East to celebrate the life of my cousin with my family, so I will be gone for a week. Rather than having them just use the YouTube channel, I will ask my intern to set up the board with the files that I am making right now. I may need to have two separate files for the two groups that have two sessions with me per week, but that can be done. If I can spend some of my work time making these files every week, then I can have several options available. Eventually, I would like to have one of these files per month to support the themes that I am also coordinating.

I did some brainstorming yesterday about what types of things I still need to know about - I want to include interactive elements such as dancing, singing, and instrument playing, so I need to manipulate the environment and materials to encourage those responses. 

I also want to make sure that I do not put myself out of a job, so I still want active musicking to be better than these types of interactions. Does that sound selfish?? I just don't want my administrators thinking that screen-based interactions are a replacement for live music therapy.

I can use my scrapbook paper storage for sub plan kits for specific links. It could work. I just have to figure out how to get it put together, but I have faith that I can!

Off to get ready for my day. I hope your Friday will be a good one.