Synthesis Sunday: Brushing Up on Old Skills

Here it is, Sunday again, and I haven't cracked a book to talk about. I did, however, continue a course on Music Education and Special Needs from Berklee yesterday. While most of the information covered yesterday did not have any sort of relevance to my life as a music therapist, I am working on a concept of preparing my students for any future music education experiences that they may have. During the course that I am taking, we are talking about how to prepare as music educators for persons with differing ability levels. I have a bit of a different perspective since I meet kids but not music educators.

For this course, I am completing two projects. The first is a communication binder for my clients to use during group and individual music therapy sessions. It will include some activity choices, instrument choices, general communication tools (BIG yes/no), and some music therapy specific choice cards. I am getting ready to do the line drawings for the activity choices and the instrument choices. My other project is to write several social story songs for clients. Originally, I was going to focus on what I do in my music therapy clinic, but now I am thinking that I might make them focused on what to expect from band and choir and general music classes for my students with auditory sensitivities. This would make them a bit more accessible for the others in the group and would give me a chance to prepare my students for life in the music education world. So, it is time to brush off my social story knowledge and get cracking...

Another thing that I am going to be revisiting is my familiarity with video editing software. I haven't spent much time making videos since we returned to in-person church, so I have some updates to put up with as well as to learn.

One of the things that I am trying this year - in an effort to be moving forward - is to put my creations on Etsy to see if anyone wants to buy them. So far, no bites, so I am going to try to make some short videos to promote them a bit. This means getting out the tripod, finding the best lighting, and then editing the video into something that I can upload. It would be nice to sell something on that platform by the end of the year, but I am not holding my breath.

Also, it is time to get cracking again on my sing about mini reboot. I have decided to change things up a little bit, so it is time to get going on that redesign.

Currently, I have lots of energy, so I am making plans and have lots of ideas. First though, I need to figure out how to get my projects finished so I can cross CMTEs off the list for this cycle. My ideas for my reboot are safely tucked away in my ideas book, so I can get them when I am ready for them. This is a system that has really been successful for me - using one of my journal set-ups for TME ideas and TMEs to be put into plans. I have been a bit less successful with the planning portion of that system - I had intended that I would fill out a calendar for each month including theme ideas, special events, days of celebration, and resources that I already have available. That part of the system is not completed to this month. I pretty much stopped that practice in October, but I know that it is there... lurking... waiting...

Sunday is the day that I consider the start of the week (I only write this here because there are others in the bullet journal world that prefer to start their weeks on Mondays for some reason). It is the day that I do a bit of work and then have more time to fill with leisure activities than my other work days. I am going to try to make these Sundays a bit more for planning and creating than I have recently. Recently, I have been taking naps during that time, but I want to do something else. When I come home from my church job today, I am going to work on cleaning my craft area. I might do some drawing or work on another journal. I will also try to finish my video for Etsy so I can upload it to the site. Maybe someone will see it and decide to spend a bit of money on what I make for them. Who knows?

I also have some Star Wars calendar pages to research and get going. It is almost time to move into my new bullet journal! I am already needing the next couple of months to be set up in my journal so I can put in upcoming dates and appointments. So, there will be some this evening when I sit down with my Wookiepedia website and my randomly selected characters to do a little bit of research about these folks. There was one character, Darth Krayt, that I decided was beyond my drawing skills, so I will find a picture to print and use in my journal before I head back upstairs this morning. Done! I want to take pictures of the pages that I have added in the past several weeks as well. Someone might be interested in seeing them.

It is time to focus my energy someplace other than this blog post. Time to start moving into my next activity - looking outside to see if the severe storm we had last night did any damage to my home. It is almost dawn, so it will be easy to see if the fence is still standing...

Happy Sunday, all! 

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