Five Days to Go

As I am getting ready for work this morning, I am thinking about the fact that there are five days left until my next break. We work on Friday this week because of how the summer session and inservice days worked out. That is a no-contact day meaning that kids will not be present. I have an intern who needs her hours and then will be graduating and another one that could use an entire day of work time to get assignments done. I am hoping to be moving into a small office in my music therapy room. It is my old office, and I am looking forward to getting my professional space back. As much as I enjoy being around my interns, I really like having a place where I can do my own thing. I don't know if things will be moved out by Friday, but I will prepare for that move regardless. I have two cabinets that will make the move across the room with me. That will give my interns more space and less clutter to have to deal with, a place of privacy where they can talk about me, and a place where I can have some privacy as well. I will be able to watch sessions without being seen.

Anyway, I have five more days of this Extended School Year session before another break.

This upcoming break is twelve days long, and I will not be going home this summer at all. I tried to figure out how to coordinate the trip around the doctor's appointments that I have as well as finding some time to rest. So, I am not going to travel during this upcoming time off. I will be going to my new doctor (pain management) and voting in our possible constitutional amendment. I'm not affiliated with a party, so I will only be voting on the amendment. Before I get there, though, I still have five days of work to finish up.

This is the last week of the status quo.

When we return for the start of the "regular" school year, we will have a new program going. We will be changing our classes, our ratios of students to staff members and teachers, and our way of doing things with that new program. As a result of this new program, things will look different in August, but I am ready for some changes. I am looking forward to smaller classes to start with and for less classes as well. I am still waiting on the last additions to my schedule (new program stuff) to make things more official, but I think I have arranged my interns' group schedules, so I have checked that off. I need to figure out my individual schedule, but that will wait until I know for sure who will be present in August and who will be leaving. Most of my current individuals will be transitioning into the new program, so I will have to find others to fill up the spaces. That will wait until we return from break. In addition to large group sessions in the music therapy room, I will offer in-class relaxation sessions for three of our classes, individual sessions with specific students, and other things as I think of them. I would love to start individual lessons and choir again, but I'm not sure that our students will be able to do those things. Part of the fun in this job is trying new stuff. The teacher who was very contemptuous about music in general and me in specific is leaving for a new job after being passed up for a job, so I think that the remaining folks in that pod will be a bit more open to the idea of more music for their students. We will see.

It is time for me to start my own intern termination process. My intern will be with us for five more days. This is always the most difficult part of being a supervisor - working through the complex feelings that arise with moving out of a safe place into an unknown situation. 

Some interns know where they are heading next, but many do not. I have learned to read some of the signals shown to me by interns and move through the process using those cues. The ones who know what they are doing next tend to be less emotional about leaving because they know where they are heading. The ones who do not have jobs lined up tend to be a bit more clingy. All I can do is reassure them that there is a future out there for them and then let them go into the big world.

Our termination ritual includes no parties because I cannot plan a party without some sort of disaster happening. I refuse to plan a party or a lunch out or anything like that because, when I do, it ends up in severe weather or someone needing to go to the hospital or other scenarios that are no fun. So, I do not bring in cookies or arrange opportunities to say goodbye to interns. I do other things instead.

It is time to finish my morning routine and get on my way to work. It is supposed to be very cool outside today - raining most of the day as well. This is a good break after REALLY hot and humid weather for the past two weeks. I am looking forward to the respite. It seems that we will be cooler all the rest of the week before temperatures climb again during our break. I am looking forward to the possibility of not having too many issues with heat exhaustion this week. Of course, my room is still horribly hot, but at least the rest of the world will not be as hot.

I am looking forward to this week. I am looking forward to working on my new schedule. I am looking forward to sending another intern out into the world, even though I will miss that intern when we return. I often miss my interns at random times and for random reasons. The intern that will remain will graduate in October and the next one starts at the beginning of our "regular" school year after break. Time to go.