Systems in Music Therapy Friday: Classroom Organization Tips from My Favorite Second Grade Teacher

My sister (who now reads my blog, apparently) is my favorite second grade teacher.

Just wanted to say that up front. I am totally biased about who is Teacher of the Year, every year, because she is my sister and I've known her all her life. There you go.

Now, today's post is inspired by my sister and by the countless numbers of classroom teachers who are currently working on making their classrooms into engaging and comfortable places for students. Some classrooms include complex themes, lots of different elements to go together, and countless dollars of teacher money spent on things that teachers feel are needed in order to promote a sense of love and comfort and engagement. There is lots of controversy in the teacher world between the decorators and the non-decorators about whether this type of environment is necessary, but I know many who just feel better in a coordinated environment.

My sister is one of the thematic teachers. She has an overarching theme for her classroom every year, and one of her summer tasks is to refine her environment for the upcoming school year. Her current theme is Trees. Everything is tree-oriented. Over the years, she has had a Winnie the Pooh theme, a Cars theme, and a purple and green theme. This tree theme is the latest in her repertoire, but that isn't really what I am here to talk about today. Today, I want to talk about the systems that my sister has in place that provide a foundation regardless of the theme that she presents in her classroom. I think that many of these systems have a place in music therapy as well (with some modifications, of course).

Centers

This is the system that I would really like to implement in my own music therapy practice. When I have had centers as part of what we do in my music therapy room, it has been pretty successful, but our staff turnover means that I constantly have to train my support staff in what to do. That gets exhausting after a while. Anyway, my sister uses centers for all sorts of learning in her classroom, and, after a bit of specific training, her students move through their learning experiences with limited assistance from her. Building independence and skill development? You bet! The best part about the centers (in my opinion) is that she can easily swap out activities once her students know what to do. She can also differentiate instruction based on how her students are organized into center groups.

So, how would this work in the music therapy session?

If you are working in group settings, then centers are an opportunity to provide clients with time to engage with one another and with specific goals or therapeutic music experiences (TMEs) without direct intervention from the therapist. A center system might be a good thing for students who require more 1:1 intervention from staff members. Students enter the music therapy session, find their first center location, and start on the TME. In the past, I've had a center with me where we do some active musicking, a center with headphones and directed listening, a sensory/motor center where students complete specific motor tasks or get to plunge their hands into the pasta box or play with shaving cream, and a music skill center - composition or songwriting or instrument use. I try to limit what active music is happening in the room to help with concentration. As a therapist, I locate myself in the room in a place where I can still manipulate the music to support clients in all centers, but my station tends to be the only one where we are making active and audible music.

In individual sessions, the idea of centers becomes less clear, but if you think of centers as opportunities for building independence and generalization, then you can start to use the same concept for session planning. I like the idea of an opening center - perhaps the client has a songwriting TME to work on before the client enters the session with the therapist. The client could make a session plan using the schedule board or select songs for listening after work is finished. Once the task is finished, the product becomes an active part of the therapeutic intervention.

The most important part of centers is making them routine. The second most important part of centers is making them relevant to what clients are working towards in their clinical goals.

Teachers have it pretty easy when it comes to finding center activities for their students. We music therapists have it a bit more difficult, but that's okay.

Classroom jobs

I think this is one of my favorite systems that my sister uses with her students. It is based on a site that she found (I tried to find the source, but I have no idea what she uses and there are so many sites now about this) where her students have a job, get paid, have to pay rent for their desks, learn about budgets and money concepts, and function within a classroom economy. Each student applies for their top three preferred jobs. There are police, librarians, and so many more jobs. Now, keep in mind that my sister works with seven year olds while I describe this... The students interview for the jobs that they want. Once they have a job, they learn their responsibilities, and start their part of the classroom management. My sister does not check attendance - one of her students does that as part of their job. My sister does not have to monitor whether her group is lined up - the police officers do that, and the police chief monitors the police officers. Each week (or month), students get their salaries to put into their wallets and bank accounts. Once per month, they have to pay a portion of their salaries back to her for desk rental. If they do not have a pencil, then they can purchase one. If they need to use the bathroom immediately after recess, then they can pay a bit of money for a bathroom pass. They get to spend their salaries on non-essentials as well. Once or twice a quarter, the treasure box opens and students can spend their earned salaries on fun things. Jobs change on a regular basis so students can get experience in many different skills. It is SO cool!

How this works in my music therapy clinic - with groups

While I do not have my clients for the entire day or week, I have used variations of this type of token economy system with my students in music therapy. It has been most effective in my adolescent groups, especially the ones where clients are not interested in what I have to offer to them. I use the concept of a bank. Students earn money during the music therapy session, and then they spend that money on choice TMEs or items. Since the concept of delayed gratification is difficult for many of my clients, I restricted their spending sessions to once per month. When they entered on Choice Day, they were given their saved and earned money along with a list of options to choose from. Students could pay to just sit away from everyone and not engage or interact. Students could be the DJ or play one of the large instruments that do not come out of the cabinet very often.

Token economy and reinforcement schedules are prevalent in all sorts of engagements. I get money for doing my job - my students and my sister's students get money for doing their jobs - learning and engaging in music therapy. This is a good concept to establish - the idea of work for pay and then figuring out how to use that earned money in a way that provides you with the necessities of life.

Codes

My sister assigns each student a number that identifies materials, books, all sorts of things. When a student leaves, the next student inherits the number. I do not think that she assigns them based on alphabetical order, but she may initially. Once a student leaves, then the alphabetical thing would be different, so that's why I think she just assigns numbers. She has anywhere from 20-30 students at any given time during the school year, so numbers is a practical way of organizing her students and their things. For me, I tend to use colors instead of numbers, but I rarely have to organize my students in any way.

If you are at all familiar with Structured Learning as a classroom management system, then you are aware of the benefit to coding for both teachers and for learners. Find more information about Structure Learning here. You can use codes for identifying specific students or for specific things to do or for all sorts of things. I use codes for myself all the time (as you know if you read other systems posts!!), but none of them really have any significance for my clients. They do not really need the same type of interaction with the environment that I do.

What systems do you use in your music therapy practices? Do you have a token economy system? Structured patterns in how you do music therapy? Bell ringer exercises? Coding? Leave a comment about a system that has helped you work smarter and not harder.