music, therapy, and me

'Tis the season of watching classroom set-ups on social media. Do you know the videos I'm talking about? The ones where teachers set up their super cute classroom themes and bulletin boards in a fast-forward type video? My sister, who is an elementary school teacher, is currently in the process of getting her classroom theme put together. I always love watching the creativity of others in setting up their environments, and I am always jealous of their space and ability to keep things up on the wall with their students. My students and my space are not conducive to cute themes and color-coded, coordinated wall decorations. The things that I have up on the walls of my music therapy room are functional rather than coordinated. My room is already decorated with lots of paintings from various murals, so things are already as busy as I want them to be. These facts don't stop me from wanting a classroom where I could make my own cute theme happen though. As I am a week away from t...

I have seven more work days before the end of the calendar work year. At this time last year, we were working without client contact. This year, we are getting ready to host a local middle school group for their "Jingle Jam" because people in my work area do not believe that COVID is a big deal anymore. I am still not convinced and am not doing our own holiday event because of COVID. I do not want to be the one who starts another breakout at my facility because someone is singing and spreading virus particles everywhere. I admit that I am still scared of this virus, but I am more scared of the people who are not scared of this virus. COVID feelings notwithstanding, I am looking forward to the end of this calendar year. It has been a doozy for me. Again, I am not the type of person who believes that a man-made time construct will automatically change all the things happening in my life, but there is something nice about knowing that the end of the year is approaching. I am tir...

I was able to accomplish yesterday's goal of arriving at work exactly on time - I was on the property, parking the car at 7:14 am! I did not allow any sort of anxiety reaction take over - I had to tell myself quite frequently that it would be fine (especially when I got stuck behind one slow school bus) if I was a couple of minutes late. I always stay later than I have to, so there is no reason why I should be feeling any sort of guilt that I am not at work enough for what they pay me. I am, and more than! I am repeating the process today. I have less responsibilities than usual today because we have closed a classroom due to a COVID outbreak. So, my third class of the day has been cancelled because we have no new students. I have almost an entire afternoon to work on my digital resources for my students. I need to buckle down on that project for October - I've decided to do a presentation about bullying. We spend lots of time with kids on how to identify bullies, and not as mu...