music, therapy, and me

On Tuesday, we were informed that there would be a mandatory meeting after school for all staff. We were to gather on the front lawn. That was it. No other details. As I was sitting in the hallway for my break, I heard one of the quality assurance staff members talking about water balloons. The first thought in my head? "Crap. It's another 'team building' thing." Oh, dear reader. It was. I am not a fan of team building activities at my facility for the simple reason that they do not actually build teams. This term is bandied about for things that people think will be fun, but there is no learning about the people that you work with during these times. I find them to be absurd, especially because the only people who seem to find value in these situations are the people who put them on. We were split into four teams, given a ball and a baseball bat, told to spin (which no one did that I saw), then try to hit the ball, and then move to the pitching spot. The first te...

During my 12-hour day yesterday, we received results of an employee survey. This survey was completed by less than half of us, but it asked some interesting questions. We reviewed the results during our faculty meeting yesterday, and it was interesting to see what we all thought. I found that many of my opinions were supported by my fellow co-workers, and there was something reassuring about that. My father is becoming a rabid political follower. He has never done this before, but his social world has shrunk since retiring, and we think that there is something happening neurologically. He follows all sorts of political blogs and websites and watches specific news programs without fail. He espouses opinion like it is unalterable fact. There is no room for other points of view. He and I no longer talk about politics because of this - my views are SIGNIFICANTLY different than his, and I cannot abide it when opinions are deemed wrong. OPINIONS CANNOT BE WRONG! This is a familiar ra...

Today is the day that our Halloween-themed door HAS to be finished. This is the second time that we've had a door competition for Halloween (interestingly, this is the ONLY time of year that we do anything at all - nothing for all the other celebrations or holidays of the year - just Halloween). Anyway - it has been quite the production, and I am going to try to post a video of what my interns and I came up with this year. We'll see if it works!! Last year, I had to do this entire process by myself. This year, I have the assistance of two VERY CREATIVE interns which has made the process both more challenging and significantly easier simultaneously. Every day I walk in, my co-therapists have had ideas, so our door has morphed from a simple scene on the double doors entering into the music therapy room to something that now encompasses much of the hallway as well. At the same time, we have shared the responsibilities and the work, so that makes this door SO much easier than las...

I just now realized that yesterday was Tuesday, and I didn't post a TME Tuesday post this week. Shows you how much my medication messes with my head. I didn't even think about it until just now. So, if you tuned in yesterday to get a TME idea and had to read my sick day rant, I am so sorry! If you tuned in yesterday because you always read the blog and were expecting a TME post, again, I am sorry! Now I'm not sure what to do - do I try to find a TME to share? Or do I go on my way into the future in a bold manner? Oh, the decisions. My day includes three sessions with kids, two intern observations, and a meeting. I'll be present until the junior intern is finished with training and then I'll be leaving to go to my part-time job. My senior intern and possibly the junior intern will be going to the faculty team-building event. It will be interesting to hear what the event ends up being. It was supposed to be our Back to School Night, but we changed all that. Now it...

I love it when a post on social media makes me think about things a bit differently than I have previously. I saw one this week that made me go into dream mode - what would I do? The question was about staff retreats and what to do during them. Oooh! This is one of my "If I Won the Lottery" dreams. I would LOVE to have a conference center where music therapists would be able to attend continuing education courses and retreats and meetings and conferences. There was the perfect place too, a closed convent with beautiful buildings that used to be a ladies academy as well as a convent. It was a mere 6 million dollars - why should price make a difference in how I accomplish my dreams (EXTREME SARCASM HERE!). So, I started thinking about the retreats I have been on over the years to figure out what I would do if... there are any number of "ifs" here - if I had a staff to retreat with, if I was invited to lead someone else's staff in a retreat experience, and ...

I am sitting here, after deleting two separate blog posts that weren't really go anywhere, thinking about my work week this week. For some reason, my students have three days off this week. They don't come to school today or Thursday or Friday. I, on the other hand, have to come to work on Monday and Thursday - Thursday is a 12 hour day. I do get Friday off, which is really nice, but 20 hours of inservice and professional development time is just not something I look forward to...at all. For me, the change in structure and routine makes for lots of difficult encounters and uncomfortable situations. For example, one of the things that we are going to do on Thursday is decorate pumpkins - team-building activity! Last year, we had to split up based on our working teams. The other teams complained because those of us who are not classroom teachers grouped together. There were "too many" of us for the others, so we had to split up. Now, I have a setting event when ...

Yesterday, I spent some time engaged in busywork. You know the kind - work that someone thinks has value but really just takes up time and siphons energy away from other tasks. Fortunately, it was only 15 minutes worth of time, but the exercise itself had nothing to do with my job or my vision for my job. The exercise was related to a book that we are all reading this year for our jobs. The book is entitled "The Energy Bus," and was a quick read. It is about finding a common destination and getting people onto your bus who will add to your energy and get you to your goals. It is a good idea and a wonderful story, but the process that we are taking to find a common idea is not really clear. Disclosure: I am not someone who enjoys team building exercises. I am not someone who enjoys most group projects (with the exception of this one we did in eighth grade). I am the type of person who does best when I am allowed to be on my own with occasional check-ins with the others. So...