Music For Kiddos Podcast
Listen on: Apple Podcasts | Spotify | Amazon Music | Stitcher
The end of the school year is basically here where we live (I’m writing this at the end of April) and it got me thinking about how May is usually a really challenging month for teachers, for parents, and for other professionals who work with or at a school. As we're heading into May, maybe you can start thinking about some ideas and some strategies for how you can get some more rest this month.
You can do things that make you feel good, like hiking or exercising or eating some extra healthy food. Think about how you can take care of yourself and about the things that make your body feel good. Starting to think about that now can help us be prepared and have those strategies in place as we await what can be a really challenging time as the school year ends.
I would also encourage you to go back and listen to the series of episodes on the Music For Kiddos Podcast that we released in January all about session and lesson planning, reusing content and utilizing creative strategies to preserve our energy while spending less time prepping for sessions or classes. Linked below are also the blog post versions of these episodes:
One of the strategies that has helped me reduce my prep time for my preschool and kindergarten music classes over the last couple of years is using one lesson plan (with some modifications) for an entire month. Honestly, I know that it sounds kind of wild to just use one lesson plan for the whole month, so I highly recommend reading this blog post to learn how I do this.
giving yourself the Permission to be imperfect
Another thing that has helped me through the very overwhelming seasons has been giving myself the permission to be imperfect. Being ok with being imperfect (personally and professionally) is an important value of mine.
I believe that is actually beneficial if we are highly imperfect in our work.
The first huge lesson I had about this was during my music therapy internship. I worked at the children's hospital during my internship; Massachusetts General Hospital to be specific. My supervisor was the amazing Lorrie Kubicek, MT-BC, who has spoken at the Music For Kiddos Symposium before. I loved my internship and it was a huge growing period for me in so many ways.
And one of the areas in which I grew personally was my perfectionism. I definitely have some perfectionist tendencies and they were challenged a lot during this period of my life.
One of the stories I vividly remember was working with a 10 year old girl whom I met a few months into my internship. She was probably the first patients that I worked with on my own. She was going to be a “frequent flyer”, as we called them because of her diagnosis, meaning, that I was going to see her pretty regularly. During our first sessions she was kind of reserved and quiet, but nevertheless, she and I just clicked.
One of the songs she loved was Party In The USA by Miley Cyrus and i decided to learn that song and bring it for our next session. Back then, I wouldn’t have considered myself to be guitar savvy, so the way that I learned Party In The USA was using barre chords.. and I wasn't great at bar chords. In fact, I was pretty bad at barre chords.
I had probably 60% of the song down but it was good enough so that we could sing along to it during our next session. After playing Party In The USA for my patient, she just looked at me and said “It could use some work” which I responded with “Oh yeah, yeah, you're right. You're right! I really need to… absolutely.” When I sheepishly recounted the story to my supervisor, her reaction was amazing.
She began fist pumping and started to loudly shout “YES!!!!”. Confused by her reaction, she reassured me that is what had happened was probably exactly what a 10 year-old needs when they're in the hospital and they have zero control over their environment.
It occurred to me that perhaps there had been some element of performance in my mind that made me think that what I brought to the session or what should happen in the session needed to be perfect.
But, this is music therapy. This is the therapeutic element of music. This experience really changed my mindset and it started to become something that I welcomed. I know I'm going to mess up and I just have to own it.
When I mess up, especially when working with kids, I point it out in a very casual way to normalize this experience. I feel it's so comforting for kids to see adults mess up and to see that it's okay to mess up.
It's not something to dwell on, it's just part of the process. Think about music. The reality is that making music is mostly about making mistakes. We aim for perfection when we perform, but it so rarely happens. It's almost not a thing.
The idea of embracing the mistakes can be a difficult concept for ourselves and for the kids we work with but is truly one of the most important lessons we can share with them. We can give kids permission to make mistakes.
And the way that I was able to do that successfully was by modeling it. Allowing ourselves to make mistakes, too.
You are a good teacher. You are a good music therapist.
You are a good teacher and you are a good music therapist because you care, you're constantly learning and you care deeply about the kids that you work with. I know that. I think deep down to your core you know you are good at what you do.
It's okay to not be 100% all the time. It’s a part of life because there’s 100% chance we are not going to be a 100% all the time. Kids too, so I think it's really important for them to see an adult messing up or making a wrong call sometimes, acknowledging it and apologizing if needed so they can realize that mistakes are a part of life and it is not a problem with who they are.
If you have a bad day, if you have a bad hour, if you have a bad season, months where you feel like you are haven’t been reaching kids in the way that you would really like to, this is your permission to be imperfect.
Listen to this episode of the Music For Kiddos Podcast on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Amazon Music, Stitcher or wherever you listen to your favorite shows!
We have partnered with West Music to offer free shipping on orders above $59.95 to Music For Kiddos Podcast’s listeners. Check out their incredible instruments and their incredible offerings at WestMusic.com or you can place your order at their customer service hotline at (800) 397-9378.
The code for free shipping is KIDDOS24. Make sure to check them out!
We've also partnered with Bear Paw Creek, who creates some of my favorite movement props for my music classes and music therapy sessions. Check them out at www.musicandmovementproducts.com
LET’S KEEP IN TOUCH!
Song-of-the-Month Club (FREE!)
THANKS FOR TUNING IN TO THE MUSIC FOR KIDDOS PODCAST!
Thanks for joining us on the Music for Kiddos podcast! If you enjoyed this episode, please head over to Apple Podcasts and tell us what you think by leaving a review! Don’t forget to sign up for the Song-of-the-Month-Club to receive a free, high-quality original song every month, or hang out with us on Instagram to stay connected.
