Observing in Pre-K Learning Center for Public Schools

My second observation for my internship is complete. I have to say this site could battle my internship for my favorite MT site I've been to. The main building for the Learning center is fairly new and very aesthetically pleasing with nature themes like woodlands.

For this school citric there are 2 MT's. One covers the early learning Pre-K level and the other covers the secondary level. I observe with the Pre-K MT. She works in the school district Mondays and Tuesdays, and then she has her own MT business where she see's a couple clients in home and some kids in another school district.

While observing I saw the instrument closet, which was pretty well stocked though the music therapist wasn't going for some while planning what to do because there weren't always enough of one instrument for a full class. The classes ranges from 4-13 children. The smallest classes are the classes specifically devoted to kids with autism diagnosis (LIFT classes). All other classes are made up of 50% peers and 50% kids undergoing IEP evaluation. MT's go to each individual classroom instead of the kids coming to them in the preschool level. Classes are usually seen every other week, but some classes get music two times a week if the schedule allows. For music teachers have the kids sit on the carpet as if it were circle time. One or two friends in the group might sit in a chair, but most of the kids sit on the floor. Everybody in the LIFT classrooms sits in some kind of chair. Music time is 20 minutes and are back to back through out the AM classes and PM classes.

Because every session is a group and the music time is considered "Music Enrichment" and not music therapy, the MT does not have to do any documentation which is similar to my internship site because we only document for individual sessions.

Some things I notices about this schools population was that there was alot more diversity. Most of the kids at my site are white, but there there were a high number of children who were not white. There were also two classrooms where I observed that had a lot of kids with severe hearing loss. In these classes there was a teacher who would sign everything the MT said during the session which is such a nice thing to have available. My site has a couple of kids who use hearing devices but not as many as this facility had, though we still work signs or actions into alot of our songs and prompts.

Prior to the MT arriving at the school, she said the Music Therapy program had been very different and most of the teacher had dreaded music therapy. The school had done music therapy consultation before which was basically having the music therapy record all the songs and plans so that the teachers could just press play for music time. The MT would also do some in person sessions but they would utilize their own recorded songs and not do any live music. The MT I observed with was obviously(from the perspective of a MT) not down with that. So she said "we are changing it, hope you all are down with it because its happening) and now music therapy is performed live and the teachers like it a lot more. The MT's will still record music (In the schools recording booth) if a teacher requests a song they don't already have or if there is a song they like but the tempo is too fast to use.

Some teachers kind of check out during music time, others are still involved with prompting or correcting kids behavior. There are also plenty of helpers in most classes to its not just the MT and one teacher.

I noticed alot of tools in the classroom that intrigued me. First there was the SMART Boards which I remember from being in kindergarten myself and they have come a long way. The MT didn't utilize them really, but Im sure there is some way they could be incorporated in a session. There were also these microphone necklaces that hooked up to the rooms speaker system. This is great because you could always clearly hear the MT and the guitar and for kids with hearing loss they would be able to hear better as well. The MT also said there was at least one student that had a hearing aid where a necklace microphone could connect and their voice be played right into it which sounds pretty cool as well. There were also other recorded buttons used like the BIG Mac Switch. They used the Choice button which is a smaller green button that sits at a slant and can be used to record 3 different responses. I looked up all the different buttons the company makes (AltNet) and they have so many other options besides the Big Mac. I really with all of the buttons weren't over $100 but someday I will shell out the money to have one of each. There were also some room dividers that could be very useful in my sites large MT room for individuals to make the room smaller or to put things behind so they aren't a distraction.

I had a great time observing at this site and hope to keep in touch with this MT in the future!