In my Music Therapy Research class on Tuesday, Dr. Jackson handed out a mid-term study guide. My classmate said, "The mid-term's next week, right?" I thought that was an odd question considering I thought that we had at least another month before mid-terms. We don't. I wasn't particularly worried about not being prepared for mid-terms, I just couldn't figure out what happened with my time. This semester is just flying by!

If you would have asked me how my semester was going about a week ago, I probably would've said it's not going fast enough. My days all seem to run together and I can honestly say that I study or do school-related activities for most of my day seven days a week. On top of that, my classes have never really given me a break. In fact, I had a "quiz" on Monday in music history, and a unit test this coming Friday (I say "quiz" because the "quiz" before this one was worth 150 points). As overwhelmed as I can feel some times, I'm glad I am in this situation. It is certainly teaching me some incredible time-management skills and I am much more efficient. Some other good reasons are that this semester has flown by so far, and this heavy work load will make everything seem much easier and my senior year much lighter as far as classes are concerned. There's always a bright side :) .

As far as classes go this past week, I've really decided I need to step it up a notch. My grades aren't horrible but I know I can do better! Also, Dr. Jackson helped me work out some personal issues I have with working with my clients and I have a much better perspective on where I need to take things. Hopefully this new motivation will not be short-lived and I will be able to be happy with where I stand at the end of the semester!

Speaking of which, time to study for my test!

Posted by Kim Yoder at 6:19 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

I have two huge bits of excitement relating to music therapy:

1. I finally met my clients for the first time last week! I am working in the Alzheimer's unit at the Waters (which is a nursing home). It was quite the experience.

We had about 8 individuals with all levels of Alzheimer's. Some could carry on a coherent conversation with you while others, well, simply couldn't. I am pretty sure I do not want to be working with older adults as my main population but I certainly don't mind it. My supervisor, Jackie, did the session which meant I simply observed but I thought about what I would do the entire time. It was a little overwhelming because I felt as though I was too inexperienced to be incredibly effective. That's when I remembered that it's called a Practicum--I'm not supposed to be able to get things going during the first or even second session.

Now that I've had some time to debrief and think a little more, I am feeling much more prepared for this next session, and I'm surprisingly not anxious about singing a Hello and Goodbye song with them. I hope it goes well!

2. The other bit of exciting stuff in music therapy is my research class. Instead of a final test at the end of the semester, we will have to turn in the literature review part of a research study we design ourselves. There are a few different types of research out there, and I just happened to be most interested in a topic in the Historical Research category (this is not a very popular type of research). The topic I am interested has actually never been done before (as far as Dr. Jackson and I have been able to find), so, long story short, I will be working on an actual research project this semester! I know, this may sound a little nerdy, but I'm hoping to continue this study as Dr. Jackson suggested, and possibly get it published in one of the music therapy journals! In case you're curious, here's my research question: How do the ancient Greeks’ ideas on music and health compare to modern thought on cognitive neuroscience? I read that now and I simply have to smile because those words make me sound smart :).

I can't wait to see how things unfold both at the Waters and with my project!

-Kim

P.S. Please don't get me sick!

Posted by Kim Yoder at 10:00 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

This week is running together but at the same time, this past Monday seems like a distant memory.

Monday evening, Bethany, Emily, and I went to the Charis House to have our first session with the kids before we met with the rest of the music therapy club (Bethany is the parliamentarian, I'm the treasurer, and Emily is the president). We expected to be working with kids ranging from 3rd to 6th grade, based on what our contact had said. Well, when we got there, our contact wasn't available. Someone took us to the room we had asked for, and then proceeded to make an announcement that, "All mothers and school-aged children were to come to the third floor to hear some music. Actually, anyone interested in hearing music can go to the third floor." In case you don't know, music therapists don't just play music for people, so we were a little surprised to hear that part of the announcement. Anyway, as people started coming in the room, we all got a little scared. We didn't have mostly 3rd to 6th graders...we had 4 kids under the age of 2 yrs, one 12yr old, and the other five kids between 4 and 7. We quickly made the decision to go ahead with the activities we had planned since the mothers were there to help with the younger kids. It ended up working out just fine. We debriefed for a while afterward and brainstormed ways to make the following sessions less terrifying for our fellow therapists-to-be. We're pretty excited about it :).

I honestly don't remember much about Tuesday and Wednesday other than my back and shoulder hurt, I studied for tests, and did my best to focus.

Today (Thursday), on the other hand, was quite wonderful for three main reasons:
1. I met my clients for the first time! They're a group of 8-10 Alzheimer's patients and will certainly keep me on my toes. I just observed this first session and I must say, I'm a little anxious to see how I will do in this setting.
2. I talked to Dr. Jackson about my project in her Research Methods class. I won't go into great detail but I am going to be working on drawing a line between how the ancient Greeks' connected music and health, to modern thoughts about cognitive neuroscience. I'm sure some of you are groaning and rolling your eyes but I love it :).
3. The Office Season 6 starts tonight!! The Office is by far my favorite show ever. I have every season, have watched each season straight through more times than I can count, and I am basically addicted to it. If you haven't watched it, you need to.

I feel as though I have so much going on right now that I forget to breathe. I am sure that my schedule will soon feel "normal" to me so I won't be as exhausted by the end of the day. Wouldn't things be so much easier if we just didn't need sleep?

Well, time to get back to work.

I hope everything is going well for you!

Posted by Kim Yoder at 5:39 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

I had an awesome Labor Day weekend! On Saturday, I studied/did school-related stuff for 8-10hrs which was exhausting but I got a lot done. On Sunday, I went with Craig to his family's annual Labor-Day-Weekend cookout in Kokomo. I normally have fun but it can be a little long because all of Craig's cousins are older with little kids; this time, his sister and brother-in-law came as well as his sister's best friend. With all of them there, we were able to play games and simply have an even better time. Then, on Monday, my parents came to Fort Wayne for a visit. Craig, my parents, and I went out for lunch, played some card games, and just had a great time. Unfortunately, the day ended way too soon and before I knew it, I had to go to school again.

Tuesday was not so fun. I felt pretty overwhelmed with all of the studying that I had to do that night and I was extremely tired because of my 8am class. Yuck. Thankfully, I was able to hang out with Craig for a while which made my day much better. I felt like a whole new person on Wednesday. I got a decent about of sleep and found out one of my tests is moved to Friday!

Well, it's Wii night with my roommate so I better get going. :)

Posted by Kim Yoder at 8:39 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

I feel like I can finally established more of a weekly schedule now that I have all of my lessons, sessions, and practicing times figured out. I am incredibly busy still but I don't feel nearly as overwhelmed. I also found out I don't need to take Choral Union which frees up one night! Now that I'm into my second week of classes, I'm seeing that this year is going to be a huge mile-marker for me for a few reasons:

1. My apartment. I enjoyed living in student housing because I didn't have to worry about paying bills on time. Now I do. Though it shouldn't be a big issue (because I'm an extremely organized person), my perspectives on money have changed since I have to hand over the money myself.

2. Music Therapy Research Methods. Music therapy research is want I am very interested in, like I mentioned before, but I never really thought about how complicated it is. There are two theories about research that are polar opposites and I think both are valid theories. This makes my mind spin and I have worn myself out trying to figure out how those theories play a part in my interest in music therapy. This, of course, will only help me mature in my music therapy identity.

3. Charis House. The music therapy club is finally going to start the volunteer work we have been trying to plan for at least two years. Last night, my friend and I went to the facility to see what kind of space we had to work with and who we would be with. If you don't know about the Charis House, it's basically a house for women and children to go when they have nowhere else to go (we will be focusing on the children). I won't go into details about it but Bethany and I walked away with a ton of excitement. There are a ton of ways we can help the kids out and the staff at Charis House is extremely thankful and excited we want to work with them (Melissa, our contact, is actually an IPFW student majoring in Social Sciences; she is taking Intro to Music Therapy this year!). Not only will we be able to help the kids, it will help us as music therapists, the therapy program, and us as individuals. We will have the opportunity to use music activities in a more relaxed atmosphere (without a therapy supervisor grading us), help the program make more connections in the community, and help us as individuals by giving us the experience of volunteering. It's really exciting!

Well, I should get back to studying!

Posted by Kim Yoder at 12:29 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)