Week 12 at CME

On Monday Billy and I helped Clara pack and post some instruments we had sold on eBay which was interesting as it was the first time I had ever sent something through the post office. Billy and I then spent the day doing random admin tasks like, adding loads of people to the CME contacts database.

I spent Tuesday morning clearing up the hallway to CME after the yard sale we had on Sunday. Then we observed and helped with the Foundation Learning group. After lunch Billy and I spent the rest of the day shredding paper, which needs to be done regularly for data protection purposes.

Wednesday came and I didn’t realise how much shredding actually had to be done, I spent all day shredding paper.

On Thursday Billy and I observed and helped out with the Foundation Learning and then we spent the afternoon writing our blogs.

Sunday I found very interesting. I went to a junk workshop which was accompanied by loads of other groups and companies. There was dance groups and beat boxers and even the Army where there with a paintball firing range. It was an interesting day for me as I was left to tend CME’s electrical equipment while Carl and Jo (CME tutors) run the junk workshop. That was good as I felt like I was in charge of the electrical corner and felt like part of the team, even if I wasn’t with the rest of CME.

Week 11 at CME

Billy, Jean and I went to a workshop at CNS school for a Short Breaks workshop for children with complex needs. I thought the day went really well because the participants took interest in every aspect of the day. All the music went down really well and all Jean’s arts and crafts and animation went fairly well aswell. We spent time after lunch outside playing football and some chasing games till it got too hot. We went inside after and finished with a nice cool down session.

On Wednesday Billy and I helped Paul and Jo (CME tutors) with a rock school workshop that was held at CME. This was the first rock school workshop I had attended and it was really fun. I was really impressed with how the participants aged  7 – 12 in a group of about eight came together and managed to make a song in just three hours. I was very impressed with the participants' skills with their instruments which most of them brought with them. The day went really wel,l no one had any arguments which I expected as there will always be one guitarist that thinks he is god but there wasn’t. They worked very well as a team and in the end they put on a little performance for the parents.

On Friday Billy and I went to another rock school to help out Carl and Jo and the age group was 12 – 18. There were also about eight participants there who all brought their own instruments. This workshop was help at Access to Music. We split them up into two groups and they went into a room each to make up a song. I was incredibly impressed with the songs they had made in such a short amount of time, especially the group of three, they worked so well together and made a really good song as an outcome. At the end of the day they had a little performance for the parents which went down really well.

The tenth week at CME

Tuesday was fun, Billy and I spent most of the day practising our acoustic set for the yard sale on Sunday. We had a meeting with Mark Howe, CME Service Delivery Manager, and he was telling us about upcoming workshops. Rock school was one of the workshops he mentioned and I'm really looking forward to going to it and seeing what it’s like. I haven’t yet been to a workshop that’s focusing on a specific type of music yet.

Billy and I spent all day on Wednesday catching up on blogs and trying to get further with our contacts data base, which is proving to be a long and really drawn out activity. Although at the same time it’s constantly helping me improve my phone skills and confidence.

On Thursday Billy and I spent all morning helping Paul and observing the Foundation Learning which was fun as I feel I'm starting to connect with the participants and we seem to get work done and have an awesome time whilst doing it.

Friday again, Billy and I spent pretty much all day doing random bits of admin and the contacts data base that we needed to catch up on and generally helping anyone out that needed help.

Week 8 at CME

This week was interesting for me, on Monday Billy and I started the day of with a little bit of admin based stuff then Clara asked me and Billy to design a poster for one of the courses we are promoting called Rock School. This was fun a quite challenging as we were not used to the computer programmes we used to make the poster but when we had finished Clara, (CME events and marketing)  was quite pleased with our work. After this Billy and I started to finish more of our song of.

Tuesday was quite a fun day, Billy and I had to deliver loads of the posters we had made the day before. We walked all over Norwich on a lovely day handing out leaflets and putting them in shop windows and we spent most of the day doing this.

Wednesday was really cool on my part as Billy and I had to write a press release and this was the first time either of us had ever done it and had no clue what to do, so Clara helped us then left us to write this press release, this was hard as we had to put so much information in such a small piece of writing.

I enjoyed Thursday quite a lot, we started of by doing the usual admin then Billy and I spent about 3 hours working on an acoustic set for our yard sale. Which I'm looking forward to as it will be difficult for me because im not sure how many songs Billy and I will be able to play together. At the end of the day Billy and I spent about an hour loading up a van with loads of scrap metal from our old building.

Friday was a very quiet day, there was only Billy, Liz and me here the whole day and after we had finished our general admin we had a few cleaning tasks to do from Liz. We trimmed a hedge back and tidied around the building. After lunch Billy and I spent the rest of the day practising our acoustic set.

The seventh week at CME

I’ve really enjoyed this week. On Tuesday we finished some observation write ups and general admin but after that the Learning Foundation group came in and we watched a film with them called Spinal Tap which was really good. After we watched it we discussed the film and took part in a question and answer session.

On Wednesday Mark (CME service delivery manager) asked us to make our own activities for workshops which im finding difficult at the moment because I can’t think of any new ideas that haven’t already been done. We also had to compose another song for an age group of our choice. Billy and I have chosen to go with a scary sounding jungle song which is turning out to be pretty good but we are uncertain of which age group to aim it towards as of yet.

Thursday was good, we started to get some lyrics for our song done and then we had a meeting with Paul Weston at Access To Music. We started off by getting a tour of the building from the staff then Billy and I showed them around CME. After that we all had a chat about how we are getting on, our weaknesses and strengths and some training we needed. I came away with free piano lessons and some training on special needs and mental illness.

Then on Friday Billy and I spent the whole day adding more to our song and I’m excited to see what the finished product will sound like.

The sixth week at CME

This week we helped clear out CME's old building on King Street.

We loaded up the vans, broke down tables and spent a while peeling tape of the floor and Blue Tack off the walls. It was probably the hardest week I’ve had to do here physically which is no bother as I'm used to manual labour, I was happy to get it done and move on to the next exciting  task we get set.

This is the great thing about CME though, there will always be something different to do, which is one of the things I'm enjoying at the moment, the variety of things that go on at CME.

The Fifth Week At CME

On Tuesday I went to a Short Breaks workshop for children with disabilties in Attleborough. It was almost the same group as before so it was easy for me to join in again and I felt like I had some sort of interesting vibe about me because all the kids were more interested and found it easier to engage with me.

We started off with the usual hello song and dance and some musical activities, then, after lunch we set up a crash mat assault course and a human bowling area on which I was the guy getting knocked over most of the time! After the kids got bored of that we finished the day with a goodbye song and dance.

On Thursday I went to a Short Breaks workshop in Great Yarmouth and I wasn’t the least experienced there! I felt like I had an advantage over someone, ha-ha. I started off by setting up the touch pads which was a little difficult as it was my first time. Then we set the rest of the equipment up. There was a separate room filled with loads of arts and crafts and animations which really interested a couple of the kids. After lunch we went outside and enjoyed the sunshine for a bit and the kids had an awesome time running around. After that we had a massive cool down period, listening to classical music while making animations with play dough.