All grown up

So it's official: I'm a college graduate!

I have a job.

I have an apartment.

I have...no money. Whoops

Does this mean I am a grown up?
Probably not, especially since I am going to live in the town I was born in the house I've lived in since I was two.

I am also financially dependent for a while and do not own my own cat. I still consider this a big step for me and I am so grateful for the support I received this year and for the past 22 years of my life.

I have parents (4 of them) who love me.

I have two amazing brothers and 5. Step siblings who love me.

I have a girlfriend who loves me and with whom I want to spend the rest of my life.

I know a lot of things that I didn't know when I came to college, and I still admit I don't know enough.

Maybe that's what a grown up is.

More to come.

B

Some summer plans!

Hey all!

If you follow this link, you'll find my tentative plans for the summer!
http://db.tt/12yZl2z1

Let me know your thoughts!

Love to all
Ben

My new residence!!

Here is a picture of my new house!

For family coming up to visit, I will show you it more in depth then!

A Long Awaited Update

Hello everyone!

Wow has it been a long time and a lot has happened.

Because I am in between activities right now and trying to get things ready for tomorrow for student teaching, this update will be brief. I will elaborate when I can.

Here's what's happened:

I got a job! I will be teaching Secondary Music at Hastings St. Cecilia's Catholic School!  The more descriptive title is 5-12 Instrumental Music and 9-12 Vocal Music.

The updated "Big Board"

The job updates..

So.. Here's what you've missed:

I was not offered the position at Cambridge and am pretty bummed. I was in the top 5 (as usual) and was passed over for two people with more experience (again). As said before I am pretty bummed, but I feel that another job is still out there for me. It may sound more "sunshine-and-rainbows" than I feel right now, but I have to convince myself that God has something more in store.

For the folks interested in the prospect of Grand Island: no I have not heard anything and yes I will call to check on the status.

For the folks interested in the prospect of the Colorado jobs: no I have not applied and won't this week - I am totally burned out from the interviews and application process.

My hopes now turn to St. Cecilia, the catholic school in Hastings, NE. That interview was by far the best that I have had and the administration from Cambridge offered to call the administration at St. Cecilia to speak highly of me. I hope that the call bears fruit in my favor.

There are others jobs still out there that may be right for me, but I am very discouraged and looking for some pick-me-ups. Any thoughts would be appreciated.

Job Week 2012 Cedar Rapids

Very friendly and accommodating administration at Cedar Rapids!

BUT
is it a really small school in the middle of nowhere!

really not set on it being the place for me but we will see

an offer likely to be extended today sometime or tomorrow

Job Week 2012 Part 2

Just an update on what jobs are out there:

What I've applied for:

Grand Island Senior High
Wahoo Public (rejected,Interviewed)
Ravenna Public (rejected)
Fairbury (rejected, Interviewed)
Arcadia (interview tomorrow)
Cedar Rapids (interview tomorrow)
Cambridge (interviewed today)
Garden County (interviewed Monday)
St. Cecilia Catholic Schools (int. Fri.)
Lawrence-Nelson
Sandy Creek
Oakland-Craig
Bancroft-Rosalie (interview Saturday)
Shelton (rejected, interviewed)
Holdrege (rejected)

Lots of good opportunities!
So thankful!

Job Week 2012

6 interviews in 5 Days!

the past few days have been pretty crazy!!

I have only a short amount of time to catch you up on things.

Easter break was great - really enjoyed my time with my family. I miss them a lot. I was also able to spend time with my lovely girlfriend :)

Monday started my "job week 2012"
I went to Oshkosh Nebraska for a job interview, today I went to Cambridge and tomorrow I'm going to Cedar Rapids and Arcadia.

those should be pretty interesting. they're all small schools with K-12 music openings.

as of right now I'm leaning towards Cambridge because the program seems to be fairly flexible and the administration seems to be committed to making quality music a reality!

That's all I can say for now! Goodnight
Ben

Update on life: 3/19

Wow I need to keep track of this more... Whoops. Oh well. Here is what I have been up to. GISH has been a great experience. I am in my last week here and I will be sad to leave. I have learned a lot and even been to Chicago and back with this band. What a great experience for student teaching! Nevertheless I shall move on next week to teach K-5 music at KNICKREHM with a bubbly cooperating teaching named Cheryl Russell. I have met her and seen here at various events and think that my placement will be relatively I easy yet planning heavy - a bit different than my GISH placement where planning was a little bit more laid back. My observations that have taken place have been encouraging and all reviews I have received from teaching peers have me thinking that I am going to be a pretty good teacher which is encouraging. Which brings me to my next update: THE JOB HUNT! As I may have mentioned earlier, the Fairbury job was filled by their number one choice with me being number two. I then began to search closer to Kymbre which led me to two position with particular intrigue: Holdrege and Shelton. Holdrege is a 5-12 position 54 miles from Cozad and about the same from Hastings. Shelton is about 45 from Hastings and 70 from Cozad but still about as close as I was going to get. Holdrege was filled without me being about to interview for it, but I have an interview with Shelton TOMORROW at 10 am! Wish me luck - the climate of the school feels "right" and the K-12 Instrumental position has some appeal to me because I would really enjoy being able to "grow" my own program. Other positions I have applied for are as follows: Ravenna (7-12 Vocal and Instrumental - where the Holdrege winner came from) and Arcadia (K-12 EVERYTHING). Other fun news includes the purchase of a first generation iPad that I am enjoying quite a bit! I am typing this on it as we speak :). That's all I can think of right now, so prayers for tomorrow and a good strong finish to the GISH placement! Love you all Ben

ICCA wrap up

Well my final ICCA is in the books. The recordings of our performance came out really well and yet our judges reports were completely frustrating.

Two judges thought we were average (70, 78) and one thought we were the second best group there (136).

Many comments overlapped each other and many contradicted each other. Overall it was frustrating because it was too subjective.

It's been a wonderful journey with 1-2-5 and our next project is being the host group for a barbershop convention in a week. Should be a great time!

Update 2/24

Well it's been a while. I'm currently on my way to the last a Capella competition of my college career. The drive is taking forever but its been full of memories already.

So far I have applied for 4 jobs and had an interview for one but didn't receive any offers. The job I interviewed for had me 2nd on their list.

Two that are on the most desirable as of now are: Holdrege 5-12 and Shelton K-12. They are relatively close to Hastings and Cozad and are closer to Greeley as well. I applied for those within the week and should hear back from them one way or the other soon enough.

All in all student teaching is really fun. Our concert is Monday and the students have responded well to my expectations as well as my instruction.

I had my first of 6 observations Wednesday and got a clean bill of health with some suggestions regarding conducting.

I'm going to try and get some rest, but I just wanted to update those who were following.

Until next time,
Ben

Student Teaching - review as of now

Hello again all!

Wow, what a fun last few days!  I am very tired but am very fulfilled also.

Student teaching has been really fun!  I am on my planning period right now on my 6th day.  Last week was mostly a follow week, but I also started working on my piece in the Symphonic Band (the more select group).  It is a march called "The Florentiner" and is has been a lot of fun to work with them.  The students are responding well to what I have to say on it and my "bag of trick," while still growing, has proven efficient.

Yesterday our jazz bands partook in a jazz festival that our school also hosted.  The students all helped host the visiting bands and I was in charge of orchestrating the moving of the chairs and stands for the various bands.  It ran very smoothly and logistics were cited as being a strong point of the festival in the online paper for Grand Island, The Independent

Here is the link :-)
(http://www.theindependent.com/news/local/jazzfest-a-learning-experience/article_7414fb5c-5154-11e1-bab8-001871e3ce6c.html)

Next Tuesday I'll start my work with Jazz II and focus on solos and developing a more "quintessential" jazz sound.  I am looking forward to that a lot.

My selection for the Concert band is a lyrical piece called "The Willows of Winter" and the students really like it.  I conducted it with them yesterday (I taught more than my cooperating teacher) and they sounded really good.  There are a lot of good things to work on still, but overall the students are responding to what I have to say which is really cool because that was my biggest fear.

I know that I have been hard to get a hold of lately but I assure everyone reading that I will make time to catch up with everyone.  I am running on fumes in terms of sleep (2 duty nights in 3 days) and really need to catch up on that.

Fortunately, our days are shorter this week and Thursday there is an inservice which will involve analyzing data that was collected today and will be collected tomorrow over general comprehension of musical terms, and Friday there is no school.

Thanks for putting up with me and my busy schedule.  It will pay off, I just know it!

Love to all
Ben

Meeting #2

Meet with my other cooperating teacher today. Her name is Cheryl Russell. We'll be teaching at two elementary schools from 7:45 to 2:35 every day. The schedule is really weird and too hard to explain via blog, but she seems like a quality lady. I'll do two 5th grade "graduation" music programs as a performance thing and also be slowly weened into the full time job as per normal student teaching assignments.

I'm excited to work with her! I'll get done with classes at 2:35 as mentioned so I'll get to leave GI for Band and Choir and not have to miss much. I'll also be able to have 30 min to workout, read or reflect on the days before rehearsals.

A new look..

Temporarily (for now) I have a goatee.

Taking time..

Lately I've made a commitment to spend more time to be by myself. Although as things are usually with me, I may have taken it to the extreme.

I relish the time to read, do homework, and just sit and be lazy, but I do feel lonely sometimes. Working out has given a fulfilling sense of inner-confidence, but I still need one things.

Balance.

It's hard to come by sometimes and I want nothing else than to be able to feel balanced - with my body, mind and spirit.

Keep it in your prayers, please.

Thoughts 1/16

This came to me as I was reading the Dungy book for 1/13 - I got behind a bit.

The verse is Proverbs 16:3:
"Commit your actions to the Lord, and your plans will succeed."

Dungy talks about how the goals for his team are fulfilled even if the team is 7-9 and watching the playoffs on their couches. It's a standard of success. I think I needed that centering in regards to 1-2-5.

My goal has always been to build a premiere group of men focused on the best possible sound we can produce. I haven't completely lost sight of that, but I have also redirected the mission in terms of doing well at ICCA.

Many thanks to the devotional for a wake up call before rehearsals stat back up tonight.

Thoughts 1/12

I really like my J-term class! The only problem is that we have ridiculous reading assignments. Today for example, I have approximately 250 pages to read for tomorrow.

Aside from the reading, I am learning a lot. It's depressing however, to realize how much our country oppresses us.

Late night

I enjoyed a night out at a bar with my friends.

Sinfonians, after meetings, would often go out to Murphy's and enjoy a brew or two. It was called Wednesday Night Club.

As SAI girls who were friends with us as Sinfonians began to turn 21, the transition continued as Pub Club.

It was a lot of fun to see friends that I hung out with as a freshman tonight. We have drifted apart and back together over the years, but at the end of the day (or the beginning of a new one) we still laugh together.

I hope that continues as we graduate. The only bummer was that Kymbre wasn't there. I miss her.

Goals for the year

Find a job where I feel safe, comfortable, and provided for by the Lord.
These traits will help me be passionate and reach students more effectively.

Enjoy myself.
It's my last semester. I've worked hard and finally get to show my wares. I must also relish the friendships and relationships that I've forged.

Grow spiritually.
I want to rekindle my relationship with the Lord. My dad has given me ample materials and as always, he continues to inspire me through his love for me. I hope that his love can help me better feel His love.

Get some bad-ass awards from the music department.
Slightly less serious, but it's important to me. I've worked my tail off and while I feel intrinsically rewarded, some "bling" would be nice too.

Thoughts 1-11

My dad bought me a devotional written by Tony Dungy.

Today's focus was on taking time not only for yourself but on taking time to be with God. I've certainly spent plenty of time by myself this J-term, but I need more time with Him.

It becomes more important as I embark on this new journey to not only redefine myself but also harken bak. To a time when I was more spiritually whole. I recall the time I spent at Atlas in high school and feeling fueled by God in ways I haven't felt since.

I hope that through FINALLY getting to teach - my dream for so long - that I can feel fueled by passion of teaching and thus reconnect with God.

I'm going to need faith in Him as I begin to search for jobs and put myself out there for people to evaluate.

Pray for more faith :-)

Another New Journey

So here's what you've missed:

I'm now a senior in college.  I have a girlfriend named Kymbre.  She is quite amazing.  We have been dating for two years, two months and 22 days (yeah, I'm that guy..).

I am beginning another new journey: transitioning from college to student teaching into real teaching.  In five months, I will be a college graduate.  Wow.

I don't know where to begin other than to say that things are going really well and while I am nervous for the future I am equally if not more excited! Cheers to a new year and another new journey!