The CES Way

I just moved a step closer to a lifelong dream.
You know how when you were a kid you used to talk about what you wanted to be when you grew up? Everyday you'd hear about some new job and then make a formal announcement to your mom that THAT was what you were going to be. Those declarations would sound something like this,
"When I grow up, I want to be a fire fighter!"
"When I grow up, I want to be an astronaut!"
"When I grow up, I want to be a caterpillar!"
"When I grow up, I want to be the U.S. Ambassador to Portugal!"
Well, for me, I always wanted to be a Seminary teacher. Even before I was a Seminary student. I remember when I decided that that was what I wanted to do, I thought that I needed to be versed in all the LDS classics: hallmark General Conference addresses, books by prophets and members of the Twelve, the Missionary Gospel Library, etc., and, of course, the scriptures. I went on my mission, came home and started college, got married, and got in to the Seminary Teacher Training Program last January.
The way CES hires teachers is very rigorous. First, whether at an institute or at a BYU campus, you have to take a class that anyone is welcome to take called, Intro to Teaching Seminary. In this class you learn all about the objectives and basic teaching philosophies of the church, and it is a great class for anyone who wants to become a better gospel teacher in general.
In order to move on to the next step, you have to be selected. Once chosen, you take a class called, Methods of Teaching Seminary. This is where you learn pedagogy and how to deal with an actual classroom full of teenagers. On top of regular homework and reading assignments, for ten days straight you teach a real class where you are observed and evaluated by CES trainers and the students.
The step after the methods class is a full semester of student teaching. However, in order to move on to the student teaching portion, you have to be selected. This time, only a few are chosen. Those few go on to student teach for up to three semesters. After each semester there is a big 'ole CES cut, and then, finally, you are either hired or not. Only a very small number of people are hired each year. To make things even more difficult, if you aren't selected you can't go through the program and try again.
The last few weeks have been full of stress and anxiety. I just finished the Methods class and have been waiting to be contacted by CES to find out if I get to move on or if I'm done. My trainer told the class that if you get a phone call it will be good news; if you get a letter, you know it's the bad news. This morning at about 11:00, I got a phone call! Starting in January, I will be teaching two seminary classes at Lehi High School.














For those who are interested, yes, both Doc and I are moving on.

Long time, no blog

I hope that you'll forgive my brief hiatus from the blog world. I got really busy with work and school. You see, I've always wanted to become a Seminary teacher in the Church Education System. As part of a two-year training course at BYU, I spent two weeks being observed and evaluated by CES employees and students while I taught a Seminary class in Payson, Utah. Now, I'm just waiting around to hear from the CES teacher trainers whether I get to move forward to a full semester of student teaching, or if this is the end of my religious educator road. Hmm, a lifetime of hopes and dreams rest solely on my two-week performance. Talk about pressure.
Along with the whole Seminary thing, I've been busy trying to make sure that my GPA goes up, not the alternative. In any given day I can be studying Shakespeare, Hitchcock, the music of Bali, business Japanese, the Haydn Trumpet Concerto, and/or the church's position on whether or not a person can progress from one kingdom of glory to another. Not bad, eh?
I had some fun opportunities over the last few weeks to see some of my music heroes. Thanks to a generous gift from a loved one, Ai and I went and saw Billy Joel perform in Salt Lake City last month. He's a little less mobile than he was ten or twenty years ago, and he's got more salt than pepper in his beard, but has the same ability to create energy. It was so fun to see the man who made me want to be a musician.
The other music hero that I got to meet is a trumpet player from L.A. named Wayne Bergeron. He's played lead trumpet for just about every major movie since 1992. Don't believe me? Check out his website: www.waynebergeron.com and see for yourself. He put on a couple of great clinics at The Music School, where I teach trumpet. He was so nice and down-to-earth.
Well, Christmas seems to go by so fast with each passing year. It's hard being in school and not able to really focus on the season. At least I get to celebrate it with my boy again this year. He can even say "Santa" now!
I hope to spend some more time on my little cyber-journal over the course of the month. Stay posted!

The Greatest Christmas Gift List Ever

As I'm sure you are, I am in the very difficult and frustrating process of decided what to get everybody on my Christmas gift list. I have been surprised at the kind of stuff that is for sale out there. I'm going to show you some of the things that I've come across.

First of all, what better way to show the Christmas spirit than with tattoo sleeves. You can spend all of the 25th of December impressing your friends, parents and grandparents with your "arm art."

This is a good one: a Psycho shower curtain. It's a shower curtain with a silhouette of someone holding a knife about to spill your blood down the drain. Season's greetings!

The next product is one that I wish I would have thought of first. Perhaps your loved one would like to put something weird in his or her mouth this Christmas. If that is the case, look no further. Get them a watermelon-flavored lollipop in the shape of Sigmund Freud's head. www.mcphee.com/items/11771.html

In my search for religious-centered gifts, I came across a work of art. It's a bowling set with wooden pins representing the 10 plagues of Egypt. Some of the plagues are a little hard to figure out, because, as any artist will tell you, it's not easy to represent plagues, especially lice and boils, in the bowling-pin medium. Nevertheless, in my opinion, this may be the best plague-themed bowling game on the market. www.jewishsource.com/itemdy00.asp?T1=311009

Well, I'd better get back to work. I hope that this was helpful to you in a very personal way.

What a Wonderful World - Louis Armstrong

I just had to put Satchmo on. Whenever you're having a bad day, let him remind you what what a wonderful world we're in.

Things I'm Grateful For

I am compiling a list of some things that I am grateful for in my life. I'll just add a few things at a time in no particular order, so check back often. By no means does this list exhaust the things for which I am thankful, but by counting my many blessings and trying to name them one by one I am sure that I will be surprised at what the Lord has done. I think I read that somewhere.

-my favorite wife, Ai.
-my children (I love being able to say that in plural form)
-my family in Sandy and in 堺
-the good Doctor
-the trumpet
-those little cherries in cans of mixed fruit
-my mission to Tokyo
-Family Home Evening
-disposable diapers
-not having a car payment
-parents who love the Lord
-electronic Japanese dictionary
-Billy Joel (well, more his music)
-chunky peanut butter
-Jackson Pollack's "Autumn Rhythm" and "Lavender Mist"
-Reese's Peanut Butter Cups
-the Dallas Cowboys
-Transformers
-the epidural
-the "you have to win by 2" rule
-Louis Armstrong (him and his music)
-the iPod
-never-ending hot water
-Mormon Pioneers
-Ai's parents, also pioneers, who had the courage to join the church
-3 brothers
-Dominoes Pizza
-WCW vs. NWO Revenge, the only video I ever got good at
-second helpings

Pictures from Bridal Veil Falls

Here's a few pictures from our afternoon at Bridal Veil Falls and the Provo River.

The boy and I just took a quick look upclose. The prenant mommy decided not to risk following and took the pictures.
















We even forged the mighty river!
















Once on safer ground, Mommy stepped in for this beauty! Two perfect faces against a serene Autumn backdrop.

The Youth of Zion

For those of you with children, siblings, nieces or nephews, grandchildren, friends who are teenagers, or are a teenager yourself, perhaps you can understand what I mean...
I have been teaching the trumpet since April of 2005, shortly after I got home from my mission. My studio started with just two students and has since grown to have over two dozen high school, junior high, and elementary school-aged kids at any given time. The youngest kid that I have taught had just turned four when he came to me, and the oldest was a fifty-year old man who wanted to learn how to play the bugle he had purchased from the D.I.
Most of my students, however, range from twelve to sixteen and usually are involved in their school band. I've noticed something from getting to know a whole bunch of teenagers that has changed the way I teach and the way I look at their age group. It seems to me that these kids go through much more than I ever did when I was in school. Some of them, I'm talking high school and junior high kids, on top of what I consider an impossible work load in their classes, are involved in very rigorous band programs that keep them at school rehearsing until late in the evening for musicals, marching band competitions, and other performances. When I was in middle school my biggest challenge was to make sure that I had all of Star Wars and Monty Python and the Holy Grail memorized so I could keep up with my peers in the necessary "lunch room literature" of the time. For me, and I assume for my classmates, band was viewed as an escape from school and a fun way to spend a period. Preparing for concerts at Mt. Jordan Middle School was stress-free and always exciting. But several of the trumpet students that I teach dread going to band as much as geometry, and worse, they dread their band teacher as much as their geometry or life science teacher.
As sad as I think it is for these guys to not enjoy going to band, and as tough as it sounds like their schooling is, their life struggles go way beyond what I ever had to go through. Let me just list of few of the problems that students have talked to me about:

fear of violent siblings
parent has died
haven't seen father in five years, probably will never see him again
single mom on the verge of bankruptcy
sibling with disease
only friends at school pick on, make fun of and tease mercilessly
dyslexia
ADD/ADHD
depression

I wish I could say that the students who have the gospel in their lives are immune from these problems, but most of my kids and their families are faithful and active members of the church. Some of the problems in life can't be solved by the restored gospel. Nobody gets a pain-free or struggle-free card when baptized or together with a temple recommend.
As difficult as it is to watch these young kids struggle and fight and, in some cases, get beat up spiritually, I am so impressed by the strength and ability of youth to deal with these situations. Though clearly disturbed and confused at times at what they are called to go through and what they cause themselves to go through, they nevertheless find humor and satisfaction and fun and meaning in their lives. I do everything I can to provide a safe place to come and to show them the joy that comes from living the gospel and pray that they'll be able to hold it together until they can say they are converted to the restored church. But, in reality, I am energized and strengthened by their faith and the way they make choosing to obey the commandments the only option.
I don't think that they will be better apt to deal with the stuff that is coming to them in the near future simply by being able to play the trumpet or read music or know what key the Haydn Trumpet Concerto is in. I do hope, though, that the thirty minutes they spend with me each week will be a time they can grow without worrying about those troubles that they have to deal with all day, every day.