So, it is true, I have not been writing much lately.  Obviously, a whole bunch has been going on, but I will try to sum up some of the big events in the past weeks…

On Honor’s Day I presented my paper on North Central College Theatre History.  Also, this paper was accepted into the College archives and is actually available for viewing online!  http://library.noctrl.edu/archives/InclusiveTheatre.pdf

A week or so after that, underclassmen RA’s held a “Roast” of graduating senior RA’s.  After working in ResLife, it was fun to have my residents and hall director poke some fun at me (well as fun as it can be…).

Along with this comes all sorts of “lasts.”  Just like graduating high school, I had my last choir concert, my last showchoir performance, my last pancake breakfast, my last classes, my last finals, etc…  People have  been asking what it feels like to be done.  It doesn’t feel that different right now.  I am sure that will all change when I am not packing to come back in the fall.  That will, surely, be strange.

Though I am looking for a teaching job, I will not have the “first day of school” feel anymore.  After have sixteen years of first days of class, it will be interesting to not have have that feeling anymore.  Life is definitely going to change.

People have also been asking what I am going to miss the most.  I really cannot pinpoint what that will be.  I will miss the vibe on campus.  I will miss the community and relationships of North Central College.  I will miss having people around all time.  I will miss not knowing the majority of people walking down the street. These are just a few of the things that I will miss about this place.

North Central has been a great home for me, and I truly will miss it…

It has taken WAY to long to get a update!  My apologies!

Things have been coming at me too fast lately.  Only 7 weeks until graduation and that is a bit terrifying, yet exhilarating…

Anyway, choir tour was a blast!  We went down to Kentucky, Georgia, Florida, then back up through Georgia and Tennessee.  It was a 10 day tour revolving around a big coach bus…  The whole experience is fun, but I can do without being a in one of those buses for a while!

Steak and Shake on the first stop!

The beach

Singing in Nashville

The paper I wrote for my capstone class (about theatre at NCC) was accepted to be published in the College archives!  Every year the archives will publish a paper that uses the College archives in some way.  This year competition was pretty stiff as several people used the archives to write capstone papers with the 150th of the College just around the corner.  This paper will also be presented at the Rall Symposium along with 2 other people who have done work on the past 50 years of the college.  The Rall Symposium takes place on honors day and is a forum for students to showcase their original research done at NCC!

Also, as I have talked about several times, I passed my final teacher test!  I took the Assessment of Professional Teaching in February and recently received the results!  I, indeed, did pass and now have to apply for my certificate when I finish my courses!

The Hawks are up 1-0 over the Flames in the first series of the playoffs and the Fire have recorded a record of 2-0-2!  Not too bad!

Also, new showchoir costumes:

So, I am on duty tonight (it is a Saturday).  Though it is pretty boring, I have time to write!

Things have been pretty standard around here.  Lots of work and busy times.  Company opened last night, so I have been working on that show.  I was the “Master Electician” meaning I worked a lot with the light.  It was most definitely a learning experience as I have never worked with stage lights before!  The show is directed solely be seniors, so it has been really cool to see what they put together!   (I chose not to work on the producation staff for the show due to time constraints and other interests–like the capstone…) So that is a great piece of theatre they put together!

For Blue Key we are doing all sorts of new stuff!  I am working on a committee to bring back and emerging leadership series.  The actual name is up in the air, but it should be pretty cool.  The program will be focused on getting underclassmen involved in leadership and working with their peers.  It should be pretty cool!

Springbreak is just around the corner and that means choir tour!  We are going down to Florida this year, so that should be really fun!  Last tour was to Washignton D.C. and was a blast!  I look forward to the same this year…

The big research project is coming together nicely.  The paper at this point is about 28 pages, so it has been a pretty large undertaking.  Overall, it has been a quality experience!

Also, today I took my last teacher training test (there are 3 test–Basic Skills, Content and Assessment of Professional Teaching).  I should get results in a couple months…

20 days till the Chicago Fire season opener…

So, I will be honest.  I have been busy in my college career, but I do not think I have been this busy in a LONG time.  On a positive note, I have remembered to eat!

Between my  job hunt, 400 level classes, student organizations and working, things have been a touch crazy.  Most of my days have been filled up from either 8 or 9 am to….question mark…  That question mark is typically not before midnight or 1…

Things to look forward to are choir tour, a successful blackhawks team and opening day coming up for the Chicago Fire!

I can hardly believe that it has been five weeks since the start of this term. Student Teaching seems like an eternity ago…I still want to go back. With that not being an option, I have made the best of my situation on campus.

One of my most taxing courses this term is my Capstone. Essentially, it is the student studying the history of history (called historiography) and writing major research paper including primary sources. That is hopefully the most boring part of this blog…

My research has been taking the history of North Central Theatre over the past 50 years and putting it into the context of theatrical training at the collegiate level general. I have explored all of the course catalogues since 1956 to trace the growth of the department from its roots. At that point, there were only 3 classes offered for theatre and they were all part of the Speech Communication major. Now, theatre is a self contained major with various tracks and specializations with in each track under the major. The growth of the classes is staggering as well as the facilities on campus. As a small liberal arts college it is unbelievable for us to maintain five different performance spaces each specialized for various uses.

Beyond this capstone work, the NaperPlace RA’s and CUAB brought ThinkFast to the NCC. ThinkFast is a traveling game show that is similar, but not really, to jeopardy. My team won the first general round and I was selected to compete for $200 in cash. Alas, I was not quick enough to the buzzer on one question and I was not victorious… Either way, it was a good time!

Today was the inauguration of President Barack Obama.  I sat in Meiley-Swallow Hall with about 150 people and saw the whole ceremony unfold on a projector in the theater.  As a student of history, it was a unique feeling to know the magnitude of this day.  I had shivers running down my spine from Jimmy Carter’s introduction all the way through the Benediction.

This day will not be forgotten.  All of us will remember where we were on this day.  When asked in 10, 20, 30 years down the road, we will be taken back to that place to relive noon (eastern time) on January 20, 2009.  This is a momentous day, one for the history books…

This past weekend I spent my time at the national conference for the Blue Key Honor Society.  It is an honor society dedicated to leadership and service.  The motto is “Serving I Live.”  At North Central we have a brand new chapter, but Blue Key has been on some campuses since 1924!!

Most of the conference was looking at leadership and how to lead effectively.  Also, there was a fine speaker about the differences between effective managing and effective leading.  They tuly are two different aspects of a supervisory role!  Beyond all of that, it was fun to talk to other people from other schools and get their take on Blue Key, service and what their campus community is all about.  The North Central chapter is going to be planning some cool stuff for underclassmen in the coming year…

Now, I really do love to travel, but have so little time (and funds) to do so!  When I heard of this opportunity, I jumped at it because I could learn something AND get out of Illinois!  In Golden, the temperature was in the 50’s!  A stark difference to the negative degree weather we had up in these parts…  In all honesty, I really loved strolling around Golden.  It is a town comperable to Naperville with a WAY better mountainous view!   But really, it is a fine city and a great state!  Golden, I approve.

Mean time, I have been a bit disconnected from sports, but I just checked the tables and it looks like the Hawks are ten points behind the Red Wings in the division.

After student teaching, it is back to school for me.  I really miss the classroom and would love to be back teaching.  I knew the transition back would be tough, but I did not figure it to be this hard!  I like the work of planning lessons over the standard college work!  Either way, I only have 19 weeks left…

Over break I was doing a bunch of research on the theater program at NCC since 1956.  The whole project is to write a history of the last 50 years of the college for the 150th anniversary of the institution (the previous 100 years were already documented).

For classes this term I am taking my last eduction class, the history and philosophy of education.  I also am taking a Japanese history class and my history capstone.  The focus of the capstone is do the work of a historian, utilizing primary sources and crafting a rather large paper from those sources.

With the Fire into the off season and the Bear puttering out on their season, I have been watching alot of Blackhawks hockey!  They have been playing well, although Detroit seems to be the one team they can’t beat…

Wrapping up this term means closing out a major chapter in my life.  Over the past 13 weeks I have grown as a person and a teacher.  Everyday I went to school I learned something new about teaching and life in general.

Now, here I am on the brink of the real world as I am filling out applications for teaching positions.  Before I get there, though I still have some things to accomplish on campus.  I have 2 more terms, meaning 6 classes, 1 Professional Education Exam and that is it.  Off to the real world…

Columbus Day weekend i was lucky enough to go to the Fire game with COW (Cardinals On Wheels).  It is a club for commuters, but they were cool enough to bring be along!

At this game, the fire clinched their play-off berth with a 2-2 tie!  It was most definitely an amazing game…

Also, last Thursday’s game was pretty sweet with a 5-2 victory over New York!