Author: Ben Clapton

Daily writing prompt

What colleges have you attended?

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I’ve attended a number of different colleges, and collected a nifty collection of letters after my name. I value education, and I think it is important to always be a life-long learner. Whether that is in formal studies, or through other means, it is important to constantly be improving ourselves and what we are doing.

WAAPA@ECU

My first qualification was an Advanced Diploma of Performing Arts from WAAPA@ECU (WA Academy of Performing Arts at Edith Cowan University). Heading straight here from high school, I threw myself into my studies and performing. Here I got to study from teachers such as Jacek Slawomirski, Rebecca White, and Peter Tanfield, as well as lecturers who challenged and extended my musical knowledge.

Upon graduating, I transferred to complete a Bachelor of Music at WAAPA@ECU, which was another 18 months. When I completed that, I felt like I had enough of university, and went off to try and make it in the world. In hindsight, I should have stuck out an extra year to get a Graduate Diploma of Education, as it would have been incredibly helpful.

University of Divinity

When I was accepted to the Salvation Army Training College to become a Salvation Army Officer, the formal studies were conducted under the auspices of the then Melbourne College of Divinity. While I was there, there was significant changes underway. MCD changed from a college to a university and first became the MCD University of Divinity, and then finally the University of Divinity. The Melbourne based Salvation Army Training College also changed names, first becoming (if I remember correctly) Booth college, before being corrected to Catherine Booth College (and would later combine with Booth College from Sydney to become Eva Burrows College).

Here, I started with a Graduate Diploma of Theology, before moving onto a Master of Divinity, which was mostly completed through Whitley College, the Baptist college of divinity which was also part of the University of Divinity. The biggest part of this was a research project where I explored my own experiences of combining an Activist and Contemplative faith, with the history of The Salvation Army in the actions of the Maiden Tribune affair.

ECU School of Education

After moving back to Western Australia, I enrolled in a Master of Teaching at ECU in order to become a music teacher. Here I explored Classroom management strategies, as well as refining my musical pedagogy knowledge. I initially went in only wanting to be an instrumental teacher, but when I got into the classroom, I loved it and never wanted to leave. I graduated at the end of 2022, and walked straight into a fantastic role that while daunting, I am absolutely loving.

So there’s my colleges, and all the studies which led me to be Ben Clapton, MTeach, MDiv, GradDipTheol, BMus, ADPA. There are no plans to add in any extra letters at this stage… but who knows what the future may hold.

Daily writing prompt

What are your biggest challenges?

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The beginning of a year brings with it a sense of anticipation for the new. In Australia, as the school year lines up with the calendar year, the new year brings with it a natural sense of change. Heading into 2024, I face a number of new changes and challenges that lie ahead of me. Some of these challenges are what I would describe as demands – those that are facing me as part of my job, or family commitments. Others are desires – things that I want to achieve for my own personal benefit.

Work Challenges

In terms of my work challenges, I enter 2024 with a new position – the music department at my school is now me. I am the one in charge, and its success all lies on my decisions. Part of that is modifying and creating programs that I hope students will find engaging, challenging, and will achieve success that will make them want to select music for the next year, which will allow the program to grow. Build on existing networks to supplement growth, and then support ensembles and performances within the school. All in all, it is a big year, and I have big plans. But to achieve those big plans, it means working through my holidays. Hopefully, not too much, but still a bit.

In an attempt to secure success, I’ve started using the Momentum Planner app. When I was working as a Salvation Army Officer, I used this to achieve my strategic goals. Part of what I liked about it was that I could set yearly, quarterly, and monthly projects that would then be broken down into weekly and daily tasks. What I particularly likes was that it had the flexibility to attend to tasks that would crop up, whilst keeping you focused on your larger, long term goals. What I didn’t like was that it was paper based, which meant a lot of copying of goals down the line. However the new app has solved that issue so I can spend less time copying, and more time focused on my tasks. A little bit of time at the end of each week, month, and term – as well as some time at the beginning of this year, will hopefully set me up for a year of great development.

Family Challenges

If you know my family, you know that we have our challenges. A neurodiverse family will always have that. But 2024 presents a number of significant challenges for us. Part of that is that we’re moving into our new home – a home that we’ve built to hopefully allow us as a family to succeed. Each with our own space. I’m looking forward to moving into my new music room, which will hopefully spark a new creativity for me. But along with that is the challenge of preparing our current house, cleaning, painting, making it look presentable. Packing, decluttering, and a constant sense of living in flux until it’s all sorted. For a neurodiverse family who doesn’t cope with stress, change, and anxiety well – we’re all a little on edge. But a big push and soon we will hopefully be in for some less challenging waters.

Desire Challenges

I have in my head a lot of dreams and desires for what I would like to achieve. Away from teaching, I love performing on my violin. And so I want to continue to develop my technique so that I can hopefully create more performance opportunities. I love composing and arranging music, and I want to spend time doing that. I’ve started work on what I think will be my first Symphony. Will it ever be performed? I don’t know. But part of the joy of composing for me is enjoying writing and exploring textures and timbres that I enjoy listening to. I’m sure that if I had a deadline on it for when it needed to be ready, my approach would change, but for now I enjoy pottering on it when I feel the desire.

But one of my constant challenges is how to balance the work demands, family demands and the demands of my personal desires. How to achieve all of this without letting one drop, or going crazy. This is where I hope that Momentum App will be able to help me keep on track of the demands and help me work towards a successful 2024.