“I am the band, orchestra, [and] AP Music Theory teacher. You could also call me a coach for a pep band and pit orchestra. I get to teach music and help students learn how to create and work with sound.
I get to work with students on different aspects of performing, how to perform and present yourself, how to interview or audition and teach leadership through my rehearsal process. This job is very demanding on my time. My family is my priority,
so striking a balance between my family with my kids, and the hours I put in is the biggest challenge. The result is the kids come to play in pep band with me where or [they] come sit in rehearsals every once in a while. So we make it work, but that’s probably the biggest challenge is the demand on time. I was a three-sport athlete in high school. I got to spend a lot of time outside of school involved in various things. My wrestling coach and my soccer coach were two of the mentors that I ended up writing papers about when I was learning how to teach because [of] their genuine leadership and love for students helping us beyond the classroom is what showed me how much influence a teacher could have. So, just being able to be involved outside of the classroom and the coaches and teachers that were involved. I still see those teachers and coaches today; I am still in contact with them. I grew up in Albany and went to George Fox for undergrad and grad school. I worked in Salem for five years, and I’ve been here for 13 years. [I have] a music degree with an emphasis in pre-teaching. I did the performance degree, but I never declared it. I just did all of the recital system stuff required of me. Ten years ago, I was at a reading session at WBIC in Seattle, and I had played a trumpet solo in this reading band of directors from around the Northwest, and the next conductor got up, complimented my solo, and made the joke [that] it must have been a teacher. He was my trumpet teacher in college and my teacher in grad school. Then I heard from the Clarinet section, it was his middle school director, and at that point, I realized every band director and music teacher I had from seventh grade through graduate school was in that room with me. Very few professions have all their music teachers from seventh grade. So it was a cool, special home. In my fourth year here, the league band qualified for state for the first time in many, many years. I think since becoming 5A. We ended up just celebrating our performance at state, and we were first on the schedule, and then we went home. I found out later that evening while I was sitting on the couch that we got fourth in state and it was a was a cool moment. That was unexpected, but it brought a lot of power to the program. The other moment that really sticks with it would be able to take a symphony orchestra from last year to the state. That was a big moment in our school and our program. To be able to take [an] orchestra and hang with some of the biggest and best programs around. It was really special. The big moments that I shared represented moments in competition, but it’s not the competitive part. That was just a growing moment in the program where the students recognized they were capable of more than they thought. And that’s the fun part of my job: helping students reach heights they didn’t know they could.”