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One Teacher’s Path from Professional Musician to Rocking It In the Classroom
Description
He was a professional musician who once toured with some big-name bands like Dixie Chicks, Survivor and Lynyrd Skynyrd. On this episode of the Supercast, we hear about one man’s path from the professional music stage to teaching in the classroom. Find out how Brian Anderson’s career in rock ‘n roll, led him to the classroom.
Audio Transcription
Anthony Godfrey:
Hello and welcome to the Supercast. I'm your host, Superintendent Anthony Godfrey. Join us as we go to South Jordan Middle School to visit a teacher who traded in their recording studio for a classroom.
We're here at South Jordan Middle School with Brian Anderson. Just from the looks of what's sitting around him,iIt's going to be a really interesting interview. But first, Brian, thanks for taking the time.
Brian Anderson:
You're welcome, thank you.
Anthony Godfrey:
Tell me a little bit about your teaching career before we get into all the other stuff.
Brian Anderson:
Well, I definitely have an interest in working with kids and when I came back from doing a little stunt at chiropractic school, I drove the school bus. When driving the school bus, I did some field trips, when doing the field trips I met some teachers. Well, when I met the teachers and I met the students, it just started filling my heart, that I wanted to kind of be a teacher and represent that somewhere. So I started subbing. I started subbing with the Jordan School District and after subbing for four years or so, I looked into getting into the program through, at that time it was ARL, it’s changed a couple of times. I found a charter school that allowed me to teach a few classes there at AISU. I taught audio production, songwriting, photography, film, and a few things like that. They went out of business, so I went back to driving some more bus and, I don't know, this is just a fluke, I went in to check on some insurance stuff at the district and my heart just said, go talk to somebody, see if there's any openings right now with teaching here. I asked if I could speak to someone who was over hiring and they said, yeah, go talk to this person. And the person that they sent me to was actually the wrong person, but that person knew Nicole and said, I think she's looking for someone who might fit your background, cause I have a digital media background.
Anthony Godfrey:
So the wrong person became the right person.
Brian Anderson:
That’s pretty much what happened. She called her on the phone and said, I've got this guy.” She said “Have him send an application, I'll interview him tomorrow.” She interviewed me. It worked out and here I am teaching here at SoJo Middle School.
Anthony Godfrey:
How long have you been at SoJo now?
Brian Anderson:
So this is my first year.
Anthony Godfrey:
Wow! Great. So this is a recent journey?
Brian Anderson:
I came right about October in the middle of that pandemic thing and took over for someone who had an opportunity to teach somewhere else. I picked it up from there and had a lot of great help with my coworkers. Shout out to them, they're amazing. Everybody here has just been really helpful and great.
Anthony Godfrey:
Tell me about the music because that's the focus of why we're here is to learn a little bit more about that aspect of your career as well.
Brian Anderson:
Yeah, well, I wrote songs and did little things in my bedroom, but I didn't realize what I was doing, it was just for fun.
Anthony Godfrey:
At what point in your life did you start doing this?
Brian Anderson:
I did that like at 10 years old, 12 years old. I'd play drums with ice cream buckets and we couldn't afford that stuff. I just did stuff that I don't know, MTV influenced me a lot. MTV then was a lot of the eighties acts. So if you remember the eighties much, they a