Perspective | Teaching and learning: Measure by measure, day by day

I’ve spent some time in music rooms lately.

Recently, I had the joy of watching the Durham Charter orchestra bring the house down at our “One Day” event in the Triangle. Y’all, they were incredible. The sound, the energy, the way they filled that room — it was so fun to start our day that way.

But what I loved most wasn’t just how good they sounded. It was watching them learn and change in the middle of the performance. Every measure, something shifted. A section locked in a little tighter. A transition got smoother. You could see them listening to each other, adjusting, getting better right in front of us. That’s the magic of music education: you can literally hear learning happening.

This isn’t an ordinary school orchestra. Led by world-renowned cellist Daniel Levin, this group of young musicians has toured Washington, D.C., performed alongside the North Carolina Symphony, amassed more than two million TikTok views, and recorded a professional album at Manifold Recording with covers spanning ABBA, Nina Simone, and the Fugees. All of that is amazing. But the heart of it is still the same: kids working really hard with a great teacher, doing something they couldn’t do before.

When I was around the same age as these students, band became an anchor for me. I started playing trombone in sixth grade and stayed with it through high school, mostly with the same band director. (Thank you Dr. Bill Bryant, Buncombe County Schools!) I didn’t grow up reading music. I didn’t grow up knowing how to blend in an ensemble. I learned it, slowly, one rehearsal at a time.

Playing trombone in my school band taught me what an excellent education actually looks like. At first, I could barely make a decent sound. But with the help of a great teacher, I kept showing up. I practiced. I listened. I failed and tried again when it didn’t sound great right away. And over time, I realized I was doing something I literally could not do before.

Band taught me discipline and what it means to be accountable to a community. You don’t get a great performance because one person is a star. You get it because everyone commits to something bigger than themselves. You show up on the days you’re tired. You work the hard parts until they stop feeling impossible. You learn to trust that the clarinets, the percussion, the low brass — all of you together — will carry the piece across the finish line.

That is what great teachers do. They don’t just deliver content. They create an experience where students are pushed, supported, and expected to grow.

We had the honor of going back to Durham Charter the very next week, right in the middle of Teacher Appreciation Week. After seeing the students shine at “One Day,” it felt important to show up in their building and say thank you.

Thank you to the teachers who are teaching fourth grade math, building the foundations that make higher-level learning possible. Thank you to the teachers who are leading middle and high school band, helping students find their leadership through music. Thank you to every educator in that building who is showing up, day after day, so that students can do things they once thought were out of reach.

During Teacher Appreciation Week, I also found myself thinking about two more of my own teachers: Mrs. Merkle in Onslow County and Mrs. Simpson in Buncombe County — teachers I had at opposite ends of my education here in North Carolina. Different places, different subjects, same through-line: both of them treated teaching like the profound act of leadership it is.

They didn’t just manage classrooms. They built communities.

Like a great band director, they knew how to bring out the best in very different “instruments” — the quiet kid in the back, the talkative one in the front, the student who hadn’t yet realized they had something important to contribute. They set a high bar and then did the daily, often invisible work to help us reach it. They made it clear that our best effort was expected, that it mattered, that we had a part to play.

At Teach For America North Carolina, I see that same spirit of leadership in the teachers and school leaders we partner with. TFA NC is proud that several alumni lead at Durham Charter, including Executive Director Alex Quigley, Chief Academic Officer Dr. Melissa Altemose, High School Assistant Principal Hayley Gearheart, College Counselor Sarah Machak, and Director of School Operations Emily Chambers. With a 35-year legacy of recruiting and developing teachers for high-need classrooms, this is what a lasting talent pipeline looks like: former classroom teachers who stay rooted in schools and communities, now leading the next generation of students and educators.

When I sit in a school auditorium today and watch students perform, I don’t just see talented kids. I see hours of patient instruction. I see a teacher who stayed late to run sectionals, who quietly repaired instruments and rewrote parts, who believed a group of young people could do something excellent together.

What we saw at “One Day,” and what we felt walking the halls of Durham Charter the week after, doesn’t happen by accident. It happens because of teachers like the ones in that building — teachers like the ones who shaped me (and you!) — who understand that their work is about more than just grades or test scores. They are building human beings, teaching students how to work really hard, how to be part of something bigger than themselves, how to keep playing even when the music is challenging.

To every teacher who is showing up, measure by measure, student by student: we appreciate you, during Teacher Appreciation Week and every week. Your work is changing lives, whether you are in the audience to see the final performance or not.