Teaching is hard. Getting up in front of a class and sharing information with a group of teenagers is a daunting task. What’s worse? Singing in front of them every day.  “I look at teaching in public schools as a public service. I enjoy helping others and giving back to them,” said Mr. Bizzaro, the new choir director. This mindset shows students how much they matter, leaving them with lasting memories.

To the dedicated participants in the many choirs, music is a form of expression and a way to escape the stresses of school and life. With such a great program, there must be an even greater teacher behind it.

Mr. Bizzaro has the best intentions for the program and everyone is more than happy to welcome him into the choir family. After Ms. Brown’s legacy of building the program up from nothing, we are all excited to see how much further our choir can be taken with a fresh set of ideas.

I decided to get to know a little more about Mr. Bizzaro and his plans for the program.

Annabelle: What were your first impressions of our choirs?

Mr. B: The BHS choirs are not a completely new entity to me and I’ve seen what Ms. Brown has done with the program for a few years now and learned a lot from her. I’ve seen the Belles perform before. There is a lot of pride and ownership coming from the students. I want to build upon that passion that the students have.

A: Why did a position as a choir teacher interest you and how did you get started?

Mr. B: Well, I was forced into taking choir as a kid because my entire soccer team did it, though, at the time, I wanted to be a professional quarterback for the NFL. I thought I was too cool for choir, but ended up loving it, obviously. I did choir all through middle and high school and Mr. Meyers was my favorite teacher. He truly changed my life. I either wanted to go into engineering for a career or be a music teacher, and I chose teaching.

A: What are some personal satisfactions you get from teaching?

Mr. B: I really enjoy helping and giving back to others and being a teacher gives me so many opportunities to do that. I think choir class is a great place for students to get rid of stress for a little bit in the day and just sing and have fun.

A: What are some challenges you’ve faced so far this year?

Mr. B: So far, it’s been hard to run the program on my own. At my last school, there were two teachers and secretaries. Luckily I have the choir council to help me out, but it’s still a lot to do for just one person.

A: What are your short term and long term goals for the program?

Mr. B: My short term goal would be to just keep building momentum and growing our choirs. A long term goal would be to get enough people in choir that we have to bring in another teacher. I would also love to have an accompanist every day in class, so I can focus more on the singing than piano. It would be awesome if we could get a parent volunteer group and a nonprofit going to take donations and build funds.

So far, it seems that our choir program is in good hands, and we can agree that Mr. Bizzaro is the right man for the job. He is handling the daunting task of being a high school choir teacher well and is setting the program up for years of success to come.