Episode 108: Following Your Passions with Bryson Tarbot of That Music Teacher

Bryson Tarbet is a passionate advocate for inclusive music education, as well as a business owner and podcaster. He started his career as a pre-K to sixth grade general music teacher and during his tenure as an educator, Bryson spent a transformative year as part of an elementary school intervention team where he discovered his passion for working with students with disabilities. Drawing from this experience and his personal journey as a neurodiverse individual, Bryson advocates strongly for creating sensory and emotionally inclusive classrooms. Now, as the founder of That Music Teacher, LLC, Bryson channels his dedication to music education into sharing diverse perspectives on issues relevant to educators.

In this episode, Bryson and I discuss his journey, as well as his love for music education. Bryson also highlights the importance of professional development for music educators, shares insights on starting a business, and emphasizes the personal growth that comes from embracing one's unique approach to teaching and coaching.

 
 
 
 
 

Read the transcript for this episode:

Welcome to Educator Forever, where we empower teachers to innovate education. Join us each week to hear stories of teachers expanding their impacts beyond the classroom and explore ways to reimagine teaching and learning.

Bryson Tarbet is a passionate advocate for inclusive music education. He started his career as a pre-K to sixth grade general music teacher, then became a full-time instructional coach and founder of That Music Teacher LLC. During his tenure as an educator, Bryson spent a transformative year as part of an elementary school intervention team where he discovered his passion for working with students with disabilities. Drawing from this experience and his personal journey as a neurodiverse individual, Bryson advocates strongly for creating sensory and emotionally inclusive classrooms. Now, as the founder of that music teacher, LLC, Bryson channels his dedication to music education into sharing diverse perspectives on issues relevant to educators. He hosts the popular music podcast catering specifically to elementary music teachers, and spearheads the elementary music Summit, a platform for professional development and community building.

Welcome Bryson, so glad to have you here.

Bryson Tarbet

Thank you so much for having me. I can't wait to see what we can dive into today.

Lily Jones

Yay me too. So let's hear first from you about your journey as an educator.

Bryson Tarbet

Yes, I am a former elementary school music teacher, and now I am a full time instructional coach and founder of my professional development company. That music teacher I have spent, like I said, a lot of my time at the elementary level, but my big passion is inclusion and differentiation. I myself am in a neurodiverse individual, and I have a huge passion on helping teachers create places where all students are able to be successful. And we mean that when we say all, we really mean all wonderful.

Lily Jones

That's great. And tell us about, how did you decide to go from teacher to coach? And also, my next question will be about that music teacher.

Bryson Tarbet

That is a really good question. I'll be honest I'm still, you know, it was a discussion I had internally for quite a while. You know, I loved what I got to do in the classroom, but I've been running my company in the evenings and the weekends, almost in some form or another my entire career. So, you know, I I found myself just loving what I did more when I was able to work with with teachers. And I just found myself, you know, kind of getting, getting through the day so I can work on my part time job, you know. And you know. And I hated that, because, you know, I love teaching, and I, you know, quite frankly, worked really hard to get into it, but you know, it's been really nice to see now going full time, the, you know, the impact they're able to have that's just a little bit different. Because I can now, you know, work with school districts during the school day, and I can, I can do things like that that I wouldn't have been able to do when I was still teaching full time. But you know, we're still at the beginning of this journey somehow, and I'm really excited to see where we can continue to create some more impact. Wonderful. Yeah, I went to from coach or from teaching to coaching right after I left the classroom too, and it was interesting, like, I remember being so fascinated that I could actually see inside of other people's classrooms, because as a classroom teacher, it was so just in my classroom all the time, and so being able to go out there and see, like, oh, there are all these other amazing teachers doing things, and think about how I could reflect on what I had learned, was a really interesting experience. Yeah, and it's also just weird, like, I've always thought that, you know, as teachers, our co workers aren't really our co workers, because we don't really see them during the day. Our co workers are kind of the students, which is like a weird dynamic, obviously. So like, now being able to, you know, work with my team, and, like, being able to, you know, we're virtual team, but being able to communicate with them and, like, not be essentially giving a meeting the entire time has been really interesting.

Lily Jones

Yes, I think that's a great distinction. Yeah. I mean, I feel like some of my co workers, I knew well, because we would hang out outside of school, but others, it was like they were just passing in the hallway.

Bryson Tarbet

Yeah, especially if you didn't have the same lunch or, you know, related arts time, it's not gonna happen. No. It's like, do you actually work at the school? I'm not sure.

Lily Jones

So I know you mentioned starting that music teacher as you were teaching, I think, right, yeah. And so can you tell us about how it happened? Like, did you think about starting a business? Like, did you find yourself just doing it? What was the impetus for starting it?

Bryson Tarbet

The short answer is, was a complete accident, and it all kind of got away from me, and here we are. I love it. So I actually spent the majority of my first year out of undergrad out of the outside of the music classroom. So before I got my first music teaching gig, I was working as an educational assistant in the special ed world, and I absolutely loved it, and learned so much, but I missed the music classroom, so I created an Instagram account, the same Instagram account we use today at that music teacher, and I just followed like every music teacher I could find, basically just I wanted to see all the music things and kind of live vicariously through them. And then as I started teaching music, I kind of shared what I was doing. And you know, then I remember sitting at my desk one day at home, and I Instagram, came up with this brand new thing called Instagram Live, if you've ever heard of it, you know, and I hit the button, I went live. And I totally didn't mean to go live, but instead of turning it off, I just kind of started talking about my day, and kind of went with it, you know, that turned into doing a midweek check in, where I would go live every Wednesday, which turned into, you know, an interview show with people, which turned into the podcast. And it just all kept spiraling and spiraling and spiraling. But what's really cool is, you know, when I came out of the spiral, and just saw that everything was was growing. We I realized that we were creating a really good impact in the music education world. And once I kind of got that first taste of being able to create impact outside of my own classroom, I was hooked. And I am, you know, on board 100% and just thinking about the, you know, the exponential impact of in working with a teacher that has hundreds, if not 1000 some students in one year, and then to thinking about their entire career, is just really cool to see how how much impact we can have.

Lily Jones

It is. And I think so much of being a teacher, it's like you impact the kids in your class. So whether it's coaching or starting a business or helping other teachers, you're able to share that on a bigger scale. And I think teachers often don't get that chance, which is a shame, because so much amazing stuff is going on out there. So creating those pathways is awesome. And I love how you also kind of just happened upon this, you know, like you could have turned off the Instagram Live, but you decided not to, and saw where it went. And so I think often, when I talk to people thinking about starting a business or thinking about working outside of the classroom, or thinking about doing something else in education, it feels like everything has to be all planned out. But it doesn't right, like it's like it's just deciding your next best next step.

Bryson Tarbet

Yeah, I mean, there's some, there's some real stuff there. And, you know the saying fake it till you make it. You know, I, I my first couple of websites were awful. They were way, I don't know how I somehow spent so much money on a website you make yourself, you know, I definitely didn't have everything all figured out. And you know, even now that I have a team supporting me, they tend to have their stuff figured out, but I'm still, I'm still kind of making it up as I go sometimes, you know, especially when you try something new or something that really hasn't been done in the industry, and I think you have to kind of be okay with that, but like, let's be honest, that's what happens every day in the classroom. You You know, little Johnny starts, you know, acting out, and you have to make a knee jerk reaction of how you're going to respond to that, and you're likely not doing something that you had written down in your lesson plan. When Johnny throws his water, you know, like, right? You're making these things, and you're just kind of making the best with what you have in front of you. And if I think teachers can do anything, it's making the best with what we have in front of us, absolutely and like, adjust situations and figure it out. Like, I think that's the greatest way you can have confidence too. Like, we don't know what it is that we're going to come across, but having the confidence so that we can figure it out. Like, and as teachers, you're right. Like, we're always in situations being like, yeah, I didn't think I was going to be in that situation today, exactly. But we figure it out because we have to and like, that's a muscle, you know? It's a muscle that we can bring into the next things that we do. So tell us more about that. Music teacher, yeah, so elementary music teachers are likely, in the vast majority of cases, the only music teacher in their building. We refer to it lovingly, kind of as music teacher Island. And somehow, there are even a quite a few music teachers that are the only music teacher in the entire district. And the reality is is, you know, professional development is important, and districts are likely not providing it, unless you are in a very big district that has a lot of music teachers. That is actually something that's actually specific for music. And if it is music, it's likely not elementary music. That, coupled with the fact that elementary music is not something that is taught anywhere near as much as it should be in undergrad, that you know, we realize that there's such a lack of content specific professional development. And as I began to share what I was doing in the classroom, as someone who had barely graduated college, like I was just, I was just in there, you know, only my first few years, and I was just sharing what was going on, I realized that teachers everywhere, kind of like you said, are doing really amazing things. It's just sometimes that we need to take some give them an opportunity to share what's working in their classroom. Because, let's be honest, the real collaboration, the opportunities when we're able to get together as teachers, that is where the real magic happens, because that is where we're sharing the real practical things that are happening in the trenches. As much as I love research and all that, there's something to be said about just like this is working right now. Try it in your classroom and see what happens. And that kind of, what led into, you know, our virtual summit, the elementary music Summit, which is basically just our way of offering professional development to any music teacher that is not getting it from their district.

Lily Jones

That's amazing. And so needed. I mean, I think that I can imagine, I mean, I was a kindergarten and first grade teacher, and so there were often other kindergarten and first grade teachers there, right? And that was such a resource to be able to go next door and say, Hey, what are you doing today, you know, and share resources that way. And if you don't have that, I love that you're creating this opportunity for collaboration and for learning from each other. And I think there's something so valuable too, about teachers from different places, you know, getting together and sharing resources too.

Bryson Tarbet

Yeah, you know, like we said, we kind of call it that means, or we call it, you know, music teacher island. But the reality is, is, you know, we are often isolated in our buildings. And quite frankly, based on, you know, the way a lot of schools are building, we're usually, like, in the farthest away corner of anything, because, well, for good reason, probably, but like, it really can be isolating to be an arts teacher, to be, you know, not have anyone else in your team, or even, you know, in my previous position, there was another elementary music teacher in the district, but our rotations were very different, our teaching styles were very different, and we never got to see each other because of our schedules. Literally, our schedules were different. Our contract lines were different. And it just really gets to the fact, when we're able to get these professionals together, it turns into a little chaos, because we're just excited to see people that understand what we're coming you know, where we're coming from. But my favorite part of doing that is actually just everyone getting to share their bits and pieces. It's not necessarily me sharing my stuff or you even, you know, when we're doing our summits, to having with a speaker, sharing, there are things, but even just people that are coming to learn are sharing things that are working their classroom and impacting teachers virtually as well, which is just really cool to see.

Lily Jones

Yes, absolutely. And so thinking back to why you became a music teacher and your focus on music education. Can you talk about why you're so passionate about music education?

Bryson Tarbet

Yeah, you know, when I was making the decision to leave the classroom, I thought about this a lot, because I, you know, I didn't take this decision lightly. And, you know, really came down to music has always been a big, a very big, part of my life, especially within my own sensory and emotional regulation. You know, I kind of came into music from a young age, and it became very core to who I am as I as I got older, and as I, quite frankly, struggled sometimes with with my sensory processing disorder. And you know, that was really cool to be able to see that become a huge part of my life. And you know, my parents are both teachers. My grandpas are retired teachers, like when I was coming up to the decision of, really, what is, what is the next step for me, I kind of fell into it quite honestly, not that it was necessarily a bad thing. I just knew that I really enjoyed music, and I kind of wanted to take whatever that next step was. I thought really long and hard about, am I going to go the performance route or am I going to go to the education route, and eventually I landed in education. And you know, we've taken kind of a ping pong journey along the way, but here we are doing something, you know, related to music education, but not necessarily teaching music, educate music. So, you know, here we are.

Lily Jones

I love that journey. Absolutely, and I love thinking about how music was a tool for you, you know, with sensory processing, with emotional processing, with all the things. And so I love how you've reflected on that, and how it's been not. I mean, I think sometimes we think about like, oh, it's it's music, or it's art, or it's language arts or whatever, right? Like, but it has a bigger purpose for many of us, and can serve as a tool. And I know you mentioned also your focus on accessibility and inclusion. Can you talk a little bit about the overlap you see between music education and accessibility and inclusion?

Bryson Tarbet

Well, you know, we can kind of think of it from a couple of different ways. The first of all, you know, first of all is the music classroom should be for everyone. And music is an innately human thing. That's why, regardless of where we are in the world, if you have a you know, little kid, you're probably going to hear them going, nah, nah, that minor third later, no, no, no, no. It is just a naturally human part of being, of this being here, you know. And you know, the way that we express that the way that we might notate that, or things like that, that might be different. But at our core, humans are musical people. And the way that I think music education overlaps with just accessibility in general, is that music allows students to interact with the world around them in a very different way. I've seen a lot of students that have success in my classroom, that might not necessarily have success in other classrooms, or maybe students that might need a little more attention, a little bit more love, a little bit more, you know, guiding, guiding tracks in another class, but when they're in my classroom, they're able to have a different experience. And I think that, you know. There's something to be said about the sake of music, for music's sake, but kind of also what you said, music can be used as a tool. Music can be used to calm down. Music can be used to inspire to share a story. And I think that when we're able to share just the arts in general, and just the fact that there's just a different way of looking at the world than what they might be expecting. That's where it comes down to. It's just this really cool thing, and that's why my journey has been to make sure that when we say the music is the music classroom is for everyone, we really mean it, because we've done the work to make sure that they're able to be there.

Lily Jones

And that is the job of a teacher, right? Like doing the work to make it accessible to all students. And I love this the way you put it up, like opening up a whole new way of looking at things. Like that, also is the job of a teacher to show all these different possibilities and all these different ways of looking at the world, for sure. And so thinking about your journey starting that music teacher. Can you talk a little bit about what you've learned about starting a business, or what you've even learned about yourself through starting a business?

Speaker 1

I've learned so much. I thankfully what it made really part of what made leaving the classroom really hard is I left two amazing administrators. If you know, it would have been an easy decision had I had some some administrators that weren't as supportive as these two. But one thing that my my new elementary principal, she was there for the last couple years of my career. She basically said, Hey, these are parts of like your teaching evaluation that are actually really hard to fill, especially as a specialist, but because of your work doing all this stuff at that music teacher, you're able to score like, at the highest and like, it's not all about the rubric and all that, but like I've once I stopped, kind of, quite frankly, hiding what I did in my company from my district. I realized that there was so much learning happening from both. I learned so much about being a teacher by sharing how to be a teacher. And, you know, by CO, you know, working with my coaching clients, and I also obviously learned so much about how to coach teachers by being in the trenches themselves, you know. And I've learned so much about me as a neuro diverse individual. I mean, during this whole process was actually when I was diagnosed with sensory processing disorder, and it brought up, you know, thinking back a lot of times, I was like, that explains quite a bit of my experience in school. You know, I've just learned, I've also just kind of learned more about just like being and doing what I want to do and, you know, not kind of being unapologetically me. You know, I know that the way that I teach and the way that I coach is not for everyone, and I sometimes will receive emails to such a theme, but the reality is, is that's okay. And you know, like, just, you know, we're all going to have different thoughts and preferences, and if I'm not everyone's cup of tea, that's okay. But like, you know, I'm gonna be me. I'm gonna do my thing, and I'm gonna focus on creating the impact that I can.

Lily Jones

And it's really what we teach students too, right? Like, I think one of our biggest goals as teachers, often and is to help students really be unapologetically themselves and to see all the different parts of themselves and to, you know, honor the different parts of themselves. And I think as teachers or grown ups, you know, sometimes that doesn't happen. So I love that, and I love too. I think often starting a business is like saying yes to your desires, right? Like starting something that you really want to do. It's like saying yes to you. And so I often find that there's this whole personal development process that goes along with starting a business, because it's really, like, betting on yourself, and I think you beautifully put that of like, being able to focus on you and like what you've learned through the process and take that forward to help others.

Bryson Tarbet

Yeah, and you know, this is also I, I will just say, I'm always going to be a doer. I'm one of those people that I just, I gotta got the buzz, I just got to be doing something. But like, this is also the first time in my life where I'm not working multiple jobs. You know, for the majority of my career, I was working three jobs, you know, I was running my company. I was working full time. I was doing piano lessons like and being able to do what I want to do in the way I want to do it, for better or for worse, let's be honest, has been really eye opening to me, you know, especially as someone who was, was raised by educators, you know, that is the that is what I saw was as an option of what life could look like. And now I get to, quite frankly, see a whole different life that, you know, has its ups and downs, but it's like again, it's unapologetically mine,

Lily Jones

Yes, I love it, and it's like seeing all the possibilities, and we're always making choices, right? And there are always possibilities, and so it's always kind of this give and take of like, what do you want to do next? So I love that way of looking at starting a business. And I'm wondering if you have advice for other educators who might. Be listening, thinking about something they've always wanted to do, or, like, maybe a business idea or project idea they've had. What advice would you give them about getting started?

Bryson Tarbet

I'll give it kind of a two piece. The first of all is just like, don't wait for it to be perfect. Just put it out into the world here like that. That's the big one. But also, like, don't feel like you have to have all the letters after your name, and all the years of experience and and this, that and the other thing, to be able to share what's working in your classroom, or to share, you know, to be considered an expert, like, that's one thing that I really struggled with, you know, if you, if you go to my Instagram account, you scroll all the way to the bottom, like, I was never on the screen. I was very vague about my teaching experience, you know. But like, once I started owning the fact that, like, Hey, I'm in my second year of teaching. This is something I did last year that I that really didn't work, or this is something that really worked. Like, once we start realizing that you have answers that people to questions people are asking, even if you I don't have 30 some years under your teaching belt, that is where you're able to really be like, All right, cool. I'm gonna put this out into the world. I'm going to do it from a place of service, and I'm just going to keep focusing on the biggest impact that I can create.

Lily Jones

Yes, absolutely I love that. And I think it gets at a lot of the ways that we often talk ourselves out of doing things. Like we think, oh, we need to get another degree, or, oh, we need to have been teaching for 20 years, or, you know, all these things that we're kind of making up for ourselves. And so getting over them and being like, Hey, I'm going to share my experience like, that's what really matters. Whatever your experience is, even if it's your first day of teaching, you know, whatever it is, it's valid. And so I think that often we have to kind of give ourselves permission, and I love that you've followed this path forward.

Bryson Tarbet

I mean, it has been a it has been a journey, to say the least. But I am, I'm so thankful to be able to do this, and to be able to essentially be brought into music classrooms all over the world, and to be able to help support their students. That is, that's not something that is lost on me. When I when I get to work with these teachers.

Lily Jones

It's really cool and really valuable. And I love how you've created a community that goes along with it as well. And so Bryson, can you tell people where they can connect with you?

Bryson Tarbet

For sure, the best way to reach out is over on Instagram at that music teacher, again, if you scroll all the way to the bottom, you'll find some interesting things down there. But beyond that, my website is that music teacher.com and that can kind of that houses everything we have to offer.

Lily Jones

Wonderful and we'll put those all in the show notes as well. Thanks so much for coming on and sharing about your experience.

Bryson Tarbet

Thanks so much for having me.

Transcribed by https://otter.ai

Lily Jones