Crimson and Gold Connection; Carol Hoyt

Welcome to Crimson & Gold Connection, my name is Dustin Tribeur, and today's guest is Carol Hoyt, who recently won the Southeast Kansas Music Teacher of the Year award. Carol earned a bachelor's degree from Wichita State University, a master's degree from Pittsburgh State University, and is working towards a doctorate through the University of Oklahoma. She's a former music teacher here at Pittsburgh State University. In 2004, she began teaching for Parsons USD 503, where she is currently teaching music at Lincoln and Garfield Elementary Schools, and she teaches Spanish at Parsons Middle School, so Carol, welcome. Thank you, thanks for having me. You're kind of the jack of all trades, got hats and all types of things, and you've been teaching for 30 years, is that correct? Yes. And that's a major accomplishments there, and congratulations on this winning the Southeast Kansas Music Teacher of the Year award. That's awesome. Thank you so much, and this puts me in the running for the State Award, which will be announced in February. Well, good look with that. We hope you can bring that home too. Now do they give you a trophy or a plaque or something like that? Certificate. A certificate? Nothing, nothing nicer gold or anything like that, but that's still nice, nice certificate. Well, tell us a little bit about yourself, and one inspired you to become

a teacher in the first place. I think I always wanted to be a teacher from the time I was in second grade. That was, I wanted to be a piano teacher. Okay. When did you start playing piano? I started when I was seven. Seven years old. And did you have a teacher or anybody that played piano that inspired you to do this? I think my mother probably inspired me. She was a musician and and piano isn't the only thing you actually teach more than just pianos, that correct? Yes. I started teaching in Kansas City in 1978, and I play violin and viola. I taught strings for four years. And then my husband got a job in Pittsburgh and we moved to Pittsburgh. And I was a graduate assistant here from 1982 to 1985. And then in 1990, I had a halftime position here at the university. I taught piano, piano pedagogy, class piano, and children's music. And then I did halftime in the public schools, and I taught orchestra. Oh, wonderful.

Very 6-3-12. Oh, great. And now you've moved on to Parsons where you're teaching elementary. Yes. And I know you teach several different classes there. So what do you teach in Parsons? I teach K-33, elementary music. And then I teach seventh and eighth grade Spanish at the middle school. Okay. Is it all more vocal or do you teach band also? Just vocal. And I've also read that on the side, not only in elementary school at Parsons, but you actually teach on the side, different instruments. Yeah, I have about 12 private students, most of them are piano, but I also do some some strings. And I play for the last 18 years, I've played the organ at two churches in Parsons. So your first Christian church and the first Presbyterian church? So you're very busy. Yes. No, do you ever bring any of your students with you to play at church? Yes, I do. Especially in the summertime when the choir is not performing.

Can you tell us more about your time at Pittsburgh State? Being an alumni and being a teacher here. Well, I played in the orchestra here when I was here. And I taught here from 1990 until 2004. Going back to the teacher of the year award, did you enter yourself or you entered, did you know anything about it? I knew absolutely nothing about it. In fact, they awarded, they gave me the award at an assembly, at an old school assembly. And I even asked in the office, I said, since I don't have a class during this time, do I need to go to the assembly? So you must say entirely. They said, yes, you do. Everybody needs to be there. So it was, it was a total surprise to me. And you're nominated by colleagues. And I have no idea who nominated me. Some of the criteria that they look at, you have to have at least 10 years of teaching experience. And they look at community involvement, dedication to the profession,

and improvement and or stability of the program. And obviously you had all of that, and you were able to bring home that prize. And then the assembly, there's just a surprise assembly. It was all about you. And there's a lovely article in the person's son, just Google Carol Hoyton, you'll find a nice article, a nice piece about how the students, some of your students actually took part in presenting this. Is that correct? Yes, there were several high school students that talked about how they had been inspired to continue on in music. And one of them, I thought this was a great line from one of them. She is what we talk about when we talk about the master educator, a great teacher and someone who goes above and beyond what she needs to do in her teaching field, which is something that we're all looking for in great teachers. And that's awesome that you exemplify that. And I know you've touched a lot of students over the years. Is there anything else about the assembly you want to talk about? Yeah, at the assembly, the superintendent, Dr. Shelley Martin, was talking about super heroes, and she thought I needed a super hero costume. So I had a tiara and a sash. And then they gave me

this certificate. And one of my students went home and told her mother that Mrs. Hoyt got a tiara, a sash, and a ticket today. And a ticket. A ticket, a citation for this. That's cute. Do you have any words of advice for anybody who wants to be a teacher in the future, or even wants to get into music? First of all, you need to practice hard and work for excellence in your own performing. But music should be fun. That's what I try to do in the elementary schools make it fun for the kids. So what brought you to Parsons in the first place? Well, one of my principals, Laurie Ray, attends one of the churches that I play for. And they had a job opening. And she recommended me to the school board. And the district office called to see if I

wanted to interview for a job. And I told him, well, I love my job. I'm really happy where I am. And I don't think I'd want to interview at this time. When I hung up the phone, my husband said, who was that? When I told him, he said, what do you mean you're not interested? Because we lived in the out of Shay. And at the time, gas was $4 a gallon. And so I called him back. And I said, well, I've been thinking about it. And I think I would like to interview after all. So that's how I came to Parsons. And you've loved every minute of it? I have. And obviously, they've loved every minute of having use. And so many of them nominated you for this award. And obviously, they are very happy and blessed to have you. And congratulations again, Carol Hoyt, the Southeast Kansas music teacher of the year recipient. And hopefully, maybe the teacher of the year for the state. So good luck on that. Thank you. Thank you very much. Thank you for having me. This is Crimson and Gold Connection. I'm Destin Triber. Thank you very much.