Mx. Davis Teacher Interview

It’s been a while since we’ve done a brand new teacher interview, and today we’ve interviewed Mx. Davis, the new band teacher! Read below to learn all about their crazy journey into becoming a BASIS teacher and all their fun little quirks and experiences! The uploaded version of this interview can also be found at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HeHSaKBP-7Y

Maleah – Why did you choose to teach BASIS?

Mx. Davis – So, I heard that BASIS has really awesome students that love learning and that are excited about school. Which is something that I was really looking forward to being a teacher. I wanted to teach students who really wanted to learn. So, I was really looking forward to that aspect.

M – Ok, when did you start teaching?

D – So, I started teaching- haha- I graduated college in December of 2019, and then I started teaching in January of 2020, and then less than three months later, COVID happened so my first year of teaching was weird. So yeah, I started teaching in January 2020.

M – What school did you teach at?

D – So, during that time I was at three different elementary schools, and I was rotating between the three. So I was like two days at one school, two days at another school, and then two days at the following school and I was only there from January to May. I only saw my students for the first two months because when COVID happened my students ended up doing more academics. Electives were like, “oh you guys can meet with your students about once a month.” I was with the Cartwright school district. I was at Palm Lane Elementary, Heatherbrae, and Peralta Elementary.

M – So what made you change from an elementary to a high school?

D – Haha, well a lot of things. From going to Hot Cross Buns for months and months and months at a time, to finally teaching. I mean, I was teaching music, but it is definitely a lot more fun when you can get past Hot Cross Buns and Mary Had a Little Lamb. Yep.

M – So, do you like teaching at BASIS so far?

D – Oh yeah, I love it. It is so great, yeah, it is everything I could have imagined.

M – What is your favorite grade to teach?

D – That is a tough one. I feel like, I don’t even know if I should even answer that but being completely honest…oh gosh, I feel like I am going to upset some students. I really like teaching my eighth graders. They are a pretty fun group. I got some funky personalities in there; they are cool kids. I really like my high school band though, they are fun. I think the eighth grade is probably my favorite class of the day and it’s the last class of the day so I might be a little bit biased.

M – Why did you decide to become a teacher?

D – So, before wanting to be a teacher I actually wanted to be an ob-gyn which is a doctor who delivers babies, or I wanted to be some type of nurse that works in Pediatrics. I wanted to work with children. I knew I wanted to work with children but then I realized I didn’t want to go to college for 8-12 years of my life before starting my job, so then I decided to try to look elsewhere. My band director at the time was such a huge inspiration to me to the point where I called her Mama K. Mama K was awesome, I would go to Mama K for everything and I realized that I wanted to be like Mama K. I wanted to be that teacher that students can feel comfortable coming to and being that safe place for them outside of the home. Because there were some parts of life that were really tough for me to go through, Mama K always had that safe space where I could talk to her about anything. I knew that there was no judgment and I knew that I just wanted to do the same thing for other students.

M – Where did you go to college?

D – I went to college at McNeese State University, which is in Louisiana, specifically Lake Charles Louisiana. So if you look at Texas and then next to you is Louisiana. It’s 30 minutes into Louisiana from Texas so a lot of people say that it’s basically Texas. But then a lot of people from Louisiana get upset about that, so I’ll leave you to judge that.

M – So since you went to college in Louisiana, what made you move to Arizona?

D – Okay, so I have answered this one before and this surprises a lot of people, but my original plan was to graduate from McNeese and then move to Texas. I applied to, I mean honestly, I applied for somewhere between 30 to 50 jobs in Texas and didn’t get a single call back. So I was sitting there going “I don’t have a job” and it makes sense because I graduated in December and you know, it’s really rare to hire a teacher in the middle of the year. I think that it was just bad timing for me but luckily I did have a recruit. I went to a career fair and a recruit came out from the Cartwright Elementary School District and he was like “okay, well, we are in need of music teachers and band teachers in Arizona”. I thought about it and then I realized that maybe I didn’t want to go back to Texas. I think that was a little bit of me trying to figure out myself, and so this huge step of going across the country all by myself was scary but it was also exciting. So, I took the job, and then I just stayed out here and I loved it. And then I found BASIS and life is great…so yeah it’s going to be really hard to kick me out you know.

M – So what did you study while you were in college, was it just teaching or…?

D – So yeah, my degree is in music education from K through 12th grade but a music degree is, or I should say an instrumental music degree is pretty difficult. The degree plan is supposed to be 4 years long and each semester full-time is anywhere from 14 or 15 hours, and the max is about 24 hours. Every single semester was about 24 hours which is almost double. It’s like having two full-time jobs so it took me about five and a half years to graduate from college but I got to take some really cool classes. I took a taekwondo class in college and that was fun even though I think I barely got to a yellow belt. So I don’t know how great I actually am at taekwondo. I also took some pottery classes too, as well as my actual degree classes in music. I got to learn every single instrument which is really cool, and being band director you have to learn all the instruments so it’s fun, but yeah it’s mostly just music education.

M – What are all the instruments that you are able to play?

D – Ok, so that is what I am saying. They taught me all of them but don’t ask me to play all of them because they all don’t sound the greatest. My main instrument is the French horn, which is the swirly one that looks kind of like a snail. That’s my main instrument, and I took flute private lessons and trumpet private lessons so those would be my secondary instruments. Yeah, don’t ask me to play oboe because that’s a nightmare. It’s a nightmare.

M – What is your favorite instrument?

D – I am biased, it is the French horn, yeah.

M – Interesting choice.

D – Yeah, it is funky, you know.

M – What is your favorite song?

D – My favorite song… That is a hard question. It is hard, and I think it depends on the genre because I listen to all types of music. But I have to say, I think right now as of right now my favorite song is titled “Your Song” by Elton John

M – Why do you like that song?

D – You know, I do not know what it is about the song, but every time I listen to it, it makes me cry. Um, and it really makes me feel whole, I guess, wholesome. I got to listen to that song when the Bellagio Fountains were playing, and I think that I just think back of how pretty that was. It was just a really beautiful moment. I don’t know if you know what the Bellagio fountains are, they are in Las Vegas. It’s these fountains in front of this really fancy hotel and they have a show every hour, and they normally just play classical music with it. So I was excited to see that but then they had “Your Song” by Elton John come on, and I love Elton John, so it was really great.

M – So, where did you grow up?

D – I grew up, I would say, in a smallish town, but it is not really that small. It is a town in South Texas called Harlingen, Texas. And it is frustrating when you are on the phone with a telemarketer, and they are like, “oh you mean Arlington, Texas” and you are like “no, Harlingen Texas”. You have to enunciate the “h” more, but Harlingen Texas.

M – Do you have any siblings?

D – I do have one older sister and three older brothers.

M – Do you have any pets?

D – Ah yes! I have one cat and her name is Sophie. She is a little chunky monkey, so I am putting her on a little diet because she is a little chunky monkey. And then I have a dog whose name is Godzilla, and he has a full body mohawk, it’s pretty cool.

M – What are some of your hobbies when you are not teaching?

D – I love to go hiking, I love working out, and I play a lot of video games. I am a little nerd, just a little bit.

M – What makes you enjoy hiking?

D – Well so, growing up in Texas, there’s not really a lot of hiking around it’s all flat land. So coming out here and seeing mountains and actually having places to hike is just really exciting for me because I’m not used to waking up and seeing parts of the Earth sticking up out of the ground. So yeah, and I really like the views. Sedona, I think, is my favorite place to hike right now.

M – What do you like about video games?

D – Oh okay, so I have been obsessed with Animal Crossing. I used to play Animal Crossing, the original Animal Crossing, which was on the GameCube when I was five or six. That was twenty years ago, so the animal crossing that’s out now is a whole different version than the old Animal Crossing. It’s interesting to see the differences, and it’s a little bit nostalgic because I used to spend hours as a little kid and now as an adult, I spend hours playing that game.

M – What is your favorite food?

D – Ooh okay I do not think this has changed much and I know that sounds weird, but my favorite food, it is going to sound weird: it is rice.

M – Rice?

D – Yeah, I love rice but of course, I cannot have too much because it is carbs, but I just love rice so much.

M – What about it?

D – Just like the different styles that it comes in. So, there’s Spanish rice right, like Mexican rice, and then there’s white rice, and then there is Indian rice. And all different types of rice. I do not like Rice-A-Roni though no Rice-A-Roni.

M – Those are bad.

D – Yeah those are not good. But yeah, when I was about 4 or 5 years old, I used to ask my mom to get me tacos of just rice, and I would eat that every day. It was a bad addiction to rice.

M – What is your favorite part about teaching at BASIS?

D – My favorite part is making music with the students. You know I love it when we are learning a new song and then they finally get that part that was difficult, it is that little moment of accomplishment and it is the success that they feel that they have finally done it. The reward is so sweet. I love those moments the most.

M – So what are some songs that you are excited to teach your students?

D – Ah, okay so, one song that I absolutely loved to play when I was in high school was called “Esprit de Corps”. That is kind of a huge brass piece. I’m pretty excited about that because I feel my brass players are a little bit scared to play out and so I’m excited to get that one. Hopefully, I am going to buy it for our Spring Concert and try to get my brass players to play out more because they can do it. It is very powerful if you get a chance to listen to it.