{"id":20274,"date":"2014-05-23T00:25:28","date_gmt":"2014-05-23T04:25:28","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/emu.edu\/now\/news\/?p=20274"},"modified":"2014-06-13T15:56:55","modified_gmt":"2014-06-13T19:56:55","slug":"from-touring-rock-musician-to-teacher-of-the-year-in-valley-school-system","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/emu.edu\/now\/news\/2014\/from-touring-rock-musician-to-teacher-of-the-year-in-valley-school-system\/","title":{"rendered":"From touring rock musician to Teacher of the Year in Valley school system"},"content":{"rendered":"

After earning a degree in songwriting from Berklee College of Music in Boston in 2006, Harrisonburg native John Hostetter \u201911 moved to Tucson, Arizona. He spent two years playing guitar in a bluegrass band, then joined a rock band called Harlem, moved to Austin, Texas, and started to get recognized nationally.<\/p>\n

\u201cI lived [in Austin] for a summer, and a bunch of things happened all at once,\u201d Hostetter said. \u201cHarlem got signed to a record label. And right as soon as that happened I decided that the rock-and-roll lifestyle was not for me\u2026. We went all over the United States playing shows, and I said, \u2018This is not the kind of lifestyle that I can live.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

So Hostetter returned to his hometown and approached Cathy Smeltzer Erb<\/a>, chair of the undergraduate teacher education<\/a> program at Eastern Mennonite University, about gaining a degree in English<\/a> education.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen he first explored the option of pursuing the program, he didn\u2019t have either English or education as his major. So he was kind of starting over, after already having the undergrad degree,\u201d Smeltzer Erb said.\"hostetter_john_large2\"<\/a><\/p>\n

\u201cAnd what so inspired me from the very beginning, which I think speaks highly of his character,\u201d she continued, \u201cwas the way in which he interacted with peers who were several years younger, in age, and several years younger in development as teachers. He just navigated that classroom with such integrity, such interest, such grace.\u201d<\/p>\n

This spring, Hostetter was honored as one of five Teachers of the Year for the Staunton (Va.) City Schools<\/a>. His peers selected him to represent Shelburne Middle School, where he is a 6th-grade language arts teacher.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019ve been playing music since middle school,\u201d said Hostetter, whose mother, Louise ’79, was recently named chair of EMU’s 100th anniversary celebration<\/a> in 2017-18. \u201cWhen I graduated high school, I think I knew in the back of my mind that I would be a teacher eventually, but Berklee was kind of my way to prevent that from happening right away, because music was my first love.\u201d<\/p>\n

Raised in a Mennonite family and educated at Eastern Mennonite School<\/a>, Hostetter developed early on a sense of social responsibility that influenced his decision to become a teacher.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think that probably a lot of my calling has to do with my Anabaptist heritage, the whole idea of serving the community, serving others,\u201d Hostetter said.<\/p>\n

\u201cI want [my students] to develop a love for reading and a love for learning and discovery,\u201d said Hostetter, who occasionally uses his vintage \u201873 Epiphone electric guitar to incorporate music into a lesson. \u201cWhen I meet a student at the beginning of the year who doesn\u2019t necessarily like reading, or isn\u2019t very excited about language arts, if I can foster some kind of change in that disposition, I think that\u2019s incredibly rewarding \u2013 because the habits that they make in 6th grade are usually the ones that they take with them for the rest of their academic careers.\u201d<\/p>\n

Last summer, Hostetter married Staunton 4th grade teacher, Nicole Barbano Hostetter. who was also one of the five teachers recognized as Teacher of the Year for Staunton City Schools. She was chosen from the faculty of Bessie Weller Elementary School.<\/p>\n

The two met at a Staunton bakery three years ago, shortly before teacher orientation began.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe were both first-year teachers and it was definitely luck that we were in the same place at the same time,\u201d Nicole said. \u201cWe were both coming from different experiences, and I think that making the transition to teaching together was such a good experience for us to have. We really supported each other that first year and we continue to do that now.\u201d<\/p>\n

Smeltzer Erb attributes John Hostetter\u2019s success in the classroom to his deep passion for learning to teach over time, and his respect for middle-schoolers and colleagues alike.<\/p>\n

“For many students, the classroom is perhaps the only safe place in their day,\u201d Smeltzer Erb said. \u201cIt\u2019s the place where somebody like John can truly care about them as individuals.\u201d<\/p>\n

As one of just two 6th grade English teachers in Staunton, Hostetter\u2019s job connects him to the community.<\/p>\n

\u201cShelburne is wonderful because I get to know half the children who are in Staunton City schools,\u201d Hostetter said. \u201cWhen my wife and I are walking through the park, I mean, everybody knows us \u2026. And because you\u2019re teaching, and you\u2019re spending seven hours a day with these kids, you get to know the parents pretty well, and I think it does provide a service. I think that public education is an extension of the community.\u201d<\/p>\n

Hostetter hasn\u2019t abandoned music. He has \u201ctoo many\u201d guitars, a home recording studio and plays guitar in a local band named \u201cElephant Child.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019ve got my guitar in the classroom, and they think that\u2019s the coolest thing in the world,\u201d he said. \u201cAnd I try to goof around on occasion, and sometimes I\u2019ll play my guitar, and they love that. But it\u2019s not every day that I get to actually sit and sing to them.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m going to dress up like Johnny Cash here in the next couple weeks, for a history lesson.\u201d<\/p>\n

A third individual selected as Staunton Teacher of the Year, Dixon Educational Center art teacher Gina Gaines, is also an EMU alum, having taken classes in the late 1970s.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

After earning a degree in songwriting from Berklee College of Music in Boston in 2006, Harrisonburg native John Hostetter \u201911 moved to Tucson, Arizona. He spent two years playing guitar ... read more about From touring rock musician to Teacher of the Year in Valley school system<\/span><\/a><\/p>","protected":false},"author":112,"featured_media":20275,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4515,266,5583,5594,356],"tags":[6634,10602,15495,15444,17361,9564],"feature":[],"class_list":["post-20274","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-academics","category-alumni","category-campus-community","category-education","category-language-and-literature","tag-cathy-smeltzer-erb","tag-english","tag-gina-gaines","tag-louise-hostetter","tag-mennonite-churches-and-schools","tag-teaching"],"yoast_head":"\nFrom touring rock musician to Teacher of the Year in Valley school system - EMU News<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/emu.edu\/now\/news\/2014\/from-touring-rock-musician-to-teacher-of-the-year-in-valley-school-system\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"From touring rock musician to Teacher of the Year in Valley school system - EMU News\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"After earning a degree in songwriting from Berklee College of Music in Boston in 2006, Harrisonburg native John Hostetter \u201911 moved to Tucson, Arizona. 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