ROCK SPRINGS — Stagecoach Elementary School music teacher Weston Lamb-Costantino was recently named Sweetwater County School District (SCSD) No. 1’s Teacher of the Year.

Lamb-Costantino has been teaching for 11 years, starting his career in Green River. There he taught secondary choir and guitar for three years. He’s been in Rock Springs teaching elementary music for the past eight years. He also serves as the department chair where he advocates for quality arts in the district.

“This is a tremendous honor. I have the privilege of working in an incredible district with amazing teachers. To be honored as SW1’s teacher of the year is humbling and overwhelming. There are so many teachers that pour their heart and soul into what they do every day to help our students and I am just so very luck to get to represent them all this year,” Lamb-Costantino said.

Lamb-Costantino fell in love with music at a young age, giving him an avenue for self expression. Paired with the great teachers he had growing up, combining teaching with music seemed to be a natural path for him.

“I was never super athletic growing up even though my twin brother and older brother both were. I loved school and I had amazing teachers. Music came easy to me and it helped connect with other people and it helped my express myself. I had the best teachers growing up and I still remember my specials teachers from elementary school. I had Jill Carpenter for music, Stacy Davenport for art, Terry Pawleska for library and Tracy Giesenhagen for PE. They made Harrison Elementary in Green River the best school!” he said.

“They helped me connect my learning in ways that stuck with me. They helped create my hunger for learning. I then had great band teachers at Monroe Middle School and Green River High School with Kathy Rath, Jill Carpenter, Ellie Creek and Jarrid Washburn. They really helped me grow as a musician and helped me decide that teaching music was what I wanted to do with my life.”

My teachers always helped me understand that learning was not just mastering concepts or skills, but really a journey of self discovery.

~Weston Lamb-Costantino

Throughout the 11 years Lamb-Costantino has been teaching, he has helped his own students create their own hungers for learning and new experiences.

“My favorite thing about teaching is watching my students grow and improve. I love helping them discover new and exciting things. I love watching them feel successful and proud of themselves,” he said.

As a music teacher, Lamb-Costantino knows he has a unique opportunity to teach students not only about music but about life.

“I want my students to leave my classroom with the skills to be successful in life,” he said. “’Music is life itself’,” said Louis Armstrong. That means as the music teacher, I am the life teacher. As my students’ music teacher, I know I greatly impact their lives in phenomenal ways. Yes, I teach music literacy, music history, singing, dancing, and playing instruments, but what I really teach through those activities is life. The greatest life lesson that I could ever wish to teach my students is that success is not measured by achievement but rather it is measured by growth.”

The biggest impact I have on the culture of my classroom and of my school is in how I help all students change their lens of success.

The Average Day in Mr. Lamb’s Classroom

As a Gold Certified Whole Brain Teaching (WBT) Teacher, Lamb-Costantino focuses on “heavy academics taught in a fun and exciting way that engages students and they forget that they are at school learning,” he said.

“Students enter my room with a Fiver, in which they show me how they are currently feeling emotionally. This helps me connect with the student and understand how they are feeling so that I can check in with them if needed or keep my eyes out to help them later,” he explained.

He said students then lead themselves in a “Rules Rehearsal Review Race”, in which they pick each other to say and rehearse each of the WBT rules.

“If they are close to their record time or beat their record they roll a dice to possibly earn a Super Improver Star,” he said. One, two, and three on the dice equals a star, four and five mean no star, and six is a re-roll, he explained. “They earn stars for improving in various activities and as they earn stars they level up on the Super Improver display where they are racing to the top with and against other classes.”

The class also reviews the Magic Circle, which is how WBT teachers present information. They additionally set a goal for improvement based on their target.

Emphasis is put on getting and moving to engage their bodies and to connect to music. They read rhythms and melodies, they sing songs that have instruments, games, or daces with them, and they play melodies on instruments or sing and chant with instruments.

“We always finish with a book,” he said. “I love to share literature either about music or that is a song. I will sing a song that goes to a book or we will listen to a famous singer from past or present sing a song that accompanies a book or we will read a book about music.”

At the end of class, the students line up and check in with their goal. Lamb-Costantino rewards SI stars and sometimes does another dice roll for bonus stars.

Lamb-Costantino is now in the running for Wyoming Teacher of the Year. Each district’s teacher of the year submits a packet of information and a team at the Wyoming Department of Education will narrow those down to three candidates that will be interviewed in August.