LONGWOOD, Fla. — There is no place Band Director Kerry Waldo would rather be than in her classroom. As a child, she was reluctant to try something new in school, but ever since she stepped out of her comfort zone, she hasn’t missed a beat. 

Spectrum News 13 caught up with Kerry Waldo meticulously listening and guiding her student musicians at Rock Lake Middle School in Longwood to be their best. But when she was in school she says, “I thought band was for total nerds and I didn’t want to do it all. True fact. Halfway through sixth grade, I changed my mind. I went to my mom and I’m like Mom. ‘I do want to be in band.’” 

Waldo changed her tune.

She played in college and then, “I ended up teaching some private lessons to a few middle school students and just fell in love with that age group in particular and winded up just loving teaching and I knew I had chosen the right path for me.”

Waldo hopes band will bring as much joy for her students as it brings her. She said, “It just sort of gives them a break from academic land, so when they go to their next class they may be more refreshed. So just trying to make it a fun place for them to be — a safe space helps motivate them to continue.”

One of Waldo’s students nominated her as an A+ Teacher, describing Waldo as, “One of the most caring teachers I have ever had.”

The student said Waldo knows how to communicate with her students in a way that helps them improve.

“She motivates us with her kind words and makes every student feel special with her great sense of humor,” the student wrote. 

The nominator said, “If I am having a bad day, when I get to her class, everything gets better.”