Teacher’s Rock Concert 2012

By Alissa M. Gray

Teacher’s Rock was an extravaganza of appreciation all teachers worldwide. A
concert celebrating teachers and benefiting education programs. It was my first time as
a seat filler and it was an amazing experience, especially honoring the leaders that are
guiding our next generation of future leaders of America. They seated us once in the
center but then moved us to the left side. Luckily we got to stay on our seats the whole
time and not have to move again.

Garth Brooks opened up the show with a whole song with his guitar and black
country hat. He sang in one place around a bunch of children sitting Indian style
forming a circle surround him. The best part is when he made all the teachers stand up
and gave them an amazing standing ovation. He was awesome it just was too bad it was
so short.

The line-up of various celebrities recounting their educational experiences
left me reminiscing about my experience with the teachers that had inspired me the
same way. Many actors and singers came out to Honor the teachers of 2012. Carrie
Underwood shared her experience with her mother who was her teacher growing up. It
was an adorable story entailing how she was treated indifferently on purpose to no
favorites amongst the class. In the end, after Carry confessed to her mother, her teacher
that she was going to be a country singer; her mother then Syd in relief and said to her
back,"We’ll good you weren’t too good at school anyways." David Growl from the Foo
Fighters shared his experience of how grateful he was to have a teacher for a mother.
His experience was quite the opposite as his mother freaked out when he announced to
her he was going to be a rock star but it all worked out for the best. Morgan Freedman
also shared his story and his appreciate to his mother for being a wonderful teacher.
Jennifer Gardner shared that she was different then other kids in high school and would
hang out in the library during lunch and break time. She had a favorite English teacher
that believed in her and used give her writing assignments and projects in the library for
her to do. Jennifer loved all her projects, assignments and appreciated her teacher for
doing that. She said," It is those little things in life that make such big difference in a
child’s life." My favorite dedication was from Meryl Streep and her favorite teacher was
her drama teacher. She talked about how much her teacher beloved in her and would
cast her in the leading role for almost all the plays she was in, in high school. She loved
her teacher so much for making a difference in her life and inspiring her to act.

On a political note I watched through out the concert, the reform agenda being pushed
by the world famous people like Arne Duncan, President Obama, Michelle Rhee,
Wendy Kopp, the Walton Foundation, the Broad Academy, and the Gates Foundation,

Special appearances by Viola Davis from "Won't Back Down," as well as Maggie
Guillinhal, where they play a teachers and friends their self. They showed a couple of
watch clips from the award-winning movie “Won’t Back Down”.

Miranda Cosgrove, from the infamous movie School of Rock, with costar Jack Black
presented the host of the concert Walmart giving back $90,00 Walmart gift cards
back to teachers every where throughout the USA. The camera crew a second take
on Miranda because she first announced $19,000 instead or $90,000. There was a
few hecklers it was funny, something you don’t get to see on TV. I appreciate Josh
Hutcherson, Miranda Cosgrove, Pauley Perrette, Roshon Fegan and other actors
putting the spotlight on many teachers, some even got to meet the President himself,
who dedicated their life whichever means possible to make sure these kids get their
education and succeed in their life.

Pauley Perrette, NCIS introduced the band Fun. who was performing with a high school
sentential marching band. The band played out the definition of fun with a few hits one
in particular I sang my heart out to.

Everyone swooned over Country singer Dierks Bently as he sang a few amazing songs
and talked a little bit about how he married into a family of teachers. His wife and the
rest was his in laws are all teachers, and he loves them all.

The best part was Grammy-award winning singer Josh Groban stole the show with
a dash of the high school quire singing behind him. His breathtaking voice and
extraordinary piano playing concluded the concert with a heart melting performance.
I enjoyed this concert thoroughly and suggest to watch it on Friday Aug 17th, 2012 on
CBS. You might see me.