By Brenda Ortega
MEA Voice Editor

For MEA member Brian Dalton, everything he’s learned about life — and teaching middle school kids — can be summed up in a project that he’s worked on since January and will culminate in a sold-out public performance on June 2 at The Roxy Rochester.

Preparations inside his classroom at West Middle School in Rochester Community Schools look like a scene from the movie School of Rock.

As in the iconic 2003 comedy, starring Jack Black as a frustrated rocker-turned-substitute teacher, the 28-year educator has more than 30 students who’ve signed on as musicians, singers, producers and roadies for a one-show performance at the downtown Rochester venue.

Unlike the film, however, Dalton isn’t trying to one-up his former bandmates in a Battle of the Bands competition. Instead, the musical concert featuring a student-chosen song playlist will benefit pediatric cancer research through the St. Baldrick’s Foundation.

“The idea was just to see if I could get my kids to help someone other than themselves, and it took off from there,” Dalton said. “As I’ve gone through my years of teaching, for me it’s all about what is going to be most impactful, and I guarantee this is what they will remember.”

A self-taught musician, Dalton first led a much smaller group of students to put on a benefit concert last year called Melody of Hope, which raised almost $5,000 for St. Baldrick’s. He hopes Melody of Hope II will match or better the original.

“It came to me last year. I don’t know what I was thinking — maybe I was thinking of School of Rock in my head — but I said, ‘You know what? We’re going to raise money and awareness for kids with cancer.’ I said, ‘We’re going to put on a rock show.’”

Students spend lunchtime in his classroom to rehearse songs for the set, which all revolve around sustaining hope through difficult times, such as “Don’t Stop Believin’”; “Here Comes the Sun”; and “Times Like These.”

Student performers sing and play guitars, drums, violins, string bass and brass instruments. Dalton also is joined by a few teacher friends with whom he regularly performs as a group called Lessons in Rock: MEA members Brian Trudeau, Justin Carmichael and Keenan Thomason.

Kids come in, eat lunch, and “We’re rocking every day,” Dalton said, explaining some students are preparing video backdrops for the show. Others will be crew members or act as masters of ceremony. One student will read an original poem to kick off the evening.

All the while he’s teaching young people a recipe for resilience he found after losing his own mother to cancer in his eighth-grade year after a six-year battle. Hard times and failures will come, he tells his students. The question is how will you respond?

Be kind. Find a purpose. Help others. “Great things always start from something small,” he advises. “Start with you and let it spread.”

Dalton arranged music for the show and is gathering prizes for raffle drawings from area businesses. In addition, he’s promising a special prize will be revealed that night for a truly incredible student and wonderful human being.

Prize winners will be drawn at the concert for items that include an espresso machine, free bowling and car washes, gift baskets, and free use of a new Ford Bronco for one month this summer. Also individual cash donations are accepted.

Students at a recent lunchtime rehearsal said helping kids with cancer makes them feel good. Eighth graders Bridget and Maya were grateful to be able to do something to make other people’s lives better in hard times.

Bridget thanked the teachers involved. “My school is such a great environment,” she said. “Even being in this band, it’s such a family. We’re such a good, close-knit group and everyone just relies on each other. I couldn’t have asked for a better experience.”

Maya added, “I’m so happy to be here in this Melody of Hope at West Middle School. I’m so appreciative that I got to experience this, because I truly think it’s made me a better person.”

Teaching life skills such as motivation, persistence, and empathy is why Dalton works with kids — both what drew him to the profession as a young adult seeking his purpose and the reason he stays when he could retire.

Dalton shares that message with fellow educators as a part-time consultant and motivational speaker. He believes so-called “soft skills” will take on increasing importance in classrooms over the next decade as artificial intelligence assumes a larger place in society.

“Machines can’t sit in the hallway with the kid that’s going through something. AI can’t lift kids up when they’re struggling. I think the humanity of the profession is going to become front and center.”

A former endurance athlete who started competing in Ironman and triathlon competitions in his early 40s, Dalton published a book a few years ago titled “Teach4Endurance: Surviving the Swim, Bike and Run in Today’s Classroom.”

In it, he compares the school year to a triathlon with lessons learned, advice, and exercises on “training” for and surviving the “race,” including how to prepare for when things go wrong.

During his endurance career, Dalton joined competition with service — raising money and attention for charities and causes he believed in — which kept him going through long, difficult stretches of races when every part of him was hurting.

“I think chapter two in the book is about having a purpose. If you don’t know why you’re doing what you’re doing, you’re shooting at a blank target.”

It’s not surprising that Dalton knows exactly what he hopes to achieve by leading a rock band of dozens of middle-school kids. It’s not only about the amount of money raised or how much fun is had.

“When I’m talking to the kids, I tell them, ‘I love looking at the finish line, and my finish line for you is not the end of this school year. It’s years down the road, what kind of man or woman you’ve become. Hopefully something I did impacted that development.’

“I may never even know what impact I had, but that’s how I look at my job. That’s my finish line.”