Voices of ZCS:
Rebecca Hampton
Pleasant View Elementary School music educator reflects on 21 years of relationships, music, and helping students find a place to shine
Some educators teach hundreds of students over the course of a career. Rebecca Hampton teaches hundreds every week.
Now in year 21 at Pleasant View Elementary School, Hampton has watched generations of students walk into her music room as kindergartners and grow through their elementary school years. Along the way, she has taught them to sing, move, play instruments, perform, and take creative risks.
But ask Hampton what matters most, and the conversation quickly becomes about much more than music.
It is about knowing children. Building relationships. Creating a place where students feel successful. Holding high expectations. And watching a child discover, sometimes unexpectedly, that this might be among the rooms where they shine.
In this Voices of ZCS conversation, Hampton shares about the joy of growing alongside students and families, the community support that has transformed opportunities in her classroom, and why one simple sentiment from parents remains among the greatest honors she can receive.
Watch ZCS Superintendent Dr. Rebecca Coffman's conversation with Pleasant View Elementary music educator Rebecca Hampton.
Pleasant View Elementary School Music Educator Rebecca Hampton sits down with ZCS Superintendent Dr. Rebecca Coffman in this Voices of ZCS feature
Finding Their Place Through Music
Inside Rebecca Hampton’s PVE music classroom where students discover confidence, belonging, and joy
Rebecca Hampton still remembers the music teacher who made her want to become one.
As a child living in Iowa, Hampton sang in the Des Moines Children’s Choir under director Eugene Wilson. He was demanding, she remembers, and not every child appreciated it.
Hampton did.
“I loved him because of what he was able to draw out of a group of children,” Hampton said. “The repertoire that we could sing and the level that we performed at, the opportunities that we had. And I just had so much fun, and I said, ‘I want to do that.’”
She entered Anderson University as a music education major believing she would eventually become a collegiate choral director. Then came an elementary music methods class.
“Oh, no. This is it,” Hampton remembers realizing.
The experience brought her back to what had inspired her in the first place: the ability of a teacher to see what young children were capable of and help them reach it.
“Mr. Wilson was able to get excellence out of younger kids, and it reminded me that’s what I wanted to do in the first place anyway,” she said. “And so now I get the joy of bringing excellence out of small children every day. And it just is so fulfilling.”
Growing Up Together
Twenty-one years at Pleasant View Elementary School have given Hampton something else she treasures: time.
As an elementary music teacher, she sees more than 700 students each week. She also has the unusual opportunity to know children across multiple elementary school years, watching them change from their first days of kindergarten through their final days in fourth grade.
“It really, truly is the best to watch a child walk in the first day as a five-year-old, and then to get to watch that progression of maturity, of growth, of passion all the way through fourth grade,” Hampton said.
With time comes a deeper understanding of each child.
“It’s fun to get to know them so well, to know what they enjoy, to know what frustrates them, to know what’s rewarding for them, to know how to motivate them, and to build the relationships with the families.”
Some of those relationships span many years. Hampton has taught families with six, seven, eight, and even nine children.
“It’s always really sad when a family leaves. It’s like, ‘Oh, it’s going to be a hole here at Pleasant View because we’re going to miss your family.’”
For Hampton, that longevity is one of the privileges of the work.
“It’s a true joy to be able to serve a community the way that I get to every day.”
A Classroom Filled With Opportunity
Look around Hampton’s classroom and there is music everywhere.
Xylophones. Drums. Ukuleles. Recorders. Instruments that represent not only different ways of making music, but years of expanding opportunities for students.
Much of that growth has been made possible through support from the Zionsville Education Foundation.
After taking a drumming class, Hampton wondered whether she could bring that experience to Pleasant View students.
“I was like, ‘Oh, maybe I could get drums for my students,’” she said.
She wrote a grant and received 30 drums.
Later, after professional development and graduate coursework introduced her to teaching ukulele, she had another idea.
“I wrote a grant to the Zionsville Education Foundation, and I got 30 ukuleles for my students.”
ZEF Imagine Grants have also helped Hampton attend national conferences and bring new learning back to her students.
“I just am so awed by the fact that we have this incredible organization and community that invests in educators and has created a really special space for me as an educator and for my students.”
Making Space to Create
Sometimes the best moments in Hampton’s classroom begin with a child who is not quite sure.
Creative movement is one of her favorite examples.
“I’m asking them to be creative and take up space,” she said.
For some children, that freedom comes naturally. For others, it takes courage.
“It’s so fun to watch kids who aren’t sure about it, and kids who are not used to taking up a lot of space, not comfortable taking up a lot of space, build that confidence and that freedom in movement,” Hampton said. “And then seeing the smiles and hearing the laughter when they’re done is so rewarding.”
She sees that same accessibility with instruments such as the xylophone.
“It doesn’t matter what level a kid is at,” she said. “There is a way for them to participate in the ensemble in a meaningful way. So it’s rewarding for me, and it’s rewarding for them.”
And sometimes Hampton discovers the impact of those lessons outside her classroom.
“I love it when I hear the kids outside at recess doing singing games that we have learned in the classroom,” she said. “That’s really fun.”
There are hand-clapping games and jump-rope chants, but her favorite sounds may be even simpler.
“Kids who are, ‘Mrs. Hampton!’ and they want a big hug, or they want to tell me how their day is going,” she said. “Just being able to make those connections outside of my classroom with students is always great.”
And then there are the kindergartners who are surprised to discover their music teacher exists outside the music room.
“Mrs. Hampton, why are you out of your room?” she recalled with a laugh. “Like I live here.”
High Expectations and a Chance to Shine
The experiences Hampton creates extend well beyond the regular music class.
She leads extracurricular choir and a select fourth-grade Orff ensemble, and she collaborates with Pleasant View Elementary School art teacher Mr. Scott Miller on the school musical. Together, they have produced 13 shows involving as many as 100 to 115 fourth graders. The philosophy behind those productions is simple.
“We draw excellence out of them,” Hampton said. “We always say that we are in the business of high expectations and not lowering them.”
Those expectations come from a belief in what children can do when adults give them the opportunity.
“We know that kids can achieve amazing things,” she said, “and so we love to provide an opportunity for kids to shine and to exceed the expectations of adults.”
That belief may be most powerful for children discovering the feeling of being successful.
“Students often come into my room and feel successful and like they belong and like they can be a leader,” Hampton said.
She has watched it happen again and again.
“Seeing that year after year, these kids that just blossom in my room and find their confidence in my room, is amazing.”
From Student to Teacher
Some of Hampton’s students eventually find their way back to her classroom in a very different role.
She has mentored ZCHS cadet teachers interested in education, including several of her own former students.
“They come back into the room and say, ‘Oh, I remember that. I remember that,’” Hampton said.
But now, seeing the classroom through the eyes of a future educator, they recognize something they could not see when they were children.
“As a more mature musician, they can see, ‘Oh, that’s what you were doing. I thought we were just playing a game,’” she said. “I love that when they go, ‘Oh, I see exactly what you were doing there pedagogically.’”
One former cadet originally planned to teach middle or high school music.
“I said, ‘Emma, just give me a chance,’” Hampton recalled.
She did.
“She spent the semester with me,” Hampton said. “And now she’s graduating this year in music education from Butler, and she’s going to do elementary music.”
For educators just beginning their own careers, Hampton has a message she hopes they remember.
“You’re not alone,” she said. “You’re not alone.”
A Community She Chose for Her Own Family
Hampton knows ZCS from more than one perspective. She is an educator here. She is also a parent.
During her first year at Pleasant View Elementary School, long before her own children attended ZCS, she came to a realization.
“I realized right away that this was where I wanted to raise my kids,” Hampton said. “I wanted them to come to the school. I wanted them to live in this community.”
Nine years later, her family made it happen.
“Moving here was one of the biggest blessings in our life,” she said.
What Hampton saw as an educator became what she experienced as a parent: a school community focused on relationships and student growth and a larger community deeply invested in its schools.
“We have parents that are willing to help with anything that we could possibly need, that are supporting teachers in every way they possibly can.”
It is something she now shares with new families touring Pleasant View Elementary School.
“It’s just such a wonderful place to be,” Hampton said. “I always tell them, ‘You’re just going to love it.’”
When You Know It Is Music Day
After 21 years, hundreds of students each week and thousands of children overall have passed through her classroom. Hampton could measure impact in countless ways.
Performances. Skills learned. Instruments played. Former students who return. Children who continue into music programs throughout ZCS. But one of her favorite measures is much smaller.
It comes from parents. She says her favorite measure comes from parents who tell her they always know it's music day when their child is so excited for school.
For a teacher who has spent 21 years creating a room where children can make music, take up space, discover what they can do and know they belong, there may not be a better review.
“And that,” Hampton said, “to me is the biggest honor."
Beyond the Music Room
A few more notes....
There is more to Rebecca Hampton than the music room.
She is a teacher, musician, wife, mom, photographer, and traveler who loves new experiences and new places. So, before this Voices of ZCS is closed, enjoy a few more glimpses of the person behind the educator.
50 States. Together.
Rebecca loves to travel, and this summer brought a pretty significant milestone.
She and her husband officially made it to all 50 states, with Oregon becoming No. 50 during a three-week trip through California, Oregon, and Washington.
Next on the list? Switzerland is already planned. And someday, she hopes, Australia and New Zealand.
For someone who has spent 21 years helping children explore, create, and discover something new, it seems fitting that she is still doing so much exploring herself.
One More Thing...
Some of the best moments in a conversation happen between the questions.
The laughter. The reactions. The stories that lead to another story. The moments when an interview starts to feel a lot less like an interview and a lot more like two people simply talking.
Those moments were worth sharing, too.
A few more moments from Dr. Coffman's conversation with Rebecca Hampton.
"Education is the kindling of a flame, not the filling of a vessel."
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