NWES Music Teacher Hits The Right Notes With Students
By Phoebe Muthart
InkFreeNews
NORTH WEBSTER — When Michele Payton was 5 years old, she got a mini grand piano from her parents.
“I fell in love with it,” she said.
And she fell in love with music. Today, she is teaching the next generation about her love of music.
Payton, a Warsaw resident, is the music teacher at North Webster Elementary School. This is her second year.
She was born in California and recalled going caroling at Christmas. She moved to Indiana when she was 14 years old. When her parents divorced, she turned to writing songs as a way to cope.
She was shy, she said, so her mother, Darla McCammon, encouraged her to continue, and she ended up making CDs of her songs. She traveled, sharing her love of music. She took classes at IPFW but quit to work at a “regular job” while still doing music on the side.
“My passion is definitely music,” she said. “It filters into all parts of my life. I tell my students that.”
Prior to teaching music, she was a worship pastor at a church. She was also touring with her group, the Michele Payton Band.
“I was getting ready to tour with Third Day,” she said of the popular Christian rock band.
Things changed when she developed a nodule on her throat.
“I was just finishing my third CD. I was getting ready to sign a record deal. It was scary. Luckily, it was not thyroid cancer,” Payton reflected.
She had surgery and regained the ability to sing.
“God gave me my voice back,” she said. “But I did not sign a record label.”
An accomplished singer, she has since recorded her music.
“My third original CD was done down in Nashville, Tenn., and at one time I was doing a lot of voice-overs for radio and television. A couple (songs) I remember that you may have heard are Miller’s Merry Manor, ‘It’s the way we care,’ and Marion Lincoln Mercury’s song,” she said.
She said she’d eventually like to start her band again.
“We have really not gotten back together,” she said.
She obtained a degree in business management from Grace College. She is currently involved in a transition to teaching program to obtain a license to teach.
“I love that I’m in a partnership with other teachers,” she said. “It’s encouraging.”
She teaches music to students in kindergarten to fifth grades.
“I love planning concerts for the kids,” Payton said.
She is married to Mike, her husband of 31 years, and they have a son, a grandson and a dog named Simon. Her hobbies include kayaking, biking and cooking. She plays several instruments, such as the ukulele, flute, keyboard and guitar.
She attends New Hope Wesleyan Church in Columbia City.
“My faith is a big part of my life,” she said. “It’s a prelude to heaven.”
Music, she said, is one of her connections with God.
“It’s a way I connect spiritually,” she said.
She said she feels that teaching music is her “new ministry.”
“It’s a whole new adventure. I feel confident this is where I want to be,” she said.