Michael Jaycox has been the Parkside Elementary School music teacher for nine years, and for the last five he’s commuted from Basin, an hour drive each way. Still, he said there’s no way he’d leave doing a job he loves, and a job for which he does quite well, as he was named North Big Horn Basin Music Educator of the year this spring. 

“He just does all kinds of stuff to make our school a special place, but more importantly, to make our school a special place, he does special things for kids to make their lives special,” Principal Jason Hillman told the Park County School District 1 board when announcing the award last month. 

“If there were a music teacher of the universe, he would deserve that award.”

Jaycox, who is also past president of the Wyoming Music Educators Association board, runs the school’s drama club and coordinates with Montana Shakespeare in the Parks and Missoula Children’s Theatre to get students involved, is in his 14th year of teaching and ninth at Parkside. Previously he taught middle and high school music in Greybull but, after an experience during his time at the University of Wyoming, he knew he wanted to eventually teach elementary school music. 

“I was a drum major throughout college and with the marching band, and loved conducting and all that stuff, and just had not really ever been really exposed to little guys,” he said. “So then the year before I student taught, I got a summer job at a day care running a summer program … And I was like, this is gonna be a long summer. And I loved it. I loved working with the kids. I loved their excitement about things.”

Nine years ago he got the opportunity at Parkside and jumped at the chance. He’s fit right in since then and is still grateful to have the chance to teach elementary schoolers. 

“I can teach the same musical concept in so many different ways,” he said. “I can do different songs every year, so I’m not getting bored. They’re not getting bored, just and then I love going with student interest.”

For instance, he said one year students wanted to learn Spanish songs, so they did. 

Beyond the music, four years ago Jaycox began the school’s drama club, which just wrapped up its year with a performance in early May. 

His goal, he said, is to provide a community and excitement for all kids and especially those, like him, who grew up not interested in sports. 

“When I got to high school, finding that place and that sense of belonging, that sense of who my really good friends were,” he said. “That is what I think the arts can provide in the same way that the sports team provides that for kids. But if you’re not into sports, what do you do? This is where we can help fill those holes.”

And as a child of divorced parents who said he grew up in Laramie without much of a male role model, he also sees his role as being the rare male elementary school teacher, and thus a chance to be a male role model to kids, whether they have other male role models or not. 

“Our school is so lucky to have him and our community is so lucky to have him,” Hillman said. 

Jaycox sees himself as the lucky one, determined to keep doing what he loves as long as he can. 

“This is the best job that I’ve ever had, and I will not leave this job until, like, I absolutely have to, or they ask me to leave, because I have the support of an amazing district,” he said. “I’ve got great staff, I’ve got great kids that I work with. It’s a great job.”