Spotlight 4 Success

Music and AI in the Modern Classroom

• American Book Company • Season 1

Share episode

Ever wondered how a career transition can be sparked by life's unexpected challenges? Meet Rusty Thompson, who transformed his life from a mundane office job to a fulfilling role as a special education teacher. Rusty's journey is not just about navigating personal trials, like supporting his wife through her breast cancer battle, but also about embracing technology in innovative ways. His passion for AI doesn't just end at teaching; it spills over into his music production endeavors with Suno AI and ChatGPT, resulting in 17 albums released under the name TheRealRustyLT.

Stream the Spotlight 4 Success Podcast: https://spotlight4success.buzzsprout.com

Devin Pintozzi:

Welcome to Spotlight for Success by American Book Company. I am Devin Pintozzi, your host. We are here at LACUE with Rusty Thompson. He is here with Gilbert School and Franklin Parish.

Rusty Thompson:

Yes sir,

Devin Pintozzi:

nice to see you Rusty,

Rusty Thompson:

Nice to meet you

Devin Pintozzi:

So tell us a little bit about what brought you to LACUE today.

Rusty Thompson:

Well, this is my first time to be here at LACUE. Didn't even know it existed. This year is the first year I've stopped special ed, and so the special ed director asked me if I wanted to come. And it's to deal with technology, and I love technology and mainly AI. I think AI is awesome because it's not going anywhere. You might as well learn to like it.

Devin Pintozzi:

That makes good sense. And so tell us a bit about your journey. You are now a special ed teacher, and previously you were doing another kind of teaching. Is that right?

Rusty Thompson:

So when I actually got into teaching late in life, it was latter 20s, early 30s, I don't even remember

Devin Pintozzi:

okay,

Rusty Thompson:

my wife ended up having breast cancer. I was doing an office job somewhere and she ended up having breast cancer and I said you know what? I need a job, that I have security that if something did happen I could take care of my family. And so I went to school while she was dealing with that and we were back and forth to hospitals, but she's 100% cancer-free. That was a big stage that we had to go through.

Rusty Thompson:

But anyway, even prior to going to school, I was a children's pastor for seven years at our church, and a lady that I worked with actually in the school district she told me. She said you know what you're really good at this. You ought to try to be a teacher. I said no, I don't know. And then, the more I did, I said you know what I can do this in the school, and so I became a teacher. I was actually a principal for two years, an assistant principal, and then now I've taught sixth grade math for a very long time. I love math. I love the logic behind it, but I just wanted something different. And SPED. I'm not going back because SPED's pretty awesome.

Devin Pintozzi:

Oh, that is wonderful, and I understand you have some musical talents, is that right?

Rusty Thompson:

Well, I cannot sing or play an instrument, but I'm very good at a computer, better than most. I understand AI. I know how to manipulate chat GPT to give me what I want, so I use that to create my lyrics. I put that in a program called Suno. Suno AI puts music and the vocals to it and I might listen to a song, probably 15 times because they give you different versions of it. I nope, I don't like it, I don't like it, and I might go 15 different times and say, oh, that's it. The other day I actually made one it was the very first song said dude, that's awesome. So, yes, I have 17 albums. They're all on your standard. Um. Social media, youtube, spotify, tiktok, everything. I have a distributor for that.

Devin Pintozzi:

Wonderful, and so what is it called your series?

Rusty Thompson:

My handle like the artist is TheRealRustyLT. It's just, I actually asked ChatGPT to give me a name. I said here's my real name. This is what I want to accomplish. Give me a name. It gave me TheRealRusty, but I wanted to put my middle initial, last initial, just to make me different, because surely somebody else is wanting to be the real Rusty.

Devin Pintozzi:

Ah, okay.

Rusty Thompson:

Changed it up.

Devin Pintozzi:

That's wonderful, so you're here at the LACUE what are you hoping to get from the conference and what are you hoping to send out when you go back into the classroom?

Rusty Thompson:

Well being, in special ed, you definitely have those diverse learners that have a difficulty of understanding a concept and, because I do like AI, I'm going to learn to teach them using AI to help improve their academics. I really think it's going to become a staple, I guess, in the school system. Like I said, it's not going nowhere and if it can help the kids, then amen.

Devin Pintozzi:

Oh, that is wonderful, Rusty. Is there anything else you'd like to share with the LaCue audience?

Rusty Thompson:

So if you're looking for really good music again, I'm not singing in them, I'm not playing the instrument. I did create them using AI 100% you can do the same If you want to hear my music. It's the Real Rusty LT. You can find that on any of your social media platforms and I'd appreciate a like.

Devin Pintozzi:

Oh that's awesome. Well, thank you very much again, Rusty, with Franklin Schools. Thank you so much for participating with us today.

Rusty Thompson:

All right, thank you Appreciate it

Devin Pintozzi:

.