Teacher Feature: Adam Chitta at Wood Middle School

“I actually had people growing up telling my mother he shouldn’t pursue music education with his hearing loss.”

Adam Chitta is the Assistant Band Director at Wood Middle School.

He’s been teaching there for the past 11 years.

“I am like YES, you can be a teacher. I am glad that I am here with you sharing that I am a band director in your District with a hearing impairment that you can do this.”

Chitta started wearing hearing aids when he was seven years old.

He remembers his mother turning on the kitchen faucet that first night and it being loud.

He cried because he couldn’t believe all the sounds he was missing out on.

His hearing loss didn’t stop him from pursuing his passions of teaching and band.

“In band, I noticed that I was doing things differently in regards to articulation. I could only articulate a certain way because of my way my speech was. So, my twin brother and I played the same instrument, the euphonium, and we had this running joke that through high school marching band that I was the better marcher and he was the better player.”

His journey with hearing loss has given him incredible opportunities to teach students about more than just the notes on the page. Recently, he spoke at Cambridge University in England.

His presentation focused on his experiences as a hearing-impaired music educator and offered tools to help others in their classrooms.

This year also marks another memorable event for Chitta—he has his very first student going into college.

That student will be studying music education.

“Just that milestone in itself is just awesome,” said Chitta. “it’s a huge blessing because I got them started in something they continued to do.”

Chitta advocates for himself and his students.

He knows his role is bigger than the classroom.

And he knows he can only be successful if he is honest with his students about his hearing loss.

But that honesty also helps his students be successful beyond his classroom.

He couldn’t think of a better relationship and a better place to be than NEISD.

“ I am very blessed to be a part of North East,” said Chitta. “We have a lot of brilliant music educators in our District. I really encourage people to see what a fantastic team of fine arts educators we have. It’s really top-notch, and I will not stop bragging about them.”