Dr. Joseph Underwood and his TV production student Brianna Vargas were the stars of the show when the National Education Association Foundation (NEA) gathered in Washington, DC for its annual convention Salute for Education on February 10, 2017. They led a group of 16 state Teachers of the Year in a song and dance routine titled “It’s a Teacher’s Life,” partially written by Dr. Underwood, but based on the song “It’s a Hard Knock Life,” made famous in the Broadway musical Annie.

About a year ago, Dr. Underwood was invited, like other former state Teachers of the Year, to audition for this event. “I sent in some of my J-Diddy videos, and they thought it was cool,” he said. “So they decided, ‘Oh, we are going to make Joe Underwood the head teacher in the performance.’”

Dr. Underwood described going through different changes in the song-writing process. “They asked me to write the lyrics for my portion. I first started with a beat, not the ending song (which was “Hard Knock Life”). Then I wrote the lyrics,” he said. “But then, it changed to ‘it all has to be included in the ending song’, so I had to change everything.”

While going through the song-writing process, Dr. Underwood also had to select a student to perform with him. Sophomore Brianna Vargas, a beginning TV production student, was the chosen one. “Since the very beginning, she came with a lot of energy and enthusiasm, plus she is a beautiful young lady, and she is talented,” he said.  “She and I practiced for about 2 months during lunch time. I didn’t know at the time, but she is a competition cheerleader, which meant she had experience performing in front of people.”

Brianna carried a heavy weight on her shoulders, thinks Dr. Underwood. “She represented every student in the United States in front of 900 people, and it was live-streamed,” he said. “We were there to celebrate education, and the Teacher of the Year Award. She was the only student there, and I am proud of her.”