MURRAY — "Join me at measure 4, folks. Good luck," Murray High music teacher Alan Scott tells his bell choir. "If you get lost, get found. If you're still lost, just move your arms."

Students chuckle, then focus on the Murray District Teacher of the Year's instruction. Not bad for a first read, he tells them in his gentle, yet authoritative voice.

Scott nurtures his students through a music experience, from practice, to performances, to tours to cities, including The Big Apple. Senior Samantha Aland calls him patient, dedicated and funny, and most of all, focused on students.

"Kids get along with him really well," Aland said. "He's definitely my favorite teacher, by far."

Scott has spent 11 years of his 17-year career at Murray High. He strives to create a warm atmosphere for students to learn, Brigham Young University student teacher Emily Lawrence said.

Scott teaches because life didn't turn out according to plan.

After earning a master's degree in choral conducting from the University of Utah, "I was going to get my tweed jacket ... and be a professor," Scott said. But a U. professor, instead, suggested he teach school — something he never considered, but ended up loving.

"It provides me with a reason to get up in the morning. It's fun," he said. "Our lives don't always take the turn we think they will, but I certainly like the turn that it took."

Now, he strives to give students a "lifetime sport: singing and music," and also teach them to be good consumers of music. He says he learns as much from the thousands he's taught as they learn from him.

"He brings out the best in his students," principal Scott Bushnell said. "He's a quality educator, no question about it."