One West Elementary School teacher is gathering national attention after a song she wrote for her students’ first day of school has gone viral.

“I love music, so I always knew I wanted to write a song for my students,” said second-grade teacher Sarah Hester. “Once everything happened with COVID, I started thinking of ways that I could make my students feel safe.”

She wrote the song “Happy Eyes” to address the fear a student might feel because of having to wear a mask. Hester said she wrote the song the night before she met her students for the first time and recorded a video of her and her fiancée playing it a few days later.

“I never expected anything to happen with it,” Hester said. “I just thought it was this cute little song that I videoed so I could show to the other teachers if they wanted to show their students.”

After the song was uploaded to Instagram and Facebook, that is when everything started to fall into place.

“Good News Movement saw it and shared it on their page, and that was where Hoda and Jenna saw it,” Hester said.

From there the video was featured on Today With Hoda & Jenna – Hoda Kotb and Jenna Hager – and Hester said she has already given permission to a few other large shows to use if they choose. “The goal when I started writing it was just to make everyone happy, so I love seeing it shared and making more people happy,” Hester said.

Hester said all of the students in her class know all the words to the song and love the attention their teacher has gotten for it.

“They are always asking to sing it,” Hester said. “Whenever it was on TV, I played them that part, and they all sang along with it.”

Hester said she has loved getting to incorporate music throughout her classroom and is happy to see that her first year of teaching has started on a musical note.

She said she even keeps her ukulele in her classroom and will use it to encourage students by writing songs with them to help them learn.

“Throughout the day, if I can see the kids need a little brightening up, I will get that out,” Hester said.

As for the future, Hester said she has already recorded the song “Happy Eyes” and is working to have it on Spotify and Apple Music in the near future.

“It has just been so crazy to see everything that has come from this,” Hester said. “There is a lot happening, but I am so thankful for all of it.”