Recently, the Rhodes Elementary School community got a treat for their final day of Reading Week, as one of their very own teachers, Susan Weber and the all-female rock band she’s a part of, the Persisters, took to the stage.

The audience was often on their feet cheering, singing and clapping as the women rocked the afternoon away, singing songs familiar to the students, songs they’d co-written as a band, and even a song that they wrote together with the audience that day.

Weber began her rock star journey when her own students began inviting her to the nearby You Rock School of Music (yourockschoolofmusic.com) to hear them play.

“They sounded amazing,” Weber said. “I found out that Sean Rogan does the same thing with adults, even if they don’t know how to play an instrument, he believes everyone can learn to play.”

Last January, Weber’s neighbor and Rhodes parent, Jo Fischer, decided to give music lessons a shot.

“I had always wanted to play the drums and Jo had always wanted to learn to play the bass guitar. Another neighbor of ours, Anissa, didn’t know how to play an instrument either. The three of us along with three other women got together and became a band. We came up with the name Persisters because we thought it really fit us,” Weber said. “We persevere, we are learning instruments, and we were having the most fun ever. It was great stress relief.”

Rogan was extremely proud of the Persisters and came to their performance at Rhodes to watch them on stage.

“They are one of my hardest working bands,” he said. “They’re actually quite conventional at my school. We have various ‘Mom bands’ as well as dads and kids and teens. We have a goal at You Rock of playing music together. Many start out as friends first and then become a band. There’s a deeper foundation there. The Persisters are building on something deeper and they not only practice at the school but they have dedicated daily home practice too. It’s all about working together and practicing. Our mission is ‘We make music part of life.’”

Rogan was a rock star himself in the audience, as students noticed his presence, and waved or called out a greeting to him.

“We’ve become very immersed in this community, we’re fully immersed,” he said.

As Weber and the band took to the stage, the audience went wild, cheering and clapping, immensely proud of their Rhodes rock stars. Weber was on drums and addressed the audience.

“We are the Persisters and we never give up,” she said. “We continue to push and keep on doing what we’re doing, which is one of our class mottos, to have good work ethic.”

She reminded the students not only to be respectful, but how much their cheers motivate the band.

“When we look at you and you are having fun, we actually play better,” she said.

At the break between each song, members of the band would step forward and introduce themselves as well as share the titles of their favorite books, from “Amelia Bedelia” to “Harold and the Purple Crayon,” in honor of Reading Week.

The Persisters performed “Sweet Dreams are Made of These,” Tom Petty’s “I Won’t Back Down,” the childhood favorite, “Down by the Bay,” and an original, “Born to Fly,” which the students had previewed and were learning to sing along. They ended with another band original, “Line Drive,” inspired by Weber’s injury at the end of last summer, when she was hit with a baseball at a PawSox game.

“This one is about keeping going when thing get hard,” she said. “It says, ‘She took a line drive, but didn’t let it get her down.’”

To see more about the Persisters, visit their Facebook page at www.facebook.com/ThePersistersBand.