Teacher of Year plays joyful tune

Rollings Middle faculty member honored in Dorchester District 2

SUMMERVILLE —Timothy Thompson, a music teacher who was named Dorchester District 2's Teacher of the Year on Thursday, said he started teaching when he was 9 years old.

Thompson, 42, is a teacher at Rollings Middle School of the Arts. He had been playing the piano for six months when the members of Greater Unity AME Church of Holly Hill talked him into leading the choir, he told about 200 educators at the award banquet at Summerville High School.

Wade Spees
The Post and Courier

"He's one of those guys that doesn't have a mad side to him," said Mitch Brinker, who came up on stage to congratulate Timothy Thompson, right, when he realized his former teacher had been named Dorchester 2 Teacher of the Year Thursday night. Brinker was there to dismantle the sound system for the event.

"I could only play one hymn," he said. "We sang that hymn every Sunday until we learned to play something else."

Thompson mastered the piano and got his teaching degree, but he's still leading the choir at his home church.

"I just felt the need to stay there with those people because they were so patient with me, nurturing me through the years," he said after banquet.

Thompson often takes his music students to perform at his church, he said on his application for the award. But he's taken them far beyond that. Earlier this year, he led a group of eighth-graders to perform with students from The Bronx and a gospel choir from New York City at the historic Riverside Church in Manhattan.

Thompson said he's learned that there's more to teaching music than music.

"As a musician, I was taught to strive for a perfect product, to achieve a performance of the highest possible quality, and to accept nothing less," he said on his application for the award. "As a teacher, I am learning that the successes of my students are not determined by mastering music theory skills or playing perfect recital pieces but by what I am teaching them about survival and achievement in life. The lessons in life include discipline, perseverance, character, integrity, honesty and a sense of accomplishment."

Rollings Principal Elena Furnari praised Thompson's constant involvement with his students and their families. He keeps in touch outside the classroom through his Web site, emails and letters.

"Anyone can see that his love for what he does is truly sincere," Furnari said in her letter of recommendation.

As Teacher of the Year, Thompson will be called on to speak at functions and to talk with state legislators to promote the district.

Before announcing the winner, Superintendent Joe Pye praised all the teachers at the banquet. "Without teachers we would not have doctors or lawyers. It all starts with teachers. It's becoming an increasingly hard job to do. Public schools are increasingly under attack."

The banquet comes just a few weeks before district officials make their budget pitch to the Dorchester County Council, which sets the school budget. District officials are also preparing to try to convince voters to vote favorably in a referendum on building new schools to relieve overcrowding.

Reach Dave Munday at 745-5862 or dmunday@postandcourier.com.