Band director Eric Thompson has been with Reeltown for the past four years.
This year he won both Reeltown High School Teacher of the Year and Tallapoosa County District Teacher of the Year. Although the journey wasn’t always easy.
Four years ago, he accepted the position before he even saw the band room. The band room up until 2024, was an old World War II cannery. The room was severely outdated, and the instruments were broken — being held together by zip ties.
“I felt extremely overwhelmed, not going to lie,” Thompson said. “I was sitting there in a meeting with a gentleman, that was my best friend in college who came to help with my first band camp. And I told him, ‘I don't know if I can do this. It's just in such bad shape.’ Thankfully, because I had a lot of really supportive parents and administrators. The community was really supportive, and I could tell that they really wanted it to be great. That was when I was thought, ‘Okay, well, if we're going to turn this around, we need to have some kind of initiative.’”
That’s when Thompson formed the “Revitalize the Reeltown Band Program.” There was a lot of behind the scenes work between the community, the school and the central office. Since 2021, the band has had new instruments, uniforms and trucks and a new band room inside the recently opened Reeltown gym.
While Thomspon spearheaded the initiative and put in a lot of work to get the band to where it is, he said it was only possible because of how everyone listened to each other and worked together. He has had football coaches drive band buses to competitions for them. His principal has cleaned the band room floors with him.
His superintendent has personally come to the band room and asked his specific needs. Parents, volunteers and students have all put in so much work to get this program to where it is. And of course, it all goes back to the students and their work.
“The reason that I got the award is because of my students,” Thompson said. “If they weren't having a lot of success, if they weren't really into it, if they weren't growing, then I would not have gotten the award. Because people don't really come into my classroom to see what we're doing. They hear the concerts, and they see the halftime shows. But it's because of the hard work of the kids and them really buying in and then wanting to be the band to be great, because it's been great before.”
Thompson has been in music education for the past 14 years. He has taught in Georgia and Kansas and has experience in all levels from elementary to high school to college. His bachelor’s degree is in music education from University of Georgia and his master’s is in music education with a concentration in conducting from Kansas State.
As district teacher of the year, Thompson is in the pool for state teacher of the year. He said if he is afforded the opportunity, he would like to use that platform to talk to legislators about the issues in education.
Part of the application process for district teacher of the year asked Thompson, “What is one of the biggest pressing issues in education?” So, he asked educators in the district and outside of the district. Everyone had a different answer to the question. He concluded the common denominator in all these answers is we aren’t listening to each other. People aren’t listening to administrators or teachers about what needs to be fixed in education.
“I would really try to communicate with our legislators that I've been given this opportunity to listen to other people, and I'm going to take what they have to say, and I'm going to relay that to people who are in charge so that maybe we can make a difference that will positively impact the students,” Thompson said. “Because even just in my school, I've gotten 10 different answers, so I've got a lot of stuff to talk about.”
However, just being named district teacher of the year and RHS teacher of the year has been the greatest honor within itself. And this year, he has really fallen in love with teaching again. He is thankful for all those who played a part in making the Reeltown band program revitalized.
