Classifying sentences wasn't exactly what fifth-grader John Frohberg would call fun, until he entered Dallas Thompson's class.

Thompson's passion in the classroom not only boosted students' opinions of English and other subjects, but this year it earned her the honor of Gainesville City Schools Teacher of the Year.

"I love that she has a sense of humor and I can make a joke and not go straight to detention," Frohberg said. "She's nice and she helps me learn really well."

The Centennial Arts Academy teacher learned she was chosen to carry the 2012 Teacher of the Year title during a surprise announcement last month. Her former fifth-grade teacher, Gainesville Superintendent Merrianne Dyer, delivered the news.

Thompson said she was shocked.

"I was totally blown out of the water; it felt great,'" Thompson said.

Thompson has taught at Centennial for four years.

She graduated from the school system in 1999.

She said it was an easy choice to come back to Gainesville after college to find work.

"I thought to be a product of the system and to give back would be really neat," she said.

Thompson's commitment to unearthing the best in her children developed at a young age.

As a child, she would give lively lectures to her dolls and asked her teacher if she could bring home extra worksheets from class to replay the lesson to her younger sister.

She said the best thing about her job is that it doesn't feel like one.

"I feel like it's more of a calling, and everyone says that - it's more of a calling than a job," Thompson said. "But with a job, you go home at the end of the day and you're done. This is something I feel like I was born to do and I feel like I couldn't do anything else nearly as well as I do this."

Enthusiasm and challenge sums up Thompson's philosophy in dealing with students. She's also a fan of technology-based lessons.

Rather than start a persuasive essay with a pencil and paper this year, Thompson asked her students to create podcasts of the reports, which parents could listen to online. Her class also created a music video at recess to learn about lyrics, beats and rhyming.

"We're very boisterous and always moving and doing something," Thompson said. "We're rarely still."

Another component of Thompson's class this year was a service project.

Her students, using donations from parents, created lunch bags for homeless people, which were distributed by Good News at Noon and Under the Bridge Ministry.

Thompson said she hopes the project will steer her class to lifelong giving.

"I get a lot of e-mails from parents who said they talked about it at home and they feel like it's setting in with them and that they hope it will be a habit for life, and I do too."

Thompson and other system teacher of the year winners will go on to compete for Georgia Teacher of the Year. The state will announce the winner
this February.

Thompson said she is excited to represent Centennial and the school system she grew up in.

She's also proud to call herself an educator.

"It can be a very hard job, and you go home very tired some days and you wonder if you're making a difference at all. But overall, I would never choose anything different," Thompson said. "I love standing up and being in front of the class."