Teacher for a Year, Leader for a Lifetime

Ernie Stokes walked into his first elementary music classroom with one goal: to teach music. Nearly two decades later, with an Educational Specialist degree from Regent University and a classroom buzzing with creativity, he’s done that and more. He has transformed young lives by empowering them beyond the notes they play.

From Passion to Purpose

Ernie’s love for music began in the sixth grade, when he started learning about percussion instruments. This quickly became the instrument family for him. “I fell in love, and I’ve stuck with it since,” Ernie says.

Ernie loved percussion and band so much that he continued it into high school. That’s when he realized music was something he wanted to pursue long-term, and he knew exactly how he wanted to do it.

“Teaching was the goal from about junior year on,” Ernie says. “My band director is the one who inspired me to teach music. I went to JMU knowing, ‘I’m going to be a music teacher.’”

And that’s what he did. With a love for music and a passion for teaching in his heart, Ernie earned a bachelor’s degree in music education from James Madison University while playing percussion for the Marching Royal Dukes, JMU’s marching band. He went on to earn a master’s degree in music from Boston University, planning to fulfill his promise to himself to teach.

But he didn’t expect to land in elementary school. “I actually came out of college swearing I’d never teach elementary school, and then I needed a job,” he recalls with a laugh. “I got a call from Sussex County, asking if I wanted to interview. It was an elementary school position. So, I taught in Sussex County at all three of their elementary schools. I was the only elementary music teacher in the county.”

After spending three years at Sussex, he interviewed at Butts Road Intermediate School, where he has taught music classes to third- through fifth-grade students for the last 16 years.

“I came here, and that’s when it dawned upon me,” Ernie says, “that elementary music is where I’m supposed to be.”

Rhythms of Respect

If there’s one thing Ernie has learned that he works to implement in his classroom, it’s that a sense of respect and community is necessary for each student.

“In this room, we talk about our expectations a lot, so respect is my main classroom rule,” Ernie says. “The first year I got here, I couldn’t find my classroom rules poster from Sussex. I used to be the teacher who had six or seven different rules. Then, that first class came in, I had to talk expectations, so I just went with respect, and respect covers everything.”

Ernie also teaches his students the importance of responsibility and trust. From setting up their own instruments to caring for every classroom material they use, his students grow empowered every day by learning to value the things they use in his class.

“I give kids lots of responsibilities, because elementary kids can do more than you think they can do,” Ernie says. “People don’t give them enough credit. If we play drums, they take the drums out. They put them back like responsible musicians. We talk about trust a lot, and how you have to be trustworthy in order to use the many instruments we’ve been blessed with.”

The trust that Ernie builds with his students goes a long way. Many of his students, whether or not they’ve gone on to pursue music, have reached out to Ernie, thanking him for the values he’s taught and the safe space he’s created for them to grow while in his class.

“I had a kid — she’s in college now — but when she was in fifth grade, she was one of those kids who, if she spoke next to you, you couldn’t hear her,” Ernie recalls. “I brought her to the All-Virginia Elementary Chorus because she could sing really well. I received a note from her at the end of the year, thanking me for giving her confidence.”

Ernie kept that note, not knowing that years later, he would receive another thank-you from this student, who told him that he had inspired her to become a music teacher. “I keep several of those notes,” Ernie says. “Those are what I will consistently go to when I have a bad week. Those are my whys.”

A Servant’s Heart

After some time in Ernie’s teaching career, he had an itch to go back to school, but as a full-time music teacher, he didn’t know where to start. “I didn’t have time to sit in the classroom, and I needed to do the work on my own time,” he recalls. “Regent checked off all the boxes that I needed it to. The ability to be able to do things at my own pace was wonderful.”

After talking with the admissions team, Ernie realized that Regent’s Education Specialist (Ed.S.) program in Educational Leadership was the perfect fit. Between the vast library access, recognized accreditation, and the option to spend a week on campus during residency, Regent quickly became his top choice.

“The biggest thing I took away from Regent was servant leadership,” Ernie says. “I kind of put that into my own soul. I wear many hats in the building, but if I’m going to ask teachers to do something, I have probably already done it for them. If I’m going to present a training, I’ve already gone through the training I’m supposed to give them and boiled it down to what they actually need. If we have to enter data into something, I’ll sit next to them and help them.”

In everything he does, Ernie strives to teach others by doing, evident in both his current practices and his long-term goals for himself. “One of my long-term goals is to teach music at college, but I’d want to be an adjunct because I don’t want to leave the classroom,” he says. “People who teach people how to teach should be in the classroom. I don’t teach the same way I taught five years ago.”

Lessons that Last

Despite Ernie’s belief in adaptability in the classroom, his core values of respect and trust have remained strong throughout his career and have not gone unnoticed. After being named Teacher of the Year in 2012, he won the same award in 2024, followed by the Power of the Peak Award from his school’s Employee Recognition Program in 2025. But for Ernie, the reward is found in every note he’s received, every thank-you from a parent, and every student he’s watched grow. It’s the knowledge that he’s made a student’s life a little better than it was before.

“I hope music gives my students positive thoughts — that they can think back on the class and overall have a positive feeling,” he says. “Whether they continue to do music or just listen to music, they can realize that music exists. Even if they hated music, I hope they enjoyed the class.”

He also believes that a student for a year is a student for a lifetime. “Along with hoping they smile, I hope my kids realize that I support them,” he says. “They’re always my students. Always. They’re still my students, even though I taught them 10 years ago.”

Ernie also mentors student teachers who come from various colleges to observe his classroom, and he extends the same policy of support to them that he does to his elementary schoolers. “I’ll always look out for them,” he says. “I tell them all the time they can text me from now until after I retire. If you don’t know what’s happening or you need to run something by me, text me or call. We’ll work something out.”

Although elementary education wasn’t his plan when he was a teenager, Ernie is thankful for where he ended up, and his career has come full circle. He and the high school band teacher who inspired him are both now members of community bands in Hampton Roads, often playing together and with many of the former students who have continued the pursuit of music. It sometimes makes Ernie laugh, realizing that he’s taught for long enough to play alongside his former students. But surrounded by instruments, music, and smiling kids, there is no place that he would rather be.