Barbara Walton-Faria, a science teacher at Thompson Middle School, in Newport, is named the 2009 Rhode Island Teacher of the Year. She is introduced by Governor Carcieri during a ceremony yesterday at the school.

The Providence Journal / John Freidah

NEWPORT — So many dignitaries arrived at Thompson Middle School yesterday — including Governor Carcieri and his wife, the Newport delegation to the General Assembly, the state’s top education officials and local School Committee and City Council members — that Supt. John Ambrogi told the hundreds of students gathered in the gymnasium, “This is a very special day you’ll probably remember your whole lives.”

If they don’t, at least one person will never forget it — and she didn’t even know the hoopla was all for her. In fact, none of the students or faculty knew why the governor and the others had come to Thompson until Carcieri got up to the podium and finished waxing nostalgic about his and the first lady’s days living and teaching in Newport and praising a litany of good things happening at Thompson.

Only then did Carcieri say he hadn’t come to talk about that but to make an announcement.

“This year’s Rhode Island Teacher of the Year is from Thompson Middle School,” he said.

After building up the suspense for a moment or two, he finally announced the winner — Barbara Walton-Faria. To vigorous and sustained applause, the eighth- grade science teacher was then escorted from the rear of the gymnasium to the podium. There she received flowers and an award presented by state Commissioner of Education Peter McWalters.

Then, the woman who has no problem speaking in front of her students all day long, every day, had only a smile and a few words to say.

“This is quite a bit overwhelming and a huge surprise,” she said, adding that she would be proud to represent Rhode Island teachers as she now moves on to the National Teacher of the Year competition.

Walton-Faria, of Middletown, has been a faculty member in Newport for 16 years. But after graduating from the University of Rhode Island in 1979 with a degree in natural resources, it was the ocean, not the classroom, which called to her.

For several years, the self-described “product of the Jacques Cousteau age” took to the sea as an environmental scientist for an oceanography company, sometimes tagging humpback whales. It was only when she realized that the job conflicted with getting married and starting a family that she decided to go into teaching.

“For her, it was a second career, but she was meant to do it,” Laurie Sullivan, a fellow teacher and good friend, said after Walton-Faria’s husband, son and mother snuck into the auditorium to surprise her.

Sullivan and other colleagues described Walton-Faria as someone who transferred her passion for the environment into hands-on lessons in the classroom. This year, her students are collecting water samples from the Bay every two weeks, then using microscopes to identify and count plankton in the samples. When finished, they report their results to a research scientist out of state.

“One of the things missing in science is getting kids outside and engaging them with the environment,” she said after receiving her award.

Every summer, she devotes a substantial amount of time to travel to give presentations on teaching science, as well as attend professional development conferences for her own betterment, which is where she learned about the plankton program.

“That’s my gift to myself,” she said.

Her motto, as repeated by Carcieri yesterday, is: “If you teach what you love, you will love what you teach.”

“She cares very deeply about her subject,” said Sullivan, “but she cares even more deeply about the children.”

Walton-Faria sends birthday cards to all of her students and led an effort to develop an advisory program, in which small groups of students meet weekly with each other and a faculty member to provide support for one another. She also conceived of another program — inviting honors students to have a free pizza lunch in the faculty lounge, paid for and attended by teachers.

“She’s always been on the cutting edge of things,” said Principal Eric Thomas, who used to teach math at Thompson. The honor, he said, “is a long time coming. She’s been fabulous. I would want my kids to have her as a teacher.”

rsalit@projo.com