Georgia’s 2024 Teacher of the Year Christy Todd combines her enthusiasm for teaching with an innate curiosity and a strong desire to connect interests, talents and people, unleashing the creative potential of scores of students day after day, year after year. Christy’s excitement about what she might do next, what her students will do next, and how dedicated educators make possible the fulfillment of those dreams and ideas will inspire you. All of us can benefit from the approach that Christy takes, whether she is serving as a teacher leader or an ambassador for everything that is important in teaching and learning.
SHOW NOTES
2:30 – teachers are bridge builders
2:55 – a passion for building connections and helping others realize their potential
3:40 – overwhelming appreciation for men and women in the U.S. military
5:50 – being better tomorrow than you are today
6:10 – focus most on what you need to do well, show up the next day, and improve
7:00 – chorus director Janice Folsom was an inspiration
8:10 – the capacity to command a room, getting a team to work toward a common goal
8:35 – painting a picture of goals and transfers to the real world, and why that’s important
9:10 – building opportunities for students to engage in Georgia’s booming creative industry sector
9:50 – shift from a traditional choral background to focusing more on creation
10:25 – learning how to build relationships and partnerships, and using those skills in the classroom
11:20 – a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to represent Georgia’s teachers
11:40 – great experiences to connect with a wide representation of various sectors
12:35 – Gen Z – philanthropic intentions and a desire to be social media influencers
13:35 – if you want to be an influencer, be a teacher!
14:15 – there are elements of being a teacher that are difficult and you can make a huge difference
15:15 – Top Ten Back to School Tips project – collaborating with other Teacher of the Year candidates
15:40 – I am an ambassador, not the best teacher in the state or even in my school – this is a chance to elevate the profession
16:20 – a diverse range of best practices is a great way to honor others’ voices
17:00 – from a focus on teaching academic standards to an application of learning
17:30 – learning what the pivotal knowledge and skill sets are in different careers
19:30 – Trilith Studios (Marvel films+) leading to an idea for students to create new and original content, help them become entrepreneurs, etc.
20:15 – students creating music and more – help from Tiffany I. M. Jones (then in an Atlanta Symphony Orchestra outreach role)
21:10 – forming an entertainment label – Hall Pass Entertainment and opening the door to students’ interests – students naming the label, creating art work, forming teams and committees
22:15 – middle school students releasing music albums, posting to a YouTube channel, and starting a podcast
23:00 – former middle school students now in high school are returning to Rising Starr Middle School to assist with the current work students are undertaking
23:45 – even once a semester, make sure that students are engaged in at least one project that is strongly connected to career roles
24:00 – share the stories of success and the great work students are doing
26:55 – AI (artificial intelligence) – stifling or enabling and accelerating creativity?
27:30 – first use of a floppy disk and an iPod – life-changing moments
28:15 – despite capabilities, there are things that AI doesn’t do very well
29:45 – the future of work may bend toward jobs centered around creativity
31:40 – which is more important, teaching or learning?
32:30 – retired teachers, your job isn’t yet done
32:55 – Teacher:Student impact ratio is huge
33:10 – Who did you inspire?
33:30 – it’s often the small moments that make the biggest impact
33:40 – teacher Teddye Martin knew I needed a place to belong and connect
34:30 – Ms. Martin instilled the love of education
34:55 – a teacher’s superpower is building connections, and we change the future when we help students see their potential
35:50 – first thoughts when announced as Teacher of the Year
36:20 – students, parents, colleagues, community partners can teach us as well, and help us look at things in a different way
36:55 – gratitude for so many people who helped me along the way and who have made possible this opportunity to serve as an ambassador
Email: Christy.Todd@doe.k12.ga.us
Facebook:GATeacher
X: @2024GaTOTY
Blue Angels F/A-18 Super Hornet flight story
Georgia Teacher of the Year webpage
Georgia Teacher of the Year events request
Christy Todd 2024 Georgia Teacher of the Year press release
Rising Starr Middle School, Fayette County Georgia
David Reynolds (00:11):
What matters most in learning the challenge, the thrill, the benefits, interacting with other people or something else entirely. What is the connection between leading and learning? Does change drive learning or does learning drive change? What's more important, teaching or learning? Is everyone a leader, a learner, a teacher? Want answers? Listen in. As we address these intriguing issues through commentary and with guests who share their thinking and tell us their stories. Lead. Learn. Change.
Christy Todd (00:56):
We averaged out how many years they worked, how many students they thought they had taught, and David over 150,000 students were directly impacted in the classrooms. Of those about 40 teachers. Teachers changed the future when we help students see their potential and I give the kids credit because at the time, even though our focus was on releasing music, they said, no, we want to be bigger instead of a recording label, we want to be an entertainment label. So immediately I thought, I'm like, okay, if you want to be an influencer, be a teacher.
David Reynolds (01:39):
Today's guest on Lead Learn Change is Christie Todd. Christie, thanks for taking your valuable time to speak with me today.
Christy Todd (01:45):
I'm excited to be here. David, thanks for the opportunity.
David Reynolds (01:48):
Sure. Christie is the 2024 teacher of the year for the great state of Georgia. She is a music technology teacher at Rising Star Middle School in Fayette County. She is an imaginative thinker and loves taking ideas from concept to completion. Christie places a high value on innovation, creativity and curiosity, and she appreciates how partnerships and relationships drive success and she is willing and more than able to tell her story and inspire others to tell theirs. In short, Christie helps people, helps them see what could be, and then leads and supports them to help them reach their goals and that's what great teachers do. They are bridge builders from now to the future. Christie, is that a fair assessment of your approach to this mission that you're on, this work that you do serving others as an educator?
Christy Todd (02:38):
Yeah. You nailed it.
David Reynolds (02:38):
I'm glad that what is online and what you have said about yourself and your work and your students and those you work with really has does come out. It is clear to people if they look at the stuff online, so I appreciate your confirming that.
Christy Todd (02:51):
You nailed it, David. That's really my passion is building connections so as students can see their futures and the amazing potential that they all have.
David Reynolds (03:02):
Now, you took a ride in an FA 18 Super Hornet, blue Angels Navy aircraft where you experienced total or near weightlessness of zero Gs all the way up to seven G forces. What was it about that?
Christy Todd (03:17):
7.5 David? Don't miss the 7.5.
David Reynolds (03:19):
Point seven 0.5, that's right. And since that's exponential, that's even worse than just, or better depending on how you look at it than just 7.0. What was it about that flight that made the greatest impression on you?
Christy Todd (03:33):
I really think what surprised me, and I had been told this, but just the overwhelming toil it takes on your body to be up in the air and have that amount of pressure on you and just the overwhelming appreciation for our men and women in the military who do this as their jobs. It was all I could do to focus on my breathing and you have to constrain your blood flow so you don't pass out or throw up. And so I was really focused on that and I was up in the air for 45 minutes. So the pilot tells you, okay, we're increasing Gs. You need to prepare. And so I'm doing all of this work that they've taught me to stay alert and then it hit me, okay, I'm not flying this plane. I'm not in combat right now. So it was just an amazing appreciation for the skill and the athleticism and just the sacrifice that people have that do that day in day out for our jobs. It was really fun because after I flew with them, I got to come back and talk to my school about that on Veteran's Day and just the experience and the opportunity was hands down, the coolest thing I've ever done. Being up there in the sky and in the clouds and having the clear dome over you. I'll do it again. Let's go. Let's go today.
David Reynolds (04:58):
Interestingly, you said the biggest impression was the appreciation for what's involved because we watch movies or we see clips, but until you've done it yourself, you really don't know what it's like, which is like anything else. And I wondered immediately about the parallel with teaching and how until you've done it, you really do not know what's involved and how challenging it can be and how all consuming it can be. I know you walked away from that Blue Angels experience with an emphasis on the importance of being better tomorrow than you were today, which I also think is parallel to teaching. And you attributed that observation to the men and women in the armed forces. Can you talk about that lesson just a little bit?
Christy Todd (05:46):
Yeah, absolutely. That takeaway being better tomorrow than you are today? Yes. I actually had the opportunity to speak this past week to some college education students who haven't gone in the classroom yet, and so they sort of asked that question, what is it like? How do you navigate all of these different things that are happening and what's your advice? My advice was don't walk into teaching thinking you're going to get an A in everything. It's just it's not going to happen because it's a learning process. So go in and focus on one or two things that you know need to do well for your students and your school, and you might get a B, you might get a C, or you might get a D in another area, and that's okay as long as you show up the next day and you do something a little bit better and eventually at several years in then you get to that place where you feel like you have mastery of teaching. And so you're right. There was a direct parallel there between my experience with the Blue Angels and really what the teaching profession is like.
David Reynolds (06:49):
Let's shift from aviation to music. Why music? When and where did your love of music begin?
Christy Todd (06:58):
Oh, thank you for asking that question. I grew up knowing that I wanted to be an educator. My family is passionate about education. My dad builds schools. He actually built the school that I work in as a teacher, which is really cool. So I grew up being around schools. I knew I wanted to teach. I used to play pretend when I was growing up teaching my brothers, which they didn't like that much, but it wasn't really until I got to high school and had Janice Folsom as a chorus director and in her classroom, I was just amazed watching her how she could command a room, how she could use her hands to get certain sounds out of a group of 50 people just with one flick of a wrist. It was like magic. So I would go home and practice what I saw her doing, and it just made me want to go into music education specific choral conducting is where I started my career.
David Reynolds (07:57):
What do you think are the similarities between being a musician, whether singer, performer, composer or conductor, where you just landed and being a teacher?
Christy Todd (08:09):
There's that piece of what we just talked about, being able to command a room. And I think that's something that musicians have to do naturally, always on a stage. They're always performing, they're always trying to figure out how can we get a team to work towards a common goal? And that's what really great teachers do is they have that spark that makes students sit up and listen and pay attention, but at the same time paint that picture of that goal that transfer to the real world and why it's important. And so there's definitely a lot of commonalities there between the two.
David Reynolds (08:48):
Is there a particular genre or facet of the music world that really resonates with you really strongly?
Christy Todd (08:56):
Like we talked about? I started out as a chorus conductor, so I was definitely deep into choral music, but then as Georgia's creative industry sector began to change and morph and more and more jobs, billions of dollars of jobs coming into Georgia, I really sort of shifted my mindset as a teacher from being a chorus director to how do I build opportunities for my students to engage with Georgia's booming creative industry sector? So from there, I began an interest in songwriting and recording and podcasting and building opportunities for our students, especially through music technology, to be able to graduate with the skills they needed to be part of Georgia's Industries. Just like what you're doing right now, having students be able to graduate with those skills, that's sort of my shift has gone from more of a traditional choral background to a creation background.
David Reynolds (09:56):
Did you ever consider doing anything else besides music or teaching or some blend of those two?
Christy Todd (10:01):
That was really just what I always wanted to do. I did right after I graduated from college. When I was in college, I was a member of Fine U, which is a national sorority, and they asked me to come be a chapter consultant for them, and then I worked with their business development opening new chapters across the United States. So I did that for three years right after college. And that was a wonderful opportunity to be able to travel, see the United States on somebody else's dime, build partnerships, build relationships, really develop my public speaking and marketing skills. But I knew in my heart I am going to be a chorus director. It was just a unique short-term opportunity. So finally I was like, all right, I'm tired of being a road warrior. I've been on the road a hundred percent for three years. It is time to go into the classroom. And the amazing thing was I was able to take those skills into the classroom and help build different programs, different initiatives that I'm sure we'll talk about later.
David Reynolds (11:04):
And now you're back on the road again. I know. So what's it been like stepping away from the classroom and serving in this new ambassador role?
Christy Todd (11:11):
The hardest part definitely is just missing the relationships with my students, with my colleagues, but it is a once in a lifetime opportunity to represent George's almost 120,000 public school teachers and to be able to build relationships for my colleagues in a different way. It's so meaningful. I'm still not used to David walking in a room and people say my name and everybody claps. I don't think I'll ever get used to that, but I've had the opportunity to do some amazing things from accept a check for our public foundation in Georgia at an Atlanta United game on behalf of teachers to, I spoke a few weeks ago at the state cybersecurity conference, and then I'm working on connecting with college high school students this weekend. I'm speaking at an audio engineering conference, which I'm sure is near and dear to both of our hearts. So it's just a unique opportunity to connect with a wide group stakeholders, whether that be administrators, teachers, politicians, community and business stakeholders to just talk about the classroom and the need to support teaching and learning specifically the people who do that work.
David Reynolds (12:27):
Along those lines, what ideas about promoting the teaching profession do you think have the most promise?
Christy Todd (12:35):
Right now? I'm actually working on a presentation for college students and high school students who maybe aren't committed to the fields yet, but they're considering education. And so when I was researching Generation Z, the kids who are in high school and college right now, when you look at their priorities, it's amazing. They're philanthropic, they're connected, they want to make a difference. It's all those core values of what a teacher has. But when I started researching, I realized that there was a study done, and I think it was census wide in 2022, and they surveyed about a thousand students in that age bracket. And do you know what the number one job was? They were interested in pursuing, 25% of respondents said that this is what they were going to do for a career. They were going to be a social media influencer.
David Reynolds (13:25):
Okay.
Christy Todd (13:25):
And so that was the number one career. And they stated things like wanting to have holidays, wanting to get free products, having a lot of followers and being a celebrity. And so immediately I thought, I'm like, okay, if you want to be an influencer, be a teacher. I mean, the amount of followers that I have from all the students I've taught over the years, we get amazing holidays when we talk about connecting with other people and making a difference. So I really think part of our job and part of my job this year is to clearly communicate to groups the positive aspects of going into the teaching profession. Because I think a lot of times we hear maybe the things that are hard, and I don't want to dismiss that at all because there are definitely elements that are hard of being a teacher, but there's also a lot of pros being able to go and do the work that you love every day and know that you in turn are changing a child's life. I just can't think of anything more meaningful. So that's the message I'm trying to get across this year, especially to people who may be entering the workforce is a place where you can really influence and make a difference.
David Reynolds (14:39):
That's a really great way to connect this influencer concept to a philanthropic career for lack of a better description. And Christie, I was going to ask you how you convey hope and vision and possibilities to people who are considering teaching as a career. And you just answered that, and it sounds like you're trying to share this message of hope and possibility for the people who are doing it right now too, not just those in the future. And one of the ways that you've done that related to the concept of encouragement is your top 10 back to school tips project. I thought it was great that you curated these tips from the other teacher of the year candidates, and in my view, it's just very nicely done. Is there anything you can share with the listeners about that?
Christy Todd (15:29):
Yeah, absolutely. I think one of the things that is difficult as being the state teacher of the year is sort of being the person everybody looks to as the ultimate authority to represent teachers. And that's not really it. You're just being an ambassador spokesperson for education. And I don't believe I'm the best teacher in this state or even in my school. I'm just being given the opportunity to elevate the profession. And in order for me to do that, I need to elevate other voices even outside of my own. And the other nine finalists for Georgia Teacher of the Year are doing amazing groundbreaking work across our state in urban districts and rural districts and subjects like math to subjects that are in career and technical fields. And when you bring a diversity of voices in to share their best practices, then you're reaching more teachers because I know that the view that I share is my own personal experience, and if I want to truly represent the teachers across the state, then I also need to find others and elevate their voices as well.
David Reynolds (16:38):
And of course, their ideas and your interaction with them, which is again true in every sector is how we start thinking about things and ultimately make some change. So have your beliefs changed over the years? In other words, Christie, how would you respond to the prompt? I used to think this and now I know that fill in the blank. Anything changed over the years?
Christy Todd (17:00):
Absolutely. When I first started teaching, I was really focused on teaching my academic standards to the best of my ability, which is really where the foundation of teaching and learning happens. But the more I progressed through my career, the more I realized it was about the transfer of what kids were learning to the real world, what that application was, focusing on that higher order thinking, that creativity. And a lot of times the application piece is hard for teachers because we haven't necessarily had that job or been in that career or use that information in this certain way. I was actually talking last night, I was at a reception with somebody who's in the film industry and he does special effects. So I said, so tell me what the key thing is, what you do day in, day out in your job. And I'm not even joking without waiting a beat.
Christy Todd (18:00):
He said, math, all I do all day long is math. And it's fascinating to me because a math teacher might not know that. So building those connections, and that's really where my focus has shifted even in the, I've been teaching for 15 years now, probably in the last 10 years. It really shifted to finding people who knew the application of what I was teaching and building connections for my students and not only connections to the implementation of that knowledge in the outside world, but also connections to my students' passions to make it relevant to them. And I would say I used to think it was all about knowing the content, but now I think it's about the transfer of that information to the world.
David Reynolds (18:49):
You've mentioned a couple of things there that have me leaping forward in my notes to Hall Pass Entertainment because it's connected to what you just said. It's a great name by the way. What is Hall Pass Entertainment? And use your answer as a way to share ideas for how educators can intentionally notice and tap into student curiosity and talent and interest.
Christy Todd (19:15):
Absolutely. I'm going to back up and even talk about one thing before Hall pass and then I'll get to it. So about six years ago, our superintendent of my school district at the time saw the change in the creative industry sector, like we talked about maybe 10 minutes from my school as Trilla Studios when the world's largest film studios where they make a lot of the Marvel films now. And he was like, how can we build those connections? So I stopped teaching chorus and started a new teacher leader position where I launched our school's community for creativity initiative. And in that role, my job was to build out infrastructures in our school where kids could create new and original products or content or ideas that would serve a purpose, whether in our school, in the larger community, maybe help them become entrepreneurs in their own right.
Christy Todd (20:12):
So really beginning to let kids tap into those passion areas and learn about jobs in the creative industry sector in our area. So I started doing that work and work a lot with eighth grade students on capstone projects that they work the full year on. I also teach several sections of music technology and we started shifting to songwriting and kids were making all this great music. So one day we had an industry partner present and her name was Tiffany Jones, and Tiffany at the time worked for the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra. She was working in their education department outreach, but she was also an audio engineer in Atlanta. And so that's how we sort of had the connection. And she looked at me and she said, Christie, this stuff these kids are making, it's really good. I said, I know, and it's depressing that we have all this stuff kids are making and it's dying in a book bag or a Google drive and the grandma sees it and that's all.
Christy Todd (21:09):
And she looked at me and I'll never forget where we were, and she said, you got to form an entertainment label if you want to teach kids about the industry, make 'em part of it. So that challenge, we went and talked to it. I talked to my principal and I have to say every principal that I have had has been a principal that says yes to innovation, and that's so important for teachers. It's been amazing. And she was like, yes, let's do it. Then we go to the kids and we're like, let's form an entertainment label. And they're like, yes, let's do it. We had some amazing partners like Georgia Lawyers for the Arts that came along and helped us look at how we needed to set it up, our content distribution and usage agreements. The kids came up with a name. It was like a three month process, I mean hundreds and hundreds of different potential names that they had to search and make sure that somebody wasn't already using it.
Christy Todd (22:00):
The kids drew the logo, actually, it looks like sound beams, but they're lockers when you look closer. They developed the mission statement. They had different committees just modeled after what they would do in the entertainment industry. And I give the kids credit because at the time, even though our focus was on releasing music, they said, no, we want to be bigger instead of a recording label. We want to be an entertainment label. They were thinking worldwide domination from day one, and they were right, because now not only do we release two albums of completely original music made by middle school students every year across major streaming platforms. We have a YouTube channel where we have short films where we're highlighting content from the classroom. We have a podcast show that launched last year. I think we had 36 episodes in season one. It's called Locker Break, and the program has even grown beyond middle school now because we're six years in. Students who started the first year, they're in high school now, they're like seniors in high school.
Christy Todd (23:03):
So we're actually hiring them to come back through the career and technical education departments work-based learning initiative. They come back and work for us one or two periods a day, and they're our producers. So our senior in high school is our podcast producer that works directly with our middle school students to help support them in content creation. So now it's full circle. So my advice to teachers who are hearing this story is again, that relevance piece, like what kids are learning, how can, it's not every lesson. I mean, you wouldn't be able to get anything accomplished if every lesson ended in a big project, but even if it's just once a semester or once a nine week period, having a way to connect what the kids are learning outside of your classroom that really makes a difference is huge for students. And then sharing those stories, because I think it is so important that we share the good that's happening in our classrooms, the connections we're building. I mean, public schools can't exist without public support. And if we're going to build that public support, we also need to build and share the stories of the amazing work that's impacting our communities.
David Reynolds (24:19):
It's more than a story. It's a great way to shift one thing in the coming year, pick a unit, a lesson, a concept, and focus on that and come up with a way for students to generate evidence that they really understand it. And this is a great example of doing that. This authenticity piece, relevance piece is really critical, and I'm thinking about all of the large numbers of standards across multiple content areas that sometimes are seen as siloed areas of content or subject areas, discreet components of knowledge. Just think about how many of those your kids touched on and actually dove into quite deeply as a result of this project approach. And as you said, everybody shouldn't think that every lesson every day needs to engage every student at a high level. It's over time you work on something like this and everybody's engaged at some point where their talents intersect and their interest intersect, and it really is authentic. That really does segue into the AI component that's going on right now. So with the explosion of technology enhanced content creation in virtually every field in myriad formats, some people might think that the acceleration of AI is like a death nail to human creativity and artistry. And I'm going to guess that you disagree with that, and if I'm wrong, correct me, but share some of your thoughts about AI.
Christy Todd (25:52):
Yeah, so I want to paint a picture of probably the most amazing thing I've seen with AI being used. And then I'm going to ask you, do you think that the picture I'm painting stifles creativity or not? I've mentioned that Trill Studios is right down the road from my school, and a few months ago I had the opportunity to go to their brand new, all new virtual stage. I want you to imagine a filming area, maybe the size of a school gymnasium. And on the walls, the ceilings completely 365 degrees around the room is screens, high definition screens higher definition than your TV at home and with a click of a button, the set is changing from day to night. And I'm moving from New York City to the jungles in South America, and AI is changing the shadows and changing the lighting based on the placement of actors and props.
Christy Todd (27:06):
As a film director, I can't even imagine the excitement. You have to think about not being limited by certain props or certain how are we going to go from this set to that set, or even the financial constraints of being able to shift that quickly. It opens up a whole new world for storytelling. And when I saw that, I mean, it was one of those moments, there's huge moments for me in my life, like the first time I saw a computer and put a floppy disc in and traveled the Oregon Trail. I'll never forget that. I'll never forget being in college the first time I saw my first iPod and as a music major that used to have to go to the fourth floor of the library and get dusty records off the shelf to listen to a certain Bach piece of music that I needed to study.
Christy Todd (27:57):
The iPod was life-changing. And then this was another life-changing moment for me to think about the potential and the future of storytelling and how AI unleashes that potential. Of course, it's scary anytime you see new technology and there's going to be some negatives and there's going to be some drawbacks, and some of that is still being worked through. But I think the focus, and really the transfer for classroom teachers is creativity is in the humanization of story is even more important than it's ever been before because that's how you differ between something that is created in AI and the human element, that connection to a specific audience, the connection to a specific ask, bringing in stories, bringing in unique phrases, predictions of the future. Those are things that AI doesn't do well, is predictions of the future or that human connection. And those are things that when students are learning, being able to look at data, being able to look at the content and saying, okay, yes, here's the facts, and AI can generate that and even let AI generate that so they can see that.
Christy Todd (29:12):
But then how are you going to tailor it? How are you going to take it to the next level? If you've got a writing prompt, okay, go ahead and put it in AI, get what it spits out and then make it better. And that's really, I think, going to be the challenge for teachers and students to work through. I'm excited about the uses, but when you go in and you ask AI to write a song, it's not going to be a hit on the radio. Maybe one of the cringey hits that happens every now and then, but it hasn't mastered songwriting. And it's because there are those human elements. And I think that that's important that we're as teachers thinking about that and how the future of work is going to change. And I really feel like the creative jobs are the ones that are going to be in high demand.
David Reynolds (29:56):
In answer to your question about did I think that AI was a creativity squelcher? Yeah, I don't see how that can be true. I think it might be intimidating because it upsets the status quo regarding how we assess in our definitions of cheating or creativity or academic integrity might have to be shifted not to allow things that are inappropriate, but just to accommodate for reality. But when you have a blank canvas continually at your fingertips and it's digital, and that blank canvas is actually just a representation of your own imagination, I think it's a massive creativity booster, not squelcher. There's huge potential with where this could go and your closing comments about that, making sure we continue to embed the human element with a review of what AI has generated, whether it's an illustration or something written or a musical score, that's where the creativity continues to thrive. So I say absolutely not creativity killer. Not at all. I think it's like the current best brainstorm tool to get things started. Not better than humans, but faster for sure. And I don't see how that could be a creativity squelcher in the least. This is tickling the philosophical edges of teaching and learning. Let me ask you a truly philosophical but practical question then. What's more important, teaching or learning?
Christy Todd (31:38):
They're very, very hard to separate. It's like what came first, the chicken or the egg, right? As a teacher, I'm constantly learning because I can't teach if I'm not learning. And when I'm working with my students and they're learning, then I'm turning around and asking them to teach a peer or give feedback. So I know that that knowledge has absolutely happened. So I think in the world of education, it's very hard to separate those two things.
David Reynolds (32:08):
Agreed. Hearing great teachers respond to that prompt helps all of us think about our craft a little bit more deeply or differently, at least for a minute. Let's close with this. Christie, tell us about a teacher or two that you really hold in high esteem.
Christy Todd (32:28):
Absolutely. Yesterday I had the chance to speak to a retired educators association, and my message was, your job isn't done. You still have so much more value you can add. But in that moment, I wanted to talk about the impact that they had done, and in a room of maybe about 40 participants, we averaged out how many years they worked, how many students they thought they had taught, and David, over 150,000 students were directly impacted in the classrooms of those about 40 teachers throughout their span.
David Reynolds (33:04):
Wow.
Christy Todd (33:06):
So then I turned around and I asked them, I promise I'm going to get to the question that you asked me, but I asked them, I said, okay, at this point, most people will ask you who inspired you, but I'm going to turn it and I'm going to ask you, who did you inspire out of that group? They were talking and they were sharing stories, but it was big moments that they were sharing where they knew that they had truly impacted a child. Then I turned around and I shared three teachers who had impacted me. It was really the small moments. It wasn't a huge moment. If you ask those teachers today, they probably wouldn't even know the impact. One of them was Teddy Martin, and she was my seventh grade science teacher, and I was a brand new student at a school. And you walk in a new school and you have to go sit in the gym before homeroom and it's literally the most intimidating thing in the world because you don't know a soul in the school.
Christy Todd (34:01):
And she found me. I was in her homeroom and her first period science class, and she knew that I needed to find a place to belong, a place to connect. And so she would let me come to school to her classroom every day so I didn't have to go sit in the gym where I didn't know anybody. And she would let me pass out the worksheets or help prep the tables for the science experiments. And she was just helping the new kid. She passed away a few years ago, and it's amazing that that small thing instilled in me a love of education, and she just thought it was worksheets and she didn't know that she was impacting the future Georgia Teacher of the Year. And so I think it's those small moments that teachers do. And I spoke earlier about Janice Fulsom who had a huge impact on me. Part of my message of hope this year is teachers build connections for students, and that's their superpower, is that teachers change the future when we help students see their potential. And it may be in those small moments of seeing a student and asking them to pass out papers that gives them the confidence they need to find their path. So that's just a message that I wanted to go to those retired educators that a teacher will truly never know their level of impact that they've had on the world.
David Reynolds (35:28):
You can ask anybody, even someone who might say that they didn't like school and they will still have a person that they really remember and hold in high regard, and that impacted their life in a positive way. I've never had anybody falter for a second
Christy Todd (35:48):
When they announced my name as Georgia Teacher of the Year. Everybody's like, what was your first thought? What ran through your mind? And okay, I'll tell you my first thought. I had just eaten garlic potatoes. And I was like, oh my gosh, I need a breath mint and I'm about to have to talk to 2000 people. So that was my first thought. But my second thought was just faces of hundreds and thousands of people that have invested in me, whether they knew it or not, throughout their life that have led to this moment. And I could go on and on and on about hundreds of teachers and the way they've shifted my learning. And when I talk about teachers, I'm not even talking about that person in front of the classroom. I'm talking about students or parents of students who make me think of things in a different way, or my colleagues or community and business partners. They've all taught me, they've all been my teacher in a different way. And I'm just so grateful that through this opportunity of being Georgia Teacher of the Year, I have a moment to pause and say thank you to those people who've invested in me and really have the opportunity to be a voice for teachers across the state of Georgia.
David Reynolds (37:06):
And that's a great closing call to action for people to take a few minutes sometime today or in the next week and seek out someone and say thank you. I want to thank you, Christie, for everything you've shared with us today. It's been a true pleasure.
Christy Todd (37:25):
Thank you so much, David, for the opportunity. I enjoyed it. I'll hopefully get to see or talk to you again soon.
David Reynolds (37:31):
Have a great day.
Christy Todd (37:32):
Okay, you too, David. Bye.
David Reynolds (37:35):
Thanks for listening today. Find the Lead Learn Change podcast on your search engine, iTunes or other listening app. Leave a rating, write a review, subscribe and share with others. In the meantime, go lead. Go learn. Go make a change. Go.