Q. Why did you become a teacher?

A. I come from a family of educators. My mom is a retired health occupations teacher and my father, actually, builds schools for Fayette County Schools. He built the school that I’ve worked in the last 15 years as a teacher.  I remember being there when I was 12-years-old watching him build the school. It’s in my blood. I married an educator. I always knew I wanted to be a teacher.

But I really didn’t know that I wanted to be a music teacher until I was in high school. My high school chorus director, Janice Folsom, made a huge impact on my life and really inspired me to go into music education.

Q. In May, about 53,000 teachers and other educational staff quit their jobs in the U.S.  What keeps you in the profession?

A. Whatever profession you’re in, you have good days and bad days. To me, there’s just so many benefits to teaching. After college, I worked in nonprofit business development for a few years. I had an opportunity to travel the country before I went into the classroom. I just have a great perspective on the opportunities that education offers.

I love the work I’m doing. It impacts students’ futures. I know that when I show up every day, I’m making a difference. The other thing that really keeps me engaged is the opportunity to reach out and build connections with the community. 

I like to talk about how I grew up on a farm in Senoia, Georgia before there were zombies [referring to her hometown as the site for the television show The Walking Dead]. My hometown didn’t have a red light and now it’s a major international film and tourism destination. I get to work with our local creative industry sector and it’s just so much fun to be part of that work. 

In addition to teaching music technology, I coordinate the school’s Community for Creativity initiative, which focuses on building connections with our local film and music industry.

There’s a lot that goes into film, along with audio. So I get to help kids in classrooms connect to that. We have our own entertainment label. It’s called Hall Pass Entertainment. The kids named it. They came up with a logo and everything. So they are part of the industry. We’ve released some original student content. They release music albums every year, YouTube videos, audio books. We are a fully-functioning entertainment label.

It’s so cool for a 13-year-old, a 12-year-old to see their song streaming on Spotify. It’s like the ultimate cool thing for them. So it’s fun when kids make their dreams come true.

Q. There’s been a lot of controversy over the removal of the diversity, equity and inclusion instructions from state manuals used by teachers. What are your thoughts about this issue? How will it affect your teaching style?

A. Teachers across Georgia are really committed to making sure their classrooms are a welcoming place for all students. When I plan lessons, I really like to make sure all of my students have an opportunity to use their own voices and share their own unique perspectives. That’s really what good teachers do naturally. It’s also important to me that I create lessons and experiences that are accessible for all the students in my building.

Fifteen years ago, as a first-year teacher, I realized that my music classroom needed more support to help students in our special education department succeed. So I worked together with some colleagues and we launched a special music program that has now served over 10,000 students, and students in our fine arts and special education classrooms. They work together. They collaborate  to present annual performances for our whole community, our school community. So when I think about the work I’ve done as a teacher, this is some of the most important work that I’ve accomplished is building opportunities for all kids to learn and all kids to create.

Q. What is the biggest challenge in the teaching profession today?

A. Teacher retention is an issue not only in Georgia but across our nation. We can help alleviate that problem by growing opportunities for our teachers to develop as teacher leaders, sort of like what I’ve been able to do in Fayette County. I’ve already shared how I teach in a classroom, but I’m also out in the community building connections to the needs of our community. 

Not every teacher wants to be an assistant principal or principal. Many of us still want to find a way to lead from the classroom, to help our peers and our community. We need strong leaders in our classrooms, not just in the front office. I’ve been really fortunate to do this for our district. 

I wish we could pilot additional teacher leader programs around our state to create more flexibility, leadership opportunities, and increased compensation for teachers  who want to stay in the classroom. But at the same time use additional skills and talents to serve in other ways. That’s something I hope to advocate for in the role of Georgia Teacher of the Year.

Q. What do you wish people knew about a teacher’s day?

A. That we pay for our own coffee. That was one thing that surprised me coming from working in the private sector to working in a school. And it’s things as simple as [having] coffee in the break room . I’m not saying this to complain. I’m saying this to let people know about the opportunity that our communities have to support schools. There’s so many opportunities for involvement, even if you don’t have a kid in school. It can be something as simple as donating coffee. Or mentoring a student. Sharing a positive post on social media. Public schools can’t exist without public support. 

My platform as Georgia Teacher of the Year is building those connections and the importance of all of us working together: colleagues, students and families, communities, business and industry. When we can all work together, we can help our students build their futures.

Q. What’s your favorite coffee?

A.  I like  Starbucks. The darker, the better. I  think Cafe Verona is the real dark one. So yeah, I take it black. No cream. I’m serious about my coffee.

Q. The Georgia General Assembly recently passed a bill guaranteeing public school teachers a daily planning period to use for lesson planning, grading and other tasks. How do you plan to use your time?

A. I really appreciate the protection of planning time for teachers. I hope one day it can increase even more. It’s such an important time not only to assess student work and complete various administrative tasks, but also just to plan collaboratively with colleagues. That’s one of the things teachers need to be able to focus on the most to improve student achievement: time in planning and making sure that our subject area teachers are using similar pacing and assessment so we can make sure all of our students across Georgia receive the same high quality education based on the standards. But to do that, and I can speak from my own experience, it takes dedicated uninterrupted time for deep thinking.

If we want to improve student achievement as a state, we have to increase the amount of time our teachers have to plan.

Q. How do you get your students engaged?

A. Letting kids have choice is core to the way they show you what they learned and connecting it to their interests.

Since we’re in back-to-school mode, the first day of school, I start that [approach] right away. I usually start with movement. I’m a big fan of icebreaker games or [playing]music to [get kids to] move to a steady beat of a song to sort of break down the physical barriers of a space. Then also along the same lines of getting to know kids, doing a Google survey right off the bat to find out what their interests are and what they hope to learn from the class.

Q. As a teacher, how do you know when you are winning?

A. I believe teachers have a superpower. And that superpower is that we change the future when we help students see their potential. 

We’re passionate about that work because at some point in our life, somebody did it for us. So to me, that’s winning.When I help a student find their creative superpower and help them see that they have so much to offer to this world, that’s what I define as winning.

Q. What advice would you give to fellow teachers?

A. Use your voice. Teachers have a lot of autonomy. We don’t need to be afraid to use it. Sometimes, we’re faced with problems and we’re sitting around waiting for someone to fix them for us. Don’t wait. Build connections with your colleagues, your families, your community. 
For me, it’s creating and really testing solutions that support students. It’s amazing to see what can happen.

Q. For the second year in a row, a music teacher has been named Georgia’s Teacher of the Year? What’s the secret?

A. I really don’t know. I think it really comes down to being true to yourself.

Q. Come on. Something’s going on in the choral or music room.

A. Well, I think a big part of it is being able to communicate effectively with a wide audience and pursue that daily. I will say I was definitely surprised because I wasn’t expecting there to be another music teacher following Michael [Kobito]but you know if the Georgia Bulldogs can win back-to-back [national] titles, a music educator can too.

Q. Aside from the proverbial apple, what’s the best gift a student has ever given you? And you can’t say it’s the knowledge of knowing that they’re learning.

A. So this was really cool. We talked about how we have an entertainment label called Hall Pass Entertainment. One of the things we do is release original student music. We do two albums a year. So they’re released on streaming platforms. A year and a half ago, the kids who were on the album showed up in the studio one day, and they had something behind their back. They were so excited to give it to me. They had found somebody who could burn their music on a CD. Kids these days don’t have CDs but they found somebody who could burn it on a CD. They did an album cover. They put it in a CD holder and handed it to me and said they knew their music was online but they wanted me to have something to hold to remember them by. Isn’t that cool?

Q. That is so cool. What’s the name of that album?

A. Breathtaking.