As Georgia kicks off its new “Teach in the Peach” campaign, we’re celebrating the passion and purpose behind the profession with stories from the classroom, campus, and beyond. Join us in conversation with 2024 Georgia Teacher of the Year, Christy Todd, along with Jay Lovett and Jonathan Feicht. Whether you’re a veteran, a newbie, or just curious—this episode is for you. Let’s talk recruitment, retention, and the future of teaching in Georgia.

Classroom Conversations

As Georgia kicks off its new “Teach in the Peach” campaign, we’re celebrating the passion and purpose behind the profession with stories from the classroom, campus, and beyond. Join us in conversation with 2024 Georgia Teacher of the Year, Christy Todd, along with Jay Lovett and Jonathan Feicht. Whether you’re a veteran, a newbie, or just curious—this episode is for you. Let’s talk recruitment, retention, and the future of teaching in Georgia.

TRANSCRIPT

Ashley Mengwasser: Current and future educators, hello. Welcome to Classroom Conversations, the platform for Georgia's teachers. I'm your host Ashley Mengwasser. Late in the school year, we are going back to the beginning to examine some educator origin stories in celebration of a new resource expected to revivify Georgia's teaching profession. Today, Georgia Public Broadcasting, the Georgia Department of Education, and the Professional Association of Georgia Educators, or PAGE, bring you a special episode centered on the glue of why teachers teach, because there's a new sheriff in town, a teacher recruitment campaign called Teach in the Peach. Any program that rhymes is fine by me, but what makes this one truly inspiring is it infuses the profession with the hype and exultation it deserves. Not unlike the NFL draft, teachers have signing days, and there's a big one coming this May. More on that later. First we're going to look at reasons you should so enter the teaching profession, that's called recruitment, and why you should stay, that's retention. As you, veteran teachers, know, those reasons are sometimes different, and we'll gain perspective from three different vantage points today from Christy Todd, a distinguished educator who's reached the pinnacle classroom teachers dream of, from a dutiful and committed teacher of future teachers, Jonathan Feicht, and from Jay Lovett, a current college student formally pursuing his degree in education. Welcome to the show, Christy, Jonathan, and Jay. How are you?

Christy Todd: Great.

Jay Lovett: Great.

Christy Todd: I'm just-

Jay Lovett: Great.

Christy Todd: ... so thankful to be here. What a fun episode.

Ashley Mengwasser: I'm so glad you're here. How are you, student Jay?

Jay Lovett: I'm doing pretty well. I'm very excited to be here. Thank you so much for the opportunity.

Ashley Mengwasser: I'm glad you're here. How are you, Jonathan? Where are your students today?

Jonathan Feicht: My students are all over. I've got some of them interning, and some of them are stuck with a sub.

Ashley Mengwasser: Yeah. Okay. Good. Well, I'm glad I get you. First of all, welcome to the show, and Christy, you're a repeat guest. I said before, "Come back anytime," and you did come back. You were Georgia's 2024 Teacher of the Year, and now Christy works at the Georgia Department of Education as Education Program Specialist. Talk about this new position you're in managing special projects for GDOE.

Christy Todd: Yes. Well, first, it's so great to be back, and to be here in the studio, and I loved, absolutely loved my year as Georgia Teacher of the Year, and at the end, I just knew that there was more that I wanted to do, and serve other teachers across the state. So, when I was asked to step into this role in doing special projects, it's all about ways that we can really elevate and celebrate the teaching profession. So, one of the first big projects we've launched is our brand-new teacher recruitment website, I call www.TeachInThePeach.org. And we have some other fun events too, that we're starting to launch, and it's just a dream job. I really love it, because it's that mix of teaching and serving teachers, but then also helping the community understand ways they can engage, and really be part of preparing our future.

Ashley Mengwasser: I can't wat to delve into this, but, first, I have to know your 2024 tour de force. What did you learn while you were traveling the state talking to teachers?

Christy Todd: I gave over 180 keynotes, I met everyone-

Ashley Mengwasser: Oh my God.

Christy Todd: ... from superintendents to teachers to community officials to legislators, and what I really just learned is how wonderful we have in Georgia a community of people that support teachers.

And I think as a classroom teacher, you don't always see it. Right?

Ashley Mengwasser: Interesting.

Christy Todd: Because you're in your classroom, and you're in the trenches, and you're focused on your students, but when I was out on the road, the thing that was most surprising to me was just the people that are there that want to help, that whether you need additional grant funding, or additional training, or just someone to come in with another set of hands, we have an amazing infrastructure here in Georgia to support teachers. And I was just so glad to learn more about that last year on the road.

Classroom Conversations