Middle school music educator Christy Todd has been named Georgia’s 2024 State Teacher of the Year. Photo Credit: All on Georgia
Our nation’s students are indeed fortunate to have so many exceptional teachers in the classroom. One of them is Christy Todd, a middle school teacher from Georgia. She has been named her state’s 2024 Teacher of the Year.
Christy teaches music education to students in sixth, seventh, and eighth grades at Rising Starr Middle School in Fayetteville, Georgia. But her influence goes far beyond her own music classroom. To make music education accessible to all students on her campus, Christy launched a collaboration between the Music Department and her school’s Special Education classrooms. Impressively, the program has reached more than 10,000 students over the last 15 years.
In addition to her classroom instruction, Christy founded her district’s Community for Creativity initiative, a program that supports schoolwide creation of songs, podcasts, videos, and audio books. These products are released through the school’s recording label, Hall Pass Entertainment.
Christy began her teaching career as a Choir Director. In fact, she still actively conducts honor choirs, along with publishing articles and research for various state, national, and international education journals. She was also a founding member of the Story Arts Collective, a group of education and industry leaders committed to growing Georgia’s creative work force.
Her recognition as the Georgia State Teacher of the Year is not the only honor Christy has received. In 2013, she was named a Grammy Music Teacher of the Year National Quarter-Finalist. In 2016, she was honored as the Georgia Middle School Association’s Teacher of the Year, and in 2022, she was named Fayette County Public Schools Teacher of the Year. She has also been honored as a key youth influencer by the United States Navy’s Blue Angels.
Christy earned her Bachelor’s degree in Music Education from Shorter College in Little Rock, Arkansas, and her Master’s degree in Music Education from Florida State University.
