Getting your Trinity Audio player ready...

In a ceremony held at the Oakfuskee Conservation Center on Wednesday, the Troup County School System named its overall Teacher of the Year (TOTY) for 2025.

Aiden Blackwell, IB History and AP United States History Teacher at LaGrange High School, was crowned TCSS Teacher of the Year. 

Every year in September, each school selects a Teacher of the Year nominee that’s voted on by their staff. All 11 elementary schools, the Hope Academy, Troup County Career Center and THINC College and Career Academy designate one teacher for the honor. The middle and high schools select two teachers of the year. 

Ten to 12 judges from the school system and other community partners read and score anonymous applications from school-level winners to select an elementary, middle and high school TOTY. In January, Kathey Sandiford, of Long Cane Elementary; Deneshia Norman, of Callaway Middle; and Blackwell were notified they were finalists for the systemwide TOTY.

Blackwell was then chosen as the TCSS TOTY by judges from outside Troup County after a series of interviews, essays and observation in the finalists’ classrooms.

“This recognition is extremely meaningful to me. This honor doesn’t belong to me; it belongs to the countless students that I’ve taught,” Blackwell said. “Those students are the reason that I push myself every day. It goes to my wife, Brooke. Her unwavering support of me and patience can’t be thanked enough.”

Blackwell also congratulated his fellow student-level teachers of the year, who were also recognized during the ceremony.

“The work that you all do daily is extraordinary. Our children and our community are better because of all the work that you do. And that can’t be understated,” Blackwell said.

“Teaching, to me, is a shared journey. It’s one where the line between teaching and learning constantly blurs. My students push me. They challenge me. They make me remain curious, sometimes extremely; they help me see the world through different perspectives. And that’s really what education is about,” Blackwell said.

“We are called, and it is that. It is a calling. It is a calling to teach the whole child. It’s our responsibility to help our students become critical thinkers, to communicate with confidence and clarity, and to empathize deeply with each other and to find a place in this orbit where they can be engaged and thoughtful citizens, regardless of whatever path they choose after high school,” Blackwell said.

Blackwell will now move on to vie for the statewide TOTY, who will be named later this year.