McIntosh High English teacher Andrea Lakly, newly-crowned as Fayette County Teacher of the Year, is passionate about empowering students to appreciate their own minds.
Herself a graduate of McIntosh, Lakly found her way back to her alma mater to teach English.
“Peachtree City has this really great environment for kids, and, when you had it as a kid, you keep looking for that.”
She initially went to college to study forestry.
“I pictured myself wandering around the woods and reading poetry.”
She quickly realized it wasn’t her future, and she considered advice from her mother to major in what she was good at. She switched to majoring in English, and looking through the want ads in the newspaper inspired her to focus on education.
She was drawn to English because she is fascinated by characters and understanding their motivations.
“I enjoy the act of writing, of putting things together, of wordsmithing, of doing that part of it,” she said. “Writing is an empowering act, and I can help people find that.”
Lakly was recently crowned as the 2025 Fayette County Teacher of the Year.
“How did I get so lucky,” she thought about winning. “It was extremely exciting to have the opportunity to say to (the other teachers) thank you, and not just thank you for being who are and everything you do, but thank you specifically for finding a niche corner of education for me.”
Lakly thinks back to her many teachers that shaped her path.
“If I get to say that I’m a good teacher right now, then the reason I get to say that is because early on I was shown what good teaching looked like.”
They made her feel like a respected member of the academic community, even in classes that weren’t her strongest suit. She is passionate about building micro communities to help connect students and help them feel at home at school.
“Students deserve the opportunity to go to all of these classrooms and not think I’m bad at this one, I don’t belong in this one,” she said. “There are so many times when people who didn’t feel like they belong do start to feel like they belong in a high school, and it’s huge. It’s life changing, and it’s so exciting.”
She thinks often on a line from the Mary Oliver poem “The Summer Day”: “Tell me, what is it you plan to do with your one wild and precious life?”
“Education is the process of working with that wildness to make it something that we’re proud of and that we see as beautiful,” she said. “I want to be able to move confidence, hope, and moral aspiration into the next generation, and I believe that is not just possible but that it’s happening.”
Her motivation is to get students to see the value in their own minds.
“I believe that if we create educated people that those people will also be able to continue the work of our forefathers, and that we will move into the future in a way that we will be proud of,” she said. “I don’t want to go to bed at night and think that I have built my life around me. I want to feel like I built my life around something bigger than myself.”
“The Honor Role,” an official podcast for Fayette County Public Schools, features employees, rotating through key stakeholders, including teachers, staff, nurses, custodians, cafeteria workers, and bus drivers. Join us as we dive in and learn about their journeys, their inspirations, and their whys.
Episodes are available on all major podcast platforms, including Spotify and Apple Podcasts, and promoted on the social media channels of Fayette County Public Schools.
Episodes will also be available here: https://www.buzzsprout.com/2200811.
Posted 4/29/2025
