Ami Young, Long Branch Elementary’s Teacher of the Year, has always had a passion for music; a few years ago, Young switched from teaching her fifth grade homeroom class to becoming the dedicated music teacher for the entire school. Now she has an opportunity to positively impact the lives of every student in the building.
“It’s a pleasure to be in her classroom when she teaches music—It comes alive,” LBES Principal Sara Fain observed during the Teacher of the Year presentations in September. “[Students] often forget they’re learning, and just feel like they’re having a great time.”
Although Young comes from a family of talented musicians, she said it was still difficult to give up her general classroom role.
“I love teaching math, and I love history and some of the books and novels that I would read with the kids. I really struggled over leaving the classroom, and my little family of 20-25 kids every year, to become the teacher that sees all the kids,” she said.
But that change has paid off for both Young and her students, who receive healing and joy from singing, dancing and creating music together.
“A lot of kids, maybe they’re struggling academically in the classroom, but I try to make sure they’re really successful in here,” Young said.
LOCAL LEGACY
Young wasn’t born in Dahlonega, but her family moved here when she was only two years old.
Her father, L. David Young, was an accomplished pianist in the Gospel Music Hall of Fame, and owned his own recording studio in Dahlonega.
“People from this area that he did recordings for would be Karen Peck & New River, The Perrys, Shawn Mullins, I think he probably helped Kurt Thomas,” she said.
“He traveled with a lot of Southern Gospel groups in the 50’s and 60’s, and met my mom doing that. My mom was a singer as well,” Young added.
Young attended school in Lumpkin County from kindergarten through college alongside notable local musicians like Radford Windham and Zac Brown.
“The Windham family and my family are a lot alike, with both of our parents involved in the music industry. We grew up together,” she said.
Young earned her bachelor’s degree in Early Childhood Education from North Georgia College & State University, but actually began her college career as a Music Education major.
“My husband was a teacher when I met him, and he just kept leading me into Early Childhood. He just thought that would be a good fit for me. I realized I loved music, but wasn’t sure if I wanted to teach choral music, which is what I was doing at the time. I was in Music Ed for like three and a half years, and then I switched over to Early Childhood and finished up with that,” Young explained.
Young was nine months’ pregnant with the first of five children when she graduated from college, and began her teaching career at her daughter’s pre-K in Gainesville before taking a break to homeschool her own kids. Young eventually returned to education at Long Branch Elementary in 2015, where she taught fourth and fifth grades before being offered her current position.
FAMILY MATTERS
Young noted that when she met her husband, Michael Young, he already shared her own last name and the same first name as her brother, local Tax Commissioner Mike Young.
“He was born in Michigan and actually grew up in Miami. He has the same last name, so I never had to change my name,” she said.
After marriage, the couple began attending Free Chapel Church in Gainesville.
They were renting an apartment in Dahlonega at the time, but decided to settle down in Hall County so they could be closer to the church and her husband’s teaching job. She said part of the reason why she came back to teach at Long Branch is so her children, Malory, Malachi, Michael Brandon, Myles and Macy, could grow up in Lumpkin schools.
“We love this school system because I was raised in it. I knew it well and knew a lot of the teachers. Half of them I’m kin to, or went to school with them or something, so it feels like home. That’s where we wanted our kids to be. We wanted them to have that type of atmosphere,” she said.
MUSICAL METHODOLOGY
Young has been a vocalist most of her life, but also plays some instruments as well.
Not surprisingly, her favorite genre of music is gospel.
“I’ve grown up on gospel, so that’s definitely the forerunner there. But I like real jazz. Not the latest stuff that people call smooth jazz—I like the stuff like Miles Davis, Billie Holiday, things like that. The old stuff,” she said.
Young also likes to utilize classical music in her fourth and fifth grade classrooms as a way to set the tone for learning.
“I call it ‘brain power music,’ because it has been scientifically proven to unlock their thinking and really get their minds settled on learning,” she said.
Over the course of a single day, Young gets to encounter every child in the school.
“When you’re a classroom teacher you build a family with those kids, and you’re like the parent of that room. So it is different, but I’ve learned that I can still have that sort of connection with some of the students, especially those that I can see are really connecting to this music and really want something more. Those are the kids that are usually involved in my talent show or my chorus that I have,” Young said.
The difficulty is adjusting her teaching style to meet each child’s individual needs.
“It is a challenge,” she acknowledged. “What you realize is that when a student is struggling, you’ve got to figure out their interests. You have to figure out what is it that makes them tick, what is it that makes them thirsty, metaphorically.”
Sometimes that means adopting a unique lesson plan that better suits the individual’s learning style, or finding a unique approach to make the lesson resonate with them.
“Some kids couldn’t care less about music. They’re athletes, and they want to go to the gym and play basketball. But I feel like I’ve done a pretty decent job of getting them to appreciate it by sharing my experience: I’m not much of an athlete, but this is my passion, and I would still do the stuff that they are great at for fun,” Young said.
Obviously, Young’s classes vary greatly for each age group.
For kindergarteners and first graders, Young introduces a lot of play and creativity, with younger students learning foundational concepts like rhythm and how to move to a beat. But they are also taught quarter notes, quarter rests and eighth notes.
“I play a lot of piano for them, and they’re moving and being creative and exploring instruments,” she said.
Younger kids also get to experiment with beginner instruments like the recorder and the TinkerTar, a one-stringed instrument for kids to learn how to pick and move across the fret board.
As the students advance, so does the theory, with fifth graders learning advanced concepts like triplets and dotted quarter notes, letter names and solfege names on the staff lines, and some major and minor chords on the ukulele.
Young is hopeful that the students’ early exposure to instruments at LBES will open musical doors for them to explore later on.
To that end, Lumpkin County Middle School Band Director Jacob Wood visits fifth grade classes each school year to share upcoming band opportunities.
“I’ve loved having him come over the last few years, and he really exposes them to good instruments and material and grabs a hold of them soon,” Young added.
PERSONAL PASSION
When asked about her favorite aspect of teaching music to elementary students, Young said the answer is “super-spiritual.”
“Honestly, I’m a person of faith, and a Christian. I believe in Jesus Christ, and I believe that this is a calling on my life to share music. I truly do believe that. We’re not singing church songs, I’m not teaching them worship songs in here. But there are times I truly believe that music is a gift from God, and it’s a tool that really heals and brings joy … And I love that,” she explained.
Fain agreed that Young has a unique way of reaching her students, “finding common ground and building bonds and relationships that last forever.”
“I realized very quickly when I got to Long Branch that she was a fantastic teacher in any grade, but I could only imagine what she’d be capable of if she were able to touch several lives instead of just the few in her homeroom. So I begged and pleaded for her about how all of her passions could unite in music if she were to work in music … And she does it with gusto,” Fain said.
This is the fifth in a series of articles shining a spotlight on all five of the Lumpkin County School System’s 2027 Teachers of the Year.