By Carol Badaracco Padgett
“I like meeting new people, and I like to talk. This podcast makes me feel like I have a place in this world.”
These words are from the mind and mouth of an Otwell Middle School student involved in the production of Dawg Talk, the first and only entirely student-led podcast in Georgia’s Forsyth County Schools.
Dawg Talk is just one production offshoot of Otwell’s A/V Broadcast and Film courses designed by Greg Walkup, the Cumming, Georgia, middle school’s Georgia Assessments for the Certification of Educators (GACE)-accredited instructor in Engineering and Technology Education.
“I am currently earning my doctorate degree in Teacher Leadership with the dream of one day teaching future teachers,” Walkup says as he eyes his May 2025 graduation day.
Since he began at Forsyth County Schools 20 years ago, Walkup has taught at every level – elementary, middle school and high school. He found like-minded educators and dreamers at the middle school level. At Otwell Middle School, Principal Precilla Saint-Jean and Educational Technology Coach David Miller helped him turn the seed of students’ broadcast and film career dreams into an educational reality.
“As a little kid, I always had a camcorder in my hand (think massive 90’s camcorder, lol) and loved to record shots around the house,” Walkup says. “I wish as a student I had the opportunities I support now at Otwell Middle School.”
Those opportunities include three A/V Broadcast and Film courses that cover topics like studio production, podcasting, production and programming, recording and editing, scriptwriting, equipment and set safety, lighting, production teams and professional ethics.
“The goal is [to have]a full-fledged A/V Broadcast and Film program in the near future,” Walkup notes.
Georgia’s Creative Economy, it turns out, is helping the Otwell Middle School superstar dream big enough to take students and other teachers along on the journey. And it’s allowing creative middle school students to set the stage for the rest of their lives.
This article appeared in the 2025 edition of the Creative Economy Journal. See more from the Journal here.
