Hey there! I’m Dr. Todd Burnett—born and raised in Greenville, South Carolina. Most people just call me Burnett, and honestly that’s what I prefer. The “Dr.” is mostly useful when my students are trying to sound serious. I’m heading into year 14 in education. I spent eight years at Woodmont Middle School, four years at Hillcrest High School, and I’m now starting year two at Greenville High School.

Now, I didn’t exactly take the fast lane into teaching. I started with a Business Administration degree in Marketing, fully expecting to climb the corporate ladder and conquer the business world. Instead, life took a few turns. I worked in shipping warehouses loading trucks, spent time in restaurant kitchens flipping steaks, and generally did a lot of “figuring life out.” Then the 2008 recession hit, and by late 2010 I had lost my job and ended up working as a school custodian. Funny enough, that’s where things finally clicked. Being around classrooms every day and watching teachers work with students made me realize education might actually be where I belonged. Somewhere between the floor wax and the cleaning carts, I figured out that helping students prepare for real life was a lot more meaningful than anything I’d done before. So eventually I traded the mop for a whiteboard.

By fall of 2013, I had my own classroom. Since then, I’ve earned a Master’s in Education (Administration) and a Doctorate in Curriculum and Assessment—because apparently once I start something, I just keep going until they make me stop. My teaching style is pretty straightforward: keep things practical, keep things real, and make sure students leave with skills they can actually use in life. We’ll talk about money, careers, decisions, and the real-world stuff adults deal with every day. Also, fair warning: I run mostly on Coca-Cola and sarcasm, so students usually get a little bit of both.

So here we are—year 14. Same mission as always: teach what matters, keep things honest, and hopefully send students out into the world a little more prepared than when they walked in.

Let’s go, GHS!