Meet the APS Elementary School Teacher of the Year: Leslie Harrell-Tumlin, Warren T. Jackson Elementary

Leslie Harrell-Tumlin
Warren T. Jackson Elementary School
Dr. Lorraine Reich, principal
Tamara Cotman, executive director, SRT-4
Leslie Harrell-Tumlin is a 2004 graduate of Furman University where she concurrently completed two bachelor of arts degrees in elementary education and French. Her first teaching assignment led her to an “at-risk” school in rural South Carolina. Two years later, she became the only non-native French teacher at a language immersion school. She is proud to begin her fourth year as a teacher of fourth grade at Warren T. Jackson Elementary School. Presently Tumlin is enrolled in Georgia State University where she is pursuing a master’s degree in reading, language arts, and literature with an ESOL endorsement. (Watch her acceptance speech as Elementary School Teacher of the Year here.)

Tumlin is the International Baccalaureate representative for her grade level, and she serves on both the Data and Leadership Teams at her school. She serves as a faculty liaison for the Green Think Environmental Committee, run by parents of Jackson elementary school. She is currently co-founding a student environmental team for fourth- and fifth-grade students. Tumlin volunteers her time over the summer to work with students in the La Amistad program, and she truly values close parent/teacher interaction. Tumlin regularly incorporates language learning into the classroom and she encourages her students to express themselves through various forms of communication. A proponent of student action, Tumlin provides many opportunities for service learning projects throughout the year.