Cherokee Teacher Named Finalist For GA 2022 Teacher Of The Year

CANTON, GA — The Cherokee Schools Teacher of the Year was named a Georgia Teacher of the Year finalist on Monday.

Chelsea Leming, a fifth-grade teacher at Indian Knoll Elementary School, is one of 10 educators announced as one step closer to the statewide title.

The 10 finalists were chosen from a pool of all Georgia school systems’ Teachers of the Year. The finalists’ selection was made by a panel of judges including teachers, past Georgia Teacher of the Year winners, state and local administrators and community leaders. Judges selected finalists based on the strength of their essay responses to questions including why they chose teaching, what drives them as a teacher and examples of outstanding lessons.

“We strongly believe that our teachers are the best in the world, and this well-earned recognition for Chelsea recognizes her as the best of our best and the best of Georgia’s best,” Cherokee Schools Superintendent Brian Hightower said. “She has earned the respect of her students, their families, her colleagues and me through dedicating herself to her profession and showing us how much she cares about teaching and building positive relationships. She is a role model for us all as to how to teach - and to care – for our students at the highest levels.”

Leming and the other finalists will be interviewed by judges and present speeches to the panel, with the overall winner to be named on April 30. The Georgia Teacher of the Year will serve for a year as an ambassador for public education in the state and will advance to the national Teacher of the Year competition.

“The 10 finalists for Georgia’s next Teacher of the Year represent the very best of our state’s public education system,” State School Superintendent Richard Woods said. “They are hardworking, innovative, skilled, and – most importantly – focused first and foremost on students. I am immensely proud of each of them and honored to recognize them as finalists.”

Leming began her education career in 2009 as an eighth-grade teacher at E.T. Booth Middle School and then helped open Indian Knoll Elementary. At Indian Knoll, she teaches fifth-grade English Language Arts and social studies and previously has taught as part of the Early Intervention Program for students who need more academic support.

Known for her skill in blending instructional technology into lessons and for supporting service learning through the school’s Jr. Beta Club, Leming was called to teaching as a student at college.

“I surveyed my life and saw how my own teachers had drastically molded and changed me for the better,” she said. “I saw the enormous influence educators have as they are given the daily opportunity to impact humans in their most formative years. Realizing that a better way to spend a life is in the worthy cause of elevating others, I changed my major to middle grades education and never looked back."