This article is part of a series by The Vicksburg Post, in partnership with the Vicksburg-Warren County Chamber of Commerce, featuring each of the nominees for teacher of the year honors.

Jazzlyn Harris, a teacher at South Park Elementary, said she uses resources like Nearpod to address all learning styles and apply real-world connections in the classroom. 

Harris is a finalist for the Vicksburg-Warren County Chamber of Commerce’s Educator of the Year award. The chamber will select and announce one elementary and one secondary teacher of the year at the chamber luncheon, which has been rescheduled to Mar. 1. The winner of each award will receive $1,000 from Ameristar Casino and the runner-up for each award will receive $500 from Mutual Credit Union.

Harris began teaching at South Park Elementary as a 6th-grade math teacher. She has also tutored for grades Pre-K through 6th grade at New Vineyard Academy in Jackson, Miss., and at Good Foundation in Vicksburg for grades Pre-K through 12th grade. Harris also is a director and tutor at Kings Empowerment Center for students in first through 12th grade. 

Harris received an associate degree in education from Hinds Community College in 2015. She then earned a Bachelor’s degree in elementary education from Jackson State University in 2017. 

She stated in her Educator of the Year application that it is important to understand not all students learn the same way. 

“One thing that I stress within my classroom is that all students do not learn the same. What may work for one class may not work for the next,” Harris said. 

She described how her math students use an internet resource called Nearpod to learn about coordinate planes and how to find distance on the coordinate plane. 

“My students found maps that related to the coordinate plane and they were able to receive likes on their post. They graphed coordinates and found the distance correctly,” Harris said. 

Harris stated that her lesson on coordinate planes with Nearpod allowed her to teach students with various learning styles and apply the real-world skill of reading a map.