Submitted photoJordan Nelms, left, was presented a plaque by VSU's Partnership Relations Specialist Melissa Nolley. Nelms was recognized at the school recently and awarded a plaque by Partnership Relations Specialist Melissa Nolley from VSU.  

Jordan Nelms, kindergarten teacher at Hand-in-Hand Primary School, was named Outstanding 2021 Mentor Educator in Teaching Fields by Valdosta State University. The Dewar College of Education and Human Services started this award this year recognizing dedicated PreK-12 educators who mentor college students who are becoming future educators.

Nelms has been teaching in the Thomas County School System for eight years and has taught kindergarten for six of those years. She was inspired at the beginning of her teaching career by Rita Pearson during a powerful TED Talks speech. Two of the most powerful quotes from that speech made a huge impact on her teaching philosophy. The first was that “Kids don’t learn from people they don’t like,” and the other was “Every child deserves a champion, an adult who will never give up on them, who understands the power of connection, and insists that they become the best that they can possibly be.”

“That is what I hope to pass on to any current OR future educator that comes across my path,” Nelms said. “Our most important jobs as educators are to build relationships with our students FIRST. I want future teachers to understand that they have to know their kids; know their likes and dislikes, their strengths and weaknesses, how they learn best, and when they need you to be their champion! If this kind of learning happens first on our end, then student learning will occur no matter what!”

Nelms was chosen as the most outstanding mentor out of 27 nominees. Among the 27, four of the other Teacher Educator nominees were from the Thomas County School System including Amy Sowell, Holli Rossi, Lauren Huite, and Shelley Kines.

Starting this year, VSU students had the opportunity to nominate mentors who had a positive, significant impact on their journey to becoming a future educator. Nelleah Shellman was Nelms’ mentee (student teacher) this past year.

Shellman said, “If I had to describe Mrs. Jordan, I would say she is extraordinarily patient with her students and has a plenty of innovative teaching strategies up her sleeve. She is a very organized and hard-working teacher.”

One thing Shellman learned from Nelms’ differentiated instructional strategies is that everything should have balance in order to be able to manage a classroom total of 25 students.

“Mrs. Jordan taught me easier ways to conduct a classroom in an organized manner while maintaining a timely schedule,” Shellman added. “I learned that things may not go as planned (especially in a kindergarten classroom), but you must keep moving forward and just improve the next time. Overall, Mrs. Jordan was an excellent mentor teacher to me, and I can now add her to my book of inspirational and influential teachers.”