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Joy sounds simple until you try to lead with it every day. From Summer GAEL 2026 in Jekyll Island, Georgia, we sit down with Tawana, the principal of Sumter County Elementary School, to talk about what it really looks like to “bring the joy” into a new building and why that mindset can change everything from teacher morale to student engagement.
Welcome to Spotlight for Success with American Book Company. I'm your host, Derek Pentozi, and here we are at Summergale 2026 in Jekyll Island, Georgia. Today we have our special guest here, Tawana. She is the principal for Sumter County Elementary School, and we're so thankful to have you here to Tawana.
Yes, from the speaker we just saw, I learned just to bring the joy. And I want to bring the joy into my new building. I have new teachers, I haven't met them, but I want to go in with a positive impact on them and hopefully it'll spread amongst the teachers, which is spread amongst the students, and we just have joy in the building because when the students are happy, then we can make things happen.
SPEAKER_02
Yeah, yeah, for sure. You're happy, you'll learn, yeah,
for sure. And you mentioned earlier that it's your first year as a principal in your school. Tell me about that.
SPEAKER_00
Yeah, this is my first year. Um, it was an unexpected blessing. My superintendent called me and asked me, um, told me that he's gonna transfer me as a principal. And I was excited. I'm starting my 29th year of teaching, I've been in education that long. Congratulations. And so um I did a lot of work to get here, and I think I'll be great at the job. Um, I'm a little nervous, but I am excited. It's a lot to learn. You know, you always think that you know it when you get a position, but but but now the few days I've been approaching, I realize it's a lot of work, and I haven't even started the job yet.
SPEAKER_02
Yeah.
SPEAKER_00
And so I'm really excited, but I do think that um they have prepared me for the job.
SPEAKER_02
Yeah, for sure. Yeah, there's there's always something new to learn.
SPEAKER_00
Yes, always something new.
SPEAKER_02
Always something new to learn. And what's something you're excited about this upcoming upcoming school year?
I'm excited about, I'm excited about just getting to know the third grade. This is my first year. I haven't been with third grade in over 12 or 15 years, between 12 and 15 years, so I'm excited to deal with little people. So, you know, they bring, they are so innocent and they are so exciting, and I just love how they think. So I'm excited to get to know my third graders and to spend time with them. I'm also excited about we have an Academic Achievements Academy, an accelerated achievements academy. That's our gifted and high achievement students in grades three through six, and I am very, very excited about our academy. It's new, and we have a lot of great ideas for them. We got a lot of things planned for them to do that are innovative, that are different, and we're just gonna push them, push them, push them further in what they're doing.
SPEAKER_02
Perfect. And uh, do you have any last words for the Gale community?
Last words for the Gale community. Everything is wonderful. I would um advise anybody who has not ever attended the summer gale or any of the sessions that Gail offered, they should attend because you it's a lot to learn. It's a lot of networking. You get to know people and you get to learn a lot and you get to um you get to learn enough to take back to your community, take back to your school, just to help your district to be greater.
to. How did how did teachers use um our books in your classrooms?
SPEAKER_00
So the teachers use them as part of a part of their curriculum. We noticed in fifth grade that our science scores were kind of down on the Georgia milestone. And so the teacher said they needed something extra to help give the kids what they need, give the kids the standards, provide the kids the standards that they would need that was more effective. And so what we did was we saw that ABC Books had a science book, and we had our teachers, our team leaders to look in the book, um, they sent us a preview, and we had them look through it, and they were like, this is perfect to add to what we're already doing with our students. And so we bought the books late. Like I hate we bought the books in January because I think if we would have gotten them again of the year, it would have been even more effective. But we got in January and we saw an increase in our scores from the previous year. We had more kids making threes and fours on the Georgia Milestone assessment just in that short period of time. You know, we had some amazing math and science teachers anyway, but they really, really said that that book, that you all ABC Science Book of Fifth Grade really, really helped them a lot. And they were happy that we um that we bought it for them.
SPEAKER_02
That's so amazing. Thank you for sharing that.
SPEAKER_00
They looked the assessments, uh, assessments and everything that was included.
