Three teachers have been selected as finalists for the Floyd County Schools 2007 Teacher of the Year.

The three finalists are Leigha Burnham, an English teacher at Armuchee High, Chesley Chambers, the metal technology instructor at Floyd County Technical High, and Alison Burkhalter, a math teacher at Pepperell Middle.

Burnham teaches ninth-12th grade English and drama. She has been a teacher since 1995 and has spent her entire career in Floyd County Schools. She previously taught at Coosa and Model High schools.

Chambers has also taught since 1995 and has spent his entire teaching career in the technical education field of metal technology. He began teaching at FCTHS in 2004, and previously taught at Cedartown High School, Coosa Valley Technical College and North Metro College.

Burkhalter is in her second year at Pepperell Middle teaching math to sixth-, seventh- and eighth-graders. She is actually back to where she began her teaching career in 1994. Burkhalter has also taught at Kingston Elementary School and Cass Middle.

The finalists were selected by a review committee from the Northwest Georgia Regional Educational Service Agency. The committee made the selections from written applications submitted by representatives from each school.

The three top teachers will now begin the final phase of the selection process, which will include a personal interview of each finalist and classroom observations of them working with students.

The 2007 Teacher of the Year will be announced on Oct. 10 during the monthly meeting of the Floyd County Board of Education