Teaching the Teachers

CHATTANOOGA, Tenn. (WDEF) – Teachers across Tennessee are getting the training they need to make sure their students are ready for the future.

Over the summer, they took part in a special conference hosted by the Tennessee Department of Education.

They focused on career and technical education strategies.

One of the speakers at the conference was Tekelia C. Kelly, of CHIPS Learning Services.

Kelly designs programs that helps teachers, help their students.

“What we’ll do is work with a group of students that is usually in a small group no more than 10. And if we do have more than that we have additional teachers who are there with us. Teachers are saying that it’s not so much just what we’re doing, but the relationships that we are building with the students.”

The idea is to help students be on track for college, or a technical career.

Lauren Falkner is a teacher at Georgian Hills Middle School in Memphis.

She’s excited about what she is learning to help her students.

“She just enlightened me with a lot of fun hands on things. Like, she kept saying work based learning that I am praying will work for me in my class. Because, I am going to middle school this year and I’m transitioning to STEM. So this is going to be an adventure for me, I think.”

Tekelia Kelly wants teachers to know that all kids have gifts that can be unwrapped.

She wants to make sure students develop, and grow.

“They can go from the school room, all the way to the board room.”