While some Orchard Knob Middle School students focus on academics in traditional classrooms, down the hall a different kind of learning is taking place.
From stocking shelves in a mock grocery store and sorting mail to doing laundry, the school’s exceptional education students now have the opportunity to learn life skills in a newly renovated hands-on classroom. Thanks to a partnership with Leadership Chattanooga, the school’s former vocational education shop has been transformed into a modular classroom with different stations for learning.
Teachers like Kristin Roberts hope this type of learning does what any kind of education does for students – better prepare them for life after graduation.
“Hopefully it means down the line these students will be able to walk into a company and apply for a job and show them they already have the skills to do the job,” she said.
Stratton Tingle, a member of the Leadership Chattanooga group who helped put the classroom in place, said the project is also an exciting and quantifiable example of ways businesses can work with schools to improve education and workforce development.
“Chattanooga is built on public/private partnerships,” he said. “It’s about business people in the community coming together and working on community focused projects.”
Tingle described the classroom before it was renovated as being a “furniture graveyard.” Donations of materials, time and services from nearly a dozen local businesses resulted in the finished space that will now facilitate the school’s SUCCEED program. SUCCEED stands for students utilizing classroom and community to enhance everyday development.