PROJECT INSPIRETo learn more about Project Inspire, visit www.projectinspiretn.org
After watching Jamal Lett explain his passion for helping underprivileged students, organizers of TEACH/Here, Chattanooga’s teacher residency program, knew the effort was more than just about recruiting qualified educators.
Lett, a resident working with a veteran teacher at Orchard Knob Middle School, explains on video how one of his middle school teachers inspired him to want to do better – inspiration that’s stuck with him to the age of 23. Now, he tries to give his students that same gift of inspiration.
“You have to give them a reason to want it. That’s what wakes me up every day,” he said.
In hearing Lett’s philosophy, program organizers realized that the work of TEACH/Here, which places teachers in urban schools, is about more than just job placement.