Golden Apple Award: Jennifer Ellis, STEM School Chattanooga
CHATTANOOGA, Tenn. (WDEF) – Teaching is a family tradition for Jennifer Ellis. Lessons learned from her mother’s 40 years in the classroom gave Jennifer a gift for explaining things quickly and clearly. Now, her students at STEM School Chattanooga are reaping the benefits. That earned Ms. Ellis this week’s Golden Apple Award.
Jim David is Principal at the STEM School.
He explains, “So, Miss Ellis, she’s one of our GCDI, the Global Center for Digital Innovation Teachers. She actually gets to work with students in teaching technical and essential skills. Students get to work on coding, actually get to work on industry certifications, and she gets to spend time helping kids really hone and craft those skills that they need for the real world.”
We asked Jennifer to describe herself.
She said, “I am a woman who loves to create things and loves to help students learn to create and make and figure out what’s going wrong and have that light bulb go off.”
Bella Nelson is a freshman at the STEM School.
She explains, “This is our simple series circuit. We use the traffic light on our paper, and we created a simple series circuit using copper tape and brass brads and paper clips and stuff like that.”
Ms. Ellis tells us, “I have a sister who is a teacher in Bradley County. My father was a coach for like, 50 years in Bradley County, and my mother was a teacher for 40 years in Bradley County. So, I come from a family that works with kids and loves kids and wants to help make kids be ready for the future.”
Freshman Madeline West says, “She really knows how to teach us with hands on learning, and she’s able to explain it in a way that, like, everyone can understand it. And so, we don’t have to ask 15 million questions after.”
Ms. Ellis remembers her inspiration, “I mean, my mom, obviously seeing her work for 40 years was inspiring to be able to just have the want to do something for that long. But then also throughout school, I had some teachers that really were kind of out of the box.”
Freshman Afahaen Khan chips in, “I feel like Miss Ellis is a great teacher, and she, like, always helps us. And I think she’s, like, a great teacher.”
Freshman Ben Kammerer adds, ” She is a great teacher. She’s given me very clear instructions on what to do. And even though I had to start over, and I’ve been motivated to do it because she made it really easy to understand. And it was really simple.”
Ms. Ellis concludes, “I did not want to be a teacher. I was actually majoring in sports medicine, and I got a job at the boys and girls club in Cleveland working with the kids. And that changed my life. I then started coaching also, and I was like, this. This is what I want to do. I want to. I want to help these kids and to learn and grow and just experience new things.”
