Concordia College Alabama is having its annual Education Forum to thank the local administrators that allow students from the college to have hands on teaching experience inside the classroom while still in school.

“We just want to say thank you to the superintendents for opening up their systems, the principals and the teachers for allowing our students to come,” said Tonya Chestnut, division chair for the Teacher Education Program at Concordia.

The program enables current students to work with local educators to gain experience in a classroom before ever having their own.

At the forum, Concordia plans to thank those educators and honor them at the event.

“We just wanted to show them how much we appreciate them allowing us to have our students come in on a weekly basis,” Chestnut said. “Our students get practice working with elementary children before they start their student teaching. Not every college has that kind of support.”

Chestnut said many of the students that participate in the program actually end up staying in Selma and the surrounding areas to teach.

“A lot of our students actually end up teaching in their school systems,” she said. “One of the things we want is to make sure that we provide excellent teachers for the school systems and we’re really pleased to say that for the last four years, we’ve had 100 percent placement of our certified teachers.”

Abby Campbell, director of public relations at Concordia, said the forum was a great way for the college to give back to those that have helped along the way.

“It’s just a way for us to support the hard-working educators in the community. Any time that we can get together and support each other as educators, we want to take advantage of that,” Campbell said.

“I think a lot of times, they don’t get the appreciation they deserve. Being an educator is not an easy job and I think they always deserve encouragement and any time that we can come together and help each other out and give each other ideas as educators is a great thing to do.”

Chestnut said she is looking forward to the forum.

“The school system is the heartbeat of any community,” Chestnut said. “It’s a privilege and a pleasure to be able to say thank you.”

The forum will take place Jan. 18 at 4:30 p.m. at the college’s Wright Complex Auditorium. The community and all area educators are invited to attend and the event is free. Concordia alumni will be honored at the event, as well as superintendents from surrounding school systems. Ella Bell, a State School Board member, will be the guest speaker.