When you talk with Kelly DeLozier about teaching, one thing becomes clear very quickly: she really loves kids.
She loves the songs, the crafts, the funny things they say and the excitement on their faces when they suddenly understand something new. She even loves those moments when one of her preschoolers remembers the next word to a rhyme before she does.
“They are just so adorable,” she says with a laugh.
This year, Knoxville Christian School is excited to welcome Kelly as an Early Learning teacher. For Kelly, stepping back into the classroom has been more than a return to education. It has reminded her of a calling that has been part of her life since she was a teenager.
A Life Built Around Education
Kelly grew up in Coral Gables, Florida, with education all around her. Her mother taught Pre-K and art, while her father taught a class similar to wood shop.
At just 15, Kelly began working with children in after-school programs and camps. From there, nearly every job she held involved education in some way.
While attending college in Florida, she worked with preschool and elementary students before transferring to East Tennessee State University, where she majored in Early Childhood and Elementary Education.
She arrived in Tennessee knowing no one and quickly earned the nickname “the foreigner” because of her Florida roots. But it didn’t take long for East Tennessee to feel like home. Kelly worked in after-school programs, completed student teaching in kindergarten, first and fifth grades, supervised an after-care program and served as an aide in second- and third-grade classrooms.
Being an aide proved especially valuable. It gave Kelly an appreciation for all the people it takes to make a school work. She learned that great education isn’t just about what happens at the front of a classroom. It’s also about how people treat one another.
That lesson would become especially meaningful years later when she found KCS.
Finding Her Way Back
Kelly eventually taught third grade in South Florida for a short year before returning to East Tennessee, the place she called home, where she taught second and third grades.
Later, when her family needed her at home, she stepped away from the traditional classroom and homeschooled her two daughters. Education remained a constant in her life, but as her daughters grew older and became more independent, Kelly began to realize how much she missed having a classroom of her own.
Returning wasn’t necessarily easy. Kelly renewed her teaching license, becoming certified for Pre-K through eighth grade, and began looking for the right place to start this new chapter. She knew she wanted something different this time.
She wanted a Christian school where faith could be part of the classroom. Then she found Knoxville Christian School.
Rediscovering Her Passion at KCS
Kelly first experienced KCS through its summer program, working with two- and three-year-olds. She originally expected to serve as an assistant, but when another lead teacher was needed, she stepped into the role. And something clicked.
Kelly had always loved third grade, but Early Learning gave her an opportunity to experience education in a completely different way.
“I feel like I’ve found my passion again,” she says.
With young learners, Kelly gets to help build the foundation for everything that comes next. Learning can be hands-on, active and full of imagination.
She uses alphabet and number-formation rhymes to help children remember how to write. She incorporates movement and music into lessons. There are art projects, songs and plenty of opportunities to learn through play.
If she forgets a word in one of their rhymes, chances are one of her students will happily remind her. And whenever she gets the chance, there is singing, from “Itsy Bitsy Spider” to “Jesus Loves Me.”
For Kelly, these aren’t just fun activities. They’re ways to help children discover that learning can be joyful.
A Classroom Created With Love
Kelly has poured that same enthusiasm into creating a space for her students.
Her classroom didn’t start out as an official classroom, but today, it is a forest-themed Early Learning space filled with centers, activities and little details Kelly has carefully curated and created.
She loves finding treasures at KARM that can become something special for her students. Her mother still gets involved, too, mailing classroom items from Florida. And Kelly is always planning.
At the moment of her interview, she was working on an art project featuring insect friends and an iguana for the letter “I.” That’s just how she operates.
She plans ahead not only because she loves creating things for her students, but because she wants anyone stepping into her classroom to have what they need. Having served as a substitute herself, she knows how valuable that preparation can be.
More Than a Place to Teach
What ultimately made KCS feel right to Kelly wasn’t just the opportunity to teach again. It was the people. She was struck by a staff that prays together, teachers who genuinely help one another and a school culture where faith is demonstrated through actions.
She especially credits Early Learning Director Cathy Riesen with setting that example through her kindness and willingness to step in wherever she is needed. After years of experiencing education from almost every angle, camp counselor, after-care worker, aide, teacher and homeschooling mom, Kelly knows how meaningful that kind of environment can be.
Education as a place that she belongs has reinforced something she has known since she was 15 years old. “This is my joy. This is my passion,” she says. “I cannot imagine working in any other field.”
Stepping back into the classroom has reminded Kelly just how much she missed it: the children, the creativity, the relationships and the feeling that what she is doing matters. And she believes finding KCS at this particular moment wasn’t an accident.
“God knew this is where I needed to be.”
For Kelly, that may be the most meaningful part of returning to the classroom.
She came to KCS ready to pour into her students.
Along the way, she found a school community that poured right back into her.
Come See What Makes KCS Different
At Knoxville Christian School, students are more than a name on a class list. From our littlest learners in Early Learning through our graduating seniors, we want every student to be known, encouraged, and given room to grow academically, socially, and spiritually.
Teachers like Kelly are a big part of what makes that possible. They bring experience, creativity, faith and a genuine love for their students into the classroom every day.
If you’re looking for a school where your child can learn in a caring, Christ-centered community, we’d love to show you around.