Justin Kelly, a 27-year-old physical education teacher at Edgewood Elementary School, is the only first year teacher at the school.

Much like the elementary students he teaches, Kelly was a little nervous on his first day, even if he didn’t let that show.

“It’s very exciting when the kids come in. They want to be engaged and do a lot of activities. Pretty much they just want to come to play,” Kelly said.

“They just want to be moving. And that’s my philosophy to keep the kids moving from when they come in to when they leave out.”

As fourth graders shuffled around the classroom, Kelly reviewed the two muscles — triceps and biceps — they had learned about the day before.

After doing some stretching and exercise, the students got in a circle to play hot potato for the remainder of class.

After the game, the students lined up to head back to their academic classes, but they were sure to tell Kelly bye for the day.

“Things have been going pretty well. Just getting the kids engaged and a lot of activities,” Kelly said. “It’s pretty much a learning process for me [too].”

Kelly is a graduate of Alabama State University and a Birmingham native coming to the Queen City to pursue his dream of teaching. He has known for a while now that being an educator is what he was meant to do.

“I’ve wanted to be a teacher ever since my freshman year in college. My mentor was my uncle. He was a coach and also he was a health teacher in Birmingham,” Kelly said. “He was my mentor and I looked up to my uncle and I followed his footsteps.”

Kelly’s uncle, Nathaniel Kelly, or O-main as his family called him, passed away in August 2014. He coached football for more than 30 years, retiring from Carver High School in 2001.

“I just remember the last words he told me before he passed was, ‘Stay motivated, be a father figure to a lot of kids … and be a mentor. Listen to what kids have to say and just do your job. Sometimes you’ll be doing a good job and no one might recognize you, but just keep doing what you do,’” Kelly recalled.

While said he misses his uncle, Kelly plans to live up to his expectations and be the best coach and teacher that he can be.

“He would find something I’m not doing right or say I can improve on,” Kelly said. “If he was here, he would say I’m doing a wonderful job… He would love to see what I’m doing.”