Jackson is a Hands-On Teacher for Yates Students

Kindergarten teacher Jamila Jackson came late to the teaching profession but brought a clear vision with her when the Lexington mother of five became an educator.

“My children had some positive experiences and some negative experiences with school,” she said. “I wanted to make sure no one else’s child had the negative experiences we did, so instead of staying home and griping about it, I did something to change it.”

So, more than 10 years after she left college to raise a family, Jackson returned to school to become a teacher.

Seven years ago, she started her new career as a fourth-grade teacher at William Wells Brown Elementary. Two years later, she joined the Booker T. Washington Elementary staff as a fourth grade teacher for one year before moving to Yates Elementary where she started in fifth grade. For the past three years, she has taught kindergarten.

Active at her church, Jackson understood kids from teaching Sunday School classes and raising her own children, who range in age from 17 to 27. She also is choir director and music minister at her church and a grandmother of four.

“I knew a lot about children but teaching was a whole other beast,” Jackson said.

Class management and teaching to standards while keeping students engaged was challenging… it still is.

“I still have doubts and every year feels like the first year,” Jackson said. “Doubts are a good thing, though. They keep you learning, keep you on your toes.”

That’s literally the case in her classroom where you can find Jackson engaged with students while exercising together, singing and dancing, huddled together as a group or with Jackson on the floor with her students doing hands-on activities.

“I’m determined and hard-working but I’m also a fun and animated teacher,” she said. “I don’t believe in ‘sit and get.’ You have to have the students engaged or there is no real learning.”

Jackson also serves as a role model, sometimes even making mistakes on purpose to show her kids that all of us stumble sometimes and no one should fear failure.

At first a bit reluctant to move from upper elementary to kindergarten, she now loves that age group.

“The kids are excited and love to learn,” she said, “and you get to see their growth so quickly.”