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It’s Great To Meet You!
I’m Jill Jackson and I’m the head paper stapler, content creator, lead Diet Coke guzzler… oh and I started Jackson Consulting on July 1st, 2002 with a vision of making education life do-able for my fellow teachers, coaches and principals. I taught Kindergarten, 1st grade, 5th grade and 6th grade and reading interventions before I became a principal. After that I went to work in the San Francisco area for a company who trained teachers how to teach reading.
So, if you’re in search of a heaping spoon of up-beat real talk about education and real-life solutions to the things that drive us crazy in teaching, then you’ve come to the right place. We don’t do philosophies, big-picture thinking or strategic planning – nope.
We talk about all of the how-tos that you can teach and use tomorrow in your classroom.
A Bit About Me
I have been told that I am part-time entertainer and part-time trainer…and I’ll accept that! I believe that the work has to get done whether we’re laughing at it and about it or not. I choose to laugh! Oh, a little more about me…I like lists. You’ll see that if you keep reading! Here are some random facts about me that have nothing to do with education but may interest you a bit!
- I love organizing and when I organize something I go back and admire it over and over again… I think there’s a treatment for this somewhere.
- I only like to sit on the left hand side of the plane (right-hand side if you’re sitting down facing the cockpit) and I hate it when there’s turbulence and turning at the same time.
- I’ve made my stage debut at 9 years old wearing a huge, stinky, life-size singing songbook costume – it was blue and fuzzy and was probably 6 feet high and 3 feet wide… my name was Harmony and I sang a song about ears.
- I really love to cook but I tend to make some iteration of tacos most often: taco salad, taco pile-up, tostadas, nachos… I need to branch out.
- I used to have two tattoos (dumb 17 year old decision) but I spent 3 years and a lot of cold, hard cash to get rid of them – the Dr. who did the laser treatments, is named Dr. Tattoff and he was a contestant on Big Brother.
- I was teacher of the year in my third year of teaching but I think it was only because they couldn’t vote the same person twice and they ran out of people to nominate.
- I love all things trash reality TV… if they film it, I watch it.
- I would love to be an interior designer as my job… but really only on my own house, which I guess doesn’t pay the bills.
- I can recognize the airport you’re in if you just send me a picture of the carpet (I’m not proud of this).
- I ditched my college Spanish class so often that my professor chased me down a hill to get me to come to class (I ran away and didn’t go to class that day).
- I am a native Los Angelean… my grandma was born in Los Angeles and now I live on the 28th floor in downtown LA overlooking the Hollywood sign – it’s awesome!
If I can’t help a teacher answer the question ‘How do I teach this tomorrow?’ then I haven’t done my job yet.
What I Do Best
I really enjoy figuring out how to make complex, overblown things simple.
One of the things I really am honored to be a part of is helping educators have their, “Oh yeahhhhhhhhhhhh….now I get it!” moments! It’s really the best thing because I know that once a leader/coach/teacher has confidence and ‘gets it,’ then I’ve just helped 30+ kids ‘get it,’ too!
That’s the reason I do what I do.
My guiding mantra when I’m writing or working in the field is this: If I can’t help a teacher answer the question ‘How do I teach this tomorrow?’ then I haven’t done my job yet. I believe that one of my jobs is helping teachers build their teaching mojo and confidence. I know that once their confidence is up, they feel
I look for the technique of least resistance because I don’t feel like we have to make huge pendulum swings to get the results we’ve been looking for for so long.
I am best when I am taking things off of people’s to-do list, not adding them.
I have written six books. (And THIS coming from a woman who graduated from college with a 1.7 GPA!)
Blogs to Get Started With
I got REJECTED by Learning Forward! (Part 2)
This is Part 2 of a two part article about my rejection (ha!). If you want to read the first part, check this out! Email I just got regarding an article I submitted... Hi Jill, Thank you for submitting your article to The Learning Professional – we appreciate your...
I got REJECTED by Learning Forward! (Part 1)
Email I just got regarding an article I submitted... Hi Jill, Thank you for submitting your article to The Learning Professional – we appreciate your interest in publishing with Learning Forward. I am sorry to say we won’t be able to publish your article in an...
Why we teach comprehension skills/strategies…DUH!?!
For those of you who have heard me speak in person, you know that I come from a complete place of humility about teaching. Throughout my speaking gigs, I say, "I didn't have a clue about this when I taught!" or "All of my former students are probably in prison...
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