In the run up to the announcement of BCSD's 22'-23' Teacher of the Year, we spoke to our 21'-22' year winners about their commitment to teaching and what makes Baldwin School District stand out. This blog series highlights those incredible teachers and what they do to make a difference.
For Erica Jackson, teaching is in her blood. Her ancestors founded one of the first Black schools in Little Rock, and her aunt and grandmother both owned daycares where she volunteered as a young girl. So teaching has been a generational endeavor for Jackson and she couldn’t imagine doing anything else.
As a graduate of Georgia College and State University's English Literature program, Jackson understands the importance of relatability when speaking to her ninth grade English students. “A lot of our kids don’t feel like teachers relate to them on an academic or social level,” she said, “I think that’s one of the reasons I love teaching ninth grade lit. You can have a vast world of what you can pull from for them to read. Different authors from different places and different genders give them a world outside of Milledgeville.”
“The first time we read or the first time that we have a discussion, they don’t want to do it, but once they get beyond that fear, the magic comes in and they realize, ‘okay, I can do this’”
This was of particular importance during the Covid shutdown, when many students were isolated from one another and from the outside world. “During Covid, I feel like a lot of kids didn’t get that necessary escape that they needed when they came to school,” Jackson said that many students are still feeling the aftereffects of that period now, and this has led to a critical need for teaching students self-care. “My grandmother used to always tell me, ‘you can’t pour from an empty cup’,” Jackson said, “at some point, we have to look past standardized test scores and look at the individual as a whole.”
In addition to teaching English, Jackson also coaches the cheerleading team where she likes to tell them, “There is magic beyond fear.” She said, “That’s something that I tell my cheerleaders all the time, because if they’re scared and they go in the air and they fall, well, they’re going to fall because they’re scared and then they’ll be more guarded. And in the classroom, a lot of them are intimidated. The first time we read or the first time that we have a discussion, they don’t want to do it, but once they get beyond that fear, the magic comes in and they realize, ‘okay, I can do this’. And that gives them a different type of confidence.”
Jackson began teaching at Baldwin in 2015, and since then she’s had students and cheerleaders who have graduated that she remains in touch with. Many who have graduated from her cheerleading team have gone on to cheer for college and will return to do camps with Jackson because they are compelled to find more magic beyond the fear that comes with new challenges. “That’s a good feeling to have,” Jackson said, “that you’ve made such an impact in someone’s life that they come back when they need school advice or career advice.”
