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Congratulations to McKinna Smith, who signed with Northwest Community College’s Rangers women’s basketball team in a ceremony held last Wednesday morning in the Jackson Academy Learning Commons. McKinna has played varsity basketball since ninth grade, starting her career at Copiah Academy. She transferred to Jackson Academy at the beginning of her senior year.
In preparation for Martin Luther King Jr. Day, students in each of Jackson Academy’s divisions learned from the remarkable Civil Rights leader’s life last Friday, which fell on King’s actual birth date. King’s passion to achieve equality through nonviolent protest significantly furthered the cause of justice for minorities, spearheading much of the work to desegregate American life and culture in the 50s and 60s. Through age-appropriate activities, JA teachers encouraged their students to use the long weekend to contemplate the foundation that King laid and how they will contribute to a world of justice and equality for everyone. In this article, we feature a single project from each academic division.
When current JA seniors head off to college next fall, many of them will do so with several hours of college credit already complete. In 2019, Jackson Academy signed a dual enrollment agreement with Belhaven University, allowing JA students who meet Belhaven’s admission requirements to take classes that earn college and high school credit simultaneously. The credits earned through Belhaven transfer to other accredited colleges and universities.
Jackson Academy is pleased to announce the second quarter Honor Roll and Academy Honor Roll for the 2020-2021 academic year.
Monday morning, Jackson Academy families awoke to snow on the ground and enjoyed the day off from school to play in the snow. The school’s administration announced Sunday that school would be closed Monday as a winter storm blanketed parts of Texas, Louisiana, Alabama, Tennessee, and, most importantly, Mississippi, in snow.
The Mississippi Association of Independent Schools held the annual concert band clinic Thursday and Friday in an abbreviated fashion. Jackson Academy musicians were among those who auditioned via recordings to perform with musicians from other independent schools. MAIS limited the clinic to 50 students this year. Students from eight schools earned spots. In a socially distanced setting at Hinds Community College, nine students represented JA, most holding first or second chair positions.
On Thankful Thursday, third and fourth graders reflect on the people and things they feel grateful for. They write their thoughts in gratitude journals, and on some Thursdays, they write their thoughts in letters to the people they are thankful for. “Ms. Love has started doing Thankful Thursday each week during her morning message to the Lower School,” Fourth Grade Teacher Abbie Cox explained. “In conjunction with this, many teachers have discussed being thankful more in depth on Thursdays in their morning meeting. Now more than ever, it is so important to recognize the many blessings we have been given.”
Yesterday, JA fourth graders looked at their math classrooms from a new perspective. Rulers in hand, they searched out items to measure, learning the length of desks, books, and even floor tiles as they studied measurement.
At JA, our fourth graders do math a little differently. Around 2005, Head of the Lower School Sarah Love heard of another school that had started dividing boys and girls into same-sex classes for mathematics. Love began doing research on her own and implemented gender-based math classes in 2006.
JA brightens up the season each year with a “Merry JA Christmas Carpool,” this year held Thursday, December 10. Special friends such as Elsa, Ana, and the Grinch, as well as Mr. and Mrs. Claus, delighted students during their morning arrival.
College is different from high school, no doubt. Last week members of the class of 2018, 2019, and 2020 joined the current senior class in the Learning Commons to talk about the college experience. The first panel was held on Wednesday and attended by senior girls, who heard from Reese Anderson ‘20, Kennedy Nations ‘20, Azaria McDowell ‘20, Kayla Shepherd ‘20, Lizzy Childress ‘20, Avery Hederman ’19, Olivia Stringer ‘18, Skylar Alexander ‘19, and Erin Hederman, ‘19. The senior boys heard from Brent Butler ‘20, David Robertson ‘18, Miles Johnson ‘20, and Joseph Adams ‘20 the next day during their lunch break.