On the Path to Purpose

The Ethical Education Committee has developed a student-centered plan that fosters both knowledge and action and reflects the Jackson Academy mission. On the Path to Purpose poses the questions: Who am I?, Who are we?, and What is my purpose? Through self-awareness activities, students are guided to recognize how physical habits, emotions, strengths, interests, and stress affect behavior. Each student is also helped to develop self-management techniques to handle emotions, achieve goals, develop courage, and gain resilience in the face of failure. On the Path to Purpose provides students tools and practice for relating to others effectively, including showing respect, increasing cultural awareness, and honing listening skills. To work toward discerning purpose, students are asked to write a reflection at the end of each grade that will ultimately become a portfolio they will employ in their junior and senior years to write and act upon an individual statement of purpose.

JA Partners with YouScience

Jackson Academy is dedicated to preparing all students to reach their highest potential and succeed through the college years and beyond. The challenge lies in discovering each student’s unique set of talents and understanding how those talents will drive college major, career, and even life choices. In fall of 2015, the counseling office partnered with YouScience, creator of the innovative new tool called the YouScience Profile.

In November 2015, counselors visited each junior and senior English classroom to help students activate their accounts and begin the assessment. With this program, students discover their unique set of talents through the revolutionary intersection of aptitudes, interests, and personality.

The online, scientific program takes students through a series of assessments and interest questions, designed to determine their results in the 14 key aptitudes utilized in the working world. The results include a review of the student’s strengths, suggested environments where they will succeed, detailed information on possible careers that match those skills and interests, majors that map to those careers, and much more. Counselors help students review and interpret the comprehensive assessment results.

The YouScience Profile is designed to help students to make more informed decisions when it comes to major and career-related choices, which can translate into a more cost-effective and enjoyable journey through the college years, as well as helping students make better initial career choices.

Learn more about how the program works and watch
video demonstrations at www.YouScience.com.

JA Pilots Professional Growth Plan

The Professional Growth Plan Committee has launched a pilot professional growth model in the Upper School, with plans to implement the model throughout all divisions in the coming years. The model being tested is designed to be both meaningful to the school and the faculty/staff member and be organized to offer flexibility of goals that are developed collaboratively by the faculty member and his/her dean and the staff member and his/her supervisor. Ultimately, this plan seeks to help each teacher become a better teacher and each staff member become a better staff member.

Modifying Learning Environment

In 2015, JA began the process of modifying the existing school learning environment to promote greater student collaboration, teacher collaboration, student-directed activities, and active classroom engagement. A first step was to study schedule modifications to address the need for greater flexibility in all divisions. JA modified the start time for Middle and Upper Schools in the 2015-16 school year creating before-school teacher office hours. The 7:45 a.m. – 8:15 a.m. protected time is designed to allow students to come to any teacher without an appointment to ask questions, get additional help, or turn in/pick up work from absences. Either the student or the teacher can initiate meetings during this extension of the academic school day.