Veteran teacher Camille Jackson is hoping to share her love for math with her students as she embarks on a new year at Verrado High School in Buckeye. She says math is something that has added up to a lot of success!
Recently, ABC15 checked out her Honors Algebra II class, where it really was strength in numbers!
Ms. Jackson, who has been with the Agua Fria High School District for the past 11 years, says she really wants her class to be an interactive space.
"I can talk all day long," she says, "but coming from your peer, it's a little different."
From a very young age, Ms. Jackson knew she wanted to do something involving math.
"I just liked the way that numbers worked and the whole concept, the logic, everything," she says. "It's like a puzzle!"
After graduating from Marcos de Niza High School in Tempe, Ms. Jackson went on to Arizona State University to major in - you guessed it - mathematics!
After ASU, she followed in her mom's footsteps and got a job at a bank, but quickly realized something just wasn't adding up.
"It wasn't enough math for me!" she says.
Ms. Jackson was also working at a Valley Home Depot, where she had a revelation — and it had nothing to do with power tools.
"Cashiers would call me over to void transactions because they didn't know how to count back change...I was like, I think I need to go into education and figure out what's going on and how they don't know these basic skills."
And that's exactly what Ms. Jackson did 25 years ago, and she hasn't looked back!
At the end of her first-period course, Ms. Jackson asked the students something that took ABC15's Nick Ciletti totally off guard: She wanted to know what her students' "a-ha" moment was.
"When the group moved to their third problem, it's almost as if something had clicked, and I wanted to know what it was, and I needed them to share it because other students may not have had it at that time, but it could come later. You realize that everyone is not going to get it at the same time...But what is it that you know so I can help you through it?"
Ms. Jackson says it's also a good reminder for her students - and the rest of us - that not all the answers will come to you right away, but piece by piece, you'll build your way there.
"Just give me what you know, and we go from there. And so it starts as a domino effect. One person gives me something. Doesn't matter what it is, but we'll get to the solution we're looking for, and then I call on someone else and ask what they think the next step would be."
