Ep. 6: Ms. Jeffery - Social Studies (former lawyer)

Akilah Jeffery, aka A.A. Jeffery, aka Dr. Jeffery, aka Ms. Jeffery….that’s right! This teacher has worn and still wears a couple of hats. She is an Oakland, CA native who was raised in a family of educators. Growing up, she remembers being in her parents’ classrooms, even sometimes helping out with setting up lessons and organizing graded work. Even during her undergrad at UC Berkeley she continued to work in K-6 classrooms as a classroom aid. She also eventually took part time work as a substitute teacher. But when it came time to choose a career, she wanted to pursue something outside of what she considered her parents’ interest. So she went back to school to become a lawyer. Originally believing she would pursue a concentration in music law, she attended Vanderbilt University and found herself immersed in a vivacious music scene….did I forget to mention that Ms. Jeffery is also a bit of a musician herself? She strongly believes that art and music education had an enormous impact on her success growing up. Having gotten her music fix in Nashville, she finished law school and moved to Seattle where she found herself working in immigration law instead. She found working with immigrant families meaningful and necessary, but also mentally and emotionally exhausting. In her spare time (which she had very little of) she volunteered in a middle school Social Studies class and she realized that she may have been wrong about her place in education. It wasn’t that education in general wasn’t “her thing” but that she had limited her experiences to the elementary classroom. Being in a single-subject classroom was a whole different vibe. She came home to Oakland and pursued her single-subject credential in Social Studies and found a job as a middle school Social Studies teacher at American Indian Public Charter. She loved her job and she even won teacher-of-the-year in her first year at that school. Skyrocketing housing costs caused Ms. Jeffery to leave living in the Bay Area and ultimately her job at American Indian and that is how she has ended up here in Stockton. She has been working at Lincoln High School ever since her move and still loves her job although she misses her former school and the city that raised her. She also teaches law classes in the afternoon at San Joaquin Delta College and has recently written a middle school fantasy novel under the pen name A.A. Jeffery. “Wilda Silva Secret Keeper is a fun, illustrated middle grade novel fantasy about a girl who moves to the Pacific Northwest and finds herself in the midst of a power struggle between fairy courts.” The character Wilda Silva was inspired by fellow teacher Jilliane Gravelle, who one day lamented to Ms. Jeffery about being stereotyped as a wild child for having bright red hair. (Hi Jilliane, we’d love to have you on the show!) Ms. Jeffery’s website www.wildasilva.com is coming soon with more information about publishing dates and where you can get your copy.