I got to watch a match at my event instead of focusing on repairs!!
My daughter Zoe Jane made these graphics for my Droid lab and I LOVE them!
Hello, I'm JediJILL
I'm the S.T.E.M. Director for Burns Science and Technology School in Oak Hill, FL. I enjoy blending my expertise in S.T.E.M. instruction with an appreciation of modern technology trends and innovative instructional approaches. A few of my favorite former students dubbed me with my moniker. My students have told me I am, "like a Jedi Master at teaching new facts about the universe that astonish the mind." A student also once said, "wow, you just Jedi mind tricked us into learning something when we thought we were just having fun!" To me those were the very best compliments EVER in the history of compliments!
I enjoy researching ancestry and I like finding out more about my family tree. I was born at Fort McPherson, GA. My daddy was in WW2 and Korea, and he taught R.O.T.C. at Frederick Douglas Jr. High School in Atlanta, GA for 30+ years. My MaMa was descended from the Griffith family, and our cousins have traced our ancestry back to 1132 A. D.-- Rhys ap Gruffydd, and Rhys ap Rhydderch, and Castle Howell in Wales, UK.
I'm on Team Kraken-BattleBots. You can watch the show "BattleBots" on The Discovery Channel. Our first time on the show was in 2018. Kraken has been on the show each season since then. *Now, you may go to Las Vegas and see Kraken compete year-round at the "Destruct-A-Thon!"* When my daughter and I are at the tapings I'm in charge of Kraken's batteries and keeping track of any anomalies in battery power during filming, and I helped design the first flamethrower for Kraken for the 2019 season, and I you might hear me screaming with pride when the flamethrower works during our fights on the show! --I did a thing!
My daughter Zoe Jane is the team's amazing and hard working graphic designer, and she is also a robot fabricator. She helps to build mini-bots and paints the teams mini-bot narwhal "Wally" you can see fighting alongside Kraken on the show. Zoe Jane won BattleBots "Best in Crate" poll awards for the 2018 and the 2019 seasons for painting the crate that we ship the robots, pit tools, and supplies in. She has also built small 1 lb. and 3 lb. robots and competes locally whenever she can. She is currently in college and has plans to become a dental hygienist.
I taught for 3 years (2009-2012) in a remote village called Golovin on the Bering Sea in Alaska. I taught 2nd - 6th grades, and I was the "Success for All" reading facilitator for Pre-K - 12th grade, I was also the technology liaison for the district at our site, and I was the spelling bee coach --with 1st - 3rd place champion spellers 3 years in a row. The Iditarod sled dog race passes right through Golovin on the historic Iditarod trail. When we lived there, there were only 149 people residing in the village. There was a tiny shack with 4 shelves for our "grocery store" and all gravel for the road that went from the airstrip "downhill" to the oldest part of the village. That is where my daughter and I lived and where the school is located. The main mode of transportation was a by bush plane to the nearest airport 90 miles away in Nome, AK. I ordered groceries over the phone from the "big" grocery store in Nome, and then I would buy my groceries a plane ticket and the store would deliver them to the airport, and if the weather cooperated we would get our groceries in a day or two via bush plane. From Nome you could fly 540 miles to get to Anchorage. It was an amazing adventure and a wonderful experience.
I used to be a drum technician for mostly obnoxious rock bands and I toured as one of the first female backline and front of house crew members to tour with national acts in the 1980s. I toured with Nantucket throughout North Carolina and the east coast, and I assisted Clyde Duncan on many tours helping out with Tommy Lee's kits on Motley Crue, and I toured with Van Halen on "5150", Ozzy Osbourne on "Ultimate Sin", and many more. I did pyro with Mike Singleton on Iron Maiden. I also did lighting for Molly Hatchet and wardrobe repairs for Adam Ant, Billy Idol, and The Romantics. I was in stage union IATSE Local 479 in Atlanta, and was also a freelance stagehand at many venues in Georgia, South Carolina, Tennessee, and Alabama. I broke my back in a car wreck after my favorite tour working for the opening act --Rhythm Corps-- on Pat Benatar's, "Wide Awake in Dreamland." I had to learn how to walk again, and was in a back brace for 9 months, so I quit touring and started college. My last tour was with Motley Crue on their "Quaternary" tour in 1994. Clyde Duncan asked me to come out and take care of tuning and setting up the acoustic kit for a short leg of that tour.
I have 4 college degrees:
AA in Elementary Ed. w/minor in Computer Technology--graduated magna cum laude from Georgia Military College
AS in Gen. Studies w/ minor in Psychology--graduated magna cum laude from Georgia Military College
BFA in Digital Design and Visual Communication--graduated summa cum laude from AIU
Master of Education in Elementary Education--graduated w/a 3.9 GPA from UOP
I am a work in progress. I love to learn new things --and rediscover things I forgot that I once learned, and how things can work together to make more things!! I like to teach students that they can teach too. I love to see and learn about people's adventures and accomplishments. In my lab we build stuff, break stuff, put stuff together again.
I want everyone to be free, proud, and excited about their endeavors. I want everyone to enjoy a lifetime of peaceful, as well as exciting and adventurous journeys. I love hearing about people who are loving their life here on Earth and beyond!
Oh, and I like Star Wars a little bit ;-) ….among many other fandoms!
Live Long, Prosper, and May the FORCE be with Y'all!!!
Here are some photos of me on the "Quaternary" tour with Motley Crue. Bottom left was Tommy Lee's drum techs on that tour from left to right: Fumi, me, and Clyde Duncan