Spotlight 4 Success
We're shining a light on education success stories and talking about current trends and topics of importance to the education community. Join us in conversation!
Spotlight 4 Success
Coaching Victory, Teaching History
As a first-generation college graduate, Jordan's personal journey fuels
his passionate approach to teaching history. His story illustrates the transformative power of education—not just as academic instruction, but as a gateway to previously unimagined possibilities. "It's given me a lot of opportunities that otherwise I may not have had," Jordan reflects, explaining his mission to show students paths they might not consider. From celebrating a student's acceptance to a rival university to coaching track and football alongside his teaching duties, Jordan consistently puts student growth above all else.
Spotlight 4 Success Website: Spotlight 4 Success
Welcome to Spotlight for Success by American Book Company. I'm Devin Pintosi, your host. We are here at Gatlinburg, tennessee, and in a wonderful, wonderful place, to learn more about what's going on in the Tennessee Council of Social Studies community. We are here with Jordan Donaldson. He is with Seymour High School in Sevier County Schools. Welcome, jordan. Hi, all right. So, jordan, tell us a little bit about what it's like in your day-to-day as a teacher in Seymour.
Speaker 2:Oh well, it's definitely going to be a thing where you's you never know what to expect. You come in every day kind of as an open book, because if you come in with an idea of what your day is going to be, it will quickly change on you a lot faster than you would expect. So just that open mind every day is how I try to come in. But you know, I'll come in traditional days just going to be teaching US history, kind of engaging, trying to get more civic discourse in the classroom, all that kind of stuff that's great.
Speaker 1:And so what brought you in to decide to go into the career as a teacher?
Speaker 2:So I had always had, you know, very influential people in my life within education. You know, I had the opportunity to be a first-generation college student and that's something that to me means a lot. It's given me a lot of opportunities that otherwise I may not have had and I'm forever grateful for what education's been able to do for me. So I'd always kind of wanted to give back to that and also show students that there are those other opportunities, those other paths that they may not be accustomed to Always push like, hey, there's more schools than just what's here in Tennessee, you can look everywhere. I recently had a former student that got into the University of Kentucky and I'm like, hey, although a rival to the University of Tennessee where I went, I'm proud of you for branching out and being willing to take those steps.
Speaker 1:Oh, that is wonderful, and what kind of things I understand. You're also coaching, is that right?
Speaker 2:Yes, I also coach track and football.
Speaker 1:Oh, fantastic. And how are the teams doing?
Speaker 2:We just got a new head coach for football. I think there's a lot of excitement kind of around that we're moving to a region where we can definitely be very competitive. A lot of exciting things definitely on the horizon. Track season's rolling right now. We had our first meet yesterday. You know that same kid that's going to the University of Kentucky got first in the 800. You know we had a couple second and third place finishes. So a good start, you know. Great foundation there. Very excited for them for the year.
Speaker 1:At American Book Company in Woodstock, georgia, we are committed to your students' success. As you can see behind me, we have our workbooks and we have online testing and e-books that go on fancy iPads over here, for instance. They're all designed to help your students succeed and have higher test scores on their high-stakes assessments. Give us a call 888-264-5877, or find us on the web, abck12.com, and you can receive a free trial or a free preview book of your choice. Hope to hear from you soon. Bye, bye. Oh, that is wonderful, and can you tell us a story where you feel like students got it in your classroom, where they grasped the concepts?
Speaker 2:Yeah, there's definitely plenty of those opportunities, but there's going to be one that stands out. That's definitely a non-conventional sense of kind of getting it or understanding.
Speaker 2:My first year teaching, I was at a middle school and we did this after-school tutoring program and there was this one student that teachers were having a very hard time breaking through to and for me I was like if I build this relationship, build this connection, he'll then be willing to open up and to kind of take in this information because the thing is, he was a very smart kid and he just wanted to know that someone was there for him, and I wanted to try to supply that in whatever way that I could, whether it be just asking him about something as simple as video games that he enjoys or whatever because then he would do anything that I needed for him to do.
Speaker 1:Oh, that is awesome. That's great, jordan, that's wonderful. Is there anything else you'd like to share with the Tennessee Council of Social Studies community?
Speaker 2:Yeah, I mean definitely. I think this is a great place, a great opportunity for people to network, get ideas that maybe you would never really have thought of, and also within education, I think that it lends itself to the possibility of feeling, kind of this connection with others, that the questions and the things that you think about internally as an educator, those are things that other people are dealing with, trying to figure out. There's this common understanding and it's nice to have that communal feeling, and definitely within the social studies kind of, with what's going on just around us in the world today.
Speaker 1:Oh, that is wonderful. That is fantastic. Well, thank you for being with us here. This is Jordan Donaldson, seymour High School, sevier County Schools. We look forward to hearing more about you in the future and I hope this is a great, incredible conference for you.
Speaker 2:Yeah, absolutely, thank you, thank you.