Jordan High School’s new Teacher of the Year is social studies teacher, Brian McDonald, who began teaching at Jordan in 2001.  With an undergraduate degree in History Education from Elon University, Mr.McDonald has taught ESL World History, ESL Civics & Economics, Standard Civics & Economics, Honors Civics & Economics, ESL US History, Honors US History, AP US History, and Minority Studies. Also, he will teach Poverty in America, a course that he created that will be offered throughout Durham Public Schools beginning in the fall of 2009.  In addition to his teaching responsibilities, Mr.McDonald has coached boys and girls swimming, served as co-advisor for the Diversity Club and Habitat for Humanity and worked on various school committees.  He has also served as supervising teacher and on-site coordinator for the Duke Undergraduate Education Program.  In 2007 Mr. McDonald was voted “Most Inspirational Teacher” by the students of Jordan High.  His hobbies include reading, traveling, playing poker and learning.

Over the past several years Mr. McDonald has spearheaded fundraising events like the Tsunami Relief Project in 2004 and the Hurricane Relief Project in 2005.  Currently he is coordinating efforts for the ReBuilding Hope Campaign.  “At present,” reports Mr. McDonald, “our ReBuilding Hope campaign has raised $10,582.03 for the Habitat for Humanity organizations in Durham and New Orleans.  Special thanks to all of you that were involved in our fall semester efforts.  We hope everyone, students, faculty and community members, will participate in upcoming spring events for ReBuilding Hope.  Together, we can make a difference.”  For more information on Rebuilding Hope, click here.

Brook Osborn from the Duke-Durham Public Schools Robotics Program gave a lesson to Jordan students in Kelly Ganci’s Computer Programming 1 class on programming robots.    The students learned how to write programs to control the movements of the robot.  Osborn also told the students about the Duke-Durham Public Schools Robotics Program and the International RoboCupJunior competition.  Duke University sponsors a program through Durham Public Schools in which Duke University students mentor middle and high school student teams to learn to program robots.  "The objective of the program is to foster interest and competence in science, mathematics, and computers, while developing problem-solving skills and enabling creative thinking and design," says Mrs. Ganci.  The program starts at the end of January and runs through April.  Student teams meet every Thursday from 4-5:30pm at Durham School of the Arts.  Duke provides transportation to DSA based on student needs.  Jordan High School is currently recruiting students in order to form a Jordan Robotics team.  If you are interested, see Ms. Pulis in room 303, or Mrs. Ganci in room 301 for an application.  Applications are due by January 18th.  For more information on the program link to http://www.cs.duke.edu/robocup/