01/29/2019 -
Name:
Jordan Johnson
Years at SCOE:
Five years in my current position. Before that, I was a substitute teacher with SCOE for four years while I was going to school to become a teacher. While I was growing up, my mom worked with SCOE as a teacher’s aide (TA) working with Transition Students.
Job Title:
Specialized Health Services Teacher at Maria Carrillo High School. Soon, I hope to also be working as an adjunct teacher with the Be a Teacher intern program.
How do you describe your job to people outside SCOE?
I tell them I work with students with severe cognitive and physical disabilities.
Where did you grow up?
Here in Santa Rosa. I graduated from Santa Rosa High School.
Who was your favorite childhood teacher and why?
My high school art teacher Ms. Demeure was my favorite teacher. Her class was the one class I got a good grade in. I know she cared about me even though I was obnoxious. I had a feeling that she saw something in me that I couldn’t see myself. I still love to draw and paint and even include art in my class. I draw a picture, then we put paint in squirt guns and we’ll squirt the paint on the picture together.
What is your favorite thing about working for SCOE?
The SCOE community that has enriched me and helped me be who I am. The teachers that have taught me to see myself and my students differently and have encouraged me in a way that was empowering and ultimately led me to who I am today.
What is one of your most memorable moments as a SCOE employee?
Working with the adaptive PE teacher, Mike Webb, to put on Olympics-type events. We have two or three other specialized health services classes come to our school and do a series of adapted sports including baseball, football, hockey, and more.
Outside of work, what is your favorite hobby or way to unwind?
I have a master’s degree in philosophy and I love reading philosophy and theology. I teach at my church and I want to teach philosophy at a college level in the future. Mike Webb teaches a kinesiology class at Sonoma State University and I love to speak to his class about the philosophy of disability. My New Year’s resolution was to study the philosophical aspects of Freud.
What is your favorite place in Sonoma County?
The Roxy Movie Theater. That’s where I met my wife when we were both working there. We’ll go on dates there and tell the employees (who do not care at all) that we met there.
What is one thing that might surprise people to learn about you?
I used to break dance in high school. I remember going to my mom’s class one time to break dance for the students. This was during high school, when I was working very hard to be cool and find acceptance. There was no "working to be cool" involved in my mom’s classroom. I felt accepted from the minute I walked in the door. To me these students just seemed to exude generosity. It felt like home.
Is there anything else you'd like people to know?
I want to say how my amazing my students are. That is another one of my favorite things about SCOE. Meeting these people and their families is what it’s all about. They’ve changed my life as much as the teachers I’ve learned from. Working with students with severe cognitive and physical disabilities has caused me to rethink a lot about what wellbeing is and what it means to be human. It’s deepest value doesn’t lie in achieving independent success, but has to do with helping one another and being present to one another as opposed to trying to achieve some abstract goal that will probably in the end disappoint.
