Alright – so today we’ve got the honor of introducing you to Jordan Johnson. We think you’ll enjoy our conversation, we’ve shared it below.

Hi Jordan, thanks for joining us today. Was there a moment in your career that meaningfully altered your trajectory? If so, we’d love to hear the backstory.

There was. I was teaching in a public school, a school that I actually really loved with administrators that I respected and admired but the more I learned and the more confident I became as an educator, the more I recognized that we were not serving our students well in a lot of areas. It also became really hard for me to imagine sending my own children to a school in my district where my values were not always in alignment with how I was being asked to teach.

As always, we appreciate you sharing your insights and we’ve got a few more questions for you, but before we get to all of that can you take a minute to introduce yourself and give our readers some of your back background and context?

I graduated from Southeast Missouri State University with a BSW in Social Work, so I was a Foster Care Case Manager for a couple of years before I obtained a teaching certificate in Elementary Education through the American Board, and graduated from The University of Missouri with a Master’s degree in Educational Leadership and Policy Analysis.

I taught fourth grade for four years and also served as a Recovery Room teacher for a yea, serving as a student advocate, managing and documenting behavior and intervention plans. As a classroom teacher, I had always been a proponent of outdoor education and honoring the student as a whole person. Once I graduated with my Masters, I applied for an administrative position with City Garden School, a nature-immersive, arts-integrated school here in Columbia and I’ve been in the Head of School position for about two years now! I feel really good in this role because I know what the amazing educators I get to work with do every day. I feel so proud of the mission and know how important the work we are doing really is. Our students get ample time outside, we are very intentional with making sure social emotional learning is consistently happening, art is infused in every lesson- City Garden is just such a beautiful place to work and learn.

How do you keep your team’s morale high?

My advice is to hire a really good team haha! If you have competent staff who really know the “why” of your mission, that’s half the battle! I am really lucky to work with amazing educators who show up every day ready to do the hard work because they really believe in what they’re doing. If you do have some team members who need a little extra guidance, investing in them and spending time strengthening their skills should also be a top priority. For maintaining morale- I think I try really hard to recognize that teachers are asked to do the impossible. Their plates are way beyond full and I just try to remember that they are people first and employees second. I don’t expect that their job is the number one priority in their life. I do expect them to be outstanding teachers/employees and I think they achieve that because we work hard to create a work environment that is balanced. Sometimes we do that well, and sometimes we recognize areas where we can improve that.

We’d love to hear a story of resilience from your journey.

I think back to when I was completing my Masters with Mizzou. I had a newborn baby, I was running a small, but thriving, business (Evermore, Delaney) and I was running a daycare out of my house so we could afford for me to stay home. I was only getting a few hours of sleep at night and I was constantly balancing school, family, my business, and my daycare. It felt impossible! You couldn’t pay me a million dollars to relive that year and a half but somehow I made it through and it took every ounce of resilience that I had.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.citygardencolumbia.org/home
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