Her Story
Patricia Jordan taught mathematics at Roslyn High School on Long Island until she retired in 2001, after earlier years at Malverne High School, and her classes ranged from remedial math to calculus and computer science. She tried to make her room “as personably warm and fun-filled as it was scholarly and intellectually stimulating.” Students decorated the walls with projects, history buffs researched the African origins of the Pythagorean Theorem, and one student drew MC Hammer “hammering” down the numerator of a complex fraction.
On the first day of every class she let students choose their own seats, collected information cards and promised no homework until she knew every student’s name by heart, which she did by the end of the period. Her Pre-Calculus students designed an amusement park called “Quadratic Land” with parabolic rides, and in trigonometry she labeled quadrilaterals METS, YANK and JOSH, so that her shyest student would spot the nod to Negro Leagues star Josh Gibson.
She founded and directed the Enrichment and Support Program, ESP, which offered individualized instruction and personal counseling. “Students joked that I was psychic!” A former student once shouted at her in an airport that “if it wasn’t for your ESP math class, I wouldn’t have graduated.”
Beyond the Classroom
Jordan was New York State Teacher of the Year in 1993. She started school-wide Cultural Celebrations, the annual Black History Month Academic Awards Night and the Visiting Instructor Program, which brought chefs, athletes, journalists, physicians and lawyers to meet students. With two parents she started Bridging the Gap, a mentoring organization for less privileged students, and a foundation she established gives scholarships to students from Bronx housing projects.
She served on the New York State Commissioner’s Advisory Board for Closing the Performance Gap. Retired for more than a decade, she still tutors at a public high school and a church housing shelter, works over Skype with college and boarding school students, coaches elementary teachers in the state’s Common Core math, and speaks to teacher education classes. She is a member of the National Network of State Teachers of the Year.
Philosophy Into Practice
Jordan says teachers need more than degrees: “passion for the profession and for their students” and the persistence to continue “amidst never-ending challenges and unpredictable circumstances.” She held herself accountable to her students first, kept up with technology through graduate courses and quizzed and graded to spot trends, then retaught what had not landed. She welcomed unannounced observations.
She names funding inequity as the dominant problem in education, arguing that high-poverty districts should get the same or more public money than wealthy ones. She organized college counseling workshops and AP math study groups for students from less-funded neighboring districts, and she joined other Teachers of the Year at the state capitol to deliver a letter urging that student test scores not carry up to 40 percent of teacher evaluations.
“Each and every one, however, could count on me to respect them and make every effort to maximize their potential.”Dr. Patricia Jordan
In Her Own Words
“Along with these essential academic prerequisites, teachers must also have passion for the profession and for their students.”Dr. Patricia Jordan
“The absolute joy I got from teaching prompted classroom interactions that were always both educational and entertaining.”Dr. Patricia Jordan
“In the classroom and beyond, my educational and community experiences have truly been my way of life.”Dr. Patricia Jordan
What Others Said
“She is an exemplary educator, and a deserving National Teachers Hall of Fame inductee.”Edna Rogers, nominator, 2007 NTHF inductee and NNSTOY colleague
“Dr. Jordan is a teacher first, and in every sense of the word.”Jack Palmadesso, Principal, Roslyn Middle School
“Dr. Jordan changed history when she stood up for our low-income students.”Asenath Anderson, former Roslyn school board trustee
“Pat was a strict taskmaster inside the classroom and her students work flourished.”Diane O’Neill, former colleague, Malverne High School
“She moved far beyond the classroom to give students the guidance we needed.”Melissa G. Cisco, former student, attorney and teacher
“It was immediately evident that she was deserving of such an honor.”Ricky A. Cooke, Sr., former colleague and Hempstead school board trustee