Tammy Jordan tries to make her teaching both purposeful and fun.

Residing in Boerne since 2001, Tammy and her husband, George, have two children, Colton (first grade) and Emma (beginning kindergarten in the fall) along with Charlie, the 2-year-old family Shorkie.

Jordan graduated from Marshall High School in Marshall, Texas, and went on to earn her bachelors degree from Texas State University in San Marcos, Texas. She began her teaching career in Judson I.S.D. while at the same time working nights at Sylvan Learning Center. Through her work in the district, where she was trained extensively in the balanced literacy approach to teaching, and her experience at Sylvan, she was offered a full time position as a Sylvan Learning Center Director where her focus was the Beginning Reading Program. Following a three-year stay as director, as well as the birth of her first child, Jordan decided to return to the classroom, where she then came to Fabra Elementary in 2001 to teach first grade, waiting for a kindergarten position to open.

When the opportunity arose to teach kinder at Fabra, Jordan spent her first year jumping right in and incorporating the balanced literacy approach to teaching once again. Following the guidelines she knew so well and trying new ideas and techniques in her classroom, Jordan quickly filled her walls with work to share with our school.

Mornings in her classroom are filled with literacy stations in which students complete reading and writing tasks in a language-rich environment. The literacy stations in her room are hands-on activities for students to explore and practice. With as many as 15 stations active at one time, students are able to gain confidence which in turn makes them better readers and writers.

Jordan expresses that her love for teaching kindergarten comes from the excitement of her students and says she is constantly amazed at the progress she sees in each student. She continuously smiles as she watches the enthusiasm in the students’ rise as they learn to read and write and focuses her attention on always trying to figure out how to make her teaching more purposeful, effective and fun!

One of Jordan’s current students, Angela Walden, says she loves the way they learn subtraction in class and enjoys reading from her own browsing box full of books, crayons and a highlighter that she uses to “butter-up” popcorn words. Shaeffer Quinn’s favorite station is the writing station where she can choose to write in her journal or write letters to other students and place them in their grade level mailboxes.

Jordan currently serves on a district committee that is in the process of creating a kindergarten curriculum as well as revising the kindergarten report card. Lucky to be working together with such a great team, Jordan realizes making changes takes teamwork. Sherri Curbo on Jordan’s team said, “Tammy has been our savior by keeping us focused and has helped us arise to new kindergarten standards, which are becoming higher and higher.” Fabra first grade teacher Jennifer Smith, who has many of Jordan’s students from last year, says Tammy’s “students came in with strong understandings of writing and reading. They were not only ready to move forward, but excited to do so.”

Mrs. Jordan’s hobbies include scrapbooking, dancing, reading, and being outdoors with her children. If Tammy was not teaching she would love to be a professional organizer or even a contestant on Dancing with the Stars. Wouldn’t her students love to see that!

Jordan’s greatest regret is not getting her masters degree prior to having children. Her work philosophy is to give 100-plus percent each day and to never stop learning. If you walk into her classroom at any given time, you can see her enthusiasm through her students’ work.