Rookie of the Year

Jordan McDow was named Heartland’s 2023 Rookie of the Year.

Mr. McDow was born in Lodi, California, and was adopted to his mother Deborah McDow. His mother later married Robert McDow, who officially adopted him in 8th grade.  Mr. McDow graduated from Union High School in Tulsa, OK, in 2010.

He continued his education at Oklahoma State University and became very involved in his fraternity Lambda Chi Alpha. He graduated with a B.S. in Geology and was hired by Schlumberger, the largest oilfield service company in the world. While working at Schlumberger as a Drilling Tools and Remedial Engineer, he lived in California, North Dakota, and Texas. After Schlumberger, he worked as a Corporate Trainer for Dave & Buster’s, traveling all over the United States opening new stores and training incoming employees.

After working at Dave & Buster’s for about 3 years, he returned home to help his family after the passing of his grandfather, with whom he was very close.  Mr. McDow wanted to test his passion for teaching and spent about a year and half substituting almost exclusively at Santa Fe High School. He enjoyed substituting, but really wanted a class of his own. He had that opportunity when he was hired to teach Engineering at Heartland in January, 2022.

Mr. McDow’s parents are very influential in his life. They have shown him that you don’t have to be related to someone to show unconditional love. Mr. McDow treats all his students as though they were his adopted children and has extremely high expectations for each of them.

Mr. McDow is a creative person and always has a project going, even if he doesn’t ever intend on finishing it. He enjoys board games and card games and dabbles in video games, but is a true card game player at heart. He does a little hunting with his dad and loves cooking. His favorite kitchen accessory is his wok.

In addition to teaching Engineering, Mr. McDow is the TSA Advisor, Assistant Coach of the Video Game Club and serves on the Safe and Civil Schools Team at Heartland.

Rookie of the Year is awarded to an outstanding teacher in their first year of teaching. (It is not awarded in years when no teachers are eligible for nomination.)

Heartland Middle School’s Rookies of the Year