Mr.+Jorth

//**Who is Mr. Jorth? **// Perhaps you've heard Mr. Jorth tell you a story about one of his kids, his wife, or perhaps it was about his hometown and growing up with an older brother. . . or maybe your just curious about who's that guy that teaches next to Mr. Huss. For whatever reason you're here, this page is an attempt to let you know a little more about Mr. Jorth. Personal Biography: > The College Years
 * Childhood
 * Brent Glenn Jorth is the youngest son of Randy and Cindy Jorth, who since Mr. Jorth's birth in December 1979, have lived in the same house in Joice, Iowa.
 * Mr. Jorth has one older brother, Jeff who currently lives in Omaha, Nebraska, with his wife Kari (high school sweet heart) and their two boys, Jaxson and Carter.
 * Mr. Jorth has numerous memories of playing football with Jeff, Casey Miller, Blake & Todd Hanson (whose dad was the high school football coach), and Ryan Fjelstad (a cousin). In fact, Mr. Jorth's basement was the "locker room" for the team, and in the winter the locker room was transformed into Carver Hawkeye Arena thanks to Mr. Jorth's dad construction of an iron hoop and Blake & Todd's construction of a "black and gold" backboard. Later Jeff and Brent would compete on the golf course as they got older and even today enjoy a round of golf when they can slip away from their young children.
 * Mr. Jorth grew up in the tiny north central Iowa town of Joice, whose population is approximately 200 people.
 * Just steps from Mr. Jorth's backdoor lived his Dad's mom, Darlene; while just steps from the front door lived his Mom's first cousin Steve Rodberg and his family - including Kristi (who was Mr. Jorth's first baby-sitter) and Cheri (who was a year older than his brother, Jeff).
 * One of Mr. Jorth's favorite memories of growing up in Joice was the time he was playing "ball" and Roy Calgaard - who lived at the end of the street - called out "Hit Down Here Slugger" and Mr. Jorth proceeded to do so. If he remembers correctly, he was in 2nd or 3rd grade. Mr. Jorth would eventually play baseball for his Dad as a member of the Joice Jayhawks. In his final season of little league (as an 8th grader), the Jayhawks made the Championship Series of the Boarderline League. Though the Jayhawks fell to Glenville, Mr. Jorth went 10 for 10 in the series with two homeruns and a host of RBIs.
 * Mr. Jorth attended Lake Mills Community School for his entire life - kindergarten thru high school.
 * While at Lake Mills, Brent was lucky to earn 14 letters as the quarterback of the football team, shooting guard on the basketball team, a member of the golf team, and third basemen/short stop/pitcher on the baseball team while being named All-District in Football, All-Conference is Basketball, Conference Runner-up in Golf, and Lake Mills' only four-time First Team All-Conference Baseball Player.
 * In addition to playing sports, Mr. Jorth was also a member of the choir having participated in multiple concerts and musicals during his middle school and high school career.
 * Mr. Jorth to this day can list each teacher he ever had from kindergarten thru high school, but holds Mr. Dugger (1st grade), Mrs. Erdahl (6th grade/Middle School Advisor), Mr. Minkel (high school math), Mr. Boehmer (high school speech, government, and psychology), and Coach Bill Byrnes (Baseball and Football) as his favorites.
 * After graduating from Lake Mills in 1998, Mr. Jorth attended Waldorf Junior College (now a four year institution) in nearby Forest City and eventually earn his Bachelor's in Science in History from Iowa State in 2002.
 * Mr. Jorth accepted both academic and athletic scholarships to attend Waldorf.
 * Following a rough first semester, that saw Mr. Jorth cut from the baseball team, Mr. Jorth focused his energies into his studies. Starting with that first semester at Waldorf and continuing through his final semester at Iowa State four and a half years later, Mr. Jorth was named to the Dean's List, accepted in the Phi Theta Kappa (a prestigious academic honors society), and named Summa Cum Laude at Waldorf and Magna Cum Laude at Iowa State.
 * After getting cut from the baseball team at Waldorf, Mr. Jorth successfully tried out for the Waldorf Golf Team. Mr. Jorth would eventually qualify for the NJCAA National Tournament as a Sophomore, but taking medalist honors at the Region IX meet held at Spring Valley Golf Course in Livermore, Iowa. Along with his close personal friend Jason Eyberg, Mr. Jorth would eventually compete at the Texas A&M University's Golf Course in College Station, Texas. Although it was a long week on the course, Mr. Jorth still cherishes the memories from that trip thanks to the fact that both his Dad and Jason's Dad (Dave) were their psuedo-coaches for the week.
 * Between his sophomore and junior years at Waldorf and Iowa State, Mr. Jorth would move to Okoboji to live with Jason and work at Brooks Golf Club and All-Star Pro Golf (in Spencer, IA). Perhaps Mr. Jorth's most enjoyable summer of his life (until he met his wife, of course), Mr. Jorth did nothing more than work in the golf shop at Brooks, make clubs for All-Star Pro Golf, or play golf. This golf immersion led to him winning the Rice Lake Golf and Country Club Tournament and finishing second, by losing a playoff, at the Rice Lake Amateur Tournament. Both tournaments saw Mr. Jorth firing career best rounds of 68 and 69.
 * After his summer in Okoboji and graduating from Waldorf, Mr. Jorth transferred to Iowa State. Again, Mr. Jorth endured yet another challenging first semester on campus. During perhaps the most stressful period in Mr. Jorth's life, he made the decision to change majors from mathematics to history. Always a passion of his since a student at Lake Mills, the social sciences, Mr. Jorth would eventually connect with Political Science Professor Matthew Potosky who would allow Mr. Jorth to teach an introductory polisci course as a Senior.
 * Mr. Jorth's last semester as a student was spent student teaching in Omaha, Nebraska. Thanks to his brother, Mr. Jorth lived with his brother and sister-in-law (Kari) while she was pregnant with their first son, Jaxson.
 * Mr. Jorth taught AP US History at one of Omaha's largest high school, Burke High School, and one of Omaha's most diverse middle schools, Norris. Both experiences provided Mr. Jorth with a wealth of practice knowledge that he would incorporate into his teaching tool box.
 * Meeting Amanda and Finding a Job
 * Following his graduation from Iowa State in December of 2002, Mr. Jorth continued to live in Omaha with his brother Jeff and pregnant sister-in-law Kari.
 * In January 2003, Mr. Jorth made perhaps the best decision of his life - choosing to visit Jason Eyberg his former golf teammate at Waldorf in Minneapolis for a wintery weekend instead of driving 20 hours to visit his cousin Sara who was a student and softball player at the Southeastern Louisiana University. His choice to visit Jason led to an introduction to Amanda Alexander, a former co-worker of another one of Mr. Jorth's Waldorf classmates, Heather Swenson. Brent and Amanda would hit it off from their very first hand shake.
 * After returning to Omaha, Brent obtained a job with Omaha's leading retail golf store, Nebraska Golf, where he would work for the next four months selling golf clubs and various golfer merchandise. Brent and Amanda would drive the "highway of love", the six hour journey along Interstates 80 and 35, to visit one another during these dicey winter months.
 * Then in April 2003 Mr. Jorth landed his first teaching job. Rob Luther, Principal of Baxter High School, tapped Mr. Jorth to teach 7th grade Geography, and high school World History, Sociology, Government, Global Relations, and World Endeavors. In addition, Mr. Jorth would serve as a volunteer football coach, responsible for quarterbacks, wide receivers, and defensive backs while coordinating the offense of the junior varsity. Mr. Jorth would be paid to be the assistant basketball coach on a team that won one game in two years. It was perhaps the longest two winters of Mr. Jorth's life.
 * That first fall at Baxter, Mr. Jorth would propose to Amanda after she had made the decision to move to Iowa. The two would eventually move to Altoona and marry in October of 2004. Brent and Amanda spent their honeymoon weekend in the beautiful Lake Superior communities of Bayfield and Madeline Island, thanks to the gracious gift of Jim and Connie Pries, family friend's of Amanda. To this day, Mr. Jorth has never had a meal like the one he enjoyed with Amanda at the Rittenhouse. The two would later travel to San Diego for their "official" honeymoon over the Christmas holiday in 2004, ironically one of the rainiest on record (perhaps coinciding with the western Pacific tsunami that devastated Indonesia and many parts of the Asian Pacific).
 * After returning from their honeymoon, Mr. Jorth and Amanda made the decision to build a home in Waukee. Their home, at the time, was the fourth house in a new development in the rapidly growing community. They have seen the community grow over their time their and have seen many neighbors build their home and sell their home while they have remained since it's construction in 2005.
 * Van Meter, the arrival of Lilly, Going back to school, & Bennett
 * After teaching and coaching two years at Baxter, and building his house in Waukee, Mr. Jorth made the decision to switch schools - luckily being hired by Van Meter, a bedroom community just west of Des Moines.
 * At Van Meter, Mr. Jorth would work for Deron Durflinger, (Principal - 2009-10), John Carver (Principal 2005-2009 & Superintendent - 2009-10) and Greg DeTimmerman (Superintendent - 2005-09), eventually teaching Geography, US History, Government, Psychology, and Sociology; while also coaching Junior High Baseball, Football, High School and Junior High Basketball, Girls Golf; in addition he would serve as the Student Leadership Team's sponsor; and after teaching there for two years would negotiate the Van Meter Education Association's teaching contract and serve as the organization's President; and in his spare time he would drive a morning bus route.
 * During the tail end of his second year at Van Meter, Mr. Jorth and his wife proudly discovered Amanda was pregnant with their first child. Lillian was born at the start of Mr. Jorth's third year at Van Meter. Lilly arrived a little later than expected, as she was delivered at 4:30 on morning of October 10th, 2007. Amanda labored for more than 24 hours before Lilly blessed the earth with her presence. Since, Lilly has been the sparkle of both her Dad and Mom's eye.
 * Parenting, teaching, and coaching was further complicated by Mr. Jorth's decision to go back to school in the Fall of 2007. Mr. Jorth made the decision to pursue a degree in Education Leadership from Drake University in the hopes of one day becoming a Principal. Mr. Jorth continued his studies for two years eventually graduating from Drake in 2009 with a stellar 4.0 GPA.
 * During Mr. Jorth's last year at Van Meter, Amanda announced she was pregnant with their second child. Bennett would eventually be born on May 27th, 2010. A bit more cooperative than his sister, Benny (as he is sometimes affectionately called) took a mere two hours to be born. Ben, like his sister, has been nothing but a joy since his birth; providing the necessary yang to his big sister's yin.
 * Indianola to Today
 * At about the same time Mr. Jorth welcomed Bennett into his family, he made the decision to take a social studies teaching position at Indianola. Wanting a change of scenery and lighten his work load, Mr. Jorth assumed teaching assignments from Principal Trent Grundmeyer in Modern World History, Sociology, Psychology, and AP Psychology. He would also coach 8th grade football that first fall at Indianola. In his second year, Mr. Jorth would pick up US History, while dropping Modern World History, and a section of Geography.
 * Today, Mr. Jorth is actively searching for a job in school administration.

Professional Resume
 * Graduate, Lake Mills Community Schools (1998)
 * A.A., Waldorf College (2000)
 * B.S. History, Iowa State University (2002)
 * Student-Teacher & Coach, Omaha Public Schools, Burke High School and Norris Middle School (2002)
 * Teacher & Coach, Baxter Community School District, Junior/Senior High (2003-05)
 * Teacher & Coach, Van Meter Community School District, Junior/Senior High (2005-10)
 * M.S.E. Education Leadership, Drake University (2009)
 * Teacher & Coach, Indianola Community School District, High School (2010-Present)

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