Joe Giandurco (“Mr. G to his students) is Carver’s longtime Lead Program Coordinator for our Ponus Ridge Middle School PRIDE after-school program.
PRIDE is the acronym for Perseverance, Respect, Intelligence, Diversity, Excellence. Joe also manages the Carver summer transition program for incoming 6th graders.
Ponus Ridge was one of the initial schools into which Carver expanded its programs many years ago.
In all, five certified teachers and three paraprofessionals deliver the PRIDE after-school program with amazing results. Joe and his team provide students with homework completion support, Common Core skill development, and all manner of enrichment choices such as robotics, science and engineering hands-on projects, cooking, and exciting encounters that only the Maritime Aquarium can provide.
Born and raised in Norwalk, Joe has been teaching for some 20 years at Ponus Ridge Middle School. He is social studies and science teacher and a NEST Special Education Co-Teacher. Joe successfully communicates with colleagues from various disciplines and with parents to ensure student success.
Not surprisingly, Joe has the trust of his colleagues as Vice President of the Norwalk Federation of Teachers for the past three years.
We enjoy seeing Joe and his wife Shannon at Carver events all through the year.
Joe and his students capture the attention of the media from time to time.
Such as the time Joe encouraged a student to assemble a team of students to enter the Samsung Solve for Tomorrow STEM contest. The team became one of two winners from Connecticut, earning $15,000 worth of Samsung technology and supplies for Ponus Ridge. “’To see Emerard lay out his vision and watch his team run with it, for me, this is why I wanted to become a teacher,’ Giandurco said.”
From left to right: Dr. Fred Pierre-Louis, Ponus Ridge science teacher; Ponus Ridge 7th graders Dalvin Duncan, Jonathan Joseph and Shouri Akarapu; and Joe Giandurco, coordinator of Ponus PRIDE program.
Another time (and here), Joe helped his students compete in the FIRST Lego League (FLL) annual robotics competition with great success. The Ponus Ridge team built a robot named Carver Motors, which contains four motors and sensors. The Lego Legends team of Ponus Ridge 7th graders won first prize at the 3rd annual Backyard Blizzard robotics competition in Greenwich.
Great teachers like Joe have a gift, a special quality we revere. He never gives up on any student. As we all try to build an ennobled world of dignity for all, nowhere is the urgency of not giving up on any human being greater than in education.
Joe starts wherever he can with his students. He sees a need, so he threads a needle, and he ties a knot in his thread. He finds one place in the cloth through which to take one stitch, one simple stitch, nothing fancy, just one that’s strong and true. The knot will anchor his thread. Once that’s done, he takes one more stitch — teaches someone robotics, for example, no matter how long that takes. Or he encourages a student to enter his idea into a national contest.
The examples through the years are countless, and all of them life-changing for Joe’s students. For Carver, Joe helped us tie one of our first true knots at Ponus Ridge, and today Carver’s quilt of school programs, tied together through the years, stretches across Norwalk.