Hello, friends, and welcome to my Google Site! My name is Michael Allen Donaldson and I am excited to begin my third year here at Grandview High School. In addition to my classroom teaching assignments, I am also the speech, debate, and journalism coach for Grandview as well as the district-wide UIL Academic coordinator. I am super excited to be working with you this year, and I can't wait to see what great things we accomplish together.

I am a graduate of Connally High School in Waco. My high school career was a busy one, as I was actively involved in athletics, band, theatre, and UIL academics. After graduating high school, I was accepted into the Moody College of Communication at the University of Texas at Austin, where I graduated in three years with a degree in Communication Studies (with a focus in Human Relations) and a minor in Primate Biology. While at UT, I was fortunate enough to spend 3 years as an intern at the UIL state office in both the Academics and Theatre departments. Prior to arriving here at Grandview, I spent 4 years as the speech/debate/journalism coach and UIL coordinator for China Spring High School in Waco. Before that, I spent 2 years as the debate consultant for Hillsboro High School, where I helped establish a debate team. I completed my master's degree in Strategic Communication and Innovation from Texas Tech University in May of 2021 and am currently taking classes at Lamar University in order to get my Principal's certification.

I teach Professional Communication Skills, which is a required one semester course for all freshmen. In this class we will analyze the role that language plays in our life and see how we can use communication in professional environments. It is my goal that each student will leave the course with confidence in their public speaking skills. I also teach Debate, which is a participation-based contest preparation class for students interested in competing on the UIL Speech and Debate team. Additionally, I am the instructor for dual credit speech classes through Hill College. The Fall semester gives students the opportunity to enroll in SPCH 1315: Introduction to Public Speaking; the Spring semester offers SPCH 1318: Interpersonal Communication Theory.

Please do not hesitate to contact me with any questions or concerns that you may have. My email is mdonaldson@gvisd.org and I have a conference period each day from ??? to ???. We are going to have a great year!