Week 4 Reflection: Next Steps

After really getting comfortable in my new role last week, this week I felt like I was able to focus more on looking for ways to make improvements. I was asked a lot this week about how I liked my new job. The way I kept describing it was like I won the lottery. I can't imagine walking into a better situation than I did. The admin team works great together and is constantly communicating (even when Manning gets upset about not being allowed to hang planks from the ceiling). The school is still very much new and the staff in the STEM departments is phenomenal. So it is not easy to find big areas in need of improvement.

One thing that kind of fell into my lap this week was a possible partnership with the FAA. They reached out about a program they are planning to start next school year where students from different schools can come to their facilities and get exposed to the different career opportunities in their field. This is still very much in the planning stages, but after sitting with their team for an hour, both Scott and myself were very impressed and are hoping for this to create more opportunities for our students next year.

I have finished all but 2 observations for September, so this week will give me an opportunity to get caught up on some other projects. I am trying hard to improve our recycling program. I'm kind of looking at it in stages, and I feel like the first stage is complete. We have done a needs assessment and implemented some procedures that were talked about in the past, but never followed through with. Now we can start to address some needs, like a shortage of recycling bins, and promote the program throughout the school. Unfortunately, many people in the school believe that it doesn't matter what bin you put your trash and recycling in, that it all gets thrown in the same dumpster. This is absolutely false, but we have to get that message out there to really get rolling. Hopefully we can address these problems this week and start focusing on the third stage (the Recycle Bowl) next week.

I have seen so many great things during classroom visits and formal observations. I try to share at least one everyday on Twitter and (sometimes) Instagram using the hashtag #PirateSTEM. If you're on social media, check it out.

Bobby