Complete Creative Control!

I am endlessly amazed at the variety of different tasks that fall onto my plate here at Achievement Prep.  I will admit that not all of them are intellectually challenging, but those that aren’t still require creative thought and approaching problems from several different angles.  And I most certainly get to be way more creative at this job than I would at a different office job.

Case in point, my most recent “baby,” our High School Placement Bulletin Board.  The task:  create a board that showcases our eighth graders, what high schools they are applying to and what their favorite schools are.  Creative control: complete.  (These sorts of tasks are great for me because I love being totally in control of the execution of my own artistic vision.)  And wow, did I have to be resourceful and make letters out of other letters for the banner because we didn't have enough.  Darn straight those h's are made out of m's and l's.

My list of other tasks in recent days have included:

• Behavioral data tracking for the whole school
• Organizing game bins for use during indoor recess (I LOVE ORGANIZING)
• Online research for potential APA merchandise
• Data entry for updated DC Health and Oral Exams for our scholars
• Data entry to our online disciplinary database
• Updating the school library with loads of new books
• Assisting our Office Coordinator who broke her foot!
• Teaching Art Club
• Helping my supervisor plan, prepare, and execute last week’s Family Night

Today, the teachers are upstairs working with data from our most recent Achievement Network assessment.  I’m down at my desk brainstorming ways to increase attendance at our Family Night Events (last week we had Family Health and Wellness Night, which was awesome!) and trying to decide upon best practices to get the staff and scholars involved at future events.  But as you can see from my list above, I am the go-to person for getting random stuff done that needs to be done.  It’s great to feel that my coworkers know that I am dependable and responsible and always ready to lend a hand!

p.s.  Shout out to Schuyler, fellow DC P55 Fellow working in Education, for telling me about Young Education Professionals DC (YEP-DC) which is a group that organizes events and has a great list serv with lots of event announcements and job postings, all having to do with education in DC.  Anyone who is interested can check out their website here: http://www.yepdc.org/  and join their Google or LinkedIn Group here:  http://www.yepdc.org/join.html

p.p.s.  Related:  for any prospective P55 applications who want to work in education – DC is the place to be!