Timely Studies

I know that there is no blog assignment this week, but I'm finding that this course is incredibly timely and the comments and discussion really helpful, since I'm basically new to the formal process of Project Management.

I've been tagged at school to be the sponsor for the school's chapter of the Science National Honor Society (different than the NHS you may remember from school).  Since this is a brand new group, I have to plan how students will be notified of possible induction, the application and criteria process, and the actual induction ceremony after that.

The topics from the last few weeks in class have been rather helpful, since I now find myself breaking down all of the tasks, trying to estimate times, and identifying stakeholders.  The stakeholders part has been surprising; the data processing IT guy at Central office, the guidance counselors to verify student GPAs, the events coordinator, culinary instructor, students, science teachers, other core teachers,....  At times, it seems like it's a never-ending list.

And on top of that, my principal has asked me to help the VP's convert some of our standard, start-of-the-year required meetings to web-format.  Doing this would allow only those teachers that need the training (newer teachers with 0-3 years teaching experience and those needing a refresher) to complete the training on their own time, and would free up much needed hours for all teachers during our 4-day pre-school work sessions.  It's a daunting task, as my experience with the multimedia side of our program has pretty much been limited to what we have done for the Walden courses.  I am much more comfortable with the ID process and even the PM process (just not the formality of parts of it; language, forms, etc.).  Also adding a bit to the stress is the limited time.  There are only 5 weeks until the faculty returns to school and there are possibly 5-8 training modules that would be converted to web form.

Enjoy your weekend!

UPDATE:  So the number of modules has decreased after the conversation with the principal today, but the initial meeting to discuss the project won't happen until next week.  We decided that if we could get the first module up and running by the time teachers returned, then we could add additional modules during the school year.