Beyond the Brave Podcast - Nijaul Drollinger Beyond the Brave - Episode 4 - Nijaul Drollinger Tune in to the Beyond the Brave podcast hosted by Superintendent Craig Jernagan, as he interviews Middle School Principal Nijaul Drollinger! Show Transcript welcome to beyond the brave a mechanical School Corporation podcast where we sit down with people who are making a difference for our students our schools and our community I'm your host Craig Jernigan superintendent mechanical School Corporation each episode we'll have conversations with teachers students staff and Community Partners about what's happening across mechanical what's working what we are learning and where we're headed next today I'm excited to welcome our guests Nigel Dollinger who is the principal mechanical middle school he's going to talk to us a little bit about the a life uh at the middle school Nigel welcome to beyond the brave hello Mr Dragon glad to be here yeah great to answer some questions well there's there's some good questions we're we're going to have a little conversation here uh niga I I've known you for uh several years even before you you came back to Mechanical why don't you tell us a little about yourself um I know you're here previously and then came back here recently as a principal absolutely yeah I grew up close by a fair amount of Indiana graduate from Madison Grant uh you know we're cool was born James Dean uh went to Purdue University then uh was married our I am married to a very patient woman Christina 3 children 2 of them are now at Purdue thankfully and uh you know growing up we loved taking them out camping doing all those fun things still love going Outdoors a lot of stuff about us uh back in the early 2000s 2001 2006 I spent 5 years in mechanical Middle School um Mr Kaine at the time encouraged me to go get my administrative license and I did and and went to North Miami for a couple years and then no kill for many years and was able to make my way back here this is the fourth year back at the middle school yeah so so I'm guessing when you left here you you left for an admin role um at North Miami and then and then get went to yeah absolutely uh assistant principal at North Miami elementary school before moving over to Oakhill at the elementary for 12 years um a couple other things in there and then when this position opened up and I heard that you were taking the superintendent role I got everything ready and here I am yeah I I know when uh you interviewed for this job I like I said I've known you for several years uh liked your energy uh you bring it you bring a vast amount of energy to the middle school and I think that's what it takes a lot of times yeah and I love the middle school there's good things that every grade level um and many of us have done various grade levels what's nice about the middle school is you can have good conversations with kids uh in the elementary they love you they love school um but sometimes you know those conversations aren't you know as productive as they can be at school where kids are are kind of coming into their own yeah most definitely so you know as you made your rounds you came back to Mechanical uh what What's been you know your biggest surprise to learn uh in that in that Middle School uh Administration role uh just the the difference is the small differences you know uh School administrations similar probably any grade level you're at but but the differences in the kids the differences in the teachers curriculum scheduling um some some of the behaviors some of the academics just all those things are bit different I'd spent 15 years at the elementary level after teaching SE secondary level for 7 years so uh you know doubled my time at the elementary that I'd been secondary but but I have enjoyed it and loved loved middle school and this sounds weird but when going to go supervised Sports I love sports it was a basketball football coach here in track so uh enjoy getting to go watch those kids do the things they love um after school as well yeah most definitely you said Sports I I also see at the the plays and The Choir concerts as well um I think you have kind of a passion for that as well yeah so interesting I was never uh inquire people don't want me to sing it certainly wasn't an actor but my children were all Drama Kids as well as athletes and so my wife and I um really got into the drama education portion of those kind of things and became Drama parents and so it's fun to get go see those kids do the the choir and I know we got 1 coming up here pretty soon the desert theater coming up here in December as well as the play that's happened you like to eat as well well I would love to eat and I I think people around here that do know me know that uh always been a big fan of food that's good I'm glad they're having a dessert what what what desert did you pick at the desert theater have you picked it yet uh strawberry cheesecake oh yeah that's good they they're quite the selection quite the selection hope we see a lot of people there yeah most definitely hey uh talk to us a little bit about what you find as as rewarding as an administrator there's lots of little things uh you know when you walk down the hallway and and you're going by classes and kids are in their learning and and not just a teacher teaching right like they're doing they're up they're active they're doing lots of Hands-On now there are times when we need to sit and we need to learn um but but it's nice the middle schools we can do lots of projects we can do lots of Hands-On uh the kids it's fun when the kids want to tell you about it because you know then it was meaningful for them right they they they learned something from it may not have been math or English but they've learned something from that and they probably learned how to work with other students they learned how to get a project done they learned timeline um and and so those things are fun as you walk around and the excitement that's in the air when kids are doing various things and I think people have you know envisioned sitting in a class you know whether it's social studies or math or science and just getting information but we we've really tried to change that over the last several years to to more Hands-On activities some group work um and making the kids like school and because they have an opportunity to do things versus just sit there and listen now some kids like that but you know if you're up in active in middle school that helps out yeah mechanical has been a stem certified school for some years uh with a with a emphasis on that hand on learning can you talk a little about that uh maybe a little more in depth about what maybe those stem days look like and and uh some of those activities you provide yeah so we we just recently re-certified for stem uh longest Middle School in the State Certified will be our third certificate ation um and so we we've had a you know you kind of start 1 way and as things progress and things change we've uh we've changed and we've progressed and we've become innovative and through our a program we got um Agra them is what we call it and they're doing lots of different things not just feeding cattle and you know and men and fences they're they're learning um artificial insemination they're learning you know they they'll do ultrasounds they'll do they'll see the teachers give shots they're they're learning a lot uh more about agriculture than just you know hanging out with cows and I I don't think people know that unless they see that uh because there's a lot to it unless you're a cow farmer you may not know that a lot of science behind it yeah a lot of science I keep waiting for you to bring the bull riding competitions not yet not yet I have had kids ask for a you know to bring horses and start a fishing club and those kind of things but we haven't done any bull riding yet um and then we also threw our pltw engineering um have have changed that up a little bit over the last few years we have small engines now which has been a big hit and some of those real Hands-On mechanical more STEM related fields versus and you know when you think of stem and I think when you hear about it Statewide even they they think of robots and doing and those kind of things the Vex Robotics and uh we we've taken it to a different level where you know we want kids to to not just do that but why why does that work how does that work not just hey I'm going to build this robot that moves things but why does it do that and how does it do that and that's all part of the engine we've added intro to engineering this year and even the small engine how does it work not just it works how and why and so the kids are getting in there and getting their fingers greasy and getting some dirt under their nails and and really learning Hands-On stuff yeah most of that's pretty neat to see so talk a little bit about your programming talk to us about you know some recognition maybe teachers uh deserve that they don't see every day uh you know that people don't see every day right and I think this goes back to the same thing where you know they Vision or Envision you know teachers just given a lesson and then students work and the teachers are are really working hard um to to make these things creative fun Innovative so that the students aren't just sitting and getting right it's not boring it's it's Hands-On and if you come around and you walk around you see those things and you see the teachers working hard to develop these lessons our our science teachers are doing Labs all the time and Hands-On activities all the time um I think I I'd even thought about that as I knew I was coming over here to talk about our science because we talk a lot about you know our a or our pltw engineering type thing but our science teachers are doing a ton of work in science to to really add labs and and make it more meaningful like how is this going to help you in your life not just on a test but how is this real life and those things have gone really really well and it's another 1 of those things when we walk around the School I've had many people over the last couple years that come in for various things and I I walk them around when kids are in the hall and they're not and we show them our planners you know our Growers our indoor Growers and we show them the cat and we show them our science classes and our and our new 1 for the last couple years digital media and student or um student media and the kids are making shirts and they're doing our announcements and they're making our video announcements and and I've had several people and it's interesting because they say the same thing they're like I would like to come be a teacher here some of them be like I like come student here you know they were doing co2 cars last week and and and I'll post those kind of things and on Facebook you'll people they'll comment about that they remember doing it when they were in eighth grade you know 20 30 years ago and they're glad that we've brought that back or that we're still doing those kind of things so um you know all those things make it exciting and what it is and I I feel like you know if you want to focus on test scores or some of that stuff that obscure things that's not who we are you know we're about we're about kids learning lifelong learning what are things we can do that's going to help you later in life that's going to help prepare you for a career that's going to keep you excited at school for that career and it's fun and it's fun in the middle school too because you'll see kids that they don't know what they want to do um obviously Middle School is a tough time for a lot of kids a lot of changes a lot of hormones those kind of things but it's fun when you finally see that kid find something that they love uh you know I had a kid kid bringing a weed whacker to school and you you may have seen him carried it um I'm like dude your grandma's gonna have to come pick you up you can't take that on the bus because they brought it for for engineering class so they can figure out how why it wasn't working and they had it running by the end of the day which is which is a life skill yeah absolutely when when you grow up and you get married and you don't have money just take something to the repair shop you're going to have to figure out how to take it apart and make it work so those it's fun and so sometimes you kids carrying very odd things that maybe you don't see it a lot of public schools but you definitely see here yeah most definitely and I I I like that you brought up the fact that some of these things don't show up on a test so we we have standardized tests a lot of emphasis on it we've had some modest gains in the past few years um on those standardized test but we have a lot of kids who maybe don't pass that iLearn test in third through uh 8th grade but they're very successful in life yeah and if you look at at the high school graduation rates college rates and and not not just that but successful rates right because I want kids to go in sorry I want kids going to college trade school all those kind of things but how's how's that end right like that's that's the goal so we get them started here and we try to help them find their way because middle school can be very challenging um as they you know they're transitioning from that little kid to you know an adult we're in this pre-teen years and and it's it could be a tough gig but most of them do well and by eighth grade they've kind of figured it out and they they've got an idea when they're going to high school of what they like um and we got some kids that don't like math you know that's just not their I think they're not good at it and I'm sure people listening can can relate to that I loved math um but I was talking to a kid yesterday he asked me what my favorite subject was is kind of interesting he said well I said math and he's like I don't like math but he you know it's not what he's great at but you take him down to another class science he which is interesting because somehow related right love science loves his science teacher um so it's been a great year this was a seventh grader so good job seventh grade um so so we're getting them we just got to find that thing and not everybody's gonna like everything um doesn't mean they don't like the school and I think you hear that sometimes like the oh do you like school and they're like well I don't really like school it's not the day I don't like their teachers it's not that they don't like me kind of cool there's just subjects that are not as good at and so that's how that translate but if you get them talking well what's your favorite subject asked that question then they're going to tell you about that science teacher they're going to tell you about that engineering teacher that act teacher maybe even the math teacher I always liked math uh English you know so you got to really dig in because especially at middle school you know elementary kids I loved it they always give you hugs they loved everybody they wanted to please you Middle School is much different now we don't want middle school kids giving us hugs yeah not as much hugging and and they certainly uh and they won't say they don't like school because most of them not all but most of them want to be there every day that's where their friends are that special teacher whatever class it may be or teachers um so the majority of them are doing well and they like going to school they just don't like all the subjects and that's natural yeah I think you hit the nail on the head when you said you give them an opportunity to find themselves what they like so it's a it's a a pretty uh Rich experience for them uh they can do a lot of different things uh and help find themselves and I I appreciate you uh providing those opportunities uh even opportunities to get a lot of high school credit classes as well oh absolutely yeah and that's important for them um you know in the middle right like what do you want to do and it's not that we're we're cinnamon down 1 pathway and this is what you have to do but we give them some ideas and they they find something they like you know some of those kids have loved the student media which is something we were just able to add and and so was they've gone to high school they're like how can I take more of those kind of classes because that's something maybe they'll go to college me interested in or the Army um so it's it's been nice and it's nice to see those kids grow and find that thing um not you know a is not for everyone engineering is not for everyone but we we try to give them all the options we can so they can find that 1 thing that really interests in high school it's easier when they do have to pick that pathway at least to get through high school yeah from from the Arts to stem that's that's great so hey I got a got some rapid fire questions just uh shoot from the cuff here which do you like best coffee diet coke oh coffee love coffee early bird Night Owl favorite school lunch Mashed Potato Bowl Mashed Potato Bowl that's that's a lot of carbs yes it is favorite vacation destination Gulf Shores music or artists uh Josiah what was your favorite school subject I think you're math yeah I was I was a great math student and loved math that fits well for what you do now yeah right if you want to educate or what would you be doing something the medical field actually was a nursing major my first your college and then uh I I transferred to a new College it was too late to get in that nursing program I went PT and then uh ended up in the end making it in an education well I I I'll tell you not that you wouldn't be a great nurse but if you walked in uh to my room and you nurse I'd probably be a little little scared to know you now what's your biggest pet peeve bad drivers bad drivers there there's a lot of those out there drives me crazy driving that's my wife slow in the fast lane uh funniest excuse you've ever heard from a student this is this is cliche my dog ate my homework but the kid brought it and it was destroyed by and you could tell dog did it and then his mom sent me an email saying hey sorry the dog did actually eat that if if you could switch jobs with anyone at mechanical for 1 day who would you switch with maintenance I love working on things I love being outside and fixing things that's why I do all day at home or all evening it's good to know that uh describe your school in 3 words uh exciting innovative and the third 1 would oh that's a tough I got 2 good ones there didn't I exciting Innovative I'd like to say fun but that goes with exciting I would say Hands-On we we've moved back to a little bit more paper pencil really trying to find kids where they are good hey if if you could share 1 message student staff parents and community members who are listening today what would that 1 message be about your school yeah absolutely I think we've said this and it's kind of being a repeating theme is you know here at the middle school we really believe that uh the kids have kids can do anything you got to give them those opportunities to discover their strengths discover their passions and then and once they do that um then they can hopefully you know lead that into a career or or where they're going to go in their future you know it's not just about a test yeah Nigel thank you for join us today and sharing us uh sharing with us your prospective on the Middle School hey no problem anytime and everyone else listening thank you for joining us for another episode of Beyond The Brave and mechanical there are great things happening every day in our classrooms across our campuses throughout the community this podcast gives us the opportunity to share those stories and introduce you to people who make a difference and make that possible I'm Craig Jernigan superintendent of mechanical School Corporation thanks for listening and until next time keep working together to empower our students to succeed
