Proudfoot is our newest addition to the Robinson staff and faculty, and his journey here has been anything but short. Through many positions in education and technology, Robinson is lucky to have him in our halls.
His first experience with aerospace instruction was with Madison Middle School, where he’s been for the last four years.
“Teaching aerospace at Madison was an accidental happening. I didn’t plan on it, but once I got into the position, I realized how well it worked with my knowledge base,” Proudfoot said. Wrong grammar.
Long before Madison, Proudfoot started off teaching technology education. He then became an assistant principal and did I.T. for multiple middle schools before deciding to take an unexpected career pivot. Proudfoot has a vast knowledge on airplanes and loves to connect with his students over their shared love for the vehicles- which he didn’t always love.
“To be honest with you, I never really thought about airplanes in this industry. When I was younger, I was more into cars. And of course, as a young person, you really don’t think about the future much,” Proudfoot said. “At least, I didn’t.”
Now that Proudfoot has found his appreciation for aerospace, he wants to encourage that same appreciation in as many students as possible.
“I hope to show students to see the excitement in flying, excitement in mechanics of flying and the possibility of a career,” Proudfoot said. “There’s huge amount of career opportunities for all the aerospace programs or careers that you might want to think about, and kids may not see right now. I will encourage as many students as possible to go into the aerospace programs, whether it’s airplanes, mechanical airplane, rocketry or engineering.”
Coming from a middle school, Proudfoot has already seen the difference in their interest in the subject.
“High school students have a whole different outlook on the way that they come to school. I mean, middle school, they’re just the brains are not connected to their bodies half the time. And here the students are really connected, and they can internalize what you’re saying and actually listen and make the connection to what the what the work they have to do. Knowing your kids want to learn is always exciting for a teacher”, he said.
Proudfoot hopes to harness this excitement and inspire more kids to join programs like Embry Middle where they can enter grounding school and eventually earn their private pilot license. Before this happens, he has a couple ideas on how to get them there.
“I believe in experimental learning which means giving them the tools to learn but allowing them to discover and process on their own. Some of those tools include flight simulators and projects they’ll get to work on in here. They build an airfoil and test an airfoil and evaluate it and things like that. I also hope to get some field trips and hopefully after school programs going eventually,” Proudfoot said.
Before arriving at Robinson, Proudfoot was nearing retirement when he had a career changing epiphany that changed it all.
“I was going to retire last year. I sat down on my desk and said a prayer. I said, do you want me to retire? Two hours later, Ms. Wilson, our art teacher here, called me and said the principal here was going to call me in his office. Sure enough, I got called in and offered the job. So, kind of can’t say no,” Proudfoot said.
