Taylor Bean spoke to the WCS board of trustees Tuesday afternoon, Nov. 13.

WARSAW — The Warsaw Community Schools’ board of trustees applauded the efforts of a local teacher at the regular work session Tuesday afternoon, Nov. 13.

Taylor Bean, an instructional coach for Warsaw Community Schools was presented with a certificate by Chief Academic Officer Dr. David Robertson at the meeting for an accolade earned by Bean from the state’s top education organization.

“Taylor’s been selected by the Indiana Department of Education as a computer science champion,” said Robertson. “We’re really proud of the work that you do and want to say thanks for everything you do.”

Bean told the board that the exact details of the program haven’t been determined, “but I’m included in a directory, so teachers across the state can contact me with computer science questions. I’ll also participate in a committee later this month to help develop computer science curriculum for middle school students and to look at Indiana’s plan for teaching computer science.”

Bean is a launch lead teacher for the school corporation’s elementary program of Project Lead The Way.

“I support teachers and students using PLTW at the elementary schools as part of their STEM learning,” Bean said. “Earlier this month, I presented VEX IQ robotics to other educators at the PLTW Summit in San Antonio, Texas.”

Robertson told the board that Bean is so busy in the school district that it sometimes appears he is in more than one location at the same time.

“The feedback we get consistently from teachers is they don’t understand how there’s only one Taylor,” said Robertson. “It’s kind of hard to keep up with him.”

Robertson said Bean represented the district well at the Texas summit.

“That was a huge honor that Taylor was asked to do that,” he said. “I don’t think that I would have known about it, except Taylor was asking to be away for a little bit so I always appreciate his humility.”

Bean is a 1999 graduate of Warsaw Community High School.