As part of my campaign for the school board, I committed to visiting every school in the district. Having visited every one (and having gone classroom by classroom through most of them) and having been included in many other activities as a result, I'm in a privileged position to share some of the amazing things I've come across in my first year in office. In my first year, I:

• danced with 3rd graders at James
• argued board policy with 5th graders at Weeks
• was laughed at by pre-Kers eating breakfast at Milton-Moore
• was greeted in Mandarin Chinese by Kindergarteners at Trailwoods
• read to 3rd graders at Blenheim
• read to the K-3rd graders (all at once) at James
  
• was grilled on MAP test scores and their meaning by 8th graders at Westport
• conducted mock interviews with scholars from Manual & Lincoln
• theorized about why some cars go further than others down a ramp with pre-Kers at Scarritt
• cheered for the scholar-athletes on the basketball team at Milton-Moore & West Rock Creek
• congratulated the robotics contestants from ACE, Central and Northeast
• danced with (and been giggled at by) 4th graders at Border Star
• discussed school boundary politics with 6th graders at James
• discussed the relationship between self-esteem and admitting mistakes with scholars at Fairview
• built box planters in the garden with K-5th graders at Attucks
• was trained in Montessori methods by children's house scholars at Holliday
• watched scholars create video projects at Paseo
• won a pickup game of basketball with scholars from Central
• was nearly peed on by a PreKer at Banneker
• was moved by discussions of racism and sexism with scholars at Northeast
• was sung to by elementary scholars at Bryant
• marveled at the video production talents of scholars at Manual
• trained with the members of our district-wide student government
• taught how to double dutch by scholars from Garcia (who went on to win at State!)
• got kicked out of the meeting (along with all of the other adults) of the district-wide student government (they got a lot more done with us gone, btw)
• tried to keep pinatas away from stick-armed middle schoolers at James
• danced with the faculty at Longfellow (suddenly noticing that we do a lot of dancing in this district)
• was high-fived by sticky handed pre-Kers at Woodland
• was invited to judge the 5th grade Spelling Bee at Attucks
• was laughed at (discreetly) for having 'high water' pants by scholars at Fairview
• explained what a web developer does to politely interested 1st graders at Faxon
• was interrogated about the value of uniforms at Troost
• was invited to participate in a poetry reading with 6th graders at Franklin
• heard scholar-written prose delivered powerfully at Paige
• was invited to go skating with 4th graders at James
• met a 3rd grader who knows as much and maybe more about physics and quantum mechanics theory than I do at Woodland (seriously!)
• shook the hands of our graduates as they walked across what must have felt like the largest stage in their lives
  

These experiences -- observing hundreds of classrooms and visiting with scholars, families, teachers and administrators and spending time with our scholars outside of the classroom -- are making me a stronger school board member. To those that have invited me into their buildings and classrooms, I thank you for the education in education. And to those who do not yet know the incredible joy that comes from investing in the lives of KCMSD's scholars, I invite you to come experience it for yourself (www.be1kc.org).