This past Saturday, I got to take part in my first every community walk!

Last year Navasota ISD did it for the first time, so this was their second year of trying this out.

What happens on a community walk?  Well staff members from each campus meet at the Administration building at 10am on a Saturday morning.  Each campus stuffed about 120 bags each, full of district information, welcome notes, whatever we wanted!  Then we split up and each campus went and delivered the bags to the homes of families of students who would be attending our respective schools this upcoming year.

It was kind of like a “Welcome to the new School Year” thing.  We had about 22 people representing our campus.  We split up into about 5 groups and headed out to greet our student families!

It ended up being an incredibly rewarding experience.  Not only from my group, but from the stories I heard from the other groups from Navasota Intermediate as well.  Plus it was another great bonding moment for us as a staff.

It was great to greet parents and guardians at their homes.  To visit some of the apartment complexes.  To just really not only see where our students were coming from, but to bring ourselves to them.

I had never taken part in anything like this, and I can’t claim credit to the idea at all.  This was all thought up by the incredible upper administration at NISD.

But it was something that I can’t wait to continue year after year.  In fact, even walking through the community, we’ve already all thought of more ideas and ways to reach out and meet our parents where they are instead of always asking them to come to the school.

Sometimes, as educators, we forget how important it is to visit a child’s home. To see where they come from.  To show them we care about them enough to give of our own time, on a Saturday, to visit them.  I also loved that each of the Navasota Intermediate bags carried a “You Matter” card too.

I can’t express enough how proud I am to be a part of Navasota ISD, and a part of Navasota Intermediate.  My teachers showed up in full force, ready to tackle the day, and they did.  Their passion and dedication is incredibly moving and every moment I reminded of how special this group is.

Thursday is Meet the Teacher at our campus, and I can’t wait to meet all our kiddos!