Trainer Spotlight: Abby McPherson

08/30/18

For this week’s trainer spotlight we had the chance to speak with Abby McPherson, BOKS trainer and PE teacher at Turner Elementary in Washington, DC. Abby was first exposed to BOKS while she was working at Playworks and began volunteering at BOKS in the mornings for volunteer service hours. As time went on, Abby began enjoying BOKS more and more, and when she was hired by Turner Elementary school she brought the program along.

“It’s been a joy to have another place to work with kids,” Abby remarks.

The program has been successfully running for several years now and has brought an increased sense of community and growth to the school

“I love seeing my students of all grade levels interacting with each other outside of their BOKS class. They talk in the hallways, they interact outside of school, the older kids care for the younger ones,” Abby notes. These relationships have yielded an “increased sense of community and closeness that can sometimes be missing in our schools.”

Parents and teachers have also noticed a transformation in students and overall school cohesion since the BOKS program started running at Turner. Parents have told Abby they love the extra time that their kids get to spend at school, and that some children with attention or behavioral issues have found relief in the program.

Teachers have also expressed their approval of the program noting that sometimes kids need to bring extra shirts to school because they are moving so much in their BOKS class!

Abby will be leaving next year and hopes the program will continue on without her. The work that trainers like Abby put in every day is cumulative in nature and inspires us to continue to make small differences every day here at BOKS!