NOVEMBER 2024 | DR. CHRISTINA KISHIMOTO
In her conversation with Dr. Kishimoto, Dr. Kim discusses the integration of AI and technology in the Kent School District. Dr. Kim emphasizes the importance of digital and media literacy and developing an AI policy to ensure ethical and unbiased use, integrating AI into core learning without compromising academic integrity.
Enjoy the conversation with Dr. Kishimoto and Dr. Kim below.
The following transcript has been edited for length and clarity.
Dr. Kishimoto
Welcome everyone to The Stories We Must Tell. I am so excited to have this amazing leader with me today, Rebecca Kim. Dr. Kim from the Kent School District in Washington, right here in my backyard. Dr. Kim is doing outstanding work as she leads the Teaching and Learning arm of the Kent School District and is doing amazing work with AI and Technology. Rebecca, welcome.
Dr. Kim
Thank you. It’s great to see you again.
Dr. Kishimoto
It’s great to see you. I love seeing your presence all over the state and regionally, and love to talk about what’s happening. But let’s start with the fact that we’re several months into the school year. There’s so much going on. How is it going for everyone? How is it going for you?
Dr. Kim
It is very busy. We have budget cuts. We no longer have ESSER funding to support us, and so we’re doing a lot with less. We’ve had some staffing restructuring happening in Teaching and Learning, so it’s been quite busy, but we continue to keep our North Star around the importance of our students experiencing joy and pride in their learning, and that is centered around some of the instructional leadership work that we’ve been focusing on for all our school and teaching and learning leaders. There are 20 teaching and learning leaders, and we have 44 schools represented. So, all of our principals and assistant principals are really focused on the learning and the implementation this year. And so, it’s been exciting, and the feedback has been positive thus far.
Dr. Kishimoto
This is why I love talking to you because you do focus on your North Star, the district’s North Star. You’re always focused on excellence for students and the opportunities we need to keep providing them. We know how complex education is these days. We know that funding is dropping everywhere. There are challenges at the state level, and at the local district level, and we also know that we have an election coming up. There’s just so much happening, right?
