By Shelly Harbert, BikeWalkKC Youth Education Instructor
Being an instructor for the education department at BikeWalkKC comes with a wide variety of meaningful experiences. We typically teach our BLAST course (Bike Lesson and Safety Training) at local grade schools, instructing students from third through sixth grades. Watching the grade schoolers improve their bike skills or learn to ride is fantastic! But my all-time favorite teaching experience is helping to support East Bike Club at East High School in Kansas City, MO.
What is the East High School Bike Club?
Teacher Andrew Killen worked with his colleagues and BikeWalkKC to launch East High School Bike Club in 2015. Each semester, a group of students meet every Thursday after school to learn bike maintenance skills, safe and confident riding habits, and transportation advocacy basics.
We start the semester by outfitting the students with bikes and helmets. Bike selection day is super fun! Each student gets to choose a bicycle to repair, ride, and take home at the end of the semester. The bicycles have been donated to BikeWalkKC by people in our community. We work with the students to make sure the bike they select is the right size for them and in good working order. Andrew keeps the bikes at the school during the program, and he is constantly tinkering with the bikes to ensure that all the kids have reliable rides.
Starting out a little wobbly...
During the first sessions we go over class expectations and rules of the road, and other bike safety topics. We practice signaling, scanning, riding single file, and riding two-by-two in a parking lot to help the students build their confidence before riding with other traffic.
Once the students have developed their bike handling skills, we head out on the road to visit different spots near the school. We’ve visited the BikeWalkKC office, the Kansas City Public Schools Board of Education office, Cliff Drive, and Union Station, among other locations. On a trip to the Kansas City Area Transportation Authority, the students practice loading their bikes on a RideKC bus bike rack and learn how to combine a bike ride with a bus ride to get around town. When we visit City Market, Andrew has been known to buy ice cream for the group!
With more than 40 languages and nationalities represented, East High School is one of the most diverse schools in Kansas City, and many students are new Americans. By riding to destinations the students might actually want to see, our Bike Club students learn that biking for transportation offers people agency, access, and freedom. They practice planning routes to school, summer jobs, and friends' houses, and develop situational awareness and self-reliance that they can apply to many other areas of their life.
Becoming a wonderful group!
It is fantastic watching the students improve their bike handling skills. By the end of the semester their skills have improved, their endurance has grown, and the club operates like a well-oiled machine out on the road.
Our longest rides are around 15 miles. The school is at the top of a big hill on Van Brunt Boulevard. It is a doozy of a hill! Seeing the kids make it up that hill and then celebrating with them is probably one of my favorite things. Their faces are red, and they are out of breath and wiped out, but the smiles are amazing! It’s great seeing them beat that hill.
On the last day of class, they attach their lights, pack their lock, and strap on their helmets for one last ride. We divide into groups and bike the students to their homes. By the end of the course, the students have definitely earned their bicycles!
Bike Club is fantastic! Meeting kids from all over the world and working together as wobbly individuals to become a wonderful group gives as much to the instructors as it does to the students.
Shelly loves cake and all dogs. This is her 5th year with BikeWalkKC.
Support our youth and adult education programs by making a donation and becoming a BikeWalkKC Member!