Obama Visits Viers Mill School in Maryland Video

Obama says school visits lift his spirits. He also visited his daughters' school, Sidwell Friends, today.

President Obama paid a surprise lunchtime visit to Viers Mill Elementary School in Silver Spring Monday.

Montgomery County schools spokeswoman Kate Harrison said the visit lasted just 30 to 45 minutes, and that officials had been told to keep it secret. Obama "really just wanted to interact with students and he wanted to do it during lunch," Harrison said.

According to a pool report, the president visited with third- and fifth-graders. Ben Finkenbinder, a White House press aide, said Obama chose Viers Mill because in 2005 it became the first Montgomery County school with a large population of low-income students to be designated a National Blue Ribbon School for significantly closing the achievement gap. Such schools qualify for Title I federal funding. WaPo

Obama Visits Capital City Public Charter School - Video

Does this mean Obama's ready to announce his NASA pick? 

WaPo: As a sense of crisis engulfed his White House Tuesday with the withdrawal of former senator Tom Daschle as HHS Secretary-nominee, President Obama made an unannounced trip to a school to read to kids.

His motorcade was seen heading north on 15th Street, and local sources soon reported he was at The Capital City Public Charter School. There was no mention of a trip on the schedule sent out to reporters the previous day.

At the school, the president and Michelle Obama read to a group of second-graders in the school library from a picture book entitled "The Moon over Star," an account of the first moon landing in July of 1969. An Associated Press report from the scene said that Obama told the students, "We were just tired of being in the White House."

Principal Janine Gomez said that she learned yesterday from the White House that the president would be coming to visit the school at 15th and Irving Streets NW. "I thought about all of the struggles that my ancestors have gone through before we had equal rights," she said of his visit. "I saw two worlds coming together."

Obama was greeted at the front door of Capital City by 11-year-old Sam Sherman and 10-year-old Karen Tchemi of Northeast Washington. Said Sherman of the visit, "Words can't explain."

Obama said he wanted to get out of the House. 

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Raw AP video: