I so love the excitement that 4-year-olds bring to school with them. They love school and love to learn. 4-year-olds want to come to school even on weekends and on breaks! They are so genuine and they tell you like it is.

A child’s self-concept is so important. If children think they can accomplish things then they will continue to progress at their own pace. Preschool children will see their progress if we, the adults in their lives, break down the tasks into smaller manageable tasks. Add a little celebration over those accomplishments and you have a child progressing.

I love the look on a child’s face when they realize they have accomplished something like writing their name the first time or identifying letters of the alphabet. I love the sound of pride in a parent’s voice when they tell me something their child is doing that they learned in our class.

Parents are their children’s first teachers and the most important teachers. Ways parents can be involved are by reading to their children and in front of their children. They can find out what their child’s passions are, such as dance, sports, reading, science, and encourage them in those areas.

When children make a mistake, parents should hold their children accountable for their behavior instead of covering for them. That helps children learn to accept responsibility. At the end of the day, though, parents should focus on all the good things a child has done and not worry too much that there may have been a mistake or two. When there is a mistake, parents can ask, "How can we help you do better?" This may involve studying in a different way for a spelling test or doing some role-playing for a social situation that didn’t go well.

The evaluation of whether a child is learning depends on the child, the subject being taught, the age of child and teacher expectations or objectives. Each teacher has children in her class with a range of abilities, especially in the younger grades. So the first step in knowing if a child is learning is to know the child. How does the child learn best? Is the child an auditory, visual or hands-on learner? What factors were in place while the student was doing the assigned activity?

In the younger grades most of a teacher's evaluation is done verbally so taking lots of notes on what children are saying and doing with tasks at hand gives me a handle on whether they are getting the concept or whether I need to slow down and re-teach a concept. Also, analyzing helps in breaking the concept down into smaller steps that build on each other to gradually lead to the larger more complex concept.

Analyzing the process the child took while doing the task is important. For example, many times when I am screening a child to see what alphabet letters the child knows the child might see the letter "R" and call it a "P" or a "D". Both of these letters resemble the letter "R," so I can tell the child is looking at the letter and matching the visual clues with what he or she already knows, not just randomly calling every letter a "K" because they know "K" is a letter.

I felt very blessed by the elementary teachers my son had in Putnam City. The teachers were caring and had high expectations for him. They were dedicated to teaching and had a passion for teaching and for children. Whether it’s staying late to make a learning game that will help teach a new concept or attending workshops to keep up with the current teaching methods, our district has teachers who care.

With preschool being their first school experience, it is so much fun to watch my class become a family, caring about each other and forming long-time friendships. The look of pride over a new accomplishment and the hugs of past students as they come by my classroom are things I look forward to most.

At the end of each school year I am so proud of my class and how much they have learned. For some children writing their name is a giant step and for others knowing all the letters of the alphabet and the letter sounds is a huge step. I would hope that I can help each child find something to celebrate in their school experience. If they leave my class wanting to come back to school with a feeling of "I am a learner," then that is a success.