10
SUCCESS FOR OUR YOUNGEST LEARNERS
Most likely you are passionate about learning yourself and want to instill that passion in your students. Maybe there was a teacher who inspired you, and you want to pass that inspiration along. Teaching very young children can be extremely demanding, but the rewards are great. Seeing that light bulb go off when a student makes a connection. Seeing the smiles on their faces when they know that they have learned something. Seeing learning happen right there in front of you, through a young child’s eyes. What I delight in the most is seeing a student experience something for the very first time. Young children are so open to learning new things and honest in their reactions—sometimes even hilarious. You become their advocate and every day you get to see the impact, big or small, that you have on your students. You can instill in each student a love of learning. That is why we teach young children. Teaching young children requires more input, time, and energy because it demands more individualized instruction geared to where each student is developmentally. If you are reading this book, I know that you, as a teacher of young children, are committed to and passionate about the profession for reasons that are truly connected to student learning. But committed as you are, you can’t do everything yourself. You need a strong program behind you. In this chapter, I discuss how early childhood programs affect student outcomes, including how students with special needs factor into the equation. I also provide some evidence that PLCs have the potential to greatly improve these outcomes.
Outcomes for Students in Early Childhood Programs High-quality early childhood programs have many benefits and give students a strong start on the path that leads them to college and careers. There is much research that supports high-quality preschool programs as the best route for a student’s future success in school. Researchers first studied students in the Perry Preschool Project (https://evidencebasedprograms.org/programs/perry -preschool-project/) and the Abecedarian Project (www.rand.org/well-being
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he had achieved a great accomplishment. Everyone involved was on cloud nine. Another time, I had a teacher in my school whose goal was for one kindergarten student to recognize and count to thirteen. The student would count, “One, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight, nine, ten, eleven, twelve, three teen.” We have all been there. You know this student! It took weeks and weeks of hard work, practice, and some fun, but when that student achieved success, we practically had a schoolwide celebration.
