Educating Young Children Volume 1 – Spring 2025 | Page 59

thinking to move them forward in all developmental domains. By being observant and intentional, the teacher makes all the difference in the level of play and learning that takes place during this period of the day.

I once hosted a team of visitors from a neighboring county who were, like educators in many districts in the state, trying to define what constitutes a high‐quality kindergarten program in preparation for the roll‐out of the Early Learning Inventory( formerly called the Kindergarten Entry Assessment), which began in North Carolina in the fall of 2015. The question was posed to me,“ What do you call your approach to teaching?” The question caused me to pause for a moment, and suddenly, 17 years of training, experiences, and self‐reflection flashed through my mind. What is my teaching approach? What has influenced me to make the decisions I have made as a kindergarten teacher to create the type of environment that invites children to thrive— not just cognitively but in all domains of development?

One thing I knew for sure— my approach didn’ t come packaged in a brightly colored box or in shrink‐wrapped plastic. It came from learning about child development as a university student. It came from working with multiple principals who were grounded in the fundamentals of early childhood education and who understood the significance of thinking through how to approach mandates in ways that meet both the learning and developmental needs of kindergarten children. It came from district and state professional development opportunities that encouraged me to examine my practices and make changes according to research. It came from the developmentally appropriate practice resources from NAEYC. In essence, my approach came from understanding what we have always known about how young children learn and meshing it with current research, mandates, and standards.