Katherine A. Beauchat EdD - The Building Blocks of Preschool Success

A s we wrote this book together over the past year, we were constantly challenged to focus on individual teaching goals and opportunities and on embedding them into a playful, thematically rich instructional environment. We begin with an introductory chapter, followed by chapters on oral language and vocabulary development (). This organization made the best sense for the book, but it shouldnt distract you from considering the integration of all these opportunities. Each of these instructional opportunities is connected to the others, and the particular ways that you choose to make those connections will create your unique preschool community. It might be better to think of this book as a prism, with each chapter reflecting just a piece of the light that the entire prism can capture.

If you are reading alone, we recommend that you take a quick read through the entire book. You will find that what you read in . You might then have a better sense of which approach will work in a setting more like your own.

If you can read this book with a colleague, first consider the suggestions above. But then go back to the lists of recommended print and Web-based resources. One of you can go to the library and find some of the books we have suggested; the other can use the Web to sample the sites and find the ones that seem most useful. Taking the time to decide on which resources to use, both from the library and from the Web, is really worth your effort. It will make your planning more fruitful and less harried.

When you have exhausted the content of the book and thought about and discussed it critically, it is time for planning. invites you to really think about the ways that you use time, grouping configurations, and the talents of your instructional team. We hope that there is something here that you can make your own and that it will build your sense of efficacy. We respect and appreciate your work with young children; we hope you will make support of young childrens language and literacy development a career.

Katherine A. Beauchat
Katrin L. Blamey
Sharon Walpole

A s we began work for this book, we first considered our audience. We wanted to write directly to preschool teachers, but that is easier said than done. In fact, we think that preschools are perhaps the most diverse educational settings of all. They include half-day and full-day programs; school-based, church-based, home-based, and center-based programs; programs that target creative play; and programs that target basic skills. We consider these differences as positivewe do not want all preschools to look the same. What we do want, though, is to maximize the possibilities for social, emotional, language, and literacy growth for children regardless of the type of preschool they attend.

If you work in preschool, you are part of a growing workforce. In 2006, U.S. government employment data identified 437,000 preschool teachers and projected a need for 552,000 by 2016. Unfortunately, though, that growth is not accompanied by financial incentivesthe median salary for preschool teachers is $22,680; less than the bottom 10% of elementary school teachers (Bureau of Labor Statistics, 2009).