Awesome Teachers

This year, Joshua and Jayden have the most wonderful teachers. Jayden has Mrs. Pennington who has been teaching for 35 years (Joshie had her in Kindergarten). She is the reason why Lance stood in line at 4:30 a.m. in the freezing cold to make sure Jayden was placed in her class. She is the warmest, most loving, patient and positive teacher you could ever imagine. She's like a baby whisperer or in this case, a "kindergartener whisperer". Children and parents adore her and we feel truly blessed that Jayden is in her class...what a wonderful start to his education!

Jayden is constantly surprising Mrs. Pennington with his knowledge of basketball. She is always praising him for his writings and reading skills. For example, at "free choice" when most kids enjoy playing dress-up, trains, and play-doh, Jayden chooses to write the full names (correctly spelled), team they play for, and jersey numbers for all of his favorite players. He has a list of approximately 10 favorite players who he places in order.

Joshua has Mrs. Taxara who is by far the most creative and challenging teacher he's ever had. Joshua has always excelled in school and zipped through the curriculum. Mrs. Taxara is always on top of things and comes up with such creative and exciting projects to keep her students enthusiastic. Mrs. Taxara has a group of "high achievers" in her class and Joshua is one of them. For these students she gives them extra work and projects. For example, for their book reports, she chose to teach these students how to do a power point presentation. They met once a week afterschool and worked on their presentations. Joshua absolutely loved it! He got to use cool graphics, sound effects, and music. Soon, he will be starting another afterschool project called, the Odyssey of the Mind. Odyssey of the Mind is an international educational program that provides creative problem-solving opportunities for students from kindergarten through college. Kids apply their creativity to solve problems that range from building mechanical devices to presenting their own interpretation of literary classics. They then bring their solutions to competition on the local, state, and World level. Thousands of teams from throughout the U.S. and from about 25 other countries participate in the program.

Joshua is naturally competitive and loves that he is always at the top of his class and "ahead" of most. He scored 100% on his state testing in math and is the only one who scored this high out of all the third graders! From the start of the year, he was placed in fourth grade math and he is continuing to excel in this as well.

Another exciting thing that Mrs. Taxara did was nominate Joshua for the National Young Scholars Program. The National Young Scholars Program is designed and created specifically for the nation's most highly acclaimed 2nd, 3rd, 4th and 5th grade students, each of whom have been personally selected for nomination by a teacher. NYSP is a renaissance of interactive, hands-on learning for young leaders eager for knowledge and ready to celebrate the joy of discovery. No other program of this depth and magnitude exists exclusively for the high-achieving 2nd, 3rd, 4th and 5th grade student.

The four of us are fully enjoying this terrific school year and are looking forward to the rest of the year. We are so thankful and feel truly blessed to have these wonderful teachers guiding our children!