President’s Message

President’s Message

A fresh start!  That’s what the beginning of each school year offers to children, teachers, and parents.  At CKA, we’re also having a fresh start.  Board members and staff have been hard at work over the summer to revamp our CKA website.  Our goal is to enable readers to quickly access information, use photos and graphics to convey meaning, offer more lesson plans and teaching tips, share resources on the new Transitional Kindergarten Program, and address issues for preschool through early elementary school.

The new website also offers opportunities for more interaction.  Many new webpages contain dialogue boxes for you to pose questions, offer your teaching ideas or share your experiences and observations.  For example, recent research published online by CKA offered study guides for your professional learning communities.  Now the webpage includes a place for you to post examples from your own teaching or your PLC results.  Your postings will help other educators who read them.

CKA will periodically post resources about the new age change for kindergarten enrollment and the Transitional Kindergarten Program.  You may download our PowerPoint on the TK Program.  A kindergarten teacher shares tips for hosting a TK Forum in her district.  We share lesson plans for both transitional and traditional kindergarten (some are found on the Common Core State Standards webpage).  Over the next year we will add to the webpage on developmentally appropriate practices with guiding principles, photos, videos, lesson plans, research, links, and resources.

We hope you like all the changes we’ve made.  We’d love to hear from you.  Just email us or enter your reactions in a dialogue box.  And in the meantime, have a great year.